title: Joachim Murat

text: Murat married Caroline Bonaparte, with whom he shared the same birthday, in a civil ceremony on 20 January 1800 at Mortefontaine and in a religious ceremony on 4 January 1802 in Paris, thus becoming a son-in-law of Letizia Ramolino as well as brother-in-law to Napoleon Bonaparte, Joseph Bonaparte, Lucien Bonaparte, Elisa Bonaparte, Louis Bonaparte, Pauline Bonaparte and Jérôme Bonaparte.


title: Joachim Murat

text: Napoleon made Murat a Marshal of the Empire on 18 May 1804, and granted him the title of "First Horseman of Europe". He was made Prince of the Empire and Admiral of the Empire in 1805, despite having very little knowledge about naval warfare. He fought in various battles, during 1805-1807, including Ulm, Austerlitz, Jena and Eylau, where he led a famous cavalry charge against the Russians.


title: Joachim Murat

text: After several territorial concessions made by Prussia, the Grand Duchy of Berg was set up, he was appointed Grand Duke of Berg and Duke of Cleves on 15 March 1806, and held this title until 1 August 1808, when he was named King of Naples. Murat was in charge of the French Army in Madrid when the popular Dos de Mayo Uprising that started the Peninsular War broke out.


title: Joachim Murat

text: Murat proved to be equally useful in the Russian campaign of 1812, where he distinguished himself as the best cavalry commander of the Grande Armee at battles such as Smolensk and Borodino.


title: Joachim Murat

text: Although he was a great horseman, Murat showed a total lack of concern for the well-being of the horses. Napoleon had created the greatest forage problem known in military history by putting together a cavalry of 40,000 men and horses. The long marches and the lack of rest meant that the horses suffered from hunger, bad fodder, saddle sores and exhaustion, but these factors were aggravated by Murat himself. He also failed to forge caulkin shoes for the horses to enable them in the retreat to traverse roads that had become iced over. The Polish cavalry and Caulaincourt knew this and acted accordingly.


title: Joachim Murat

text: He continued to serve Napoleon during the German Campaign of 1813. Following Napoleon's defeat at the Battle of Leipzig, Murat reached a secret agreement with the Allies in order to save his own throne and switched sides to the Coalition.


title: Joachim Murat

text: In March 1815, he declared war on Austria in the proclamation to Italian patriots in Rimini, moved north to fight against the Austrians in the Neapolitan War in order to strengthen his rule in Italy by military means. He was defeated by Austrian general Frederick Bianchi at the Battle of Tolentino (2–3 May 1815).


title: Joachim Murat

text: Murat fled to Corsica and then to Pizzo. Soon he was captured by forces of King Ferdinand IV of Naples. He was tried for treason and sentenced to death by firing squad.


title: Joachim Murat

text: Murat had a brother named Pierre (La Bastide-Fortunière, 27 November 1748 – La Bastide-Fortunière, 8 October 1792), who married at La Bastide-Fortunière on 26 February 1783 Louise d'Astorg (La Bastide-Fortunière, 23 October 1762 – 31 May 1832), daughter of Aymeric d'Astorg, born in 1721, and wife Marie Alanyou, paternal granddaughter of Antoine d'Astorg, born 18 November 1676, and wife Marie de Mary (4 May 1686 – 7 October 1727) and maternal granddaughter of Jean Alanyou and wife Louise de Valon.


title: Joachim Murat

text: Pierre and Louise were the parents of Marie Louise, Pierre Adrien (d. 1805), Marie Radegonde (d. 1800), Thomas Joachim and Marie Antoinette Murat, whom Emperor Napoleon I arranged to marry Charles, Prince of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen; Karl III and Marie were the parents of Charles Anthony, Prince of Hohenzollern from whom descended Stephanie of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen Queen of Portugal; her brother Carol I of Romania and her nephew Albert I of Belgium.


title: Order of Australia

text: The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Government. Before the establishment of the order, Australian citizens received British honours.


title: Order of Australia

text: The Monarch of Australia is sovereign head of the order, while the Governor-General of Australia is the principal companion/dame/knight (as relevant at the time) and chancellor of the order. The governor-general's official secretary, Paul Singer (appointed August 2018), is secretary of the order. Appointments are made by the governor-general on behalf of the Monarch of Australia, based on recommendations made by the Council of the Order of Australia. Recent knighthoods and damehoods were recommended to the governor-general by the Prime Minister of Australia.


title: Order of Australia

text: The order is divided into a general and a military division. The five levels of appointment to the order in descending order of seniority have been:


title: Order of Australia

text: Honorary awards at all levels may be made to deserving non-citizens – these awards are made additional to the quotas.


title: Order of Australia

text: The "badge" of the Order of Australia is a convex disc (gold for AKs, ADs and ACs, gilt for AOs, AMs and OAMs) representing the Golden Wattle flower. At the centre is a ring, representing the sea, with the word 'Australia' below two branches of golden wattle. The whole disc is topped by the Crown of St Edward. The AC badge is decorated with citrines, blue enamelled ring, and enamelled crown. The AO badge is similar, without the citrines. For the AM badge, only the crown is enamelled, and the OAM badge is plain. The AK/AD badge is similar to that of the AC badge, but with the difference that it contains at the centre an enamelled disc bearing an image of the coat of arms of Australia.


title: Order of Australia

text: The "star" for knights and dames is a convex golden disc decorated with citrines, with a blue royally crowned inner disc bearing an image of the coat of arms of Australia.


title: Order of Australia

text: The "ribbon" of the order is blue with a central stripe of golden wattle flower designs; that of the military division has additional golden edge stripes. AKs, male ACs and AOs wear their badges on a necklet; male AMs and OAMs wear them on a ribbon on the left chest. Women usually wear their badges on a bow on the left shoulder, although they may wear the same insignia as males if so desired.


title: Order of Australia

text: A gold lapel pin for daily wear is issued with each badge of the order at the time of investiture; AK/AD and AC lapel pins feature a citrine central jewel, AO and AM lapel pins have a blue enamelled centre and OAM lapel pins are plain.


title: Order of Australia

text: The order currently consists of four levels (one discontinued) and the medal, in both "general" and "military" divisions. Since 2015, the knight/dame level has been discontinued on the advice of then prime minister Malcolm Turnbull. Awards of knight and dame of the order have been made in the general division only.


title: Order of Australia

text: While state governors can present the officer and member level and the Medal of the Order of Australia to their respective state's residents, only the King of Australia or the governor-general can present the companion level (and previously also the knight/dame level).


title: Order of Australia

text: There was a quota of four per year, excluding honorary appointments. Knighthoods and damehoods were conferred from 1976 to 1983, and from 2014 to 2015, but are not currently awarded.


title: Order of Australia

text: Prior to 2003, the quota was 100 Officers appointed in any calendar year. This was increased to 125 in 2003 and increased again in 2016 to 140.


title: Order of Australia

text: Prior to 2003, the quota was 225 Members appointed in any calendar year. This was increased to 300 in 2003, to 340 in 2016, and to 365 in 2018.


title: Order of Australia

text: Since 1976 any Australian citizen may nominate any person for an Order of Australia award. People who are not Australian citizens may be awarded honorary membership of the order at all levels. Nomination forms are submitted to the Director, Honours Secretariat, a position within the Office of the Official Secretary to the Governor-General of Australia, at Government House, Canberra, which are then forwarded to the Council for the Order of Australia. The prime minister of the day appoints the Council chair and seven “community representatives”, while each state and territory appoints its representative and there are other "ex officio" members. The Council chair as at January 2021 was former Country Liberal Party Chief Minister of the Northern Territory Shane Stone.


title: Order of Australia

text: The Council makes recommendations to the governor-general. Awards are announced on Australia Day and on the King's Birthday public holiday in June, on the occasion of a special announcement by the governor-general (usually honorary awards), and on the appointment of a new governor-general. The governor-general presents the order's insignia to new appointees.


title: Order of Australia

text: Appointments to the order are not made posthumously; however, if a nominee dies after accepting an appointment but before the relevant announcement date, the appointment stands and it is announced as having effect from no later than the date of the nominee's death. Awardees may subsequently resign from the order, and the Council may advise the governor-general to remove an individual from the order, who may cancel an award.


title: Order of Australia

text: Announcements of all awards, cancellations and resignations appear in the "Commonwealth Gazette". People awarded honours have the option of not having the information appear on the "It's an Honour" website. Nomination forms are confidential and not covered by the "Freedom of Information Act 1982" (Cth). The reasoning behind a nomination being successful or unsuccessful—and even the attendees of the meetings where such nominations are discussed—remain confidential.


title: Order of Australia

text: The Order of Australia was established on 14 February 1975 by letters patent of Queen Elizabeth II of Australia, the Australian monarch, and countersigned by the Prime Minister of Australia, Gough Whitlam. The original order had three levels: Companion (AC), Officer (AO) and Member (AM) as well as two divisions: Civil Division and Military Division. At the time it was also announced that Australian prime ministers would no longer nominate persons for British Imperial honours, but this new practice did not extend to nominations by state premiers.


title: Order of Australia

text: On 24 May 1976, the level of Knight (AK) and Dame (AD) and the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM), were created by the Queen on the advice of Whitlam's successor, Malcolm Fraser, and the Civil Division was renamed the General Division. The level of Knight/Dame was awarded only in the General Division.


title: Order of Australia

text: The original three-level structure of the Order of Australia was modelled closely upon the Order of Canada, though the Order of Australia has been awarded rather more liberally, especially in regard to honorary awards to non-citizens. To date, only 24 non-Canadians have been appointed to the Order of Canada, while more than 420 non-Australians have been appointed to the Order of Australia, with 40 to the "Companion" level.


title: Order of Australia

text: Following the 1983 federal election, Prime Minister Bob Hawke advised the abolition of the knight/dame level. On 3 March 1986, the Queen co-signed letters patent revoking the level, with existing knights and dames not being affected by the change. In the period 1976–1983, twelve knights and two dames were created.


title: Order of Australia

text: On 19 March 2014, Prime Minister Tony Abbott advised the Queen to reinstate the level of knight/dame and the Queen co-signed letters patent to bring this into effect. The change was publicly announced on 25 March, and gazetted on 17 April 2014. Up to four knights and/or dames could be appointed each year, by the Queen of Australia on the advice of the Prime Minister of Australia after consultation with the Chairman of the Order of Australia Council.


