Ryan Reynolds suggests swapping phones with a MAGA supporter, checking out their algorithm

TORONTO - Ryan Reynolds says mounting tensions between Canada and the U.S. haven't changed anything for him as a Canuck in Hollywood.

The "Deadpool" star preached unity during an onstage conversation at the Toronto International Film Festival, when chief programming officer Anita Lee asked him what it was like being a Canadian in Los Angeles during this "elbows up" era of increased nationalism.

In a nearly five-minute answer to the question, Reynolds said he's always held Canadian values, including conflict resolution, and he seeks "to learn, rather than win."

Reynolds is at TIFF to promote the new documentary "John Candy: I Like Me," which he produced. 

‘Palestine 36’ director at TIFF: ‘Never imagined that I would be here during a genocide’

TORONTO - For the cast and director of historical drama "Palestine 36," the excitement of having a world premiere at one of the world's biggest film festivals was overshadowed by the ongoing destruction and killings in Gaza. 

Palestinian-born director Annemarie Jacir and several members of the film's cast lined the red carpet outside Roy Thomson Hall on Friday at the Toronto International Film Festival wearing watermelon pins, a symbol of solidarity with the Palestinian people, while some donned keffiyehs and held Palestinian flags. 

A couple of cast and crew members had the words "stop the genocide" written across their palms while one actor held a camera soaked in fake blood.

"I never imagined that I would be here to screen this film...during a genocide, the genocide of our people. Sharing this film makes it feel more important than it ever did," Jacir said on the red carpet. 

Scarlett Johansson applauds Toronto’s festival vibe, says focus is on film, not fashion

TORONTO - First-time director, longtime festivalgoer Scarlett Johansson says she appreciates that the Toronto International Film Festival focuses more on films than celebrity fashion.

The screen star discussed themes of forgiveness and grief at a morning press conference for her dramedy “Eleanor the Great” as it prepares to screen for a Toronto audience on Monday.

Seated alongside her actors June Squibb, Erin Kellyman and Chiwetel Ejiofor, Johansson says TIFF so far "feels like less of a runway and more like a conversation.”

She adds that Toronto’s downtown festival circuit is well-mapped for crossing paths with other film-lovers and overhearing their chit-chat about buzzy titles.

Canadian doc-maker Ben Proudfoot wants to preserve Ghanaian records of liberation movement

TORONTO - Two-time Canadian Oscar-winner Ben Proudfoot says key archives tracing the story of Africa’s liberation movement in the ‘50s and ‘60s are at risk of being lost forever.

The Halifax-born director says he hopes his feature film, “The Eyes of Ghana,” can ignite preservation efforts spearheaded by his main subject, Chris Hesse.

Hesse is a 93-year-old filmmaker who was the personal cinematographer to Ghana’s first president Kwame Nkrumah, who led a push to free the continent of white colonial rule.

The films Hesse made with the revolutionary leader were destroyed following a coup in 1966 but Proudfoot says the original negatives are stored in London, waiting to be digitized.

A John Candy documentary gives Toronto film fest a tender and appropriately Canadian opening night

TORONTO (AP) — “I wish I had more bad things to say about him,” Bill Murray says in the opening moments of the documentary “John Candy: I Like Me.”

It has always been hard to find a negative word about Candy. The great Canadian comedian and actor not only radiated a warm, down-to-earth friendliness in movies like “Planes, Trains and Automobiles,” “Uncle Buck” and “The Great Outdoors,” he was that way off screen, too. As Mel Brooks says in the film, “He was a total actor because he was a total person.”

“John Candy: I Like Me,” directed by Colin Hanks and produced by Ryan Reynolds, is a tribute not just to Candy the actor, but Candy, the man. On Thursday night, it premieres as the opening night film of the Toronto International Film Festival. For a beloved Canadian icon like Candy, whose nickname was “Johnny Toronto,” the setting could hardly be more fitting. To reference Candy’s cameo in “The Blues Brothers,” it’s an occasion that calls for orange whips, all around.

“I can’t tell you the amount of meetings we had about when the movie can be made, and maybe we can do this festival or that,” Hanks says. “And I just kept thinking in the back of my mind: Well, this is a gigantic waste of time. It should just be at Toronto. Period. The End.”

Ryan Reynolds says his two-year-old helped convince Bill Murray to do John Candy doc

TORONTO - Ryan Reynolds says it was not easy to track down Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd for his documentary about the late Canadian comic John Candy. 

The “Deadpool” star is a producer on “John Candy: I Like Me,” which opens the Toronto International Film Festival and features a multitude of famous faces lauding the affable Candy for his onscreen prowess and off-screen kindness.

Among them are "Splash" star Tom Hanks, "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" co-star Steve Martin and "SCTV"'s Martin Short and Catherine O’Hara. 

Hours before the world premiere, Reynolds told a press conference that securing Murray and Aykroyd took the most effort, noting both are famously difficult to nail down for projects.

With ‘Mile End Kicks,’ Chandler Levack is out to prove she’s not a one-hit wonder

TORONTO - As a music journalist, Chandler Levack opined about the "sophomore slump" many bands face on their second album. Now, as a filmmaker, she understands why those words strike fear in many creators.

Shortly before her second feature, "Mile End Kicks," makes its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on Thursday, Levack admits she's a tad jittery. 

Her debut film "I Like Movies," was warmly received at the festival three years ago and she wonders if her new semi-autobiographical comedy will live up to expectations.

“It's like I made a cool indie album that broke through and got highly rated on Pitchfork … and now I’m back with a new album,” she says.

