TORONTO — The Toronto International Film Festival ® is very pleased to announce that New German Cinema legend Margarethe von Trotta, Hungarian long-take, existential master Béla Tarr, and acclaimed South Korean director and novelist Lee Chang-dong, together make up the 2018 jury for the Festival’s Platform programme.
Now in its fourth year, Platform champions up to 12 works with high artistic merit that also demonstrate a strong directorial vision. The three-person jury will select the winner of the Toronto Platform Prize, an award of $25,000 CAD presented to the Best Film in the programme.
“We are privileged to have a Platform jury that so perfectly embodies the programme’s essence,” said Piers Handling, Director and CEO of TIFF. “Our 2018 jurors’ bold and daringly uncompromising artistic visions have not only influenced but helped mould the next generation of filmmakers. The wealth of experience, passion, and knowledge that they will bring to this year’s edition will be priceless, and exciting to watch this September.”
The 43rd Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 6 to 16, 2018. The lineup for this year’s Platform programme will be announced on August 7.
The platform is made possible through the generous sponsorship of Air France.
Margarethe von Trotta
Margarethe von Trotta is considered one of the leaders of the New German Cinema movement. After studying Germanic and Romance languages in Munich and Paris (where she encountered the Nouvelle Vague and the films of Ingmar Bergman), von Trotta pursued a career in acting, working closely with both Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Volker Schlöndorff. Starting with her first independent directorial effort, The Second Awakening of Christa Klages (1978), von Trotta’s filmography includes numerous critically acclaimed titles such as Marianne & Juliane (1981), which won the Golden Lion in Venice and became her first feature to ever screen at TIFF; Rosa Luxemburg (1986) and Love and Fear (1988), both of which were nominated for the Palme d’Or in Cannes; Rosenstraße (2003), which earned actor Katja Riemann the Coppa Volpi Award in Venice; and Hannah Arendt (2012), which won the German Film Award. Her first feature documentary, Searching for Ingmar Bergman (2018), is set to premiere at Cannes.
Margarethe von Trotta first attended TIFF (then the Festival of Festivals) in 1985, when three of her films were part of the 10 to Watch programme, which also included Andrei Tarkovsky, Chantal Akerman and Lino Brocka in its lineup
Béla Tarr
Béla Tarr first attended TIFF (then the Festival of Festivals) in 1988, when his feature Damnation screened at the Festival. He has since returned several times, including a visit for a spotlight on his work in 1995.
Lee Chang-dong
Lee Chang-dong first attended TIFF in 2007, when Secret Sunshine screened at the Festival.