It was a stunning warm night in downtown Toronto for the MMVAs. 299 Queen Street West hosted a spectacular set and the hottest artists. Here's Macklemore rehearsing before taking the stage.
Send your image from the city to rosie@mytorontoscoop.com or tweet it to @rosieferg. Rosie :)
Our first batch of TIFF films. Primer, Shane Carruth's science fiction drama about the accidental discovery of a means of time travel, absolutely blew us away. It was one of my favourite Q&A's of all time.
I couldn't care less about celebrities except at film fest, because they bring their cinematic awesomeness via their writing/acting/directing skills to my beloved city. Stars love TIFF because Toronto film fans are typically very chill and don't freak out. Here is Adrian Grenier, whose documentary Shot in the Dark details his journey to track down his estranged father. It was excellent.
The Last Kiss, a 2006 romantic dramedy based on the 2001 Italian film L'ultimo Bacio, brought some serious talent to Toronto.Tony Goldwyn directed and Paul Haggis wrote the screenplay. One of my favourite festival moments happened when they walked on stage and my husband leaned over and whispered, "I am blinded by the talent!"
Philip Seymour Hoffman made his directorial debut in the 2010 romantic comedy Jack Goes Boating. He was also the star. He was absolutely delightful introducing his film, and during the Q&A after.
Sometimes, something happens at film fest where you see a movie like the 2004 British drama The Libertine which starred Johnny Depp as the debauched 17th century poet the Earl of Rochester. You think it is absolutely fantastic, and then when it comes out in theatres later it's a complete dud. That also happened in 2009 with Jennifer's Body, a black comedy horror written by Diablo Cody. I truly thought Megan Fox was amazing in this movie, but she got absolutely no love for it when it came out later.
We have seen dozens of amazing movies over the years including the Tony Kaye abortion documentary Lake Of Fire, the British drama The Last King of Scotland starring Forest Whitaker, Jason Reitman's satirical comedy Thank You For Smoking and one of the sweetest films I have ever seen, Mon Meilleur Ami. There have been some duds in there too- I love Colin Firth but Trauma, the 2004 psychological thriller he starred in, was awful. (He was completely charming at the Q&A of course, and that almost made up for it.) Good or bad, I love each and every film fest experience we have had. See you at the movies! Rosie :)
This summer the City Cinema theme is "Cult Classics" and the upcoming flicks include Napoleon Dynamite and a Spaceballs and Serenity double feature. The shows start around sunset and are cancelled if it rains. Follow the Yonge-Dundas Square Twitter account @ydsquare for cancellation alerts. Click here for the complete list of movies scheduled for summer 2013. I don't know what we're yelling about! Rosie :)