title: Order of Australia

text: Five awards of knight and dame were then made, to the outgoing Governor-General, Quentin Bryce; her successor, Peter Cosgrove; a recent Chief of the Defence Force, Angus Houston; a recent Governor of New South Wales, Marie Bashir; and Prince Philip. This last award was met with ridicule and dismay by some in the Australian media.


title: Order of Australia

text: The Australian Labor Party continued to oppose knighthoods and damehoods. Leader of the opposition Bill Shorten stated in March 2014 that the party would again discontinue the level if it were to win the next Australian federal election.


title: Order of Australia

text: Abbott's tenure as prime minister ended in September 2015. Two months after coming into office, on 2 November 2015, pro-republican Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull announced that the Queen had approved his request to amend the Order's letters patent and cease awards at this level. Existing titles would not be affected. The move was attacked by monarchists and praised by republicans. The amendments to the constitution of the Order were gazetted on 22 December 2015.


title: Order of Australia

text: King Charles III, when he was Prince of Wales, was appointed a Knight of the Order of Australia (AK) on 14 March 1981. As he is not an Australian citizen, even though he was the heir to the Australian throne at the time, this would have required the award to be honorary. To overcome this issue, his appointment was created by an amendment to the constitution of the Order of Australia by special letters patent signed by the Queen, on the recommendation of Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser.


title: Order of Australia

text: In March 2014 the knight and dame levels, which had been abolished in 1986 by Prime Minister Bob Hawke, were reintroduced to the Order of Australia by Tony Abbott. At the same time, Abbott announced that future appointments at this level would be recommended by the prime minister alone, rather than by the Council of the Order of Australia, as is the case with all lower levels of the order. In accordance with the statutes of 2014, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh was created a Knight of the Order by letters patent signed by the Queen on 7 January 2015, on Abbott's advice. Prince Philip's knighthood was announced as part of the Australia Day Honours on 26 January 2015 and his appointment attracted criticism of what Abbott described as his "captain's call". Abbott responded by announcing that future recommendations for appointments as Knights and Dames of the Order would be determined by the Council of the Order of Australia.


title: Order of Australia

text: Awards of the Order of Australia are sometimes made to people who are not citizens of Australia to honour extraordinary achievements. These achievements, or the people themselves, are not necessarily associated with Australia, although they often are. On 26 January 2019, the Australian Honours website listed appointments for 40 Honorary Companions, 100 Honorary Officers, 127 Honorary Members of the Order of Australia and the award of 124 Honorary Medals of the Order of Australia. Notable honorary awards include:


title: Order of Australia

text: Since 1975, just under 30 per cent of recipients of an Order of Australia honour have been women. The number of nominations and awards for women is trending up, with the 2022 Australia Day Honours resulting in the highest percentage of awards for women to date (46.5 per cent, 47.2 per cent in the general division). Advocacy groups such as Honour a Woman and the Workplace Gender Equality Agency have called for greater effort to be made to reach equal representation of men and women in the order.


title: Order of Australia

text: In December 2010, "The Age" reported a study of the educational backgrounds of all people who had received Knight/Dame and Companion level awards at that time. It reported: "An analysis of the 435 people who have received the nation's top Order of Australia honours since they were first awarded in 1975, shows they disproportionately attended a handful of elite Victorian secondary schools. Scotch College alumni received the highest number of awards, with 19 former students receiving Australia's "[then]" highest honour".


title: Order of Australia

text: On 26 January 1980 the order's award recipients formed the Order of Australia Association. This organisation seeks to aid the members of the order in their pursuits related to the development and maintenance of Australia's culture and traditions. The organisation also attempts to increase awareness of those honoured by the order, since many of their number are not household names, despite their contributions. Branches of the association can be found in all the states and territories of Australia.


title: Order of Australia

text: "Imperial" honours "awarded after 5 October 1992" have been classed as "Foreign awards", and hence have lower precedence than all Australian awards.(Note, however, that the Victoria Cross, and awards of the monarch, have retained their position in the order of precedence, even if awarded after 5 October 1992.)


title: Order of Australia

text: The award is parodied in the play "Amigos", where the central character is determined to be awarded the AC, and uses persuasion, bribery and blackmail in his (ultimately successful) attempts to get himself nominated for the award.


title: Order of Australia

text: During the 1996 season of the popular television programme "Home and Away", the character Pippa Ross was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for her years of service as a foster carer.


title: Found footage (film technique)

text: Found footage is a cinematic technique in which all or a substantial part of the work is presented as if it were discovered film or video recordings. The events on screen are typically seen through the camera of one or more of the characters involved, often accompanied by their real-time, off-camera commentary. For added realism, the cinematography may be done by the actors themselves as they perform, and shaky camera work and naturalistic acting are routinely employed. The footage may be presented as if it were "raw" and complete or as if it had been edited into a narrative by those who "found" it.


title: Found footage (film technique)

text: The most common use of the technique is in horror films, such as "Cannibal Holocaust", "The Blair Witch Project", "Paranormal Activity", "Diary of the Dead", "REC", "Cloverfield", and "Trollhunter", where the footage is purported to be the only surviving record of the events, with the participants now missing or dead. It has also been used in science fiction ("e.g.", "Chronicle", "Project Almanac", "Europa Report"), drama ("e.g.", "Zero Day", "Exhibit A"), comedy ("e.g.", "Project X") and family ("e.g.", "Earth to Echo") films.


title: Found footage (film technique)

text: Although "found footage" was originally the name of an entirely different genre, it is now frequently used to describe pseudo-documentaries crafted with this narrative technique. The film magazine "Variety" has, for example, used the term "faux found-footage film" to describe the 2012 film "Grave Encounters 2". Film scholar David Bordwell criticizes this recent usage, arguing that it sows confusion, and instead prefers the term "discovered footage" for the narrative gimmick.


title: Found footage (film technique)

text: Found-footage films typically employ one or more of four cinematic techniques—first-person perspective, pseudo-documentary or mockumentary, news footage, or surveillance footage—according to an analysis of 500 found-footage films conducted by Found Footage Critic.


title: Found footage (film technique)

text: As a plot device, found footage has precedents in literature, particularly in the epistolary novel, which typically consists of either correspondence or diary entries, purportedly written by a character central to the events. Like found footage, the epistolary technique has often been employed in horror fiction: both "Dracula" and "Frankenstein" are epistolary novels, as is "The Call of Cthulhu" by H. P. Lovecraft.


title: Found footage (film technique)

text: In filmmaking, the 1980 cult horror feature "Cannibal Holocaust" is often claimed to be the first example of found footage. However, the Orson Welles directed "The Other Side of the Wind", a found footage movie shot in the early 1970s but released in 2018, predates "Cannibal Holocaust". The device was popularised by "The Blair Witch Project" (1999). Found footage has since been used in other commercially successful films, including "Paranormal Activity" (2007), "REC" (2007), "Cloverfield" (2008) and "Chronicle" (2012). Reviewing "V/H/S" for The A.V. Club, Scott Tobia notes that the genre "has since become to the ’00s and ’10s what slasher movies were to the ’80s."


title: Found footage (film technique)

text: The genre appeals to film producers because of its lower cost, as it is believed the illusion of amateur documentary style allows lower production values than would be accepted on a conventional film.


title: Found footage (film technique)

text: Writer-director Christopher B. Landon, who has made several found footage horror films, posits that the genre is likely to extend in the future outside horror.


title: Found footage (film technique)

text: The following entries are notable films in the found footage genre, though some were only partially made in that style.


title: Beasts of No Nation (film)

text: Beasts of No Nation is a 2015 American war drama film written, co-produced, shot, and directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga. It follows a young boy who becomes a child soldier as his country experiences a horrific civil war. Shot in Ghana and starring Idris Elba, Abraham Attah, Ama K. Abebrese, Grace Nortey, David Dontoh, and Opeyemi Fagbohungbe, the film is based on the 2005 novel of the same name by Uzodinma Iweala, the book itself being named after a Fela Kuti album.


title: Beasts of No Nation (film)

text: It was screened in the main competition section of the 72nd Venice International Film Festival, where it won the Marcello Mastroianni Award. The film was shown in the Special Presentation section of the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival, and released on Netflix globally and in a limited release by Bleecker Street on October 16, 2015.


title: Beasts of No Nation (film)

text: A civil war is breaking out in an unspecified West African country. A young boy, Agu, lives in a small village with his parents, older brother, and younger sibling. Agu's village is located within a "buffer zone" enforced by ECOMOG troops. The village is informed that the government has fallen and military-aligned rebels have seized control of the country. With rebel forces headed towards the village, many people flee to the country's capital for safety. Agu's father buys safe transport for his wife and two youngest children, but has to stay behind with Agu and his eldest son. Rebel and government forces fight in and around Agu's village. While the rebel soldiers flee, government forces round up the remaining villagers and execute them, but Agu evades capture and escapes into the jungle.


title: Beasts of No Nation (film)

text: After wandering for an unspecified amount of time, Agu is caught up in a guerrilla skirmish. The Native Defense Forces (NDF), a rising rebel faction in the country, adopts Agu into their ranks. Agu's battalion is led by the Commandant, who takes Agu under his wing. Following a brutal initiation process where Agu hacks an innocent captive to death with a machete, Agu becomes a fully-fledged member of the militia. Agu befriends another young NDF child soldier, Strika, who never speaks. One night, the Commandant summons Agu to his quarters and rapes him. Strika, another of the Commandant's rape victims, comforts him. Preacher, an older soldier, gives Agu brown-brown to lift his mood. Agu and Strika take part in a number of bloody battles and ambushes. During one of the raids Agu sees a woman he recognizes as his mother. He exclaims that he found her and clings to her while the other members of the group declare they want to rape her. She does not recognize Agu and he calls her a witch woman. One of the other child soldiers drags the young girl with the woman and stomps the child to death. Agu joins in. He wonders if God sees what he is doing. Agu then shoots the woman while she is being raped on a bed.


