Arts & Entertainment

QUIZ

Lights! Cameras! Oscar Buzz!

Test your knowledge of TIFF

By Sean Monkman
When Dusty Cohl and Bill Marshall started a film festival in Toronto back in 1976, they could hardly have imagined that it would grow into one of the most important, most inclusive, most influential — not to mention largest — film festivals in the world. Back this year for its 31st edition, the Toronto International Film Festival’s appeal now extends far beyond art: the glitz and glamour of the parties and megawatt celebrities are always hot news, and the business side keeps industry types tuned in to the high-stakes wheeling and dealing.

What will be this year’s breakout hit? We’ll soon find out: the 2006 edition of the festival runs September 7 to 16. 


1. Which of the following was not true about the first instalment of the festival, held in October 1976?
It was a collection of the best films from other festivals and was thus called the Festival of Festivals.
It took place at the Ontario Place Cinesphere.
The opening film was the French farce Cousin, Cousine.
The star power peaked with producer Dino De Laurentiis, who attended to promote his soon-to-be-released flop remake of King Kong.
A program on the best hockey films, curated by Toronto Maple Leafs legend Darryl Sittler, featured the world premiere of Slap Shot.
2. The second edition of the festival managed to attract the first hint of star power. Who was not among the glitterati in 1977?
Anne Murray
Elliott Gould
Christopher Plummer
Meeno Peluce
Henry (The Fonz) Winkler
3. In 1979, he got press accreditation to the festival as a University of Toronto student. In later years, his films The Sweet Hereafter (1997), Felicia's Journey (1999) and Ararat (2002) would be opening-night galas at TIFF. Who is it?
Atom Egoyan
Don McKellar
David Cronenberg
Bruce McDonald
Vincenzo Natali
4. Which second-fiddle musician’s limited film career included a starring role as a psychiatrist in the 1980 festival fave Bad Timing?
John Oates
Sonny Bono
Art Garfunkel
Dash Crofts
Jim Messina
5. Which film won the 1981 festival’s highest honour, the People’s Choice Award, before going on to earn the Oscar for Best Picture?
Atlantic City
Chariots of Fire
On Golden Pond
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Reds
6. In 1982, critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert raised the public and critical profile of the festival by hosting a tribute (featuring surprise guests Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel) to which prominent director?
Martin Scorsese
Lucio Fulci
Roger Corman
Roman Polanski
Steven Spielberg
7. One of the breakout films of the 1983 festival was an ensemble piece viewed as a smug apologia for the ’60s generation. It also served as a template for the buncha-people-sitting-around-and-talking relationship dramas that followed in the years to come. Which film was it?
Diner
The Big Chill
Educating Rita
Flashdance
Return of the Jedi
8. 1984 turned out to be a watershed year for feature debuts at the festival. Which of the following directors was not in the mix?
Jim Jarmusch (Stranger than Paradise)
James Cameron (The Terminator)
Stephen Frears (The Hit)
Luc Besson (Le dernier combat)
Joel and Ethan Coen (Blood Simple)
9. Complete the title of the debut feature from Vancouver director Sandy Wilson, which was the buzz of the 1985 fest: My ____ Cousin.
Torontonian
Saskatchewanian
American
European
Intergalactic
10. Which film opened the 1986 festival and took home the double honour of best Canadian film and the People’s Choice award?
Deepa Mehta’s Water
Denys Arcand’s The Decline of the American Empire
Patricia Rozema’s I've Heard the Mermaids Singing
Zacharias Kunuk’s Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner)
Michael Dowse’s It's All Gone Pete Tong
11. “They warned me he was very big, and he was. His hand was the size of my head.” Don McKellar worked as a theatre manager at the 1987 fest and recalls building an orange vinyl bench to accommodate a particularly large actor for festival favourite The Princess Bride. Who was the big actor in the small part?
Andre the Giant
Marlon Brando
Jackie Gleason
Ernest Borgnine
