BELL MEDIA’S CRAVE TO BRING SELECT TIFF FILMS TO WIDER AUDIENCE IN NEW PARTNERSHIP

TORONTO — TIFF and Bell Media announced today that 11 feature films that celebrated their World Premieres at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival will be distributed for streaming across the country on Crave. The groundbreaking new partnership, called “TIFF Selects,” is a first for TIFF as a Canadian distribution opportunity for its world-class Festival programming. The vast majority of films in the collection will have their premieres on Crave. “TIFF’s partnership with Bell Media and Crave, Canada’s own world-class streaming service, is good for business and furthers TIFF’s mission to showcase exceptional cinema to audiences across the country,” said Joana Vicente, TIFF’s Executive Director and Co-Head. “TIFF is thrilled to make this opportunity available to both the filmmakers and viewers. Together, we hope to grow the TIFF Selects collection over the coming years.” “It was important for us to expand the presence of TIFF – an iconic Canadian cultural institution – on Crave,” said Randy Lennox, President, Bell Media. “One of Crave’s cultural mandates is acquiring, curating, and distributing the best content in the world, and we’re thrilled to continue that momentum through this new partnership with TIFF.” The Canadian and international films that have been offered the opportunity to premiere on Crave as part of TIFF Selects represent a richness of voices, perspectives, and insights from some of the world’s finest established filmmakers, as well as emerging directorial talent. Each of the films selected to be part of TIFF Selects is an Official Selection from the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival: The Antenna Orçun Behram | Turkey (now streaming) Antigone Sophie Deraspe | Canada (February) The County Grímur Hákonarson | Iceland/Denmark/Germany/France (now streaming) Disco Jorunn Myklebust Syversen | Norway (now streaming) Jallikattu Lijo Jose Pellissery | India (now streaming) Lina from Lima María Paz González | Chile/Argentina/Peru (now streaming) Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band Daniel Roher | Canada (spring) Our Lady of the Nile Atiq Rahimi | France/Belgium/Rwanda (now streaming) Sole Carlo Sironi | Italy/Poland (now streaming) Stories From The Chestnut Woods Gregor Božič | Slovenia/Italy (now streaming) The Twentieth Century Matthew Rankin | Canada (March) Today’s move builds on the previously announced Best of TIFF collection — a selection of 82 films TIFF films curated by Cameron Bailey, TIFF’s Artistic Director and Co-Head — which is currently available to Crave subscribers. Bailey has assembled a stand-alone collection of audiences’ and critics’ favourite films over the decades. “Putting together these films that audiences can experience all over again is exciting,” said Bailey. “With two TIFF collections on Crave, viewers have more available to them than ever before.” For more information, please see www.crave.ca/en/movies  TIFF is generously supported by Lead Sponsor Bell, Major Sponsors RBC, L’Oréal Paris, and Visa, and Major Supporters the Government of Canada, Government of Ontario, and the City of Toronto. FILM SYNOPSES & FILMMAKER BIOGRAPHIES: The Antenna Orçun Behram | Turkey The inhabitants of an apartment building are caught in a living nightmare when a radical new communications technology goes horribly awry, in Orçun Behram’s frightening and visceral feature debut. Orçun Behram is an Istanbul-born director, cinematographer, and photojournalist. He holds a bachelor’s degree in cinema from Columbia College Chicago. He has directed the short films Column (05), Photoroman (08), and Mongolia (15). The Antenna (19) is his feature debut. Antigone Sophie Deraspe | Canada Critically acclaimed Québécois filmmaker Sophie Deraspe’s provocative and timely adaptation of the classic Greek tragedy of the same name reimagines the story of a woman’s quest for justice as a commentary on the immigrant experience in contemporary Montreal. Sophie Deraspe was born in Rivière-du-Loup, Quebec. She has directed the feature films Missing Victor Pellerin (06), Vital Signs (09), and The Wolves (15), and the documentary The Amina Profile (15). Antigone (19) is her latest film. The County Grímur Hákonarson | Iceland/Denmark/Germany/France An Icelandic woman takes on the corruption of her local co-op and the outdated, exploitative system that supports it, in the latest from acclaimed filmmaker Grímur Hákonarson (Rams). Grímur Hákonarson was born in Iceland and graduated from the Film and Television School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. He made his feature debut with Summerland (10), and followed it with the documentary A Pure Heart (12) and Rams (15), which played TIFF after