title: Beasts of No Nation (film)

text: The battalion's many victories earn them a summons to the rebel headquarters, where the Commandant, accompanied by Agu, Strika, and a few other soldiers, go to meet with the NDF leader, Dada Goodblood. Goodblood, who stresses the importance of public image in the wake of the conflict becoming world news, denies the Commandant the promotion to General as he had promised, and removes him from command. The Commandant's lieutenant, Two I-C, will take control of the battalion, and the Commandant will be made Deputy Chief of Security under the leader. The Commandant views this as an insult, and leaves to "celebrate" one more night with his men at a brothel. While the soldiers (except for Agu and Strika) spend the night with the brothel's women, one of the women shoots Two I-C. Two I-C accuses the Commandant of orchestrating the incident before dying, while the Commandant insists it must have been a botched attempt against himself. The prostitute professes that it was an accident, but the Commandant and his men shoot the women and leave the city with the battalion.


title: Beasts of No Nation (film)

text: Now on the run from their own faction as well as their enemies, the battalion suffers heavy losses. Airstrikes and supply shortages kill many of them, including Strika. The remaining members of the battalion take shelter at a gold mine for several months, hoping to find gold to pay for supplies. Ammunition runs out, leaving the group with no way to defend themselves from encroaching enemy forces. Following a confrontation between a frustrated Preacher and paranoid Commandant, Agu and the soldiers all abandon the Commandant to surrender, ignoring his warnings that they will merely be thrown in jail and disowned by their families. Shortly after, they are detained by UN troops.


title: Beasts of No Nation (film)

text: The younger members of the battalion are sent to a missionary school in a safe part of the country. Preacher and Randy decide to run away to rejoin the war. Agu stays away from the other children, who play games and enjoy the comfort and safety of the school. Agu suffers from drug withdrawal and is tormented by what has happened and has nightmares about it. After much time has passed, Agu tells the school's counselor that he has done some terrible things, which he fears will make her see him as a "beast". Instead he tells of how he used to be a good boy from a family who loved him. The final scene shows Agu finally joining the other boys as they swim and play in the ocean.


title: Beasts of No Nation (film)

text: Cary Joji Fukunaga directed his own script, after having worked on it for seven years. It was not until after six years of research on the Sierra Leone Civil War that Fukunaga came across the "Beasts of No Nation" novel. He told "Creative Screenwriting", "I read through the novel and I loved the elegant and concise way that Uzodinma Iweala told the story. I felt that would be the best way to enter the subject."


title: Beasts of No Nation (film)

text: The dialogue in the screenplay is faithful in form to the novel, originally written in a lighter form of Nigerian Pidgin English known as Krio.


title: Beasts of No Nation (film)

text: On August 20, 2013, Idris Elba joined the cast of the film adaptation. On June 6, 2014, Ghanaian actors Ama K. Abebrese, Grace Nortey and David Dontoh joined the film. Later, Opeyemi Fagbohungbe also joined the cast.


title: Beasts of No Nation (film)

text: Red Crown Productions was the financier and producer, along with Primary Productions and Parliament of Owls. On May 17, 2014, Participant Media, along with Mammoth Entertainment, came on board to co-finance the film, initially budgeted at $4.3 million but which ultimately cost about $6 million.


title: Beasts of No Nation (film)

text: On June 5, 2014, principal photography was underway in the Eastern Region of Ghana. The film was shot at locations in Koforidua and Ezile Bay at Akwidaa. Dan Romer scored the film.


title: Beasts of No Nation (film)

text: Netflix bought the worldwide distribution rights for around $12 million. The film was simultaneously released theatrically and online through its subscription video on demand service on October 16, 2015, with Bleecker Street handling the theatrical release. Considering the online release a violation of the traditional 90-day release window of exclusivity to theatres, AMC Cinemas, Carmike Cinemas, Cinemark, and Regal Entertainment Group—four of the largest theater chains in the United States—announced that they would boycott "Beasts of No Nation", effectively downgrading it to a limited release at smaller and independent theatres. The film was also theatrically released in the UK on October 16, 2015, in Curzon Cinemas.


title: Beasts of No Nation (film)

text: On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 92% based on 146 reviews, with an average rating of 7.90/10. The website's critical consensus reads, ""Beasts of No Nation" finds writer-director Cary Fukunaga working with a talented cast to offer a sobering, uncompromising, yet still somehow hopeful picture of war's human cost." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 79 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "generally favourable reviews".


title: Beasts of No Nation (film)

text: In 2015, Artnet published an article suggesting that Fukunaga had appropriated content without crediting the work of Irish artist Richard Mosse, whose work used infrared film and depicted child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo.


title: Menachem Begin

text: Menachem Begin ( "Menaḥem Begin" (); (Polish documents, 1931–1937); "Menakhem Volfovich Begin"; 16 August 1913 – 9 March 1992) was an Israeli politician, founder of Likud and the sixth Prime Minister of Israel. Before the creation of the state of Israel, he was the leader of the Zionist militant group Irgun, the Revisionist breakaway from the larger Jewish paramilitary organization Haganah. He proclaimed a revolt, on 1 February 1944, against the British mandatory government, which was initially opposed by the Jewish Agency. Later, the Irgun fought the Arabs during the 1947–48 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine.


title: Menachem Begin

text: Begin was elected to the first Knesset, as head of Herut, the party he founded, and was at first on the political fringe, embodying the opposition to the Mapai-led government and Israeli establishment. He remained in opposition in the eight consecutive elections (except for a national unity government around the Six-Day War), but became more acceptable to the political center. His 1977 electoral victory and premiership ended three decades of Labor Party political dominance.


title: Menachem Begin

text: Begin's most significant achievement as Prime Minister was the signing of a peace treaty with Egypt in 1979, for which he and Anwar Sadat shared the Nobel Prize for Peace. In the wake of the Camp David Accords, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) withdrew from the Sinai Peninsula, which had been captured from Egypt in the Six-Day War. Later, Begin's government promoted the construction of Israeli settlements in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Begin authorized the bombing of the Osirak nuclear plant in Iraq and the invasion of Lebanon in 1982 to fight PLO strongholds there, igniting the 1982 Lebanon War. As Israeli military involvement in Lebanon deepened, and the Sabra and Shatila massacre, carried out by Christian Phalangist militia allies of the Israelis, shocked world public opinion, Begin grew increasingly isolated. As IDF forces remained mired in Lebanon and the economy suffered from hyperinflation, the public pressure on Begin mounted. Depressed by the death of his wife Aliza in November 1982, he gradually withdrew from public life, until his resignation in October 1983.


title: Menachem Begin

text: Menachem Begin was born to Zeev Dov and Hassia Begun in what was then Brest-Litovsk in the Russian Empire (today Brest, Belarus). He was the youngest of three children. On his mother's side he was descended from distinguished rabbis. His father, a timber merchant, was a community leader, a passionate Zionist, and an admirer of Theodor Herzl. The midwife who attended his birth was the grandmother of Ariel Sharon.


title: Menachem Begin

text: After a year of a traditional cheder education Begin started studying at a "Tachkemoni" school, associated with the religious Zionist movement. In his childhood, Begin, like most Jewish children in his town, was a member of the Zionist scouts movement Hashomer Hatzair. He was a member of Hashomer Hatzair until the age of 13, and at 16, he joined Betar. At 14, he was sent to a Polish government school, where he received a solid grounding in classical literature.


title: Menachem Begin

text: Begin studied law at the University of Warsaw, where he learned the oratory and rhetoric skills that became his trademark as a politician, and viewed as demagogy by his critics.


title: Menachem Begin

text: During his studies, he organized a self-defense group of Jewish students to counter harassment by anti-Semites on campus. He graduated in 1935, but never practiced law. At this time he became a disciple of Vladimir "Ze'ev" Jabotinsky, the founder of the nationalist Revisionist Zionism movement and its youth wing, Betar. His rise within Betar was rapid: at 22, he shared the dais with his mentor at the Betar World Congress in Kraków. The pre-war Polish government actively supported Zionist youth and paramilitary movements. Begin's leadership qualities were quickly recognised. In 1937 he was the active head of Betar in Czechoslovakia and became head of the largest branch, that of Poland. As head of Betar's Polish branch, Begin traveled among regional branches to encourage supporters and recruit new members. To save money, he stayed at the homes of Betar members. During one such visit, he met his future wife Aliza Arnold, who was the daughter of his host. The couple married on 29 May 1939. They had three children: Binyamin, Leah and Hassia.


title: Menachem Begin

text: Living in Warsaw in Poland, Begin encouraged Betar to set up an organization to bring Polish Jews to Palestine. He unsuccessfully attempted to smuggle 1,500 Jews into Romania at the end of August 1939. Returning to Warsaw afterward, he left three days after the German 1939 invasion began, first to the southwest and then to Wilno.


title: Menachem Begin

text: In September 1939, after Germany invaded Poland, Begin, in common with a large part of Warsaw's Jewish leadership, escaped to Wilno (today Vilnius), then eastern Poland, to avoid inevitable arrest. The town was soon occupied by the Soviet Union, but from 28 October 1939, it was the capital of the Republic of Lithuania. Wilno was a predominately Polish and Jewish town; an estimated 40 percent of the population was Jewish, with the YIVO institute located there. As a prominent pre-war Zionist and reserve status officer-cadet, on 20 September 1940, Begin was arrested by the NKVD and detained in the Lukiškės Prison. In later years he wrote about his experience of being tortured. He was accused of being an "agent of British imperialism" and sentenced to eight years in the Soviet gulag camps. On 1 June 1941 he was sent to the Pechora labor camps in Komi Republic, the northern part of European Russia, where he stayed until May 1942. Much later in life, Begin recorded and reflected upon his experiences in the interrogations and life in the camp in his memoir "White Nights".


title: Menachem Begin

text: In July 1941, just after Germany attacked the Soviet Union, and following his release under the Sikorski–Mayski agreement because he was a Polish national, Begin joined the Free Polish Anders' Army as a corporal officer cadet. He was later sent with the army to Palestine via the Persian Corridor, where he arrived in May 1942.


