MIDNIGHT SCREENINGS

TIFF09 Resources

2009-09-02T22:13:00.005-04:00

Since I'm a self-proclaimed TIFF junkie, I enjoy reading up on the festival as it rolls to a start. I appreciate the early reviews and insights provided by various publications and bloggers, as we try to collectively make heads or tails of 300+ (relatively unknown) titles. So to make it easier for everyone, I have updated my blog's right-hand column to feature TIFF specific press, blogs and tools. These sites all have sections dedicated to the Toronto International Film Festival. Links will also reflect specific 2009 content. Regardless if you're new to the festival, or are a seasoned veteran, I'm sure you can find something of value here.

If you own a blog, or simply enjoy reading a TIFF related website that's not shown here, please post it in the comments below or find me on Twitter, and I'll be sure to add it to the bunch. Enjoy!

Scheduling Pt.3 (Considerations)

2009-08-27T00:57:00.001-04:00

Now that you know of at least some of the films you want to see, it's important to take certain things into consideration before diving head first into the rest of your scheduling. Here are some things you'll want to consider when constructing your advance ticketing film schedules:

- Identify directors of films you've enjoyed in the past, or directors you typically follow. This can give you some idea of what to expect from their latest release.

- Consider the length of the films. One film may be as long as two of your alternate choices. Also, make sure the selection doesn't run into other possible First Choice or Second Choice selections later in the day. Both First and Second Choice selections need to work interchangeably based on what tickets are available at the time of the lottery.

- Review the programs, and the films in them, from past years. For example: Did you like the films that were selected for the Visions program over the past two years? What types of films did they turn out to be? This can be a good indicator of the type of film that fits that classification.

- If you're debating taking the first or second screening of a particular film, consider the number of seats in each theater. Try and select the screening with the larger number of seats. You'll have a better chance at getting tickets for the larger screenings. Along the column to the left, I have identified the number of seats in each venue to aid in this selection process.

- Mix it up. In order to get the most of the festival experience, try and select films from a variety of genres, programs, as well as films that can balance the darker films with lighter content. For instance, try and select at least one documentary, one gala, and even a midnight madness selection (everyone will tell you the audiences are part of the "madness").

- When completing your schedules, its important to remember to make time in between films to find time to eat and travel. This may sound obvious, but it's amazingly easy to forget. Screening times frequently run over due to late starts, Q&A's, introductions etc. Consider adding at least a half-hour to the run-time of each film to account for this. Also, if you want decent seats, consider getting to the screening at least a half hour early. There are usually lines around the block just before the start time. And last but not least, remember the locations of each theater. Some are across town and will take 20+ minutes by subway, while others are in the same venue, just a different theater.

As usual, feel free to add your pointers to the list, and don't forget about my sidebars for links, locations and theater seat numbers.

Poll results

2009-08-25T23:40:00.002-04:00

It looks like the festival's attempt to re-brand it's image hasn't gone far enough. The majority of visitors claim the festival still gives too many benefits to donors over those of the general public.

Question:
DID TIFF GO FAR ENOUGH TO ADDRESS THE CONCERNS REGARDING NEW TICKETING PROCEDURES AND THEIR "PREFERENTIAL TREATMENT" OF DONORS?

16% Yes, I am pleased with how they responded
66% No, they still give too many privileges to donors and sponsors
16% I have no idea what you're talking about

Scheduling Pt.2 (Prioritizing)

2009-08-25T23:27:00.001-04:00

As you begin to narrow down your film selections, you should establish what you hope to get out of the experience.

Step 1: Decide what kind of festival-goer you are:
Many people like to only select the smaller films that don’t have wide releases planned or distribution deals inked. The rationale is that they can eventually see the studio films when they are released officially later in the year. This would mean avoiding many of the Galas or any film from a large studio. If this is what you’re interested in, the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly is the fall movie preview and outlines the upcoming films by date. Other festival-goers prefer to follow the stars. For this, I would suggest Galas and the Special Presentation programs. But if catching a glimpse of a celebrity is something you take seriously, you don’t necessarily need tickets to do that. Go to the film’s theater an hour to two early and get a great spot in front of the theater. This way you can catch the stars entering the theater at a good distance without having to be restrained by the length and distance of the ticket line. The bigger stars are typically in the larger films, which are the Galas. But, from my experience, you have a better chance staking out a smaller venue to see the smaller films with marquee names. And lastly, if you don't care who's in the movie, when it’s coming out, and simply want to see a good film, then the selection process is wide-open. I personally don’t have the luxury of skipping out on the studio films since I have 2 kids and don’t get out to the theater as often as I would like. So, I simply select a wide mix of films that simply cater to my tastes. For this, there is no real way to immediately narrow down the selection besides following your instincts and the intrigue of the film’s premise.

