TIFF: 1)Prime Minister Mark Carney honours John Candy, takes swipe at Trump to open TIFF’s 50th edition; 2)A look at five films from Canadians heading to TIFF

1)Prime Minister Mark Carney honours John Candy, takes swipe at Trump to open TIFF’s 50th edition

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Alex Nino Gheciu, September 5, 2025

Prime Minister Mark Carney opened the 50th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival with a patriotic speech that celebrated Canadian culture — and included a subtle swipe at U.S. President Donald Trump.

Carney took the stage to a standing ovation ahead of the screening of opening-night film “John Candy: I Like Me,” a documentary celebrating the late Canadian comedian.

He quipped he was there to “take credit” for the Trudeau government’s support of TIFF — including a $23-million investment last year in its upcoming content market — before stressing he’s reaffirming those commitments.

TIFF is “a testament to part of what makes Canada unique,” said Carney, who’s been in Toronto this week for a Liberal cabinet retreat.

He went on to pay tribute to Candy, saying the film reflected important Canadian values like “tolerance, generosity and humility.” 

He noted that in many of Candy’s movies, the comic played characters who confronted their bullies. 

“Don’t push a Canadian too far,” Carney said with a grin, alluding to Canada’s fraught relationship with the U.S.

Candy’s characters were usually up against “somebody who’s richer, someone who’s more powerful, maybe a little more arrogant,” he added, drawing laughs from the crowd. 

Carney tied the theme back to the present day, warning of a “more dangerous, divided and intolerant world” where Canadian sovereignty and identity are increasingly challenged. When faced with such threats, he said, Canadians have “channelled their inner John Candy, stood up, elbows up, and written our own lines.”

TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey introduced Carney, saying he’s grateful to everyone who’s helped the festival grow into “an event in which all of Toronto, in fact, all of Canada, can take pride.”

Candy’s children, Chris and Jennifer, walked the red carpet ahead of the screening alongside executive producer Ryan Reynolds and director Colin Hanks.

Hanks called premiering the movie at TIFF a “perfect dream scenario.”

“The fact that (Candy) is from Toronto and was nicknamed Johnny Toronto, it’s kind of a no-brainer,” he said.

“I just wanted to showcase not only how talented he was and everything that he did as an actor, but more importantly, showcase the kind of human he was, because he really was a great guy.”

Other Hollywood heavyweights attending the festival over the next 11 days include Angelina Jolie, Keanu Reeves, Sydney Sweeney and Dwayne Johnson.

Another big draw on the first day of the festival was U.K. pop star Charli XCX, who made her feature film debut in the drama “Erupcja.”

Charli fans turned up at the TIFF Lightbox decked in the singer’s “brat green” colour to show support for the film.

The movie was shot in secrecy last year, and the “Von Dutch” singer proved just as elusive on the red carpet, making a very brief appearance in a black mini dress.

In the morning, film buffs lined up outside the Lightbox to grab tickets to the edgy world premiere, though many of them admitted they couldn’t pronounce “Erupcja” with any certainty.

Ben Jeffries was one of the first in the rush line. He hoped that by showing up six hours early, he might get one of the last seats inside the cinema.

“I’m a huge fan of Charli,” he said.

“I’m happy to be standing around in the middle of the festival. I feel like I’m a part of it.”

One of the friends Jeffries met was aspiring filmmaker Michael Ashby, who flew from Sebring, Fla., with plans to outdo his experience at last year’s TIFF, where he caught 28 films and got hooked on the experience. 

“(That) was my first festival,” Ashby, 21, said. “And then I did Sundance online, the Florida Film Festival in Miami, Cannes, and now I’m back here.”

This year’s milestone edition of TIFF will feature 291 films from around the world, with Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein” and Benny Safdie’s “The Smashing Machine” among the buzziest crowd-pleasers.

Also in the lineup are some politically charged films, including “Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk,” about a Palestinian photojournalist who was killed by an Israeli airstrike in April, as well as “The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue,” which follows a retired Israeli soldier who saved his family during the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks.

The festival runs through Sept. 14, when it closes with the People’s Choice Awards — a prize often seen as an early predictor of Oscar success.

2)A look at five films from Canadians heading to TIFF

Courtesy Barrie360.com and Canadian Press

By Nicole Thompson and Alex Nino Gheciu, August 30, 2025

TIFF – While the Green Grass Grows: A Diary in Seven Parts

A scene from Peter Mettler’s documentary “While the Green Grass Grows: A Diary in Seven Parts” is shown in this undated handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout – TIFF (Mandatory Credit)

When the Toronto International Film Festival started in the mid-1970s, its purpose was to bring the best international films to Canadian audiences, programmer Robyn Citizen said in a recent video call.

But as the years went by and the event once called the “Festival of Festivals” grew in both scope and influence, it started to have the opposite effect.

