Lee, the directorial feature from award-winning Cinematographer Ellen Kuras, portrays a pivotal decade in the life of American war correspondent and photographer, Lee Miller (Kate Winslett). Miller’s singular talent and unbridled tenacity resulted in some of the 20th century’s most indelible images of war, including an iconic photo of Miller herself, posing defiantly in Hitler’s private bathtub. Elevation Pictures release LEE September 27, 2024.

Miller had a profound understanding and empathy for women and the voiceless victims of war. Her images display both the fragility and ferocity of the human experience. Above all, the film shows how Miller lived her life at full-throttle in pursuit of truth, for which she paid a huge personal price, forcing her to confront a traumatic and deeply buried secret from her childhood.

Revisit James Cameron’s epic masterpiece TITANIC when it arrives for the first time ever remastered on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Disc™ December 5, 2023 from Paramount Home Entertainment.

The beloved, worldwide phenomenon won 11 Academy Awards®*, including Best Picture, and continues to attract new fans 25 years after it was originally released.  Now, viewers can experience all of the drama and spectacle in stunning 4K Ultra HD with Dolby Vision® and a Dolby Atmos® soundtrack** for the finest visual and audio presentation at home.

TITANIC will be available nationwide in a two-disc set that includes the film on 4K Ultra HD, plus a Blu-ray Disc™ boasting more than five hours of new and legacy bonus content, including new interviews with James Cameron, star Kate Winslet, and producer Jon Landau.  The set also includes access to a Digital Ultra HD copy of the film.

Bonus content included in the national release is detailed below:

Blu-ray™ Bonus Disc

• TITANIC: Stories From the Heart—NEW!

Director James Cameron, producer Jon Landau, and star Kate Winslet share memories and favorite moments and recount the challenges of making the greatest love story in cinema history. Go back in time with film clips, photos and behind-the-scenes moments.

• TITANIC: 25 Years Later with James Cameron

James Cameron explores the enduring myths and mysteries of the shipwreck, and mounts tests to see whether Jack could have fit on that raft and survived.

• Behind-the Scenes presentation hosted by Jon Landau—NEW!

Jon Landau introduces a series of behind-the-scenes segments showcasing the making of TITANIC.

• Trailer Presentation hosted by Jon Landau—NEW!

Jon Landau shares an inside glimpse into the marketing of TITANIC with a story of how a 4-minute trailer overseen by the filmmakers was delivered to theatres, instead of the original “action” trailer.

• Fan Poster Art—NEW!
• Reflections on TITANIC (4 parts)
• Deleted Scenes with optional commentary by James Cameron
• Additional Behind-the-Scenes
• Deep-Dive Presentation narrated by James Cameron
• $200,000,001: A Ship’s Odyssey (The TITANIC Crew Video)
• Videomatics
• Visual Effects
• Music Video “My Heart Will Go On” by Celine Dion
• Still Galleries

4K Ultra HD Disc

• Director Commentary by James Cameron
• Cast and Crew Commentary
• Historical Commentary by Don Lynch and Ken Marschall

Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet light up the screen in the timeless and unforgettable story of star-crossed lovers set against the backdrop of the legendary and ill-fated maiden voyage of the “unsinkable” TITANIC.  The film became the first movie to earn over $1 billion and to date it has generated more than $2.2 billion at the global box office.

TITANIC is rated PG-13 for disaster related peril and violence, nudity, sensuality and brief language. 

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(Photo/video credit: Paramount Home Entertainment)

By: Amanda Gilmore

Kate Winslet delivers another superb performance in this biopic about model-turned war-correspondent Lee Miller.

The Film follows Lee from the start of her photography career in 1938. The Second World War is just beginning and Lee has a desire to be more than a former model. When she moves to London with her partner Roland Penrose (Alexander Skarsgård), the blitz begins and Lee knows she must show the destruction of war. 

She became a Photojournalist for British Vogue, getting to publish her photos that capture the impact of the war in London. However, she’s determined to go to continental Europe as a war correspondent. Thanks to her determination, her renowned photographs show what happened inside concentration camps and on the ground during WWII.

Lee is an inspiring story of a woman breaking barriers in a male-dominated world, and risking her life to change the way we see it. Winslet shines as the courageous Lee, exposing her courage, fear and grief. 