Step 2: With such a large and wonderful selection of films, you will have to start prioritizing somewhere. As I stated in my previous posting, start by highlighting and identifying the films you absolutely CANNOT miss. This will make things surprisingly more concrete because, as luck will always have it, there will be 3 films you think you HAVE TO SEE that are playing simultaneously. So, by identifying which of those Must See films are most important, you have already made some decisions about your priorities. Consider making the films that are playing simultaneously and subsequently not chosen, your Second Choice selections.

Step 3: Determine your First and Second Choices. If you’re doing the advance draw, take the First and Second Choice labels seriously and be sure to always have a Second Choice identified. This determination will shape your entire schedule. If you want to see both the First and Second Choice films, look to find when their repeat screening takes place and try to select that one as your First Choice on another day. But sooner or later, you have to accept that a Must See film may become a Second Choice film by scheduling default. Also, make sure your Second Choice works with your next/upcoming First and Second choices later in the day. So in actuality, you’re creating two schedules and they both have to work interchangeably.

You have identified your must list, now its time to fill in the gaps. This will be the majority of your film selections. The next TIFF Tips will explore all the things to consider when narrowing down your final film list.

Questions about the post or having trouble navigating the festival? Post your questions in the Comments section and I will do my best to respond promptly.

Scheduling Pt.1 (The Technique)

2009-08-24T17:34:00.004-04:00

Since the TIFF09 schedule will be released tomorrow, I thought some of my previous posts would prove useful for anyone looking for thoughts on film selection, so I've updated the posts with some new information and republished them below. Enjoy:

What I consider to be Christmas in August is the day the Festival Guidebook and Schedule arrive at my doorstep. This year that day is tomorrow, August 25th. So before the three day hysteria of studying 335 films, 3AM scheduling debates, and strategic time management exercises, I thought it might be helpful to share my TIFF scheduling technique, and hopefully you, the casual reader will benefit from it and feel inclined to share your system.

This year, one of the more significant changes to the ticketing procedure is the additional time allocated to those that purchased the Out-of-Town Ticket Selection Service. In past years, the general public received their schedules and program books on one day, and anyone with the Out Of Town service received it a day later. We also lost an additional day in order to get the schedules back to Fed Ex in time for them to meet their deadline for the lottery. But this year, we receive the program books and schedules on the same day (if Fed Ex comes through - fingers crossed) and have been allocated an additional day for the scheduling. Schedules are not due back to Fed Ex until Friday at 5:00.

The TIFF website traditionally offers a helpful resource to organizing and saving your films with a system called My Film List. You can currently find buttons on the official site that read “Add It”. This will add the film to a master list of films that you have personally selected. You can log in to retrieve this list and even update it to reflect your actual final selections. Its handy and quite easy to use, being that the interactivity resides alongside the film descriptions. I use it to get a head start on my planning the day the schedules go live, simply to create a general list of the films I’m interested in. But I leave the tool to do only that. It’s useful, but not yet perfect.

You can also try TIFFR, an independent system that also aids in organizing your TIFF schedule. Also worth mentioning are TOFilmFest and TIFF Reviews. Both have a wealth of information about each of the titles that include the synopsis, links, and reviews, so don't forget about them when doing your research. I use those sites as well as a handful of others to help determine my interest level in each selection.

Next, I will print out the schedules from the website by day, for each day I will attend. Sometimes the day’s schedule doesn’t fit onto one page, and since the festival doesn't supply printer-friendly versions of the schedules, I’ll tape them together vertically. This allows me an easy way to get the entire day’s schedule at a glance. You can also photocopy the pages in the official festival schedule book. It’s important to note that it’s good to print the pages in black and white as opposed to color. It will make your notes and markings easier to read.

At this point, the selection process begins. I use a pencil to immediately circle anything I know I want to see, and cross off anything I know I don’t want to see. Then, with a range of different colored highlighters, I will highlight the films that I'm interested in ranging from very interested, to hardly interested. I will most likely have more than one copy of each day on hand in order to transfer my findings/notes from the “draft” onto a new “working” version. That just makes it easier for me to read after all the highlighting and pencil markings.

What comes next is determined by the types of films you want to see while there, and what type of festival-goer you consider yourself to be. The next TIIF Tips I post will explore those questions.

Again, feel free to use the Comments section to share your neurotic, systematic, or just plain logical scheduling solutions, to what I consider the now four day scramble of TIFF scheduling madness.