“We’re in a really great position to spotlight and platform all of the brilliant filmmakers and artists who come from Canada,” Citizen said. “But we’re not just exposing them to a local audience, we’re exposing them to an international industry and audience.”

TIFF’s Canadian lineup features veteran filmmakers and new faces alike. Here are some of the homegrown titles hitting the festival’s 50th edition.

100 SUNSET

Toronto’s Tibetan-Canadian community gets its close-up in Kunsang Kyirong’s debut feature — quite literally, through the grainy lens of the protagonist’s hand-held camcorder. Tenzin Kunsel stars as Kunsel, a shy voyeur prone to petty theft, who befriends Sonam Choekyi’s Passang, a newcomer trapped in a marriage to an older man. Together, they search for ways to break free from the roles life has assigned them.

Kyirong, a Vancouver native, says she was inspired by the Toronto neighbourhood of Parkdale, home to the largest Tibetan community in North America.

“I wanted to show the aspirations that a community can have in a new country, through the story of two young women. Hopefully, we’re able to see this larger community in the film being portrayed,” she says.

“100 Sunset” highlights how the Tibetan-Canadian community pools resources and supports one another through informal lending — a spirit of collaboration that also fuelled the making of the film itself. -Alex Nino Gheciu

“100 Sunset” screens on Sept. 6 and 7

BLOOD LINES

Director Gail Maurice returns to TIFF with her second feature, a love letter to Métis culture. She wanted the film to represent facets of herself, she said: her queerness, her Métis identity — which she said many people, even those born in Canada, don’t understand — and her northern Saskatchewan community.

In the film, a store clerk and storyteller is feeling pressure to mend her relationship with her mom when she meets a woman who’s come looking for her biological family.

The lesbian love story is partially in Michif, a language spoken by just over 1,000 people, which severely affected the casting pool.

“I had to go to my village in the north to do a casting call because I wanted it to be authentic speakers. Otherwise, if somebody just memorizes how to say things, it doesn’t mean anything and the emotion doesn’t come out in the words, right?” -Nicole Thompson

“Blood Lines” screens Sept. 8 and 10.

NIKA & MADISON

Eva Thomas is a TIFF success story. She participated in the festival’s Filmmaker Lab in 2023 and debuted her short film “Redlights” that same year.

Now she’s back with a feature film that expands on the short. “Nika & Madison” hinges on the real-life practice of systemic racism colloquially known as “starlight tours,” in which police officers picked up Indigenous people and drove them to the middle of nowhere, often at night and in the freezing cold, leaving them to make their own way back.

Thomas said the film takes “Thelma and Louise” “back to the rez.”

“It’s a sort of crime drama mystery — and it’s a very strongly female-dominated film,” she said.

At the film’s heart is the friendship between the title characters, which is not at its strongest when the story begins. -NT

“Nika & Madison” screens on Sept. 7 and 8.

THERE ARE NO WORDS

Min Sook Lee says says it took more than 25 years of documentary filmmaking — with works such as 2005’s “Hogtown” and 2016’s “Migrant Dreams” behind her — to find the courage to tell her most personal story. More than 40 years ago, her mother died by suicide. In this film, Lee retraces her past, revisiting the people and places of her own childhood in Toronto and in her birthplace of Hwasun, South Korea, as she tries to make sense of what happened.

“After my mother died, there were no stories. We didn’t talk about her life or what happened. I’ve used this film to try and understand who she was and the conditions of her life,” says Lee.

While determined to unravel the mystery of her mother’s death, she also wanted to honour her journey as a working-class Korean immigrant. -ANG

“There Are No Words” screens Sept. 9 and 11.

WHILE THE GREEN GRASS GROWS: A DIARY IN SEVEN PARTS

Peter Mettler’s sprawling seven-hour opus in some ways defies categorization. Is it a documentary film? A series?

“The entire concept, I suppose, is that it’s a diary,” he said on a recent video call. “And that’s the guiding principle. I would say that I was letting life write the script. Life was leading the way.”

Filmed over the course of three years, the 420 minutes are arranged roughly chronologically. But each of the seven parts, which vary in length from half an hour to an hour and a half, is distinct.

From a trip to Killarney Provincial Park to a Cuban film school, each part is a diary entry all its own. Some feature psychedelic imagery, while others more closely resemble cinema verité, he said.

“The character of it is that it’s a cinematic diary, because it really does take departures into almost hallucinogenic episodes that are flights of fancy and imagination and impressionistic,” he said. “And then you’re back talking to somebody for 10 minutes about an idea. So the cinematic part is quite important.”

Those who want to take in the project at TIFF have to purchase two separate tickets: one for the first block of four parts and another for the remaining three. But fear not, Mettler says — both tickets come for the price of one. -NT

“While The Green Grass Grows: A Diary in Seven Parts” screens Sept. 7 and 8.