The story is told through Lee later in her life speaking to her son Antony (Josh O’Connor). It’s these intimate moments of listening to her tell the story that we see the longing effects of anguish and trauma Lee carried her whole life. The moments of Lee on the frontline are impactful. Showing the grotesque nature of war upon women rather than the men who are fighting.

Lee is an important film about a monumental woman in our history.

Lee screens at TIFF ’23:

Saturday, September 9 at 6 PM at Roy Thompson Hall

Sunday, September 10 at 5:30 PM at Scotiabank Theatre Toronto

This looks absolutely incredible! Kate Winslet stars in THE REGIME, yet another complex, meaty role. The Series explores a year inside a European regime and is from the same people who brought us SUCCESSION.The HBO Max series is coming 2024. Martha Plimpton, Andrea Riseborough, Hugh Grant and Matthias Schoenaerts also star.

(Photo/video credit: HBO Max)

In celebration of the 25^th Anniversary James Cameron’s Academy Award®- winning “Titanic”, the iconic Film will be back in theaters on Friday, February 10, 2023. Today we get a new Featurette reflecting on its legacy.

In celebration of its 25^th anniversary, a remastered version of James Cameron’s multi-Academy Award®-winning “Titanic” will be re-released to theaters in 3D 4K HDR and high-frame rate. With a cast headed by Oscar® winners Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, the film is an epic, action-packed romance set against the ill-fated maiden voyage of the “unsinkable” Titanic, at the time, the largest moving object ever built.

“Titanic” won a record 11 Academy Awards® including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Art Direction-Set Direction, Best Costume Design, Best Original Dramatic Score, Best Original Song, Best Sound, Best Sound Effects Editing and Best Visual Effects. Upon its initial release in 1997, the film became the #1 all-time global box office champ and is currently the third highest grossing film worldwide.

Paramount Pictures and 20th Century Studios present A Lightstorm Entertainment Production, “Titanic,” starringLeonardo DiCaprio, Kate Winslet, Billy Zane, Kathy Bates, Frances Fisher, Bernard Hill, Jonathan Hyde, Danny Nucci, Gloria Stuart, David Warner, Victor Garber and Bill Paxton. Written and Directed by James Cameron, the film was Produced by Cameron and Jon Landau, with Rae Sanchini serving as Executive Producer.

See the new Trailer:

(Photo/video credit: Paramount Pictures Canada)

Today we get a new Trailer and Poster for upcoming Holiday release, James Cameron‘s eagerly-awaited AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER.

Synopsis:

Set more than a decade after the events of the first film, “Avatar: The Way of Water” begins to tell the story of the Sully family (Jake, Neytiri, and their kids), the trouble that follows them, the lengths they go to keep each other safe, the battles they fight to stay alive, and the tragedies they endure.

Directed by James Cameron and produced by Cameron and Jon Landau, the Lightstorm Entertainment Production stars Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang and Kate Winslet. Screenplay by James Cameron & Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver. Story by James Cameron & Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver & Josh Friedman & Shane Salerno. David Valdes and Richard Baneham serve as the film’s executive producers.

AVATAR arrives in theatres December 16, 2022.

(Photo/video credit: 20th Century Studios Canada)

We’re into May and we’re springing ahead with some great new programming to stream at home. HBO never disappoints, hitting us hard with Kate Winslet-starring MARE OF EASTOWN which just premiered at the end of April and we’re already hooked. If you love Reality Television, we’ve got some recommendations for you, among other eclectic options!

MARE OF EASTOWN (HBO/CRAVE)

Kate Winslet. Is there any other reason more to sell you on this new HBO Series? Set in a small town where Detective Mare (Winslet), our central character, is set on solving a murder, but also trying to save her life from falling in shambles. She’s divorced and everyone around her, including her Mom (Jean Smart) is celebrating her ex-husband’s new engagement. She meets Writer Richard (Guy Pearce), in-town on a teaching assignment and things develop quickly but things are complicated. Winslet once again shows her incredible versatility, truly disappearing here into Mare. We love that she is tough and a real boss, but not totally convinced of it. While not seen long, Cailee Spaeny as a teen mother Erin who is coping with bullying from the jealous girlfriend of the father of her child. A barely-recognizable Evan Peters as an eager-to-please detective who comes in to help Mare is quite a revelation. We can’t wait to see where this Series takes us over seven episodes. Don’t let the smalltown vibes fool you, this is something rich and complex. New episodes arrive 10 PM ET Sunday nights on HBO/Crave with HBO add-on.

