The Floating Film Festival honoured actor Judd Hirsch, as he reflected on a career spanning sitcoms such as Taxi and Dear John to his recent roles in The Fabelmans and The Meyerowitz Stories.Supplied
Back before the North American film festival landscape became one gigantic year-long circuit, with programming that can be bloated and energy that sometimes values hype over discussion, critic Roger Ebert paid a visit to the Floating Film Festival. The festival, co-founded in 1991 by Toronto’s Dusty Cohl, who had previously co-founded TIFF, was established as part high-seas Caribbean adventure, part escape for serious cinephiles. Ebert took one look around and declared the biennial event to be the “most prestigious and least pretentious film festival in the world.”
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Today run by Canadian filmmaker Barry Avrich, the event enjoyed its 19th edition (or rather voyage) this past week, with the Spanish film Calle Malaga and the American documentary Everywhere Man: The Lives and Times of Peter Asher taking home the festival’s top honours.
Calle Malaga, a character drama directed by Moroccan performer Maryam Touzani in her Spanish-language directorial debut, arrived at the FFF following its world premiere at this past summer’s Venice Film Festival. Meanwhile, Everywhere Man, directed by Americans Dan Geller and Dayna Goldfine, arrived on the open seas after playing the Telluride Film Festival this past fall, with the film chronicling the British pop star’s six-decade career.
The FFF also honoured actor Judd Hirsch, with the Emmy- and Tony-winning performer aboard to discuss his storied career stretching the sitcoms Taxi and Dear John to his more recent work with Steven Spielberg (The Fabelmans) and Noah Baumbach (The Meyerowitz Stories). Previously, the festival has honoured such iconic figures as Gena Rowlands, Elliott Gould and Dick Cavett.
“It’s always amazing to gather a group of passionate cinephiles and have the luxury of debating each and every film after its screening,” said Avrich, whose most recent film, the documentary The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue, won the People’s Choice Documentary Award at this past September’s edition of TIFF. “Judd was also an absolute pleasure regaling us with stories of working with Spielberg, and of course filming Taxi, where he was shocked to get above-the-title billing.”