Connecting Communities + Cultures:The Vital Role of Libraries, Archives, and Museums in the Arts

Libraries, archives and museums are vital hubs of activity that collect, exhibit, and make available heritage materials, facilitate education and community-building, and function as keepers of public memory. This two-day symposium as part of TIFF’s Reel Heritage initiative offers professional development sessions for emerging librarians, archivists, and students looking to enter the field.

This event is supported by the Government of Canada and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. November 20 – November 21, 2017

UNESCO World Day for Audiovisual Heritage

To mark the UNESCO World Day for Audiovisual Heritage, an annual event which aims to raise awareness of the need for film preservation and the conservation of our audiovisual heritage, we are proud to present a free screening of this exquisite IB Technicolor print of Alfred Hitchcock’s classic thriller Rear Window on October 25. Find out more!

Reel Heritage: Giovanna Fossati on Exposing Film Heritage

On March 20, Giovanna Fossati, Chief Curator at EYE Filmmuseum and professor at the University of Amsterdam, joins us for a public lecture exploring findings from her recent books, Exposing the Film Apparatus and Fantasia of Color in Early Cinema. Following her talk, Fossati will screen a selection of silent shorts from the EYE's collection. This event is presented as part of TIFF’s Reel Heritage initiative.

Visit the Richard Kerr: Postindustrial exhibition in the CIBC Canadian Film Gallery

Visit the library and take in a free exhibition by Canadian filmmaker and artist Richard Kerr! Kerr transforms salvaged 35mm and 65mm film footage into lightboxes that emphasize the film medium as a sequence of images.

Announcing the addition of Allan King DVDs, made possible by Robert Goodwin

We are delighted to announce the Film Reference Library has recently purchased a collection of DVDs of the work of Canadian documentary filmmaker, Allan King. This acquisition was made possible by a financial donation from Robert Goodwin - a long time TIFF member and Allan King enthusiast. We are grateful for Robert's generosity, about which he said: "TIFF and especially the TIFF Bell Lightbox is the best thing that ever happened to Toronto, in my books. I'm delighted to be able to honour Alan King in my own small way‎."

Film Reference Library hosts Doors Open Toronto!

Join us May 28 + 29 for a behind-the-scenes tour of the Library, a centre for film scholarship that provides resources on all aspects of filmmaking to researchers, students, film makers and film lovers. Tours will begin on the fourth floor, and visitors will have the opportunity to view the 'In Love with the Stars' exhibit in the CIBC Canadian Film Gallery. Tours run daily from 10am-5pm, last tour at 4:30pm.

Find out more at Doors Open Toronto

Archives Awareness Week

It is "Archives Awareness Week" at Ontario Archives! Did you know you can browse the Film Reference Library special collections online? Check out our unique film-related archival materials by using our "Advanced Search" page, and selecting a collection from the "Special Collection" drop-down menu.

Myseum Toronto's "Intersections"

TIFF and the Film Reference Library are participating in Myseum Toronto's "Intersections": a festival highlighting heritage exhibits across the city of Toronto.

Visit the 4th floor of the TIFF Bell Lightbox to view the HOME Exhibition, and learn the stories of the people, communities, and organizations that have lived at King and John streets since Toronto’s emergence as a city. Find out more!

Festival runs until March 31st. HOME is a permanent exhibit.

Reel Heritage Event: Film Ephemera and Collections Management

Join Sylvia Frank, Director of the Film Reference Library; Barbara Miller, Curator at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York; and Steve Wilson, Curator of Film at the Harry Ransom Center in Austin, Texas for a panel exploring how moving-image related props and other ephemera are exhibited, and how exhibitions of this nature facilitate access to and the preservation of collections.

Check out the archived livestream of the panel + additional study resources online

Friday March 11, 11am–12:30pm EST

In Love with the Stars

Drawn from three archival collections in the Film Reference Library at TIFF Bell Lightbox, this exhibition presents a whimsical look at our obsession with celebrity and the creativity that this obsession inspires. Visitors can feast their eyes on decade-spanning fan art by celebrity scrapbooker Edith Nadajewski, rare snapshots from Hollywood amateur photographer Jack Pashkovsky — who captured celebrities in studio lots and at events during the 1930s and ’40s — and TIFF’s own photographic collection of Festival red carpets and parties from 1976 to the late ’90s.