THINGS HEARD & SEEN (NETFLIX)

An Artist-turned-Professor named George (James Norton) moves to a new town with his wife Catherine (Amanda Seyfried) and daughter. They purchase a new home, but sooner after, strange occurrences begin to happen. This leads Catherine to find out some dark, disturbing things about its history and its inhabitants, which George keeps from her. She then realizes there might be more about her husband that she wasn’t aware about as layers are unpeeled off George. Based on the Novel All Things Cease to Appear by Elizabeth Brundage, the Thriller goes a slightly different route than the norm where spirits are out to do sinister things. Our interest was held most of the way even when the Film lands on shaky footing late as George‘s world unravels. Seyfried as often, is great as the troubled wife who gives up her life to help her husband live his life. THINGS HEARD & SEEN arrives on Netflix Friday, April 30, 2021.

THE CIRCLE SEASON 2 (NETFLIX)

We admit we eye-rolled our way through Season 1 of this Reality Competition, but we’re back! The Series sequesters its contestants in their own apartments, having them communicate through a Social Media chat portal – the most popular contestant (who might not actually be who they claim to be) going on to win top prize as contestants get blocked on the weekly. We meet a whole new set of personalities, including one who impersonates Lance Bass, and Too Hot To Handle‘s Chloe also surfaces here as a contestant too. Four new episodes surface weekly till the end of April on Netflix and once again we find ourselves taking delight at the manipulation and deception!

EAT WHEATIES! (leveFILM)

After making its way around the Festival circuit, quirky Canadian Comedy EAT WHEATIES! arrives on-demand and digitally. Starring Tony Hale as Sid, the story follows a man with a decent job, whose world unravels after he’s accused of stalking college buddy Elizabeth Banks on Facebook. Is he just painfully unaware or was he legitimately friends with her and way too eager about proving it? Hale is absolutely charming as always and this really gives him an opportunity to shine. He manages to take Sid’s obsessive-compulsive mannerisms and make being a loser lovable. The Film is adapted from the Novel The Locklear Letters and updated. Hale is supported by great Cast including Danielle Brooks, Alan Tudyk, Robbie Amell, Paul Walter Hauser and Toronto’s Elisha Cuthbert. This was a pleasant surprise. This is available May 4, 2021.

WITHOUT REMORSE (AMAZON PRIME VIDEO)

Michael B. Jordan makes his foray into the Tom Clancy universe playing Sr. Chief John Kelly, a former Navy SEAL whose pregnant wife is murdered by a squad of Russian soldiers as revenge for an operation he led. He is supported by fellow SEAL (Jodie Turner-Smith) and CIA Agent Robert Ritter (Jamie Bell). Kelly struggles with honouring his country and personal ties as it is learned that a bigger forces are at work resulting possibly in a war between Russia and America. Directed by Sicaro 2: Soldado‘s Stefano Sollima, Jordan once again is fantastic here, as is Turner-Smith who shockingly was pregnant while filming this, requiring some demanding fight choreography. While this doesn’t offer anything particularly new to the Spy-Thriller genre, it definitely is worth a watch if this is your thing! WITHOUT REMORSE streams now on Amazon Prime Video.

So cool we got to attend a Virtual Premiere of the Film where its stars actually showed up to the Afterparty. There were games and a live DJ too!

RUPAUL’S DRAG RACE DOWN UNDER (CRAVE)

We’re thrilled to hear Crave will be streaming this latest addition to the RuPaul’s Drag Race franchise which takes us to Australia as we meet their pool of talent! We already have withdrawals from Season 13 of RuPaul’s Drag Race ending last week and can’t wait to meet these new Queens. We’re so intrigued by Karen from Finance whose self-proclaimed aesthetic is “Corporate Queen”! The name alone is everything. And Taika Waititi appears as a guest judge on episode one! I can’t even. Tune-in Saturday on Crave as new episodes arrive weekly and regular judge Michelle Visage appears on this Series, another win.