winning the Prix Un Certain Regard at Cannes. The County (19) is his latest film. Disco Jorunn Myklebust Syversen | Norway When a champion dancer (TIFF ’19 Rising Star Josefine Frida) begins to falter, her family questions her faith and prompts her to search for more radical solutions, in Jorunn Myklebust Syversen’s disturbing second feature. Jorunn Myklebust Syversen was born in Gol, Norway. She has directed the short films Violent Sorrow Makes a Modern Ecstasy No. 2 (09), Cyrk (14), and Crying Man (16), as well as her debut feature, Hoggeren (17). Disco (19) is her latest film. Jallikattu Lijo Jose Pellissery | India A bold new voice in Malayalam cinema, Lijo Jose Pellissery (Ee. Ma. Yau.) presents a portrait of a remote village in his hometown where a buffalo escapes and causes a frenzy of ecstatic violence. Lijo Jose Pellissery was born in Chalakudy, Kerala, India. He has directed the fiction features Nakayan (10), City of God (11), Amen (13), Double Barrel (15), Angamaly Diaries (17), and Ee. Ma. Yau. (18). Jallikattu (19) is his latest film. Lina from Lima María Paz González | Chile/Argentina/Peru The issue of migrant labour gets a winningly light touch in this musical comedy — and debut fiction film — from documentarian María Paz González, about a Peruvian woman working as a domestic helper for a wealthy Chilean family who prepares for a trip home to visit the son she left behind. María Paz González was born in Temuco, Chile. She studied journalism at the University of Chile, documentary writing at the Catholic University of Chile, and filmmaking at Escuela Internacional de Cine y Televisión in Cuba. She has directed the documentaries Antes que todo (05) and Hija (11). Lina from Lima (19) is her latest film. Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band Daniel Roher | Canada Directed by Daniel Roher (Ghosts of Our Forest) and executive produced by Martin Scorsese, Brian Grazer, and Ron Howard, this feature documentary follows Robertson from his early life in Toronto and on the Six Nations of the Grand River reserve, in Southern Ontario, to the creation of legendary roots-rock group The Band. Daniel Roher was born in Toronto. His directorial credits include the short documentaries Survivors Rowe (15), Conversations with a Dead Prime Minister (15), Sourtoe: The Story of a Sorry Cannibal (16), and Finding Fukue (18), as well as the feature documentary Ghosts of Our Forest (17). Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band (19) is his latest film. Our Lady of the Nile Atiq Rahimi | France/Belgium/Rwanda This bewitching yet unassuming adaptation of Scholastique Mukasonga’s award-winning novel recounts the coming-of-age of a group of Rwandan schoolgirls at a Belgian-run Catholic boarding school. Atiq Rahimi was born in Kabul. He fled Afghanistan in 1984 and found political asylum in France, where he studied film at the Sorbonne. His debut feature Earth and Ashes (04) was adapted from his bestselling novel of the same name, and his second feature, The Patience Stone (12), played the Festival. Our Lady of the Nile (19) is his latest film. Sole Carlo Sironi | Italy/Poland Two very different teens involved in a surrogate-motherhood scheme learn how to live, in director Carlo Sironi’s poignant feature debut inspired by ordinary people facing extraordinary situations. Carlo Sironi was born in Rome. He began his career directing music videos and has worked as a writer, actor, cinematographer, and AD. His directorial credits include the short films Sofia (08), Cargo (12), and Valparaiso (16). Sole (19) is his debut feature film. Stories From The Chestnut Woods Gregor Božič | Slovenia/Italy In a decaying forest on the Yugoslav–Italian border in the years after World War II, a stingy, old carpenter and a lonely, young chestnut seller share imaginative memories of the past as they weigh fateful decisions for the future, in this touching homage to a lost way of life. Gregor Bozic was born in Šempeter, Slovenia, and studied at the Academy of Theatre, Radio, Film and Television in Ljubljana and the DFFB in Berlin. He has directed the short films Hey Ho, Comrades (07) and Shoes from Trieste (14). Stories From The Chestnut Woods (19) is his feature debut. The Twentieth Century Matthew Rankin | Canada Winnipeg’s Matthew Rankin (The Tesla World Light) doubles down on his signature mode of gonzo history films with this bizarro biopic of William Lyon Mackenzie King, which reimagines the former Canadian Prime Minister’s early life as a series of abject humiliations, both professional and sexual. Matthew Rankin was born in Winnipeg. His short films include Negativipeg (10), Tabula Rasa (11), Mynarski Death Plummet (14), and The Tesla World Light (17), which all screened at TIFF. The Twentieth Century (19) is his first feature film.