By John H. Foote

As the announcements for films screening at TIFF this year continue, the busy staff in this first year without Piers Handling have broken through with some new events tied to the past.

Back in the seventies and eighties, the programmers of The Festival Of Festivals organized career tributes to such major talents as Robert Duvall and Warren Beatty. In the majestic University Theatre, these tributes were carried out, as scenes from their films were shown along with stories from family and friends. Somewhere along the way, this idea was dropped only to return this year.

Meryl Streep and Joaquin Phoenix will be honoured with Gala Tributes at the Royal Fairmount during the festival. Each has a film here, Streep in The Laundromat, while Phoenix is here in Joker.

Both actors have been formidable talents through their impressive careers.

Streep has been nominated for the Academy Award an extraordinary twenty-one times, winning three times. She is widely believed to be the greatest actor in the history of the cinema.

Phoenix has been nominated three times, his greatest work being in The Master (2012) an acclaimed performance that remains the most daring work by an actor I have seen in the last fifteen years.

The events will be fundraisers for TIFF and will take place during this year’s festival.

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