MYSTIC (SUPERCHANNEL)

MYSTIC, based on the Novel Series Pony Club Secrets by Stacy Gregg, centers on 14-year-old Issie (Macey Chipping) whom with her mother Amanda (Laura Brown), relocates from London to Kauri Point in New Zealand. They leave behind the life they once knew, with her father having passed away a few years prior. In addition to coping with this, she is trying to adjust to her new surroundings. A horse keeps crossing paths with her and she sees both this horse which needs her help, and also a vision of a white horse which only she can see. She names the troubled horse Blaze and begins to find herself in the horse and also the horse she sees in her visions, Mystic, finding a true attachment to the new place she calls home. This, while the threat of industrial expansion threatens to ruin their way of life, land and resources. Issie forms friendships (and maybe a frenemy) with some local teens who like herself, bonded by their affection for horses and then try to save Kauri Point. While on the surface it is a Young Adult Series about a girl finding herself in spirit animals, it goes much deeper than that, examining grieving, sexuality and coming-of-age with a twist of suspense as Issie learns and continues to improve as a rider. The series is shot gorgeously, unfolding over 13 30-minute episodes. It premieres Sunday, May 16, 2021 at 8pm ET on Super Channel Heart & Home and surfaces on Super Channel On Demand the next day.

THE DISCIPLE (NETFLIX)

Premiering at TIFF ’20 and winning the Amplify Voices Award, this Drama written/directed/edited by Chaitanya Tamhane has received universal acclaim through its festival circuit run. Above this, Alfonso Cuarón produces. Not all stories of aspiring to achieve musical success result in sold-out arenas and private jets. This story told in Marathi, centers on Sharad (Aditya Modak) whom under the tutelage of a guru and his father, aspires to be a successful classical music vocalist. The Film is an honest journey and Modak plays Sharad with great sincerity, well aware he’ll never be on Indian Idol, gaining the adoration of millions. He sings in small venues and is concerned with authenticity and integrity and like any other struggling Artist, wonders if anyone even cares about his work and if he’s on the right path in life. Clocking-in at over two hours, this is a Movie you need to really put everything aside to absorb and be transported into these meditative scenes which are given room to breathe. THE DISCIPLE streams now on Netflix.

STAND! (VORTEX MEDIA)

This Musical recalls the 1919 Winnipeg protests and while there was upheaval, many important changes resulted as a result of striking. At the center of the Film by Robert Adetuyi is a romance between immigrants set against a backdrop of great unrest where those not born in Canada were made to feel unwelcome and seen as a threat, working for reduced pay to survive. STAND! stars Marshall Williams (“Glee”) and Laura Slade Wiggins (“Shameless”) who along with a talent Support Cast tell the struggles of past (and present still, sadly) in Contemporary, uplifting and empowering music and what it means to be resilient in what is right and fair. While it is a look at the past, there is something we still can take away from this today as we strive towards gender and racial equity. Vortex Media release STAND! on-demand and digitally May 18, 2021.

MONSTER (NETFLIX)

A phenomenal Cast highlights this Courtroom Drama, which centers on Honours Film School Student Steve Harmon (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) who has a bright future ahead of him until he gets caught-up with the wrong crowd and is on trial for murder. Directed by Music Video visionary Anthony Mandler, the Film examines in a timely manner, the justice system, young black men and the presumption of guilt. Steve is humanized through a fantastic and empathetic performance by Harrison, but in doing so, the Film misses some of the marks of intensity that films of the genre possess. That is, we don’t doubt his innocence nearly enough. Jennifer Ehle also is great as his lawyer Katherine, as is Jennifer Hudson as his mother, plus memorable turns from Jharrel Jerome as Osvaldo and John David Washington as Bobo. MONSTER is out May 7, 2021 on Netflix.