title: Menachem Begin

text: Upon arriving in Palestine, Begin, like many other Polish Jewish soldiers of the Anders' Army, faced a choice between remaining with the Anders' Army to fight Nazi Germany in Europe, or staying in Palestine to fight for establishment of a Jewish state. While he initially wished to remain with the Polish army, he was eventually persuaded to change his mind by his contacts in the Irgun, as well as Polish officers sympathetic to the Zionist cause. Consequently, General Michał Karaszewicz-Tokarzewski, the second-in-command of the Army, issued Begin with a "leave of absence without an expiration" which gave Begin official permission to stay in Palestine. In December 1942 he left Anders's Army and joined the Irgun.


title: Menachem Begin

text: During the Holocaust, Begin's father was among the 5,000 Brest Jews rounded up by the Nazis at the end of June 1941. Instead of being sent to a forced labor camp, they were shot or drowned in the river. His mother and his elder brother Herzl also were murdered in the Holocaust.


title: Menachem Begin

text: Begin quickly made a name for himself as a fierce critic of the dominant Zionist leadership for being too cooperative with the British, and argued that the only way to save the Jews of Europe, who were facing extermination, was to compel the British to leave so that a Jewish state could be established. In 1942 he joined the Irgun ("Etzel"), an underground Zionist paramilitary organization which had split from the main Jewish military organization, the Haganah, in 1931. Begin assumed the Irgun's leadership in 1944, determined to force the British government to remove its troops entirely from Palestine. The official Jewish leadership institutions in Palestine, the Jewish Agency and Jewish National Council ("Vaad Leumi"), backed up by their military arm, the Haganah, had refrained from directly challenging British authority. They were convinced that the British would establish a Jewish state after the war due to support for the Zionist cause among both the Conservative and Labour parties. Giving as reasons that the British had reneged on the promises given in the Balfour Declaration and that the White Paper of 1939 restricting Jewish immigration was an escalation of their pro-Arab policy, he decided to break with the official institutions and launch an armed rebellion against British rule, in cooperation with Lehi, another breakaway Zionist group.


title: Menachem Begin

text: Begin had studied the Irish War of Independence and the Indian independence movement, and, while planning the rebellion with Irgun commanders, devised a strategy of leverage he believed would force the British out. He proposed a series of guerrilla attacks that would humiliate the British and damage their prestige, which would force them to resort to repressive measures, which would in turn alienate the Yishuv. Begin banked on the international media being attracted to the action, which he referred to as turning Palestine into a "glass house", with the world looking in. This would draw international attention, and British repression would create global sympathy for the Irgun's cause, which in turn would translate into political pressure on Britain. Ultimately, the British would be forced to choose between continued repression or withdrawal, and Begin was certain that in the end, the British would leave. Furthermore, so as not to disturb the war effort against Germany, only British government and police targets would be attacked at first, while military targets would only be attacked once Germany had been defeated.


title: Menachem Begin

text: On 1 February 1944, the Irgun proclaimed a revolt. Twelve days later, it put its plan into action when Irgun teams bombed the empty offices of the British Mandate's Immigration Department in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, and Haifa. The Irgun next bombed the Income Tax Offices in those three cities, followed by a series of attacks on police stations in which two Irgun fighters and six policemen were killed. Meanwhile, Lehi joined the revolt with a series of shooting attacks on policemen.


title: Menachem Begin

text: The Irgun and Lehi attacks intensified throughout 1944. These operations were financed by demanding money from Jewish merchants and engaging in insurance scams in the local diamond industry.


title: Menachem Begin

text: In 1944, after Lehi gunmen assassinated Lord Moyne, the British Resident Minister in the Middle East, the official Jewish authorities, fearing British retaliation, ordered the Haganah to undertake a campaign of collaboration with the British. Known as The Hunting Season, the campaign seriously crippled the Irgun for several months, while Lehi, having agreed to suspend their anti-British attacks, was spared. Begin, anxious to prevent a civil war, ordered his men not to retaliate or resist being taken captive, convinced that the Irgun could ride out the Season, and that the Jewish Agency would eventually side with the Irgun when it became apparent the British government had no intention of making concessions. Gradually, shamed at participating in what was viewed as a collaborationist campaign, the enthusiasm of the Haganah began to wane, and Begin's assumptions were proven correct. The Irgun's restraint also earned it much sympathy from the Yishuv, whereas previously it had been assumed by many that it had placed its own political interests before those of the Yishuv.


title: Menachem Begin

text: In the summer of 1945, as it became clear that the British were not planning on establishing a Jewish state and would not allow significant Jewish immigration to Palestine, Jewish public opinion shifted decisively against the British, and the Jewish authorities sent feelers to the Irgun and Lehi to discuss an alliance. The result was the Jewish Resistance Movement, a framework under which the Haganah, Irgun, and Lehi launched coordinated series of anti-British operations. For several months in 1945–46, the Irgun fought as part of the Jewish Resistance Movement. Following Operation Agatha, during which the British arrested many Jews, seized arms caches, and occupied the Jewish Agency building, from which many documents were removed, Begin ordered an attack on the British military and administrative headquarters at the King David Hotel following a request from the Haganah, although the Haganah's permission was later rescinded. The King David Hotel bombing resulted in the destruction of the building's southern wing, and 91 people, mostly British, Arabs, and Jews, were killed.


title: Menachem Begin

text: The fragile partnership collapsed following the bombing, partly because contrary to instructions, it was carried out during the busiest part of the day at the hotel. The Haganah, from then on, would rarely mount attacks against British forces and would focus mainly on the Aliyah Bet illegal immigration campaign, and while it occasionally took half-hearted measures against the Irgun, it never returned to full-scale collaboration with the British. The Irgun and Lehi continued waging a full-scale insurgency against the British, and together with the Haganah's illegal immigration campaign, this forced a large commitment of British forces to Palestine that was gradually sapping British financial resources. Three particular Irgun operations directly ordered by Begin: the Night of the Beatings, the Acre Prison break, and the Sergeants affair, were cited as particularly influencing the British to leave due to the great loss of British prestige and growing public opposition to Britain remaining in Palestine at home they generated. In September 1947, the British cabinet voted to leave Palestine, and in November of that year, the United Nations approved a resolution to partition the country between Arabs and Jews. The financial burden imposed on Britain by the Jewish insurgency, together with the tremendous public opposition to keeping troops in Palestine it generated among the British public was later cited by British officials as a major factor in Britain's decision to evacuate Palestine.


title: Menachem Begin

text: In December 1947, immediately following the UN partition vote, the 1947–1948 Civil War in Mandatory Palestine broke out between the Yishuv and Palestinian Arabs. The Irgun fought together with the Haganah and Lehi during that period. Notable operations in which they took part were the battle of Jaffa and the Jordanian siege on the Jewish Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem. The Irgun's most controversial operation during this period, carried out alongside Lehi, was an assault on the Arab village of Deir Yassin in which more than a hundred villagers and four of the attackers were killed. The event later became known as the Deir Yassin massacre, though Irgun and Lehi sources would deny a massacre took place there. Begin also repeatedly threatened to declare independence if the Jewish Agency did not do so.


title: Menachem Begin

text: Throughout the period of the rebellion against the British and the civil war against the Arabs, Begin lived openly under a series of assumed names, often while sporting a beard. Begin would not come out of hiding until April 1948, when the British, who still maintained nominal authority over Palestine, were almost totally gone. During the period of revolt, Begin was the most wanted man in Palestine, and MI5 placed a 'dead-or-alive' bounty of £10,000 on his head. Begin had been forced into hiding immediately prior to the declaration of revolt, when Aliza noticed that their house was being watched. He initially lived in a room in the Savoy Hotel, a small hotel in Tel Aviv whose owner was sympathetic to the Irgun's cause, and his wife and son were smuggled in to join him after two months. He decided to grow a beard and live openly under an assumed name rather than go completely into hiding. He was aided by the fact that the British authorities possessed only two photographs of his likeness, of which one, which they believed to be his military identity card, bore only a slight resemblance to him, according to Begin, and were fed misinformation by Yaakov Meridor that he had had plastic surgery, and were thus confused over his appearance. Due to the British police conducting searches in the hotel's vicinity, he relocated to a Yemenite neighborhood in Petah Tikva, and after a month, moved to the Hasidof neighborhood near Kfar Sirkin, where he pretended to be a lawyer named Yisrael Halperin. After the British searched the area but missed the street where his house was located, Begin and his family moved to a new home on a Tel Aviv side street, where he assumed the name Yisrael Sassover and masqueraded as a rabbi. Following the King David Hotel bombing, when the British searched the entire city of Tel Aviv, Begin evaded capture by hiding in a secret compartment in his home. In 1947, he moved to the heart of Tel Aviv and took the identity of Dr. Yonah Koenigshoffer, the name he found on an abandoned passport in a library.


title: Menachem Begin

text: In the years following the establishment of the State of Israel, the Irgun's contribution to precipitating British withdrawal became a hotly contested debate as different factions vied for control over the emerging narrative of Israeli independence. Begin resented his being portrayed as a belligerent dissident.


title: Menachem Begin

text: After the Israeli Declaration of Independence on 14 May 1948 and the start of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Irgun continued to fight alongside Haganah and Lehi. On 15 May 1948, Begin broadcast a speech on radio declaring that the Irgun was finally moving out of its underground status. On 1 June Begin signed an agreement with the provisional government headed by David Ben-Gurion, where the Irgun agreed to formally disband and to integrate its force with the newly formed Israel Defense Forces (IDF), but was not truthful of the armaments aboard the "Altalena" as it was scheduled to arrive during the cease-fire ordered by the United Nations and therefore would have put the State of Israel in peril as Britain was adamant the partition of Jewish and Arab Palestine would not occur. This delivery was the smoking gun Britain would need to urge the UN to end the partition action.


title: Menachem Begin

text: Intense negotiations between representatives of the provisional government (headed by Ben-Gurion) and the Irgun (headed by Begin) followed the departure of "Altalena" from France. Among the issues discussed were logistics of the ship's landing and distribution of the cargo between the military organizations. Whilst there was agreement on the anchoring place of the "Altalena", there were differences of opinion about the allocation of the cargo. Ben-Gurion agreed to Begin's initial request that 20% of the weapons be dispatched to the Irgun's Jerusalem Battalion, which was still fighting independently. His second request, however, that the remainder be transferred to the IDF to equip the newly incorporated Irgun battalions, was rejected by the Government representatives, who interpreted the request as a demand to reinforce an "army within an army."


