For most people, movies about food start and end with titles like Ratatouille and Chef. This is where the Toronto Food Film Fest comes in — to broaden the audience's horizons.
The festival is dedicated to supporting and showcasing thought-provoking independent films centered around food from around the globe. It will take place from Oct. 14 until Oct. 17 at various locations around the city. Passes for the fest are available here.
Toronto Food Film Festival in its essence is a celebration of independent filmmaking, food as well as culture. The 2022 iteration will feature 26 films from local and international artists and will be a mix of shorts, features, documentaries and scripted.
"Bringing people together through food and film has always been a goal of TFFF and this year we seem to have a common theme of bringing food and family together," Jacqueline Tam, co-founder of the festival, said in a press release. "I am equally thrilled that our local independent film market will be showcased this year."
As for the food and drink aspect, patrons will get to enjoy a "screen to plate" experience with carefully curated snacks from local restaurants and vendors. On top of that, there will also be food demos, tastings and dinners!
A large part of our culture and identity is made up of the kind of food we eat and the traditions surrounding it. Think about what your house smelled like on Sunday afternoons when the entire family got together to eat. Or maybe the first full meal you cooked with your own two hands and the feeling you got when it actually turned out to be a successful endeavour. Even when we travel, a lot of our itinerary is based around the kind of food we want to try in the new place.
There are several memories in each person's life that are based solely around food; and those are the kinds of moments, good or bad, that are being celebrated during the Toronto Food Film Festival.
The festival is divided into three segments: watch, learn and eat. The watching part encompasses all the films that are going to be on display over the weekend. Some of the titles being screened involve features like "Kampai! Sake Sisters," "Master of Cheese" and "The Chocolate War"; and shorts like "Let's Eat," "Tanagokaro: A Culinary Portrait" and "Banquet on the Beagle."
Learning provides patrons with tastings, talks and live demos, specially curated for the audience's entertainment and education. These include a guide to Singaporean coffee, a discourse on the Jamaican beef patty culture in Toronto and even a cake-decorating demonstration.
The "eat" part involves all the food that will be paired with specific movies to create a more enriching environment. Beyond that, there will also be other local food vendors and restaurants selling their products throughout the festival.
Through its careful selection of movies as well as the curated food pairings to go along, it's safe to say that the Toronto Food Film Festival is going a long way in supporting the celebration of independent filmmaking and food.
The Toronto Film Festival will take place from Oct. 14 to Oct. 17 around the city of Toronto. The full programming schedule can be found here.