HALSTON (NETFLIX)

This five-episode Limited Series centers around American fashion icon Halston (Ewan McGregor) who rose from a hatmaker to a heading one of the country’s top fashion houses in the ’70s. Directed by Daniel Minahan, this Ryan Murphy production contains many elements that are expected of Murphy, exploring juicy subject matter and feeling at times hyper-sexualized. We witness Halston rise the ranks out of financial struggle with the help of his team including Elsa Peretti (Rebecca Dayan), Joe Eula (David Pittu) and confidante Liza Minelli (Krysta Rodriguez). But with his troubled relationship with Victor Hugo (Gian Franco Rodriguez) leads him to make bad choices and almost as quickly as he climbs the ranks, his world comes crashing down. McGregor flourishes in the role, particularly where Halston is salty, but takes his character on a real journey and by the end of it, we feel something for him despite having been arrogant, stubborn and repugnant for much of the way. Krysta Rodriguez does a fantastic job embodying Minelli, who is one of the few characters who doesn’t suffer Halston‘s wrath. A very quick and easy watch which is rather enthralling and at times shocking, which is exactly what we signed-up for. HALSTON is out now on Netflix.

(Photo/video credit: Netflix/HBO/levelFILM/Crave/Super Channel/Amazon Prime Video/Vortex Media)

Following the critical acclaim of 2017’s GOD’S OWN COUNTRY, Francis Lee returns with AMMONITE which came out of TIFF ’20 with a deafening amount of buzz. The Drama written and directed by Lee, stars Kate Winslet as reputed British Paleontologist Mary Anning. Having made several famous discoveries hunting fossils in her career, wealthy tourist Roderick Murchison (James McArdle) finds Anning and tasks her with taking his wife Charlotte (Saoirse Ronan) under her wing. She accepts reluctantly out of financial need. While the two women have very little in common coming from entirely different worlds, they realize they might just be what the other has been missing.

We had the pleasure of chatting virtually with Lee about AMMONITE, which sees its release now theatrically, as we enter Awards Season.

Lee was drawn to story of Mary Anning in that he sees many parallels between her and him.

Lee: “The thing that struck me was discovering Mary Anning is that here was this working class woman born into a life of poverty with little or no education, in a deeply-patriarchal and class-ridden society. And through her own ingenuity, courage, strength and will to survive, she became one of the leading Paleontologists of her generation. There were just some parallels there to my own life. I’m not saying I’m as brilliant as Mary Anning was at all, but I grew-up working class in very rural Northern Britain and I didn’t have a great education. I always knew from quite an early age I would’ve loved to write, direct or do both couldn’t see how I could get into such a rarified profession. I couldn’t afford film school or know anyone like me who did what I wanted to do. So there were just some subtle parallels there.”.

There’s been a good bit of controversy surrounding AMMONITE. Anning‘s family even has refuted the idea that she ever had been in a relationship with a woman, calling Lee‘s re-imagination of her, “pure Hollywood”. Lee comments about his decision to portray her in a same-sex relationship.

Lee: “I’m very obsessed with intimate human relationships and I like to explore them because I’m still figuring out how to manage them myself. I wanted to bring a relationship into this world of her’s. I wanted to respect and elevate her in a way that hadn’t happened when she was alive because all these men who came to buy her fossils re-appropriated her work for themselves. In this time, men owned women and giving her a relationship with a man wouldn’t feel equal. And of course there never was any evidence that Mary had a relationship with a man, but there was evidence she had friendships with women. So I felt giving her a relationship with a woman felt so much more respectful and equal in that sense.”.

We ask Lee about the importance of “unstraightening Queer History” which is something explored both in GOD’S OWN COUNTRY and AMMONITE.

Lee: “What’s so fascinating about this debate that’s seemed to have happened, which I didn’t quite realize would be such a big debate. It made me look at history, who records it and how they record history. And it led me down the path to think that history is subjective. It is created. It isn’t a science in a sense. It was really interesting to see where there is absolutely no concrete evidence of a same-sex relationship, historians presume heterosexuality when we know people could be gay, lesbian, asexual or bisexual. The lack of investigation or thought of thinking through what an individual or historical figure could have been or experienced I found really fascinating.”.