title: Menachem Begin

text: The "Altalena" reached Kfar Vitkin in the late afternoon of Sunday, 20 June. Among the Irgun members waiting on the shore was Menachem Begin, who greeted the arrivals with great emotion. After the passengers had disembarked, members of the fishing village of Mikhmoret helped unload the cargo of military equipment. Concomitantly with the events at Kfar Vitkin, the government had convened in Tel Aviv for its weekly meeting. Ben-Gurion reported on the meetings which had preceded the arrival of the "Altalena", and was adamant in his demand that Begin surrender and hand over all of the weapons:


title: Menachem Begin

text: We must decide whether to hand over power to Begin or to order him to cease his separate activities. If he does not do so, we will open fire! Otherwise, we must decide to disperse our own army.


title: Menachem Begin

text: The debate ended in a resolution to empower the army to use force if necessary to overcome the Irgun and to confiscate the ship and its cargo. Implementation of this decision was assigned to the Alexandroni Brigade, commanded by Dan Even (Epstein), which the following day surrounded the Kfar Vitkin area. Dan Even issued the following ultimatum:


title: Menachem Begin

text: To: M. BeginBy special order from the Chief of the General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces, I am empowered to confiscate the weapons and military materials which have arrived on the Israeli coast in the area of my jurisdiction in the name of the Israel Government. I have been authorized to demand that you hand over the weapons to me for safekeeping and to inform you that you should establish contact with the supreme command. You are required to carry out this order immediately. If you do not agree to carry out this order, I shall use all the means at my disposal in order to implement the order and to requisition the weapons which have reached shore and transfer them from private possession into the possession of the Israel government. I wish to inform you that the entire area is surrounded by fully armed military units and armored cars, and all roads are blocked. I hold you fully responsible for any consequences in the event of your refusal to carry out this order. The immigrants – unarmed – will be permitted to travel to the camps in accordance with your arrangements. You have ten minutes to give me your answer.D.E., Brigade Commander


title: Menachem Begin

text: The ultimatum was made, according to Even, "in order not to give the Irgun commander time for lengthy considerations and to gain the advantage of surprise." Begin refused to respond to the ultimatum, and all attempts at mediation failed. Begin's failure to respond was a blow to Even's prestige, and a clash was now inevitable. Fighting ensued and there were a number of casualties. In order to prevent further bloodshed, the Kfar Vitkin settlers initiated negotiations between Yaakov Meridor (Begin's deputy) and Dan Even, which ended in a general ceasefire and the transfer of the weapons on shore to the local IDF commander.


title: Menachem Begin

text: Begin had meanwhile boarded the "Altalena", which was headed for Tel Aviv where the Irgun had more supporters. Many Irgun members, who joined the IDF earlier that month, left their bases and concentrated on the Tel Aviv beach. A confrontation between them and the IDF units started. In response, Ben-Gurion ordered Yigael Yadin (acting Chief of Staff) to concentrate large forces on the Tel Aviv beach and to take the ship by force. Heavy guns were transferred to the area and at four in the afternoon, Ben-Gurion ordered the shelling of the "Altalena". One of the shells hit the ship, which began to burn. Yigal Allon, commander of the troops on the shore, later claimed only five or six shells were fired, as warning shots, and the ship was hit by accident.


title: Menachem Begin

text: There was danger that the fire would spread to the holds which contained explosives, and Captain Monroe Fein ordered all aboard to abandon ship. People jumped into the water, whilst their comrades on shore set out to meet them on rafts. Although Captain Fein flew the white flag of surrender, automatic fire continued to be directed at the unarmed survivors swimming in the water. Begin, who was on deck, agreed to leave the ship only after the last of the wounded had been evacuated. Sixteen Irgun fighters were killed in the confrontation with the army (all but three were veteran members and not newcomers in the ship); six were killed in the Kfar Vitkin area and ten on Tel Aviv beach. Three IDF soldiers were killed: two at Kfar Vitkin and one in Tel Aviv.


title: Menachem Begin

text: After the shelling of the "Altalena", more than 200 Irgun fighters were arrested. Most of them were released several weeks later, with the exception of five senior commanders (Moshe Hason, Eliyahu Lankin, Yaakov Meridor, Bezalel Amitzur, and Hillel Kook), who were detained for more than two months, until 27 August 1948. Begin agreed the Irgun soldiers would be fully integrated with the IDF and not kept in separate units.


title: Menachem Begin

text: In August 1948, Begin and members of the Irgun High Command emerged from the underground and formed the right-wing political party Herut ("Freedom") party. The move countered the weakening attraction for the earlier revisionist party, Hatzohar, founded by his late mentor Ze'ev Jabotinsky. Revisionist 'purists' alleged nonetheless that Begin was out to steal Jabotinsky's mantle and ran against him with the old party. The Herut party can be seen as the forerunner of today's Likud.


title: Menachem Begin

text: In November 1948, Begin visited the US on a campaigning trip. During his visit, signed by Albert Einstein, Sidney Hook, Hannah Arendt, and other prominent Americans and several rabbis was published which described Begin's Herut party as "terrorist, right-wing chauvinist organization in Palestine," "closely akin in its organization, methods, political philosophy and social appeal to the Nazi and Fascist parties" and accused his group (along with the smaller, militant, Stern Gang) of preaching "racial superiority" and having "inaugurated a reign of terror in the Palestine Jewish community".


title: Menachem Begin

text: In the first elections in 1949, Herut, with 11.5 percent of the vote, won 14 seats, while Hatzohar failed to break the threshold and disbanded shortly thereafter. This provided Begin with legitimacy as the leader of the Revisionist stream of Zionism. During the 1950s Begin was banned from entering the United Kingdom, with British government documents describing him as "former leader of the notorious terrorist organisation Irgun".


title: Menachem Begin

text: Between 1948 and 1977, under Begin, Herut and the alliances it formed (Gahal in 1965 and Likud in 1973) formed the main opposition to the dominant Mapai and later the Alignment (the forerunners of today's Labor Party) in the Knesset; Herut adopted a radical nationalistic agenda committed to the irredentist idea of Greater Israel that usually included Jordan. During those years, Begin was systematically delegitimized by the ruling party, and was often personally derided by Ben-Gurion who refused to either speak to or refer to him by name. Ben-Gurion famously coined the phrase 'without Herut and Maki' (Maki was the communist party), referring to his refusal to consider them for coalition, effectively pushing both parties and their voters beyond the margins of political consensus.


title: Menachem Begin

text: The personal animosity between Ben-Gurion and Begin, going back to the hostilities over the Altalena Affair, underpinned the political dichotomy between Mapai and Herut. Begin was a keen critic of Mapai, accusing it of coercive Bolshevism and deep-rooted institutional corruption. Drawing on his training as a lawyer in Poland, he preferred wearing a formal suit and tie and evincing the dry demeanor of a legislator to the socialist informality of Mapai, as a means of accentuating their differences.


title: Menachem Begin

text: One of the fiercest confrontations between Begin and Ben-Gurion revolved around the Reparations Agreement between Israel and West Germany, signed in 1952. Begin vehemently opposed the agreement, claiming that it was tantamount to a pardon of Nazi crimes against the Jewish people. While the agreement was debated in the Knesset in January 1952, he led a demonstration in Jerusalem attended by some 15,000 people, and gave a passionate and dramatic speech in which he attacked the government and called for its violent overthrow. Referring to the Altalena Affair, Begin stated that "when you fired at me with cannon, I gave the order; 'Don't [return fire]!' Today I will give the order, 'Do!'" Incited by his speech, the crowd marched towards the Knesset (then at the Frumin Building on King George Street) and threw stones at the windows, and at police as they intervened. After five hours of rioting, police managed to suppress the riots using water cannons and tear gas. Hundreds were arrested, while some 200 rioters, 140 police officers, and several Knesset members were injured. Many held Begin personally responsible for the violence, and he was consequently barred from the Knesset for several months. His behavior was strongly condemned in mainstream public discourse, reinforcing his image as a provocateur. The vehemence of Revisionist opposition was deep; in March 1952, during the ongoing reparations negotiations, a parcel bomb addressed to Konrad Adenauer, the sitting West German Chancellor, was intercepted at a German post office. While being defused, the bomb exploded, killing one sapper and injuring two others. Five Israelis, all former members of Irgun, were later arrested in Paris for their involvement in the plot. Chancellor Adenauer decided to keep secret the involvement of Israeli opposition party members in the plot, thus avoiding Israeli embarrassment and a likely backlash. The five Irgun conspirators were later extradited from both France and Germany, without charge, and sent back to Israel. Forty years after the assassination attempt, Begin was implicated as the organizer of the assassination attempt in a memoir written by one of the conspirators, Elieser Sudit.


title: Menachem Begin

text: Begin's impassioned rhetoric, laden with pathos and evocations of the Holocaust, appealed to many, but was deemed inflammatory and demagoguery by others.


title: Menachem Begin

text: In the following years, Begin failed to gain electoral momentum, and Herut remained far behind Labor with a total of 17 seats until 1961. In 1965, Herut and the Liberal Party united to form the Gahal party under Begin's leadership, but failed again to win more seats in the election that year. In 1966, during Herut's party convention, he was challenged by the young Ehud Olmert, who called for his resignation. Begin announced that he would retire from party leadership, but soon reversed his decision when the crowd pleaded with him to stay. The day the Six-Day War started in June 1967, Gahal joined the national unity government under Prime Minister Levi Eshkol of the Alignment, resulting in Begin serving in the cabinet for the first time, as a Minister without Portfolio. Rafi also joined the unity government at that time, with Moshe Dayan becoming Defense Minister. Gahal's arrangement lasted until August 1970, when Begin and Gahal quit the government, then led by Golda Meir due to disagreements over the Rogers Plan and its "in place" cease-fire with Egypt along the Suez Canal, Other sources, including William B. Quandt, note that the Labor party, by formally accepting UN 242 in mid-1970, had accepted "peace for withdrawal" on all fronts, and because of this Begin had left the unity government. On 5 August, Begin explained before the Knesset why he was resigning from the cabinet. He said, "As far as we are concerned, what do the words 'withdrawal from territories administered since 1967 by Israel' mean other than Judea and Samaria. Not all the territories; but by all opinion, most of them."