Prime Minister Mark Carney honours John Candy, takes swipe at Trump to open TIFF’s 50th edition

TORONTO - Prime Minister Mark Carney opened the 50th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival with a patriotic speech that celebrated Canadian culture — and included a subtle swipe at U.S. President Donald Trump.

Carney took the stage to a standing ovation ahead of the screening of opening-night film "John Candy: I Like Me," a documentary celebrating the late Canadian comedian.

He quipped he was there to “take credit” for the Trudeau government’s support of TIFF — including a $23-million investment last year in its upcoming content market — before stressing he's reaffirming those commitments.

TIFF is "a testament to part of what makes Canada unique," said Carney, who's been in Toronto this week for a Liberal cabinet retreat.

‘What does it stand for?’ TIFF at 50 is a cultural giant under heightened scrutiny

TORONTO - When the Toronto International Film Festival launched in 1976, Hollywood barely noticed. Fifty years later, it commands the world’s attention — sometimes reluctantly.

As TIFF celebrates its golden anniversary, it walks a tricky tightrope between global tastemaker, Canadian showcase, and public lightning rod.

Last month’s controversy over Barry Avrich’s “The Road Between Us” underscored that tension. The documentary, about a retired Israeli general who rescued his family during the Hamas attacks of Oct. 7, 2023, was pulled from the lineup over footage rights and security issues, sparking backlash from politicians, Jewish groups, and entertainment figures.

Days later, TIFF reinstated the film and promised clearer communication.

Angelina Jolie, Idris Elba, Ryan Reynolds among celebs expected in Toronto for TIFF

TORONTO - Selfie-seeking film buffs get ready: an influx of A-listers is expected to arrive in Toronto as one of the world's largest film festivals gets underway.

Celebrities including Angelina Jolie, Keanu Reeves, Ryan Reynolds, Natalie Portman and Idris Elba are set to attend the Toronto International Film Festival as it kicks off on Thursday.

The 11-day celebration of cinema will also see red carpet appearances by Matthew McConaughey, Sydney Sweeney, Daniel Craig, Paul Mescal, Kerry Washington and Dwayne Johnson.

Jolie will be in town to promote the film "Couture," set in the Parisian fashion industry, while Reeves is slated to appear in support of comic Aziz Ansari's star-studded comedy "Good Fortune."

'The Nest' strips the bones and ghosts from a childhood home in Winnipeg

The feature documentary The Nest now tells the surprising real history of 138 West Gate from someone with her own relationship to the address.

Graham Greene remembered as a ‘legend’ who brought nuance to characters

TORONTO - Graham Greene's friends and contemporaries are remembering the Canadian actor as a trailblazing talent with a wicked sense of humour.

The Oneida actor from Six Nations of the Grand River died Monday at age 73, following a decades-long career bringing nuance to Indigenous characters who were often flattened to fit Hollywood narratives.

Lily Gladstone called Greene a "legend" and says his impact is "unparalleled and expansive."

She says she never met him, but he made everything he was in better, funnier and deeper.

A Fonzie frenzy, a meltdown and a misprint: TIFF tales you won’t believe

TORONTO - At the Toronto International Film Festival, you never quite know what you’ll get: a tearful standing ovation, a chance encounter with a movie star in a dive bar or a bizarre screening mishap that becomes the stuff of legend. 

Filmmakers, programmers and industry insiders have seen it all — and ahead of the festival's 50th edition, they share their funniest, strangest and most nerve-racking stories from years on the circuit.

Piers Handling, former TIFF CEO

Moments before the 1995 premiere of acclaimed French filmmaker Claude Sautet’s drama “Nelly et M. Arnaud” at Roy Thompson Hall, Handling says he witnessed a side of the director unlike anything he had ever seen. 

Canadian actor Graham Greene, known for role in “Dances With Wolves,’ dies at 73

TORONTO - Oscar-nominated Canadian actor Graham Greene, who broke through with memorable roles across several genres at a time when the entertainment industry shunned Indigenous talent, has died at age 73.

Greene’s management team said he died on Monday in Stratford, Ont., after a long illness.

The actor, who was born in Ohsweken, Ont., and is from the Six Nations Reserve, starred in a steady stream of film, television and theatre projects from the late 1970s onward.

He earned an Oscar nomination for the supporting role of "Kicking Bird" in the 1990 film “Dances With Wolves," an American western co-starring and directed by Kevin Costner that won best picture.

A look back at 50 years of foibles, gaffes and triumphs at TIFF

TORONTO - The Toronto International Film Festival turns 50 this year, marking a half-century of triumphs, gaffes and a fair number of famous foibles. Here’s a look at the festival's evolution and the big events that helped shaped it. 

1976 — TIFF debuts as the Festival of Festivals, launched by the late Bill Marshall, late Dusty Cohl and Henk Van der Kolk to showcase the best films from festivals around the world. The fledgling affair is largely regarded as a local event and unspools in October, when organizers promise visitors a glorious late summer. It snows. They discuss the cost of renting snowblowers. Future fests move to September.

1978 — Publicity boss Helga Stephenson is punched in the shoulder as a mob tries to enter an overflowing screening for “In Praise of Older Women.” A dispute with censors over the film’s sexual content land programmers in the papers and secure the best publicity it could hope for. Rebel staffers sneak an uncut version onto the screen. Meanwhile, festival judge Robbie Robertson reportedly orders a hotel’s entire stash of Dom Pérignon within an hour of arriving.

1983 — An unassuming film called “The Big Chill” comes to TIFF with its photogenic cast of up-and-comers including Glenn Close and William Hurt, igniting audiences before going on to collect multiple Oscar nominations. The surprise hit puts TIFF on the map and sets the stage for future red carpet spectacles as Hollywood A-listers take note.