The beginnings
Toronto's first film event dates back to August 31, 1896. The screening took place at Robinson's Musee on Yonge Street. From 1912 onwards, several Canadian cities began to produce fiction films. In Toronto, the Conness Till Film Company produced several comedy and adventure films in 1914 and 1915. However, Canadian film production was almost non-existent until the mid-1960s. However, six English-language feature films were released in the 1950s. Among these was Tyrone Guthrie's version ofSophocles' OedipusRex (1956), one of the founders of the Shakespearean theater in Stratford, Ontario. Another young Canadian, Sidney Furie, directed two excellent films, A Dangerous Age (1957) and A Cool Sound from Hell (1959), which attracted British attention. Faced with Canadian indifference to his films, Furie emigrated permanently to Britain. Furie's case is typical of the 1960s exodus of Canadian talent to Europe. In 1970, Toronto's Don Shebib directedGoin' Down the Road , contributing to the rise of English-Canadian cinema by drawing crowds from across the country. Numerous films followed, but without any real commercial success. Among the successes of the 1970s were L'Apprentissage de Duddy Kravitz(The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz, Ted Kotcheff, 1974) and Les Mensonges que mon père me contait(Lies my Father told me, Ján Kadár, 1975). However, the vast majority of films released during these years were commercial films with little added value.
From 1970 to the present day
From the end of the 1970s, a movement of young filmmakers defended the idea of auteur cinema. A new generation of talented filmmakers and producers emerged, including the famous Phillip Borsos and his film The Grey Fox (1982). It was also during this period that new government policies were introduced to encourage film production and distribution. Toronto was home to some of the best-known English-Canadian filmmakers, including Atom Egoyan and David Cronenberg. Cronenberg, a Toronto native, won over audiences with his first films: Rabid(1977), TheBrood (1979) and Scanners (1980). During the 1990s, directors who reflected the province's ethnic diversity emerged, including Srinivas Krishna with his films Masala (1991) and Lulu (1996), and Deepa Mehta with Sam and me (1990) and Fire (1996). John Greyson, particularly known in the world of queer cinema, directed The Making of Monsters (1991), Zero Patience (1993) and Lilies (1996).
In 2010, the Bell Lightbox, the new home of the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), opened. Also new is Pinewood Toronto Studios, located near downtown, which is positioned as the largest film set in North America. In a different vein, LIFT (Liaison of Independent Filmmakers of Toronto), founded in the 1980s, continues to support an auteur cinema that can be enjoyed in several of Toronto's historic independent theatres, including the Royal Cinema. There is also the prestigious Hot Docs documentary film festival which screens in its own theatre, the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema.
Recently, Toronto's independent film scene has become more dynamic than ever. David Cronenberg continues to surprise us with such diverse works as A Dangerous Method (2011), Cosmopolis (2012), Maps to the Stars (2014) and Crimes of the Future (2022). In 2013, French-Canadian director Denis Villeneuve set his film Enemy in Toronto, which he describes as a "city of many facets". This thriller, loosely adapted from the novel The Other Like Me (by José Saramago), transforms Toronto into a dark and disturbing ghost town. More recently, we note Matt Johnson's Operation Avalanche (2016) and Joyce Wong's Wexford Plaza (2017), both shot in Toronto and nominated as Best Canadian Film at TIFF. On the small screen, three successful Canadian series are also set in the city: Degrassi: New Generation (2001-2015), Blood Ties (2007) and Murdoch's Inquest (2008, still in production).
Toronto in the spotlight
Thanks to its versatility, Toronto attracts many European and American directors. It's hard to miss, yet Toronto is often used as a backdrop for cities such as New York, Chicago or Boston. For example, Toronto's Casa Loma is one of the city's most popular film locations, serving as a set for such hits as Bryan Singer's X-Men (2000), Ridley Scott's Hannibal (2001) and Edgar Wright's Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010). The University of Toronto welcomed Matt Damon in Gus Van Sant's Good Will Hunting (1997), as well as Lindsay Lohan and Rachel McAdams in Mark Waters' Lolita malgré moi(Mean Girls, 2004). Rob Marshall's Chicago (2002) and Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water (2017) set some of their scenes in the prestigious Elgin and Winter Garden Theatre. For Stephen King fans, the horrific home of Pennywise, the clown in the recent version of Ça(It, 2017), is located at 450 Pape Avenue. More recently, it's the (disused) Lower Bay metro station that can be seen in several cinematic works, such as the blockbuster Suicide Squad (2016, David Ayer), whose plot revolves around the Dark Knight Batman's famous enemies. On the small screen, this station can also be seen in the hit dystopian series The Handmaid's Tale (2017, still in production). Other successful series also use Toronto locations for filming. Toronto City Hall is featured in the sci-fi series Star Trek: The Next Generation (1987-1994) and Bay Adelaide Centre in the series Suits (2011-2019).