title: Menachem Begin

text: In 1973, Begin agreed to a plan by Ariel Sharon to form a larger bloc of opposition parties, made up from Gahal, the Free Centre, and other smaller groups. They came through with a tenuous alliance called the Likud ("Consolidation"). In the elections held later that year, two months after the Yom Kippur War, the Likud won a considerable share of the votes, though with 39 seats still remained in opposition.


title: Menachem Begin

text: Yet the aftermath of the Yom Kippur War saw ensuing public disenchantment with the Alignment. Voices of criticism about the government's misconduct of the war gave rise to growing public resentment. Personifying the antithesis to the Alignment's socialist ethos, Begin appealed to many Mizrahi Israelis, mostly first and second generation Jewish refugees from Arab countries, who felt they were continuously being treated by the establishment as second-class citizens. His open embrace of Judaism stood in stark contrast to the Alignment's secularism, which alienated Mizrahi voters and drew many of them to support Begin, becoming his burgeoning political base. In the years 1974–77 Yitzhak Rabin's government suffered from instability due to infighting within the labor party (Rabin and Shimon Peres) and the shift to the right by the National Religious Party, as well as numerous corruption scandals. All these weakened the labor camp and finally allowed Begin to capture the center stage of Israeli politics.


title: Menachem Begin

text: On 17 May 1977 the Likud, headed by Begin, won the Knesset elections by a landslide, becoming the biggest party in the Knesset. Popularly known as the "Mahapakh" ("upheaval"), the election results had seismic ramifications as for the first time in Israeli history a party other than the Alignment/Mapai was in a position to form a government, effectively ending the left's hitherto unrivalled domination over Israeli politics. Likud's electoral victory signified a fundamental restructuring of Israeli society in which the founding socialist Ashkenazi elite was being replaced by a coalition representing marginalized Mizrahi and Jewish-religious communities, promoting a socially conservative and economically liberal agenda.


title: Menachem Begin

text: The Likud campaign leading up to the election centered on Begin's personality. Demonized by the Alignment as totalitarian and extremist, his self-portrayal as a humble and pious leader struck a chord with many who felt abandoned by the ruling party's ideology. In the predominantly Mizrahi working class urban neighborhoods and peripheral towns, the Likud won overwhelming majorities, while disillusionment with the Alignment's corruption prompted many middle and upper class voters to support the newly founded centrist Democratic Movement for Change ("Dash") headed by Yigael Yadin. Dash won 15 seats out of 120, largely at the expense of the Alignment, which was led by Shimon Peres and had shrunk from 51 to 32 seats. Well aware of his momentous achievement and employing his trademark sense for drama, when speaking that night in the Likud headquarters Begin quoted from the Gettysburg Address and the Torah, referring to his victory as a 'turning point in the history of the Jewish people'.


title: Menachem Begin

text: With 43 seats, the Likud still required the support of other parties in order to reach a parliamentary majority that would enable it to form a government under Israel's proportionate representation parliamentary system. Though able to form a narrow coalition with smaller Jewish religious and ultra-orthodox parties, Begin also sought support from centrist elements in the Knesset to provide his government with greater public legitimacy. He controversially offered the foreign affairs portfolio to Moshe Dayan, a former IDF Chief of Staff and Defense Minister, and a prominent Alignment politician identified with the old establishment. Dash eventually joined his government several months later, thus providing it with the broad support of almost two thirds of the Knesset. While prime ministerial adviser, Yehuda Avner, served as Begin's speech writer.


title: Menachem Begin

text: On 19 June 1977, Likud signed a coalition agreement with the National Religious Party (which held twelve seats) and the Agudat Yisrael party. Without defections, the coalition of Likud and these two party's created the narrowest-possible majority in a full Knesset (61 seats). After eight hours of debate, Begin's government was officially approved in a Knesset vote on 21 June 1977, making him the new prime minister of Israel.


title: Menachem Begin

text: As Prime Minister, Begin presided over various reforms in the domestic field. Tuition fees for secondary education were eliminated and compulsory education was extended to the tenth grade, while new social programmes were introduced such as long-term care insurance and a national income support system. A ban on color television that had been imposed to enforce social equality was abolished, and the minimum age for a driver's license was lowered to 17.


title: Menachem Begin

text: Begin's economic policies sought to liberalize Israel's socialist economy towards a more free-market approach, and he appointed Simha Erlich as Finance Minister. Erlich unveiled a new economic policy that became known as the "economic transformation". Under the new plan, the exchange rate would from then on be determined by market forces rather than the government, subsidies for many consumer products were cancelled, foreign exchange controls were eased, the VAT tax was raised while the travel tax was cancelled, and customs duties were lowered to encourage imports of more products. The plan generated some improvement; cheap and high-quality imported products began to fill consumer shelves, the business sector benefited greatly, and the stock market recorded rising share prices. However, the program did not improve the lives of the Israeli people as Begin had hoped. The combination of the increased VAT, the end of subsidies, and a rise in the U.S. dollar exchange rate set off a wave of inflation and price increases. In particular, the fact that government spending was not significantly reduced in tandem with the liberalization program triggered a massive bout of inflation. On 17 July 1978, the Israeli cabinet met to discuss rising inflation, but Begin, declaring that "you cannot manage economics over the housewife's back", halted all proposals. In the end, the government decided not to take any actions and allow inflation to ride its course. Begin and his other ministers did not internalize the full meaning of the liberalization plan. As a result, he blocked attempts by Erlich to lower government spending and government plans to privatize public-sector enterprises out of fear of harming the weaker sectors of society, allowing the privatization of only eighteen government companies during his six-year tenure. In 1983, shortly before Begin's resignation, a major financial crisis hit Israel after the stocks of the country's four largest banks collapsed and were subsequently nationalized by the state. Inflation would continue rapidly rising past Begin's tenure, and was only brought under control after the 1985 Israel Economic Stabilization Plan, which among other things greatly curbed government spending, was introduced. The years of rampant inflation devastated the economic power of the powerful Histadrut labor federation and the kibbutzim, which would help Israel's approach towards a free-market economy.


title: Menachem Begin

text: Begin's government has been credited with starting a trend that would move Israel towards a capitalist economy that would see the rise of a consumer culture and a pursuit of wealth and higher living standards, replacing a culture that scorned capitalism and valued social, as well as government restrictions to enforce equality.


title: Menachem Begin

text: In terms of social justice, however, the legacy of the Begin Government was arguably a questionable one. In 1980, the state Social Security Institute estimated that from 1977 to 1980 the number of babies born in poverty doubled, while there had been a 300% increase in the number of families with four to five children below the poverty line. Additionally, the number of families with more than five children below the poverty line went up by 400,% while child poverty estimates suggested that from 1977 to 1981 the number of children living below the poverty line had risen from 3.8% to 8.4%, while officials at the National Institute of Insurance estimated that the incidence of poverty had doubled during Begin's five years in office.


title: Menachem Begin

text: In 1978 Begin, aided by Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan and Defense Minister Ezer Weizman, came to Washington and Camp David to negotiate the Camp David Accords, leading to the 1979 Egypt–Israel peace treaty with Egyptian President, Anwar Sadat. Before going to Washington to meet President Carter, Begin visited Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson for his advice. Under the terms of the treaty, brokered by US President, Jimmy Carter, Israel was to hand over the Sinai Peninsula in its entirety to Egypt. The peace treaty with Egypt was a watershed moment in Middle Eastern history, as it was the first time an Arab state recognized Israel's legitimacy whereas Israel effectively accepted the land for peace principle as blueprint for resolving the Arab–Israeli conflict. Given Egypt's prominent position within the Arab World, especially as Israel's biggest and most powerful enemy, the treaty had far reaching strategic and geopolitical implications.


title: Menachem Begin

text: Almost overnight, Begin's public image of an irresponsible nationalist radical was transformed into that of a statesman of historic proportions. This image was reinforced by international recognition which culminated with him being awarded, together with Sadat, the Nobel Peace Prize in 1978.


title: Menachem Begin

text: Yet while establishing Begin as a leader with broad public appeal, the peace treaty with Egypt was met with fierce criticism within his own Likud party. His devout followers found it difficult to reconcile Begin's history as a keen promoter of the Greater Israel agenda with his willingness to relinquish occupied territory. Agreeing to the removal of Israeli settlements from the Sinai was perceived by many as a clear departure from Likud's Revisionist ideology. Several prominent Likud members, most notably Yitzhak Shamir, objected to the treaty and abstained when it was ratified with an overwhelming majority in the Knesset, achieved only thanks to support from the opposition. A small group of hardliners within Likud, associated with Gush Emunim Jewish settlement movement, eventually decided to split and form the Tehiya party in 1979. They led the "Movement for Stopping the Withdrawal from Sinai", violently clashing with IDF soldiers during the forceful eviction of Yamit settlement in April 1982. Despite the traumatic scenes from Yamit, political support for the treaty did not diminish and the Sinai was handed over to Egypt in 1982.


title: Menachem Begin

text: Begin was less resolute in implementing the section of the Camp David Accord calling for Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. He appointed Agriculture Minister Ariel Sharon to implement a large scale expansion of Jewish settlements in the Israeli-occupied territories, a policy intended to make future territorial concessions in these areas effectively impossible. Begin refocused Israeli settlement strategy from populating peripheral areas in accordance with the Allon Plan, to building Jewish settlements in areas of Biblical and historic significance. When the settlement of Elon Moreh was established on the outskirts of Nablus in 1979, following years of campaigning by Gush Emunim, Begin declared that there are "many more Elon Morehs to come." During his term dozens of new settlements were built, and Jewish population in the West Bank and Gaza more than quadrupled.


