Toronto Arts in pre-view

After pop culture’s crowded year in 2013, Toronto and the world are set to once again thrive in the entertainment department the coming months.
Students of all interests have something to look forward to, whether it’s blockbuster movies for film buffs or small-time plays for theatre lovers. Here’s a brief look at some of 2014’s more foreseeable entertainment highlights.
Film
The most notable, billion-dollar blockbusters coming to theatres this year are the mutant ensemble X-Men: Days of Future Past, Christopher Nolan’s wormhole drama Interstellar, fantasy finale The Hobbit: There and Back Again, the American Godzilla reboot, and the beginning of the end for Katniss Everdeen, in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1.
More critically respectable upcoming movies, which could hope for Oscar glory come 2015, include David Fincher’s Gone Girl, Paul Thomas Anderson’s Inherent Vice, Angelina Jolie’s Unbroken (written by the Coen brothers), Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel, Terrence Malick’s Knight of Cups, and Ridley Scott’s The Ten Commandments remake Exodus, which stars Batman as Moses and Jesse Pinkman as Joshua.
The 86th Academy Awards will be presented on March 29th, hosted by Ellen DeGeneres. It’s a perfect opportunity for people to complain that only old, white men vote, because how else could Man of Steel be ignored? Gravity is expected to sweep the technical statuettes, with 12 Years a Slave landing Best Picture.
Meanwhile, the TIFF Bell Lightbox will present a special Stanley Kubrick exhibition in the fall.
Music
Toronto’s currently scheduled mega-venue concerts include the likes of Jay-Z, Elton John, Justin Timberlake, Sting & Paul Simon, Imagine Dragons, Cher, Lady Gaga, and Arcade Fire at the Air Canada Centre.
Those looking for Converse-kicking fun can try the Vans Warped Tour at the Molson Amphitheatre on July 4.
Up-and-coming hitmaker Lorde will play at the relatively small Sound Academy on March 15.
Toronto’s indie-jazzy-hipster get-together, the North by Northeast Festival (NXNE), will play host to ghost-girl St. Vincent and falsetto duo Rhye, among others. Expect more announcements soon for the June concerts.
Canadian Music Week (CMW) is in May. Dozens of little-known Northern bands will hope to make their big break over four days across multiple venues.
This February, Brrr! Winter Music Festival summons Torontonians to the snowy outdoors for an aural-visual experience, throbbing with digital dance pop.
The Digital Dreams Festival, which will be held at the Toronto waterfront in late June, has become the city’s biggest early summer party, blasting synthy electronica over Lake Ontario and providing Canada Day with a sonic firework of a kickoff.
Visual Art
Toronto’s leading art exhibition, the Toronto International Art Fair, is this October. The fair has gained a significant reputation over the last decade for drawing art-lovers and collectors and building Canadian careers.
The Untapped Emerging Artists Competition is a completely free way to have your art (any medium and background accepted) compete in a juried contest. Though admissions were last fall, the winning pieces will be exhibited February 20-23.
Marketed as the city’s “foremost contemporary art festival,” the Toronto Art Expo is an international event, showcasing a couple of hundred works from prominent artists. The 2014 expo will be held April 10-13 at the Metro Toronto Convention Center.
Theatre
Major Toronto musicals opening in 2014 include: Disney’s The Lion King, The Book of Mormon, and Chicago at the Princess of Wales Theatre.
Green Day: American Idiot will play at the Royal Alexandra Theatre.
Queen-based opera We Will Rock You is scheduled at Ed Mirvish Theatre.
The next Toronto Fringe Festival goes from January 8 to 19. A defining event in Toronto’s arts culture, the festival gives little-known, indie plays a shot at success. Past Fringe Festivals have brought Broadway-level success to no-name playwrights.
The Factory Theatre and Tarragon Theatre, low-key but highly-respected Toronto theatres, have announced their lineups for early 2014. Both playhouses are Canada-centric, and have long provided go-to spots for theatre lovers both casual and obsessive.
Check out The Carousel, directed by Canadian darling Megan Follows, presented at the Nightwood Theatre this March. The play, a sequel to The List, is poised to be an early highlight of the year.