Background
The festival was once centred around the Yorkville neighbourhood, but in recent years, the Toronto Entertainment District has gradually overtaken Yorkville in its importance to TIFF. The festival is known for the celebrity buzz it brings to the area with international media setting up near its restaurants and stores for photos and interviews with the stars. With the Fall 2010 opening of the TIFF Bell Lightbox, the festival's permanent home in the Entertainment District, it seems likely that the festival will continue to spread out from its traditional centre to embrace other locations in the city.
Content-wise, though the festival has begun to give more attention to mainstream Hollywood films, it still maintains its focus on independent cinema. It features retrospectives of national cinemas and individual directors, highlights of Canadian cinema, as well as a variety of African, South American, and Asian films. In particular, a number of Indian films have had their world premieres at TIFF.
The Festival was founded by William (Bill) Marshall, Henk van der Kolk and Dusty Cohl. The Director and CEO of the Toronto International Film Festival has been Piers Handling since 1994. In 2004, Noah Cowan became Co-Director of the Festival. In late 2007, Cowan was promoted to Artistic Director of Bell Lightbox, the Toronto International Film Festival Group's (TIFFG) future home, while long-time programmer Cameron Bailey succeeded as Co-Director.
Read more about this topic: Toronto International Film Festival
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