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TIFF Bell Lightbox Fact Sheet

TIFF Bell Lightbox Fact Sheet

For more than 30 years, people from all around the world have gathered at the Toronto International Film Festival to celebrate the power of film. Audiences of all ages have come to share experiences and ideas in thought-provoking conversations and socially-aware dialogue.
TIFF is now expanding to become one of the world’s premiere centres for film. TIFF Bell Lightbox will help satisfy the demand of the millions of people that turn to TIFF every year to celebrate the power of the moving image.
Located at Reitman Square, on the north-west corner of King and John Streets, TIFF Bell Lightbox occupies an entire city block in the heart of Toronto’s media and entertainment district.

TIFF Bell Lightbox is designed by world-renowned Toronto-based architecture firm KPMB, which has designed such landmarks as Canada’s National Ballet School, the Canadian Embassy in Berlin, the Design Exchange, the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre, the Munk Centre for International Studies at the University of Toronto and the Star Alliance Lounge in Zurich.

TIFF Bell Lightbox includes:

  • A three-storey public atrium
  • Five public cinemas
  • Two galleries
  • Three learning studios
  • A centre for students and scholars
  • The staff offices of TIFF
  • A bistro, a restaurant, and a lounge

TIFF Bell Lightbox will encompass over 153,000 square feet of multi-use space and includes more than 1,300 cinema seats. All spaces, including the cinemas, are wheelchair accessible to the public.  TIFF Bell Lightbox is 5 storeys high – next to a typical office building it is roughly 8 commercial storeys because of the floor-to-floor heights on Levels 1-3 inclusive.

The groundbreaking for TIFF Bell Lightbox took place on February 1, 2007, and completion is scheduled for Fall 2010.

The land for TIFF Bell Lightbox is a gift of more than $22 million from the Reitman family – acclaimed filmmaker Ivan Reitman and his sisters Agi Mandel and Susan Michaels – and The Daniels Corporation, who together form the King and John Festival Corporation (KJFC).

TIFF BELL LIGHTBOX
PROGRAMMING BACKGROUNDER

TIFF BELL LIGHTBOX’S OPENING SHOW
ESSENTIAL CINEMA

To mark the celebration of our new home, TIFF will launch its first major exhibition and film screening programme in Fall 2010. Dubbed Essential Cinema, the show will divide into three parts: Exhibition, Film Programmes, and Special Events. The complete film list is attached.

The Exhibition, opening the week of September 12, 2010, will fill the atrium and gallery spaces with iconic objects and images from the history of cinema, as well as internationally acclaimed contemporary artworks drawing from or inspired by the most influential films.

The Exhibition will also expand to encompass:

  • Newly commissioned installation art work by key Canadian filmmakers
  • Large-scale film installations at partner institutions across Toronto (including the Art Gallery of Ontario, Royal Ontario Museum, The Power Plant and the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (MOCCA)

The accompanying Film Programmes, based upon TIFF’s list of the 100 most influential films of all time, will include:

  • Week-long Limited Run engagements (10-30 shows each) for some of the most famous films ever made;
  • TIFF Cinematheque screenings of each of the Essential 100 films. Audiences will have at least two opportunities to see each of the films before the end of 2010.

Finally, dozens of unique Special Events will celebrate our tribute to Essential Cinema. Look out for future announcements regarding major concerts featuring some of the most intriguing musicians from the classical and popular music worlds accompanying great silent films, famous filmmakers and actors from the Essential 100 list in person, plus lectures from well-known experts and film personalities that explore the magic and power of the cinema.

TIM BURTON

TIFF is thrilled to present Tim Burton (Fall 2010), a major exhibition of drawings, sculptures, maquettes, videos and sculptural commissions. This exhibition was organized by The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York. This exhibition firmly establishes Burton as one of the most important creative forces in modern cinema and is the first MoMA show ever to be exhibited in Toronto.  Both the film programme and the exhibition will give audiences a chance to see the creative influences that helped to shape one of our true cinematic visionaries.

More than 700 items form the core of the show, which traces Burton's development as a major creative force from his earliest drawings and paintings to the sophisticated elements he created for some of the world’s most treasured films. A full film retrospective will accompany the show, as well as collateral learning opportunities for all ages. The exhibition will contemplate Burton's career as a director, producer, writer and concept artist for live-action and animated films, along with his work as a fiction writer, photographer and illustrator. The exhibition will also explore the development of Burton’s visual imagination from his earliest childhood efforts through his mature work.

Highlights include:

  • Limited runs of  Tim Burton films
  • Free family activities every weekend during the Tim Burton exhibition
  • School workshops
  • Lectures, Filmmaker in Person events

Over the course of the summer/early fall we will also be announcing a number of special guests and further programme updates, so stay tuned for further details.

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For more information, please contact the Communications Department at 416-934-3200 or proffice@tiff.net.

Images available on TIFF’s ftp site:
ftp://pressf:pressf12@204.101.25.168

username: pressf
password:pressf12

 
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