title: Menachem Begin

text: Begin took Saddam Hussein's anti-Zionist threats seriously and therefore took aim at Iraq, which was building a nuclear reactor named Osirak or Tammuz 1 with French and Italian assistance. When Begin took office, preparations were intensified. Begin authorized the construction of a full-scale model of the Iraqi reactor which Israeli pilots could practice bombing. Israel attempted to negotiate with France and Italy to cut off assistance and with the United States to obtain assurances that the program would be halted. The negotiations failed. Begin considered the diplomatic option fruitless, and worried that prolonging the attack would lead to a fatal inability to act in response to the perceived threat.


title: Menachem Begin

text: The decision to attack was hotly contested within Begin's government. However, in October 1980, the Mossad informed Begin that the reactor would be fueled and operational by June 1981. This assessment was aided by reconnaissance photos supplied by the United States, and the Israeli cabinet voted to approve an attack. In June 1981, Begin ordered the destruction of the reactor. On 7 June 1981, the Israeli Air Force destroyed the reactor in a successful long-range operation called "Operation Opera". Soon after, the government and Begin expounded on what came to be known as the Begin Doctrine: "On no account shall we permit an enemy to develop weapons of mass destruction (WMD) against the people of Israel." Begin explicitly stated the strike was not an anomaly, but instead called the event "a precedent for every future government in Israel"; it remains a feature of Israeli security planning policy. Many foreign governments, including the United States, condemned the operation, and the United Nations Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 487 condemning it. The Israeli left-wing opposition criticized it also at the time, but mainly for its timing relative to domestic elections only three weeks later, when Likud was reelected. The new government annexed the Golan Heights and banned the national airline from flying on Shabbat.


title: Menachem Begin

text: On 6 June 1982, Begin's government authorized the Israel Defense Forces invasion of Lebanon, in response to the attempted assassination of the Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom, Shlomo Argov. The objective of Operation "Peace for Galilee" was to force the PLO out of rocket range of Israel's northern border. Begin was hoping for a short and limited Israeli involvement that would destroy the PLO's political and military infrastructure in southern Lebanon, effectively reshaping the balance of Lebanese power in favor of the Christian Militias who were allied with Israel. Nevertheless, fighting soon escalated into war with Palestinian and Lebanese militias, as well as the Syrian military, and the IDF progressed as far as Beirut, well beyond the 40 km limit initially authorized by the government. Israeli forces were successful in driving the PLO out of Lebanon and forcing its leadership to relocate to Tunisia, but the war ultimately failed to achieve its political goals of bringing security to Israel's northern border and creating stability in Lebanon. Begin referred to the invasion as an inevitable act of survival, often comparing Yasser Arafat to Hitler.


title: Menachem Begin

text: Public dissatisfaction reached a peak in September 1982, after the Sabra and Shatila Massacre. Hundreds of thousands gathered in Tel Aviv in what was one of the biggest public demonstrations in Israeli history. The Kahan Commission, appointed to investigate the events, issued its report on 9 February 1983, found the government indirectly responsible for the massacre but that Defense Minister Ariel Sharon "bears personal responsibility." The commission recommended that Sharon be removed from office and never serve in any future Israeli government. Initially, Sharon attempted to remain in office and Begin refused to fire him. But Sharon resigned as Defense Minister after the death of Emil Grunzweig, who was killed by a grenade tossed into a crowd of demonstrators leaving a Peace Now organized march, which also injured ten others, including the son of an Israeli cabinet minister. Sharon remained in the cabinet as a minister without portfolio. Public pressure on Begin to resign increased.


title: Menachem Begin

text: Begin's disoriented appearance on national television while visiting the Beaufort battle site raised concerns that he was being misinformed about the war's progress. Asking Sharon whether PLO fighters had ‘machine guns’, Begin seemed out of touch with the nature and scale of the military campaign he had authorized. Almost a decade later, Haaretz reporter Uzi Benziman published a series of articles accusing Sharon of intentionally deceiving Begin about the operation's initial objectives, and continuously misleading him as the war progressed. Sharon sued both the newspaper and Benziman for libel in 1991. The trial lasted 11 years, with one of the highlights being the deposition of Begin's son, Benny, in favor of the defendants. Sharon lost the case.


title: Menachem Begin

text: After Begin's wife Aliza died in November 1982 while he was away on an official visit to Washington DC, he fell into a deep depression. Begin also became disappointed by the war in Lebanon because he had hoped to sign a peace treaty with the government of President Bashir Gemayel, who was assassinated. Instead, there were mounting Israeli casualties, and protesters outside his office maintained a constant vigil with a sign showing the number of Israeli soldiers killed in Lebanon, which was constantly updated. Begin also continued to be plagued by the ill health and occasional hospitalizations that he had endured for years. In October 1983, he resigned, telling his colleagues that "I cannot go on any longer", and handed over the reins of the office of Prime Minister to his old comrade-in-arms Yitzhak Shamir, who had been the leader of the Lehi resistance to the British.


title: Menachem Begin

text: Begin, in his first meeting with President Carter, used the word tertiated to describe how, during the "Holocaust" one in three Jews, of the worldwide Jewish population, were murdered. When Carter asked "What was that word, Mr. Prime Minister?" Begin compared it to "Decimation (Roman army)" and then added "one in three – tertiated!"


title: Menachem Begin

text: Begin elaborated later on: "When I use the word "Tertiated" I mean to say that we do not accept the known term of "Decimation". Avi Weiss highlighted: "But the Holocaust is different" and noted "As Menachem Begin once said, during the Holocaust our people were not decimated, but ""tertiated"" — it was not one in ten, but one in three that were murdered."


title: Menachem Begin

text: Begin subsequently retired to an apartment overlooking the Jerusalem Forest and spent the rest of his life in seclusion. According to Israeli psychologist Ofer Grosbard, he suffered from clinical depression. He would rarely leave his apartment, and then usually to visit his wife's grave-site to say the traditional Kaddish prayer for the departed. His seclusion was watched over by his children and his lifetime personal secretary Yechiel Kadishai, who monitored all official requests for meetings. Begin would meet almost no one other than close friends or family. After a year, he changed his telephone number due to journalists constantly calling him. He was cared for by his daughter Leah and a housekeeper. According to Kadishai, Begin spent most of his days reading and watching movies, and would start and finish a book almost every day. He also kept up with world events by continuing his lifelong habit of listening to the BBC every morning, which had begun during his underground days, and maintaining a subscription to several newspapers. Begin retained some political influence in the Likud party, which he used to influence it behind the scenes.


title: Menachem Begin

text: In 1990, Begin broke his hip in a fall and underwent surgery at Shaare Zedek Medical Center. Afterwards, doctors recommended moving him to Ichilov Hospital at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center for rehabilitation. He was released from hospital in March 1991 and subsequently moved to an apartment in the Afeka neighborhood in Tel Aviv. The hospital stay and permanent move to Tel Aviv greatly improved his health and mood and his seclusion somewhat loosened. On Passover eve in 1991, he gave a telephone interview as part of a television broadcast marking fifty years since the death of Ze'ev Jabotinsky. He gave another telephone interview, which would be the last interview of his life, in July 1991.


title: Menachem Begin

text: On 3 March 1992, Begin suffered a severe heart attack in his apartment, and was rushed to Ichilov Hospital, where he was put in the intensive care unit. Begin arrived there unconscious and paralyzed on the left side of his body. His condition slightly improved following treatment, and he regained consciousness after 20 hours. For the next six days, Begin remained in serious condition. A pacemaker was implanted in his chest to stabilize his heartbeat on 5 March. Begin was too frail to overcome the effects of the heart attack, and his condition began to rapidly deteriorate on 9 March at about 3:15 AM. An emergency team of doctors and nurses attempted to resuscitate his failing heart. His children were notified of his condition and immediately rushed to his side. Begin died at 3:30 AM. His death was announced an hour and a half later. Shortly before 6:00 AM, the hospital rabbi arrived at his bedside to say the Kaddish prayer.


title: Menachem Begin

text: Begin's funeral took place in Jerusalem that afternoon. His coffin was carried four kilometers from the Sanhedria Funeral Parlor to Mount of Olives in a funeral procession attended by thousands of people. In accordance with his wishes, Begin was given a simple Jewish burial ceremony rather than a state funeral and buried on the Mount of Olives in the Jewish Cemetery there. He had asked to be buried there instead of Mount Herzl, where most Israeli leaders are laid to rest, because he wanted to be buried beside his wife Aliza, as well as Meir Feinstein of Irgun and Moshe Barazani of Lehi, who committed suicide together in jail while awaiting execution by the British. An estimated 75,000 mourners were present at the funeral. Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, President Chaim Herzog, all cabinet ministers present in Israel, Supreme Court justices, Knesset members from most parties and a number of foreign ambassadors attended the funeral. Former members of the Irgun High Command served as pallbearers.


title: Menachem Begin

text: Begin served as prime minister (Israel's head of government) from 21 June 1977 through 10 October 1983, leading the 18th government during the 9th Knesset and the 19th government during the first portion of the 10th Knesset.


title: Menachem Begin

text: Begin was a member of the Knesset from 1949 through until he resigned in 1983. Begin was twice the Knesset's opposition leader (at the time an unofficial and honorary role). He was first opposition leader from November 1955 through June 1967, holding the role during the entirety of the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and the first portion of the 6th Knessets, during the second premiership of David Ben-Gurion and the premiership of Levi Eshkol] He again served as opposition leader from August 1970 through June 1977, during the last portion of the 7th Knesset and entirety of the 8th Knesset, during which period Golda Meir and Yitzhak Rabin served as prime minister.


title: Menachem Begin

text: Begin was the founding leader of Herut, and served as the party's leader until 1983. He was also made leader of the Likud coalition at its founding in 1973, and also held that position until 1983.


title: Toronto International Film Festival

text: The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permanent destination for film culture operating out of the TIFF Bell Lightbox, located in Downtown Toronto. TIFF's mission is "to transform the way people see the world through film".


title: Toronto International Film Festival

text: Year-round, the TIFF Bell Lightbox offers screenings, lectures, discussions, festivals, workshops, industry support, and the chance to meet filmmakers from Canada and around the world. TIFF Bell Lightbox is located on the north west corner of King Street and John Street in downtown Toronto.


title: Toronto International Film Festival

text: In 2016, 397 films from 83 countries were screened at 28 screens in downtown Toronto venues, welcoming an estimated 480,000 attendees, over 5,000 of whom were industry professionals. TIFF starts the Thursday night after Labour Day (the first Monday in September in Canada) and lasts for eleven days.


