As the Toronto International Film Festival turns 50, we’ve taken a year-by-year look at a half-century of TIFF highs and lows, beginning with its founding.
1976
Toronto business leaders Bill Marshall, Dusty Cohl and Henk Van der Kolk launch the Festival of Festivals.
1977
Frank Capra, 80, the director of “It’s a Wonderful Life,” and the subject of a retrospective, attends.
1978
Canadian drama “In Praise of Older Women” screens uncut, despite demands from the Ontario Censor Board to trim a sex scene.
1979
Filmmakers George A. Romero and Brian De Palma attend the festival program “The American Nightmare,” spotlighting classic horror movies.
1980
The James Coburn/Shirley MacLaine romantic comedy “Loving Couples” opens the festival — and is quickly forgotten.
1981
People’s Choice Award winner “Chariots of Fire” is the first to also win the Oscar for best picture.
1982
Critics Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel host a celebration for Martin Scorsese, attended by Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel.
1983
The festival welcomes the starry cast of “The Big Chill,” which goes on to win the People’s Choice Award and becomes a hit in wide release.
1984
Warren Beatty, the subject of a special tribute, attends, as does his friend Jack Nicholson.
1985
The festival screens free movies in city parks, including “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and “Bugsy Malone.”
1986
Montreal director Bashar Shbib does a striptease at a screening of his film “Evixion.”
1987
Rob Reiner’s “The Princess Bride” wins the audience award and goes on to achieve cult status.
1988
The Midnight Madness program screens such wild features as “The Decline of Western Civilization Part II: The Metal Years” and “Brain Damage.”
1989
Gala presentations include the future classics “Drugstore Cowboy,” “My Left Foot” and “Cinema Paradiso.”
1990
“The Lord of the Rings” director Peter Jackson’s second feature, “Meet the Feebles,” a raunchy parody of the Muppets, screens at Midnight Madness.
1991
Upon winning the prize for best Canadian feature film for “The Adjuster,” Atom Egoyan gives the $25,000 cheque to runner-up John Pozer — earning a standing ovation.
1992
Quentin Tarantino brings his debut feature, “Reservoir Dogs,” to the festival along with stars Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Michael Madsen and Steve Buscemi.
1993
Alanis Obomsawin’s documentary “Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance” wins the best Canadian feature prize.
1994
As a sign of its growing global importance, the Festival of Festivals officially changes its name to the Toronto International Film Festival.
1995
Bell becomes the chief sponsor, a partnership that will last nearly 30 years.
1996
Celebrated French auteur Jean-Luc Godard attends the festival. Among his demands: a private tennis pro.
1997
“The Sweet Hereafter,” directed by Atom Egoyan and starring Sarah Polley, opens the festival and goes on to be nominated for two Academy Awards.
1998
People’s Choice Award winner “Life Is Beautiful” later nabs three of the seven Oscars for which it’s nominated.
1999
A special program devoted to new Spanish cinema features the work of Álex de la Iglesia and Icíar Bollain among others.
2000
Ang Lee’s “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” wins the People’s Choice Award, before becoming a worldwide box-office smash and winning four Oscars.
2001
The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 lead to the cancellation of dozens of screenings and leave attendees stranded in town.
2002
Gaspar Noé’s shockingly violent “Irreversible,” and Larry Clark and Ed Lachman’s sexually explicit teen drama “Ken Park” test audiences’ constitutions.
2003
Despite the SARS outbreak in Toronto, the festival goes on as scheduled.
2004
A protest erupts over the documentary “Casuistry: The Art of Killing a Cat,” which describes (but doesn’t show) the fatal torturing of a cat on video by three self-proclaimed artists.
2005
At a press conference for “A History of Violence,” an intense Ed Harris pounds the table three times and throws a glass of water against the wall behind him.
2006
Sacha Baron Cohen appears at a screening of “Borat” in a cart pulled by fake babushka-wearing peasant women.
2007
The Future Projections program debuts, featuring nine nontheatrical installations.
2008
At a press conference for “Fifty Dead Men Walking,” Rose McGowan ignites controversy by saying that if she’d grown up in Belfast during the Troubles, she would have been in the IRA.
2009
Protesters decry TIFF’s decision to highlight films from Tel Aviv as an attempt to rebrand Israel after the 2008-2009 Gaza War, which the festival denies.
2010
Fans pay scalpers up to $300 to see Edward Norton interview Bruce Springsteen for “The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town.”
2011
Madonna attends with her second directorial effort, the historical royal romance “W.E.”
2012
Kristen Stewart, Kristen Wiig, Kirsten Dunst and Kristin Scott Thomas all attend.
2013
Daniel Radcliffe appears partially nude in all three of his TIFF films: “Horns,” “Kill Your Darlings” and “The F Word.”
2014
The first Friday is dubbed “Bill Murray Day,” as the festival offers free screenings of the comic actor’s films.
2015
The classic Alfred Hitchcock thriller “Vertigo” screens at Roy Thomson Hall accompanied by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.
2016
Amid controversy surrounding actor-filmmaker Nate Parker, who had been acquitted of rape as a college student, TIFF screens his slavery drama, “The Birth of a Nation.”
2017
At a screening of “Caniba,” a French documentary about a Japanese cannibal, an audience member requires medical attention.
2018
Piers Handling leaves as CEO after more than three decades with the festival.
2019
Women directors account for nine gala presentations, a result of TIFF’s push for more gender representation.
2020
In response to the COVID pandemic, the festival launches a digital TIFF Lightbox to stream films online.
2021
After a 25-year-career with TIFF, Cameron Bailey is named chief executive officer.
2022
TIFF cancels screenings of the drama “Sparta,” after the production is alleged to have exploited children.
2023
Despite Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA strikes and an absence of star power, the show goes on.
2024
After Bell steps aside, Rogers becomes TIFF’s new presenting sponsor.
