The Toronto International Film Festival turns 50 this year. As some of the world’s biggest actors, directors, critics and cinephiles descend on Toronto for the 10-day movie extravaganza, we’re looking back at the moments when the AGO graced the silver screen.  

Later this fall, at the TIFF Lightbox and Innis Town Hall, explore the films of acclaimed artist Joyce Wieland in Jigs and Reels: The Complete Films of Joyce Wieland, screening from October through November. On view at the AGO now, the exhibition Joyce Wieland: Heart On highlights over five decades of Wieland’s practice, including her contributions as a filmmaker.  

The AGO building has been flexing in its acting chops throughout its 125-year history – working overtime as a setting for mayhem and magic, impersonating other museums, and even being stood up by Al Pacino. From cult classics to underrated rom coms, join us as we revisit the Gallery's appearances in film from the last four decades.   

 The Vow (2012) 

Chock full of Canadian talent (Wendy Crewson, Joe Cobden, Scott Speedman), in this 2012 tearjerker with a happy ending, Ontario’s own Rachel McAdams struggles to rebuild her marriage to Channing Tatum after an accident leaves her with no memory of him. The AGO shines, posing as the Art Institute of Chicago.  

Score: A Hockey Musical (2010) 

“Everyone knows hockey isn’t art”, sings the main character of this only-in-Canada musical, as he waltzes down Galleria Italia, grappling with existential questions and fake-looking Northwest Coast masks. Although we can’t sanction touching the art, the film’s director Michael McGowan makes the AGO, and Giuseppe Penone’s 2011 installation, The Hidden Life Within, sparkle.  

The Fly (1986)  

Directed by David Cronenburg, this critically acclaimed science fiction flick stars Walker Court, draped head-to-toe in white, as the ominous corporate conclave where Geena Davis’s reporter and Jeff Goldblum’s eccentric but brilliant scientist first meet.  

Deceived (1981) 

A body in the AGO’s Conservation Department? Goldie Hawn is very serious in this shadowy thriller, playing a museum conservator trying to simultaneously solve the riddle of her husband’s fake identity and prove the authenticity of an Egyptian jewel. For this role, the AGO’s Conservation Department got some surface touch-ups – producers ordered it painted grey. When they finished, they had it painted white again. 

Ararat (2002) 

The AGO is both subject and character in this great film – it won five Genie Awards  –  about truth and art, written and directed by Atom Egoyan. Canadian actor Brent Carver plays a security guard who gets attacked in what is now known as the J.S. McLean Centre for Indigenous + Canadian Art.  

The Recruit (2003) 

Is that really Al Pacino and Colin Farrell standing in the Atrium of the old AGO, contemplating lunch in the Members’ Lounge? According to sources inside the Gallery, Pacino never showed up. Instead, they filmed Colin Farrell running across Grange Park and into the Atrium and had it all recreated in a film studio for Pacino later on.