Cinema Studies Institute celebrates its 50th anniversary

El desencanto (The Disenchantment) is a 1976 Spanish documentary film and cult classic written and directed by Jaime Chávarri about the family of famous poet Leopoldo Panero. 

Diana Sanchez has over 25 years experience in the International and Canadian film industry. She most recently served as TIFF's Senior Director of Film where she oversaw the organization's Festival and Cinematheque programming strategy, after collaborating at TIFF as a programmer for over 17 years. In 2011, Diana was founding artistic director of IFF Panama (the International Panama Film Festival) where she worked hand in hand with the executive director to create a launching pad for films from Central America and the Caribbean as well as foster the wider film industry through innovative programming initiatives and the creation of new films funds. Diana has held programming and industry roles at several film festivals and organizations, including the Spanish Film Archive, the Rotterdam Film Festival, Miami Film Festival, Los Angeles Latino Film Festival (LALIFF) as well as director of programming for Houston Latin Wave in Collaboration with the Musuem of Fine Arts, Houston. She has participated on several film festival and national film fund juries both in Canada and abroad. Diana is currently consulting for several state and private film agencies while teaching at the University of Toronto from where she holds a Master's Degree in Cinema Studies.

Moderator, Angelica Fenner is an Associate Professor at the Cinema Studies Institute and the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures. 

Chandler Levack grew up in Burlington, Ontario and lives in Toronto, where she studied cinema at the University of Toronto and screenwriting at the Canadian Film Centre. She has directed numerous music videos, earning two JUNO nominations, and was a veteran music writer and a current film critic for the Globe & Mail. In 2017, her short film We Forgot to Break Up premiered at TIFF and went on to play SXSW. In 2022, her debut feature film I Like Movies premiered at TIFF, was selected for Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival and won prizes around the world. She is currently working on her second feature Anglophone, a casual hang out movie full of ill-advised sex, drugs and rock n' roll in the Montreal music scene circa 2011, with Zapruder Films and Banner House Productions.

She completed a Specialist in Cinema Studies in 2011, and is the 2024 Universal Screenwriter in Residence.

Radheyan Simonpillai is the Film Critic for CTV's national breakfast show Your Morning, the Pop Culture Columnist for CBC Syndicated Radio and a freelance contributor to CBC Arts, The Globe and Mail, The Guardian, eTalk on CTV, Zoomer and more. Rad is formerly the editor of NOW Magazine. He is a member of the Critics Choice Association and the Toronto Film Critics Association.

Rad was a member of the first CSI Master of Arts cohort in 2007.  

Moderator, Nicholas Sammond is a Professor at the Cinema Studies Institute and the Centre for the Study of the United States. 

The Harder They Come is a 1972 Jamaican crime film directed by Perry Henzell and co-written by Trevor D. Rhone, and starring Jimmy Cliff. Enormously successful in Jamaica, the film also reached the international market and has been described as "possibly the most influential of Jamaican films and one of the most important films from the Caribbean".

Zalika Reid-Benta is a Canadian writer. Her debut novel River Mumma has been listed as one of the best fiction books of 2023 on numerous platforms, including CBC Books, Indigo Books, Kobo Books and The Walrus.

Reid-Benta’s debut short story collection Frying Plantain was longlisted for the 2020 Scotiabank Giller Prize, and it was shortlisted for the 2020 Toronto Book Award, the 2020 Trillium  Book Award, the 2021 White Pine Award and the 2020 Evergreen Award.

Her picture book, Twelve Days of Jamaican Christmas, will be published in 2025.

Zalika completed a Major in Cinema Studies in 2012. 

Moderator, Kass Banning is an Associate Professor, Teaching Stream with the Cinema Studies Institute. 

Seven Veils is a 2023 Canadian drama film written and directed by Atom Egoyan. The film stars Amanda Seyfried as Jeanine, a theatre director who is dealing with repressed trauma as she prepares to mount a production of the opera Salome. 

Atom Egoyan is a Canadian filmmaker.Emerging in the 1980s as part of the Toronto New Wave, he made his career breakthrough with Exotica (1994), and received two Academy Award nominations for The Sweet Hereafter (1997).

Atom graduated from the University of Toronto in 1982. 

Jesse Wente is a husband and father, as well as a writer, broadcaster, speaker and arts administrator. Born and raised in Toronto, Jesse's family comes from Chicago and Genaabaajing Anishinaabek and he is a member of the Serpent River First Nation.

Jesse is best known for more than two decades spent as a columnist for CBC Radio’s Metro Morning, first as a film critic and then as a culture critic. He was a regular columnist on Q, Unreserved and more than 20 local CBC stations. He has appeared as a guest on numerous television shows as well as the documentaries Reel Injun, Why Horror? and Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror.

Jesse completed a Specialist in Cinema Studies at the University of Toronto in 1996. 

Adam Nayman is a contributing editor for Cinema Scope and writes on film for The Ringer, Sight and Sound, Reverse Shot, and Little White Lies. He has written books on the Coen Brothers, Showgirls and the films of Ben Wheatley, and lectures on cinema and journalism at the University of Toronto and Ryerson University. 

Adam completed an MA at the Cinema Studies Institute in 2009 and completed a Major in Cinema Studies 2005. 

Moderator, Bart Testa is Associate Professor, Teaching Stream, Emeritus at the Cinema Studies Institute. 

A night devoted to the history of the Cinema Studies Institute. Former directors share their thoughts on the experience of leading the Institute. 

• James Cahill
• Corinn Columpar
• Peter Fitting
• Charlie Keil
• Joe Medjuck
• Alberto Zambenedetti

Magali Simard is the Director of Industry Relations at Cinespace Studios, Toronto's largest production facilty. She is the former Film Sector Development Program Manager for the City of Toronto where she led economic and creative development activities to amplify the international competitiveness of the City’s $2.5B Screen sector. Prior to joining the City, Magali was a lead curator and the senior manager of theatrical programming at the Toronto International Film Festival. 

Magali graduated as a Cinema Studies Specialist in 2006.