Volume 21, Issue 1 / January 2017

North American Festivals

For the first issue of 2017 we focus on a round-up of some major North American film festivals, the Vancouver International Film Festival, the Toronto International Film Festival (better known as TIFF) and the Festival du nouveau cinéma (better known as FNC, at least in Montreal). We like to do things a little differently here at Offscreen so as a gesture toward the usual year end best film lists that populate film journals and magazines we present Peter Rist’s list of the Best Films of …….1916. What is 100 years in the grand scale of things? Randolph Jordan and myself take turns reporting on the always vital and innovative FNC, a presence on the Montreal festival scene for an outstanding 45 years, and counting. With no sign of slowing down and also remembering its mandate to mix established auteurs with new trends and developments in film, the FNC has a bright, long future. While Jordan places a focus on experimental cinema, I cast attention to (not exclusively) Canadian cinema. As a first-time writer Sean Gilman focuses on Asian cinemas, always a strength of VIFF, Canadian cinema and established names such as Jim Jarmusch, Terence Davies and Paul Veerhoeven. Welcome Sean. Michael Sooriyakumaran tackles the beast that is the Toronto International Film Festival, and as is the case sometimes when up against a beast, you must change your plans. These plans were to cover the experimental section of the festival called Wavelengths, as he did in 2015, but, as he explains, the focus had to change to a wider grouping of narrative film. (Donato Totaro, ed.)