Students at Western University are experiencing what it takes to be a film critic at one of the largest film festivals in the world in Toronto this week.

Twenty students from the PhD program in media studies at Western University are being transported to the Toronto International Film Festival to watch and critique two films daily from Wednesday to Saturday.

Nataliya Hunter Young, the assistant professor in the media studies program at London University who is leading the project, said students are expected to see beyond the glitz and glamour of star-studded red carpet events and engage with complex and innovative writings through their critiques.

Hunter Young said, "The real goal was to encourage them to have this experience, to learn that this festival space is open to them too, and that they can play a role in this world."

The main source of inspiration for bringing the students to the festival came from her hope of seeing future critics engage with films in a more creative way due to the lack of formal training.

Sean Cheetham, a graduate student assisting in coordinating the critics lab at the film festival, said most of the films the students will review are from relatively unknown independent filmmakers from around the world, showcasing diverse stories for students to focus on.

Cheetham added, "Watching with an enthusiastic and truly engaged crowd is a different experience for them, and they will have access to things they usually wouldn't have the chance to see."

They also get a behind-the-scenes look at how films get a spot in the festival and are picked up by distributors thanks to Hunter Young.

Cheetham said, "The film festival world is a tightly closed-off world for filmmakers. Many of us want to know how to get our films into big places like the Toronto International Festival, and it has been really great to have this process unpacked."

He added that the ongoing strike of actors and writers in Hollywood will also be addressed to highlight the connections between producers, financiers, and the workers on set and what the cascading effects could mean for students' futures in the industry.

It’s a dream come true for Santasil Maliq, an international student from India and a second-year PhD student in the program, who confirmed that it gives him the opportunity to share his love of films with people outside of academia by allowing him to write in an accessible way.

Maliq said, "Accessing such a large festival connected on a global scale, attending screenings, and learning about the film industry up close is huge for me."

Billy Anderson, a fourth-year student in the program, is looking forward to seeing films that may never be commercially screened again in Canada, and she is excited to see how her classmates' diverse backgrounds and experiences will influence their critiques, saying, "We will all be going to the same films, so I think it will be really great to see all the ratings at the end of this."

Cheetham stated that most of the films the students are set to watch are from largely unknown foreign directors in Canada, except for cinema enthusiasts and festival-goers.

While there are many Canadian films being showcased, the west did not select any of them because they did not fit their schedule.
He added, "It's just a fact that the Toronto International Festival has a lot of films from international directors, which makes us enjoy seeing things like this."