“What was interesting about AMMONITE is that there was no evidence that Mary ever had a relationship with a man, there was evidence of her having friendships with women. And there are a couple of historical fiction novels about Mary Anning and in one of them, it does suggest she had a relationship with a man and nobody complained. And it did make me really think where we are at in society where we need absolute concrete proof for anything that is not considered to be hetero-normative. I just felt to myself whether it’s about my character’s working class or how they identify with their sexuality, these characters have had their voices taken away from them and we haven’t heard from them.”.

“Queer Histories haven’t been recorded because a lot of the time it’s been hidden, illegal, with big consequences if you identified with the LGBTQ community. Often people from the community don’t have children, so their stories aren’t passed-on generationally. So for me it feels like if I can give voices to people or situations that have been overlooked or neglected, then I’m very happy to do that.”.

We ask about Winslet and Ronan becoming involved the with project.

Lee: “It’s quite a boring story, Will. I thought about who I’d like to be in it. First of all, Kate was top of my list because regardless of what she has been in, there’s always been such a truth and honesty to her performances. She felt like a very natural choice for me. Her agent read the Script and sent it to Kate the same day and said, ‘You have to read this because if you don’t say yes, somebody will take it immediately.’. So Kate came back the next day and said she’d like to do it. Pretty much the same thing happened with Saoirse. She got the Script, read it and rang me up to say she’d like to do it! (laughs) I wish it was more about I was in the supermarket and I bumped into somebody and their wife’s brother’s husband once cleaned for Kate Winslet and sent it to her but it wasn’t like that!”.

“The lovely thing is that this is only my second film. The first movie I did was made for no money whatsoever and not-so-famous actors. Nobody really cared about it when I was making it. What was lovely about this film was getting access to actors who not only are at the top of their game but also are very, very established and famous. And the way in which they wholeheartedly jumped on-board with me and wanted to work with me in a way in which I like to work.”.

Lee elaborates more on how working with Kate Winslet actually got weird.

Lee: “What was brilliant about working with Kate is that we like to work in a similar way. It’s very, very much about research and character building. I worked with Kate four or five months before the shoot one-on-one and we really built this character from scratch from the moment she’s born to the moment we first see her in the Film. We worked through every detail and knew every detail about the Mary we were creating. Kate has a real ability and not every actor does, to really transform herself into being somebody else.”.

“So when we were shooting, I wouldn’t recognize one part of the Kate that I knew in that character. She’s very demonstrative, she’s very physical and she talks with her hands. She’s very open emotionally. One of the things we worked so hard on was stillness, silence and internalized emotion and playing everything with looks, gestures and subtleties. I remember finishing the Film and I hadn’t seen Kate for quite some time because I was in the edits and she was away working. I couldn’t look her in the eye, I couldn’t speak to her because I didn’t know who she was, because of who I’d been looking at for the last eight or nine months was not this person. And I was quite shy. It was difficult to switch from Kate‘s performance as Mary to Kate as a human being. It took me a while to adjust.”.

“The way I see Kate now is in Mary Anning, which is so different from who Kate is. It’s kind of a bit weird. Once on-set, there was a scene she wasn’t in and I was working. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone walking around and looking around. I’m quite private and aware, so I turned to the First Assistant Director and asked ‘Who the fuck is that?’. And he said ‘It’s Kate!’. I literally didn’t recognize her because the only time I’d see her is her as Mary Anning.”.

Following-up on two very well-received films can be a daunting task. We ask Lee what’s next.

Lee: “I am writing and finding writing much slower than normal because of COVID, because I find my focus is a bit allover the place. It’s a bit worrying but I’m getting through it. I can tell you that it is a Horror film exploring the same themes I always obsess about – deep human relationships, landscape and loneliness but hopefully with some hope.”.

Elevation Pictures release AMMONITE, now playing in theatres. It will be available on Premium Digital and On-Demand December 4, 2020.

(Photo/video credit: Elevation Pictures)

The timeless tale of BLACK BEAUTY comes alive once again later this month on Disney+!

Synopsis:

This modern day reimagining of Anna Sewell’s timeless classic, follows Black Beauty (Kate Winslet), a wild horse born free in the American West. Rounded up and taken away from her family, Beauty is brought to Birtwick Stables where she meets a spirited teenage girl, Jo Green (Mackenzie Foy). Beauty and Jo forge an unbreakable bond that carries Beauty through the different chapters, challenges, and adventures of her life.

