Mobile apps for the fest: iPhone, Android and BlackBerry

Official app (BlackBerry only)

Since BlackBerry is a major sponsor of the Toronto International Film Festival, there is an official application available free:

• "tiff.fest.app" from Blackberry App World

News app (Android only)

Canada's largest national newspaper The Globe & Mail has launched their own app for the festival, feeding articles, photos, and reviews to your phone.

• "Globe TIFF" from the Globe & Mail.
  

Mobile website (iPhone/Android/BlackBerry)

Last year we announced an early-alpha release of a web-based mobile application that was designed to work with all mobile telephones — for free.

This year, the open beta release features a better layout with images for each film — in addition to synopsis, film details, and schedule information.

• just visit...
  TOfilmfest.ca/TIFFwidget
  from any mobile phone browser
  
  
  

See you at the fest!
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Sat.02/Oct: Nuit Blanche film-fest events

Toronto's annual sunset-to-sunrise contemporary art celebration Nuit Blanche returns this Saturday (October 2nd, 2010), with a number of film-fest related events:

• The Essential Cinema
  
  The 100 films that represent the "best" and the "most influential" works of all time – filling a gallery with iconic objects, images and video clips that mark these achievements and their ripple-effect through the history of cinema and world culture.
  Two of Canada's greatest living filmmakers contribute new media art projects that dig deeper. Atom Egoyan explores the unusual relationship between the viewer and the screen with 8 ½ Screens, while Guy Maddin's Hauntings I and Hauntings II re-imagines the lost work of master filmmakers to produce the ghosts of cinema's past.
  
  
• Arcadian Renaissance
  
  Remember the days of darkened arcades, bleeps and bloops in the dark? Remember being wrapped in a cocoon of sound and light, transported to another reality with a button under one hand and a joystick in the other? For some, it was a cultural blip. For others, utterly formative. The Indie games community is made up of the latter.
  
  Working solo or in tiny teams with an experimental and creatively singular approach, artists make the simple and engaging games that turned them on to the potential of a medium. For Nuit Blanche, the videogame culture collective Hand Eye Society is presenting several new arcade-style games by Toronto gamemakers in the classic stand-up arcade cabinet context they were meant to be played. For one night, regain the lost feeling of what it felt like to play games in public, without losing any quarters.
  
  Here are the games presented (click for info/download):
  
  
  
  
  And, here's a video, from the exhibit, at Lightbox:
  
  
  
  
• A Girl and a Camera /
  A Girl and a Gun
  
  SUNSET TO 1:00AM: The first female director, producer and studio owner, cinema pioneer Alice Guy Blaché's keen sense of storytelling helped the cinema evolve from documentary actualités into an intricate narrative art form. The films on display also demonstrate her pioneering broaching of sexual and political issues and her remarkable formal experimentation.
  AFTER 1:00AM: The Toronto premiere of Austrian montage master Gustav Deutsch's "Film Ist: A Girl and a Gun", compiling archival footage from the first four decades of film history into a carnal celebration of the quasi-supernatural energy of erotic desire and a dark rumination on the battle of the sexes, set to a spectral score by electronic icons Christian Fennesz, Martin Siewert and Burkhard Stangl.
  [Mature content, suitable for audiences 18+]
  
  
• Singin' in the Dark
  
  The tunes you remember, from the movies you can’t forget.
  7:00PM-MIDNIGHT: Join us and a special on-stage host for a riotous sing-along featuring hit tunes from movie musicals. [Suitable for all ages.]
  AFTER MIDNIGHT: As the night gets later, the movies get darker and the songs get... surprising! [Suggested for mature audiences.]
  
  
  
  
• Grindbox!
  
  A tribute to the beloved American institution of the grindhouse – a term for theatres that mainly showed exploitation films, named after the defunct burlesque theaters located on New York City's 42nd Street where "bump n' grind" dancing and striptease were featured – this presentation of vintage trailers for horror and exploitation films from around the world is a cinematic celebration of the weird, the wild and the wonderful, balanced on the border between art and trash. Curated by Midnight Madness programmer Colin Geddes.
  [Mature content, suitable for audiences 18+]
  

Night Navigator App
Take your mobile phone with you!

Download the Night Navigator App for Android
("Scotiabank Night Navigator" at the Android Market)
Download the Night Navigator App for BlackBerry
("Scotiabank Night Navigator" at BlackBerry App World)
Download the Night Navigator App for iPhone
("Scotiabank Night Navigator" at the App Store)

ScotiabankNuitBlanche.ca has a home page designed for mobile phones at ScotiabankNuitBlanche.ca/home_m.shtml

See you at Nuit Blanche! ;-)
#TOfilmfest

Film fest apps for mobile phones

Official App
(Blackberry only)

Early last month, the Toronto International Film Festival announced that the official mobile phone application would be exclusive to Blackberry, a major sponsor.

• the official "tiff.app" is still available
  from Blackberry App World

Visa Insider App
(not for iPhone yet)

Today, Visa, another film fest sponsor, announced their own "insider app" for cardholders.

• Android mobile device – find it at market.Android.com
  – or click com.simplygood.visa
  
• Blackberry phone – download from POIfriend
  

Grand Tour Toronto
(purchase for iPhone only)

Also, a travel tool for visitors to Toronto, has come to our attention:

• "Grand Tour Toronto"
  available for $1.99 on Apple iTunes
  
  

TIFFwidget (free, works with all phones)

Finally, just a reminder: late last month, we announced an early-alpha release of a web-based mobile application that is optimized for Apple's iPhone, but designed to work with all mobile telephones – for free.

• just visit...
  TOfilmfest.ca/TIFFwidget
  from any mobile phone browser
  

Pick the best of the fest!
TOfilmfest
#TIFF10

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Notes from the Canadian film press launch

Besides the announcement of Canadian features (including Canada First and Canadian Open Vault) and the Short Cuts Canada program, there were some other note-worthy items from last week's press conference...

• Opening nights (all Canadian films)...
  • Opening night Gala — Score: A Hockey Musical, Michael McGowan
  • Canada First! opens with — Daydream Nation, Michael Goldbach
  • Midnight Madness opening night — Fubar II, Michael Dowse
  • Lightbox inaugural red carpet event — Trigger, Bruce McDonald
    
    
• Since Blackberry is a sponsor of the festival, the official mobile phone application is only available from BlackBerry App World (early reviews say the app is 'slow' and that it 'needs more content' – so we expect other unofficial apps to appear soon, for iPhone, Nokia and Android phones)
  
  
• the new Lightbox centre kicks off it's official opening with a "free, and festive block party" on Sunday, September 12th, 12pm-4pm
  

Pick the best of the fest!
#TOfilmfest

PS. advance ticket packages are still on-sale...

• Online (Visa only)
• By Phone, Mon-Fri/10am-7pm
  at 416-968-3456 or 877-968-3456
• At 2 Carlton St, West Mezzanine level, Mon – Fri, 10am-7pm, until Fri.20.Aug
  (the new festival box-office opens at 363 King St West, on Tue.24.Aug)