Just For Cats Festival – TIFF Bell Lightbox, Toronto – April 17, 2015

By Johna Autencio
Photos Courtesy of TIFF

The cat’s out of the bag … or out of the shelter and into a loving home.

On Friday April 17th, TIFF and the Canadian Federation of Humane Societies (CFHS) presented its Just for Cats Festival with special guest Deadmau5 in attendance. The festival included two fur-filled screenings of the best cat-themed internet videos, a photo booth and an information booth on adopting cats.

Magali Simard, Manager of Film Programmes and Programmer at TIFF said the whole purpose of the event was to shed a light on the cat welfare in Canada and to celebrate the pop culture phenomenon of internet cat videos.

Some of these popular cat videos include Yoga Cat, “hey” cat and Jedi Kittens Strike Bite.

As for Deadmau5’s special appearance, when he was first approached about the festival, he couldn’t say no.

“A cat festival, really? I’m in. It sounds legit,” he said.

When asked if he was creating any content to commemorate the event, he said Meowingtons – his black and white cat, is already on it.

“He’s been in the studio all day, hammering away on the xylophone,” Deamau5 joked.

Overall, the Just for Cats Festival was to bring more awareness on how to adopt cats and to show how much joy they are to have.

“I hope everyone takes home the message that cats need our help,” Barbara Cartwright, CEO of Humane Societies, said.

For more information on animal welfare and the Toronto Humane Society, you can visit www.CFHS.ca or www.torontohumanesociety.com.

Just for Cats – TIFF

Left to right: Jacques Messier, CEO of Toronto Humane Society, Magali Simard, Manager Film Programmes at TIFF, Joel “Deadmau5” Zimmerman and Barbara Cartwright, CEO of Humane Societies