John Candy
12. In David Cronenberg’s psychological horror film Dead Ringers, the 1988 opening-night gala, Jeremy Irons played twins. What was their profession?
butcher
gynecologist
bartender
call-centre worker
church-bell maker
13. In an upset over Denys Arcand’s Jesus of Montreal in 1989, director Bruce McDonald won the $25,000 prize for best Canadian film for his feature debut, Roadkill. When accepting his prize, he infamously suggested that it would buy him a "big _____."
“honking motorcycle”
“pizza and a pitcher of Blue”
“foam hand saying ‘I'm No.1’ ”
“box of the finest cigars”
“chunk of hash”
14. Director Michael Moore won the People’s Choice Award in 1989 for which documentary?
Roger & Me
Canadian Bacon
The Big One
Bowling for Columbine
Fahrenheit 9/11
15. Inspired by a gesture made to him by Wim Wenders four years earlier at the Montreal Film Festival, what did Atom Egoyan do with the $25,000 he received in 1991 when his The Adjuster was named best Canadian film?
Repaid Wim Wenders and told him to “make something good.”
Donated the money to an award for best debut feature by a woman to be given the following year.
Gave it to a stunned John Pozer, the Vancouver director of The Grocer’s Wife.
Bought loads of film fest passes for film students.
Spent it on a huge bash for the festival volunteers.
16. Quentin Tarantino made a big splash at the 1992 festival with his directorial debut feature. What was it?
Reservoir Dogs
Pulp Fiction
Four Rooms
Jackie Brown
Kill Bill: Vol. 1
17. How many short films about Glenn Gould were featured in the innovative François Girard film that had the fest buzzing in 1993?
3
32
101
3,600
20,000
18. Nicolas Cage won a best actor Oscar for his performance in a film that wowed TIFF in 1995 after being rejected by the Cannes, Venice and New York film festivals. What was it?
Face/Off
Con Air
Leaving Las Vegas
Honeymoon in Vegas
Wild at Heart
19. Which of the following American actors did not have a directorial effort at the 1996 fest?
Al Pacino (Looking for Richard)
Tom Hanks (That Thing You Do!)
Kevin Spacey (Albino Alligator)
Anjelica Huston (Bastard out of Carolina)
Kevin Costner (Dances With Wolves)
20. What did the film The Hanging Garden achieve at the 1997 fest?
It was the first film to win top honours at Cannes, Venice and Toronto before taking the Oscar for Best Picture.
It became the only English-Canadian film to win the People’s Choice Award.
It was the first film to have not sold a single ticket to any of its screenings.
High audience demand meant that it showed continuously throughout the entire festival for a total of 117 screenings.
It was so awful it prompted Roger Ebert to give up film criticism.
21. Don McKellar was all over the festival in 1998. Which of the following films was he not connected with that year?
Last Night, a feature he directed, appeared in and wrote.
Blue, a 1992 short film he directed and wrote that was included in a Canadian Film Centre retrospective.
Elimination Dance, a short film he appeared in.
Exotica, a feature he appeared in.
The Red Violin, a feature he co-wrote and appeared in.
22. For which film did director David Cronenberg receive an award for best Canadian feature film in 2002?
Crash
eXistenZ
Spider
Naked Lunch
The Fly
23. Which alumnus of the much-loved Degrassi TV series came to the 2004 festival as writer-director of The Limb Salesman, a science-fiction feature about a doctor in post-ice age Canada who specializes in illegally re-growing limbs?
Amanda Steptoe (who played Spike)
Amanda Cook (L.D.)
Anais Granofsky (Lucy Fernandez)
Maureen Deiseach (Heather Farrell)
Stacie Mistysyn (Caitlin)
24. What was unusual about the closing film of the 2004 festival, Jiminy Glick in Lalawood?
It was the first festival film shot entirely on digital video.
It was shown outdoors at High Park.
Since it was only 11 minutes long, it was the first time the festival closed with a short film.
It was partially filmed at the 2003 festival.
It was the first film starring festival head Piers Handling.
25. Which of the following Oscar-nominated films did not appear at the 2005 film fest?
A History of Violence
Capote
Walk the Line
Brokeback Mountain
Munich

Quiz Archive