With the unveiling of the Toronto Intl. Film Festival’s slate still weeks away, the organization boosted its global profile today with the announcement that two of the most popular programs on its year-round schedule — digiPlaySpace and Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival — will tour internationally this summer.
TIFF has partnered with the Beijing Huaxie Cultural Development Company, an agency that brings world exhibitions to Chinese museums and galleries, on a four-city tour of digiPlaySpace, the annual interactive digital-media exhibition that was launched at the TIFF Kids Intl. Film Festival in spring 2012. DigiPlaySpace, which now runs six weeks each spring, commissions Canadian and international digital media artists to create games, apps, tools and activities that further media and tech literacy in young people.
The China tour, which includes installations from each of the four TIFF exhibitions, kicks off July 21, 2015, in Shijiazhuang (Hebei Province), and will travel to ChangSha (Hunan), Shaanxi, and Beijing through to April 2016.
The digiPlaySpace exhibition stops at the Minnesota Children’s Museum from May 22 to Sept. 4, 2016.
Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival, the organization’s annual celebration of the previous year’s best domestic cinema, crosses the border for the first time this summer with a free program of three features and an on-stage convo, presented at LACMA from July 30 to Aug. 1, 2015. A snapshot of 2014 highlights, the program includes Albert Shin’s “In Her Place,” Maxime Giroux’s “Felix & Meira,” and Zacharias Kunuk’s “Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner” (2001), above, which recently topped TIFF’s fourth Canada’s All-Time Top Ten List, an international poll of industry and academics on the most memorable Canadian films.
“We are celebrating our 40th anniversary this year, and taking TIFF programming to destinations all over the world is part of our ambitious strategy for the future of this organization,” said TIFF director and CEO Piers Handling from London, which is focus of the 2015 fest’s City to City program.
“By touring our programming to cultural institutions around the world, we are championing Canadian talent abroad, and continuing to lead in the evolution of children’s media literacy and storytelling in the digital age — two of our key focus areas as we expand our programming on a global scale,” Handling added.
This move follows through on the festival’s commitment, outlined in its 2013–2017 strategic plan, to create global impact by extending its activities across Canada and around the world, building the foundation for its digital expansion, and developing programming with an international scope — reflecting its priorities of artistic excellence, visitor experience, people and culture, and sustainability.