See the Trailer:

BLACK BEAUTY arrives on Disney+ Friday, November 27, 2020.

(Photo/video credit: Disney)

By Mr. Will Wong

The 2020 TIFF TRIBUTE AWARDS, now in its second year, took place tonight virtually and were aired on CTV. Hosted by eTalk’s newest addition Co-Anchor Tyrone Edwards and Chloe Wilde, the Awards in the absence of an in-person gala this year, were comprised of taped introductions and speeches from recipients in five categories.

Recipients tonight included Director Mira Nair at TIFF ’20 with A SUITABLE BOY; Terence Blanchard who scored Regina King‘s acclaimed TIFF ’20 selection ONE NIGHT IN MIAMI; Tracey Deer who directs this year’s BEANS; Sir Anthony Hopkins who stars in THE FATHER at the Festival; Director Chloé Zhao, at the Festival with NOMADLAND; and Kate Winslet who stars in very buzzed AMMONITE.

Presenters and speakers on the broadcast included: Regina King, Martin Scorsese, Delroy Lindo, Colin Farrell, Rosamund Pike, Ava DuVernay, Jodi Foster, Olivia Colman, Brie Larson, Jason Reitman and more.

Performing Stevie Wonder‘s Stevie Wonder’s “Love’s in Need of Love Today“, Toronto’s Shawn Mendes appeared on the broadcast announcing that his Shawn Mendes Foundation will launch an annual Changemaker Award for Filmmakers making film with a social message.

Frontline workers from Toronto area hospitals also have been invited to attend special screenings of some of the Festival’s marquee Films like CONCRETE COWBOY as a special gesture of thanks for their hard work amidst these challenging times.

Those honoured tonight and some memorable quotes:

TIFF IMPACT AWARD – MIRA NAIR

Nair: “When I work, it feels like fun. Thanks TIFF for an award to have my fun and the extraordinary privilege to make Cinema. To know my fun and art have made change which is a beautiful feeling. If we don’t tell our stories nobody will, but more so in this, I’ve learned the great power of listening and being porous.”.

TIFF VARIETY ARTISAN AWARD – TERENCE BLANCHARD

Blanchard: “I’m humbled by this entire experience. My life in Film has been one of growth and expansion for decades. I originally set-out to be Jazz performer but being in this realm has expanded my creative ability beyond my belief. I love Toronto and have been coming many years. To get award from place I love so much, warms my heart.”.

TIFF EMERGING TALENT AWARD – TRACEY DEER

Deer: “I’ve wanted be Filmmaker since I was 12 and now I’m living my dream come true. Thank you my community… and the biggest thanks to my mother who told me when I was a girl that I can do whatever I want and not let anyone get in my way. My mother is always right and this is something indigenous kids need to hear. Their voices are important and we need to create an environment they can feel safe in and I put out a challenge to do all we can to make it better for them.”.

TIFF TRIBUTE ACTORS AWARD – SIR ANTHONY HOPKINS

Hopkins: “I’m astonished I’m still in work at my age. I want to thank front-line workers and first responders around the world. This award is yours. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Have a great day, have a great life.”.

TIFF EBERT DIRECTOR AWARD – CHLOÉ ZHAO

Zhao: “I’m so amazed by the hard work TIFF has done putting a festival together, to help us take a break from all the craziness this year. It’s incredible what you have done. One most important takeaway I have from my four films is that when I entered the industry I felt it was competitive and didn’t know anyone. If I fail or make mistakes, I carry this with me for a long time. I feel lucky people I work with are there when I succeed and when I fail. Would like to share this with them.”.

TIFF TRIBUTE ACTOR AWARD – KATE WINSLET

Winslet: “It does feel odd to get an award in a time like this. Since I am able to say few words., I’d like to offer my deepest sympathies to families and individuals whose lives forever have been altered over the past six months. I commend TIFF for keeping the poignancy of storytelling alive. Even more so as we piece together this world and everything happening in it. However minor my thoughts might be, my feelings are heartfelt that we can return to a healthier reality with kindness and respect regardless of race, gender, beliefs or sexual orientation.”.

More on the Awards here.

(Photo credit: TIFF)