title: Toronto International Film Festival

text: Founded in 1976, TIFF is now one of the largest and most prestigious events of its kind in the world. In 1998, "Variety" acknowledged that TIFF "is second only to Cannes in terms of high-profile pics, stars, and market activity". In 2007, "Time" noted that TIFF had "grown from its place as the most influential fall film festival to the most influential film festival, period". This is partially the result of the festival's ability and reputation for generating "Oscar buzz".


title: Toronto International Film Festival

text: The festival's People's Choice Award—which is based on audience balloting—has emerged as an indicator of success during awards season, especially at the Academy Awards. Past recipients of this award include Oscar-winning films, such as "Life Is Beautiful" (1998), "American Beauty" (1999), "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (2000), "Slumdog Millionaire" (2008), "The King's Speech" (2010), "12 Years a Slave" (2013), "La La Land" (2016), "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" (2017), "Green Book" (2018), "Jojo Rabbit" (2019), and "Nomadland" (2020).


title: Toronto International Film Festival

text: The Toronto International Film Festival was first launched as the Toronto Festival of Festivals, collecting the best films from other film festivals around the world and showing them to eager audiences in Toronto. Founded by Bill Marshall, Dusty Cohl, and Henk Van der Kolk, the inaugural event took place from October 18 through 24, 1976. That first year, 35,000 filmgoers watched 127 films from 30 countries presented in ten programmes. Piers Handling has been the festival's director and CEO since 1994, while Noah Cowan became co-director of TIFF in 2004. In late 2007, Cowan became the artistic director of TIFF Bell Lightbox, while longtime programmer Cameron Bailey succeeded as co-director. As of 2013, Bailey is now the artistic director of the Toronto International Film Festival, as well as TIFF Bell Lightbox's year round programming.


title: Toronto International Film Festival

text: TIFF was once centred on the Yorkville neighbourhood, but the Toronto Entertainment District later gained a greater level of prominence. TIFF is known for the celebrity buzz it brings to the area with international media setting up near its restaurants and stores for photos and interviews with the stars. In 2010, TIFF opened its permanent headquarters, TIFF Bell Lightbox, a year-round home for the appreciation of film in the heart of downtown Toronto, although TIFF films are still screened at a wider variety of venues, including the Scotiabank Theatre Toronto, rather than exclusively at the Lightbox.


title: Toronto International Film Festival

text: TIFF has grown, steadily adding initiatives throughout the years. TIFF Cinematheque (formerly Cinematheque Ontario) and the Film Reference Library (FRL) opened in 1990. The TIFF Kids International Film Festival (formerly Sprockets) launched in 1998. Film Circuit began exhibiting independent and Canadian films in under-serviced cities across Canada in 1994.


title: Toronto International Film Festival

text: The festival also organizes the TIFF Film Circuit, a program which partners with local organizations in other Canadian towns and cities to present screenings of films that have previously been shown at TIFF.


title: Toronto International Film Festival

text: The festival was founded in 1976 at the Windsor Arms Hotel by Bill Marshall, Henk Van der Kolk and Dusty Cohl. Beginning as a collection of the best-regarded films from film festivals around the world, it had an inaugural attendance of 35,000. Ironically, however, Hollywood studios withdrew their submissions from TIFF due to concerns that Toronto audiences would be too parochial for their products.


title: Toronto International Film Festival

text: In 1978, the decision was made to replace the name "Festival of Festivals" with "Toronto International Film Festival" as well as a move to a new location for the festival, moving from the Harbour Castle Hotel to the Plaza II, and also a new director, with Wayne Clark replacing Marshall. The number of galas increased from one to two per night and the Canadian Film Awards were incorporated into the festival. From 1994 to 2009, the umbrella organization running TIFF was named "Toronto International Film Festival Group" (TIFFG). In 2009, the umbrella organization TIFFG was renamed to TIFF.


title: Toronto International Film Festival

text: In 2001, Perspective Canada, the programme that had focused on Canadian films since 1984, was replaced by two programmes:


title: Toronto International Film Festival

text: Otherwise, Canadian films are now simply included alongside international films in the other film programs rather than being grouped as a dedicated Canadian film stream.


title: Toronto International Film Festival

text: In 2004, TIFF was featured as the site of murder mystery in the film "Jiminy Glick in Lalawood", a comedy film starring Martin Short.


title: Toronto International Film Festival

text: In 2007, it was announced that the organization generates an estimated annual impact of $67 million CAD. By 2011, that benefit had grown to $170 million CAD.


title: Toronto International Film Festival

text: In 2008, Rose McGowan caused controversy at a TIFF press conference for her film "Fifty Dead Men Walking", when she noted that "I imagine, had I grown up in Belfast, I would 100% have been in the IRA".


title: Toronto International Film Festival

text: In 2009, TIFF's decision to spotlight films from Tel Aviv created a controversy with protesters, saying it was part of an attempt to re-brand Israel in a positive light after the January 2009 Gaza War.


title: Toronto International Film Festival

text: In 2017, TIFF reduced the number of films screened compared to the 2016 festival with 255 feature-length films in 2017 vs about 400 films in 2016, and also eliminated two venues that had been used in prior years.


title: Toronto International Film Festival

text: In 2019, it was reported that due to a request from its owner, Cineplex Entertainment, no TIFF films distributed by subscription video-on-demand services (specifically Amazon Video and Netflix) are being screened at Scotiabank Theatre—which has been considered the "primary" venue of the festival.


title: Toronto International Film Festival

text: The 2020 version announced that it would be both in-person and virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and that film screening would be "masks optional". It was criticized for creating a potential superspreader event as the social nature of the festival could increase the risk for COVID-19 transmission. The festival reversed the decision within 24 hours citing a surge of new cases in Ontario.


title: Toronto International Film Festival

text: Films such as "American Beauty", "Ray", "Mr. Nobody", "127 Hours", "Black Swan", "The Five Obstructions", "Singapore Sling", and "I Am Love" have premiered at TIFF. Jamie Foxx's portrayal of Ray Charles ultimately won him the Academy Award for Best Actor while "Slumdog Millionaire" went on to win eight Oscars at the 2009 Academy Awards. "Precious", which won the 2009 TIFF People's Choice Award, went on to win two Oscars at the 82nd Academy Awards. "The King's Speech", the winner of the 2010 TIFF People's Choice Award, won four Oscars at the 83rd Academy Awards, while "Silver Linings Playbook", the winner of the 2012 TIFF People's Choice Award, went on to win the Academy Award for Best Actress for Jennifer Lawrence. In 2019, the festival opened with "", the first time the festival ever opened with a Canadian documentary film.


title: Toronto International Film Festival

text: Many Hollywood studios premiere their films in Toronto due to TIFF's easy-going non-competitive nature, relatively inexpensive costs (when compared to European festivals), eager film-fluent audiences and convenient timing.


title: Toronto International Film Festival

text: In 2007, the Festival Group began construction on TIFF Bell Lightbox, a new facility at the corner of King and John Streets in downtown Toronto, on land donated by Ivan Reitman and family. The $181 million facility is named for founding sponsor Bell Canada, with additional support from the Government of Ontario and Government of Canada.


title: Toronto International Film Festival

text: In 2010, the organization opened its new headquarters at TIFF Bell Lightbox. The facility, designed by local firm KPMB Architects, provides extensive year-round galleries, cinemas, archives and activities for cinephiles. The five-storey facility contains five cinemas, two gallery spaces, film archives and an extensive reference library, study spaces, film lab facility, and a research centre. There is also a gift shop, two restaurants, a lounge, a cafe, and a three-storey atrium. Cooperatively with Daniels Corporation, there is a 46-storey condominium atop, called the Festival Tower.


title: Toronto International Film Festival

text: The first film screening was Bruce McDonald's "Trigger". The first exhibition was a retrospective on Tim Burton, organized by the Museum of Modern Art (New York City). Subsequent exhibitions include Fellini: Spectacular Obsessions, Grace Kelly: From Movie Star to Princess, Designing 007: 50 Years of Bond Style, and Stanley Kubrick: The Exhibition, all of which were organized by TIFF, as well as one called "Essential Cinema", featuring posters, images and props from TIFF's "The Essential 100" list of films.


title: Toronto International Film Festival

text: The Film Reference Library (FRL) is a large Canadian film research collection. The library is a free resource for film lovers, filmmakers, students, scholars, and journalists, and is located on the fourth floor of the TIFF Bell Lightbox. An affiliate member of the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF), the FRL promotes Canadian and global film scholarship by collecting, preserving, and providing access to a comprehensive collection of film prints, and film-related reference resources (including books, periodicals, scripts, research files, movies, press kits, and about 80 special collections.


title: Toronto International Film Festival

text: In 2016, the festival received a donation of 1,400 film prints, and launched a campaign to raise money for the preservation and storage of the films.


title: Toronto International Film Festival

text: Each year, TIFF releases a Canada's Top Ten list of the films selected by a poll of festival programmers across Canada as the ten best Canadian feature and short films of the year, regardless of whether or not they were screened at TIFF. The films selected are announced in December each year.


title: Toronto International Film Festival

text: Previously, the winning films were screened at a smaller follow-up "Canada's Top Ten" festival at the Lightbox the following January, with a People's Choice Award then presented for that minifestival. In 2018, TIFF announced a change, under which instead of a dedicated festival, each Top Ten film will receive its own standalone theatrical run at the Lightbox throughout the year.


title: Toronto International Film Festival

text: Since 1984, every decade TIFF has also produced a Top 10 Canadian Films of All Time list. This list is produced from a wider poll of film industry professionals and academics throughout Canada, separately from the annual top-ten list.


title: Toronto International Film Festival

text: The festival's major prize, the People's Choice Award, is given to a feature-length film. It is not a juried prize, but is given to the film with the highest ratings as voted by the TIFF-going populace. It is presently referred to as the "Grolsch People's Choice Award"; past sponsors of the award have included Cadillac. The winners of this award have often later earned Academy Award nominations. People's Choice Awards are also presented for and films. Each of the People's Choice Awards names first and second runners-up in addition to the winners.