Toronto Film Festival Screening Interrupted by Protesters

Protests have hit the Toronto International Film Festival for a second year running, although this year’s disruption has been markedly different. The prestigious film festival officially opened on Thursday night, kicking things off with the premiere of Ben Stiller’s big-screen return, Nutcrackers. The new movie marks Stiller’s first acting role in seven years, as he has spent the last few years focusing on directing.

While the movie itself seems to be a hit, the same couldn’t be said for the event. The screening of Nutcrackers was temporarily shut down by a group of protesters. In a video posted on X by New York Times reporter Kyle Buchanan, four individuals can be seen waving flashlights and holding signs to protest one of the TIFF’s major sponsors, RBC (Royal Bank of Canada). The campaigners can be heard chanting that RBC “funds genocide,” while waving signs that read “RBC Is Killing Our Future” and “RBC Off Screen.” The protests were in relation to RBC’s reported stakes in weapon manufacturers who are profiting off the ongoing conflict in Gaza. The disruption lasted for around seven minutes before they were led out by security. Following the disruption, the rest of the screening went on without a hitch.

This year’s protest at the Toronto International Film Festival was comparatively small compared to the one from 2023. The festival, which takes place every year at the start of September, was hampered by the then ongoing SAG-AFTRA strikes. For many productions, film festivals are key to drumming up interest in new movies. However, with the A-list stars all taking to the picket lines, the 2023 edition of TIFF had to find other means of promoting its slate of films without its biggest stars.

Nutcrackers Is a Triumphant Return for Ben Stiller

Once the disruption died down, the premiere screening of Nutcrackers, directed by David Gordon Green, was a remarkable success. The new movie has been described as a fish-out-of-water comedy, equipped with fart jokes and some surprising ballet dancing. Stiller stars as Uncle Mike, who is forced to take in his four nieces and nephews after the unexpected death of his sister and her husband. What sounds like a fairly dark concept for a movie is actually a feel-good, seasonal comedy, which is a surprising choice to kick-start a world-renowned film festival.

In the seven years that Stiller has been away from the screen, the actor has been perfecting his craft behind the camera, working on the acclaimed Apple TV+ series Severance, and the 2018 miniseries Escape at Dannemora. Of course, Stiller is no stranger to the director’s chair, having helmed some of his most popular movies, including the 2008 satire Tropic Thunder, and his scathing comedy about male models, Zoolander. Ben Stiller lends his A-list talent to Nutcrackers, but his co-stars have never acted before. The four children aren’t actors, and were part of a family that director David Gordon Green discovered while visiting a friend in Ohio.