TSFF History
The Toronto Student Film festival is the brainchild of a group of dedicated volunteers with a passion for celebrating youth achievement in film making. The TSFF Founding Committee was made up of three Crescent School students – Zack Russell, Gordon Steiner, and David Whyte --- along with Crescent’s Head of Visual & Media Arts, Jamie MacRae and entertainment executive Pat Macdonald.
In the late Fall of 2005, these three Grade 12 students from Toronto, Ontario approached their teacher, Jamie MacRae, with the brilliant idea to create a new STUDENT film festival designed specifically as a way for high school youth to showcase their artistic film-making. Mr. MacRae was easily convinced of the festival’s worthiness, especially since film & media arts studies have become one of the fastest growing areas of interest for high school students. But he recognized that additional resources would be needed to maximize the potential of the festival, so he recruited entertainment executive Pat Macdonald to produce the festival. Pat joined the founding team and used her experience and organizational skills to help make the inaugural festival in April, 2006 a reality.
This group then enlisted the support of Colin Lowndes, Head of Crescent’s Upper (High) School. He quickly came on board and offered the festival a home--- Crescent’s new Centre for Creative Arts, featuring a state-of-the-art 350 seat theatre. The festival was on its way to meeting the goal of providing an opportunity for high school students to screen the media works and short films they created within their various media studies courses and student film clubs.
The Founding Committee worked tirelessly for months to put together the framework for the very first festival. They crafted submission guidelines, festival rules and procedures, created a web site, enlisted a stellar panel of judges, obtained numerous sponsorships, created the festival program content and TSFF “Top 25 Showcase,” secured prizes and designed memorable awards for the top winners.
They also secured the support of numerous other students to make the event a night to remember. Of particular note are students Evan Reiter, the festival’s lighting technician (with guidance from teacher Allan Moore), Scott Macgregor, sound technician, and Jonathan Lai, who helped design the festival’s original web site. The committee also set out to encourage film submissions (which were free), promote the festival to the general public, and sell tickets … all within the confines of a very limited budget.
The inaugural TORONTO STUDENT FILM FESTIVAL was held on April 6 and 7, 2006 to sell-out crowds. Tickets were only $5 each, with two day Festival Passes only $8. Mistress of Ceremonies for both evenings was actress Meredith Henderson. Former star of the hit youth series, “The Adventures of Shirley Holmes,” Meredith also played Shania twain in the 2005 TV movie about Shania’s life.
The first night featured a “Top 25 Nominee Showcase” of films from a wide range of genres, including animation, documentary and mock-u-mentary, drama and comedy. There was also a special screening of the dark comedy about growing up, “choke,” programmer’s pick at the Palms Springs International Film Festival, and a special presentation by CitizenShift, a National Film Board of Canada web site initiative dedicated to citizen engagement and social change.
The program for the second night, April 7, featured the actual awards for achievement in overall film production (1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes), editing, direction, and screenplay. In addition, there were special screenings of a number of relevant films, including “Pretty Dresses,” a brief docu-drama created by young Acholi youths living in the slums of Kampala, which tells the story of the devastating Ugandan war and “The Forgotten Ones,” a 45 minute sci-fi thriller and unique collaboration: scripted by students at Montreal’s Summit School for children with emotional and intellectual disabilities and professionally shot and edited by Quietus Films.
In 2007, the Festival was expanded and three new award categories were added: the People’s Choice Award, which was awarded by audience voting, the CitizenShift Film with Impact Award, given to a filmmaker who told a compelling story of social importance to today’s society, and the Founder’s Award, given as special recognition by the festival founders. Due to the exceptional quality of film submissions by students not yet in secondary (high) school, the festival also awarded a Youth Achievement Award to a young filmmaker.
In 2009 it was decided to allow any student 21 years of age or younger to enter, regardless if they were in High School or not.
2010 sees a new group of students who are inspired by the aims of the Festival and they are the new body if the TSFF Student Council. They have launched the iniative of using the social networking systems of their demographics, to spread the news of the Festival around the wolrd with the intention of attracting more youth to use their voice to tell their stories. We look forward to an exciting year ahead!