Poll results

2009-08-06T23:23:00.004-04:00

Poll results are in and surprisingly, JENNIFER'S BODY was not the most popular Midnight Madness entry. Whether it was it's commercial appeal or it's upcoming release date, no one seemed overly interested in the fact that Megan Fox is scheduled to be in attendance opening night. Regardless, I'm sure the evening will sell out. Instead, somewhat unknowns lead the pack: The lack of information we have on Romero's SURVIVAL and THE LOVED ONES surely helped generate interest. The following are the full results:

Question:
WHICH MIDNIGHT MADNESS FILM ARE YOU ANTICIPATING THE MOST?

25% GEORGE A. ROMERO'S SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD
25% THE LOVED ONES
12% [REC]2
12% A TOWN CALLED PANIC
12% BITCH SLAP
12% SYMBOL
0% DAYBREAKERS
0% JENNIFER'S BODY
0% ONG BAK 2: THE BEGINNING
0% SOLOMON KANE

Let the madness begin!

2009-07-21T21:47:00.018-04:00

The Toronto International Film Festival announced the full line-up of the infamous Midnight Madness program today. The program injects ruckus rockumentaries, wild animation, knuckle-breaking martial arts, and blood drenched horror into the festival experience, and never fails to introduce the world to the next big genre sensation (i.e. Eli Roth’s CABIN FEVER, Mabrouk El Mechri’s JCVD, Pierre Morel DISTRICT 13, Alexandre Aja’s HAUTE TENSION just to name a few). Certainly, this year will be no exception. New this year, the Cadillac People’s Choice Award will recognize the most popular film in the Midnight Madness and Documentary programs, as chosen by the audience.

Below are the titles and their trailer (if available):

[REC] 2
Follow-up to [REC], this time from the perspective of a SWAT team.

BITCH SLAP
Campy action comedy from the creators of Xena and Hercules.

DAYBREAKERS
Spierig Brothers big budget followup to the Undead (MM’01) starring Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe and Sam Neill in this sci-fi vampire pic set in the future.

GEORGE A. ROMERO'S SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD
More social commentary about two feuding clans in the middle of the fallout from a zombie epidemic.

JENNIFER’S BODY
Written by Diablo Cody, Megan Fox stars as a high-school student possessed by a demon with an appetite for young men.

THE LOVED ONES
TIFF calls this a “wild mash-up of Pretty in Pink and Misery”

ONG BAK 2: THE BEGINNING
Tony Jaa returns in this prequel, sure to feature more insane martial-arts and gravity defying elephant action.

SOLOMON KANE
Tale of a savage mercenary in sixteeth-century England from the creator of CONAN.

Not a trailer, but some background on the film from director Michael J. Bassett:

SYMBOL
Director/star Hitoshi Matsumoto of DIANIPPONJIN stars and directs this comedy/drama/mystery that intertwines two seemingly unrelated narratives.

A TOWN CALLED PANIC
Animated pic about the surreal adventures of plastic toys Cowboy, Indian and Horse.

Unofficial additions to the Toronto Film Festival

2009-07-19T21:29:00.009-04:00

As we patiently wait for the Toronto International Film Festival's sporadic press releases to announce new additions to this year's lineup, many other sources have already let their inclusion into the festival slip. Below is an unofficial list of titles that have already stated their acceptance to this year's festival.

Keep in mind this is unofficial, as there have been no official press releases from the festival regarding these titles (yet), and as many programmers have already noted, just because a producer/director or cast member says they'll be at TIFF, that does not necessarily guarantee their presence. Hopefully this will wet your appetite as we wait for the next official press release:

· DOG POUND (dir. Kim Chapiron)

· HEIRAN ( dir. Shalizeh Arefpur)

· HOUSE OF BOYS (dir. Jean-Claude Schlim)

· JANALA (dir. Buddhadev Dasgupta) in the Masters Program

· THE JAPANESE WIFE (dir. Aparna Sen)

· WHIP IT (dir. Drew Barrymore)

· WHITE STRIPES: UNDER GREAT WHITE NORTHERN LIGHTS

· UP IN THE AIR (dir. Jason Reitman)

Changes to your Festival

2009-07-09T21:56:00.007-04:00

The Toronto International Film Festival recently announced several improvements to this year's festival. Most of these are in response to the overwhelming public resistance to last year's changes.

In 2008, TIFF implemented numerous modifications that effect how the ticketing procedure works. The change that caused the most controversy was that preferential treatment was given to donors at the Benefactor Level (a donation of $250 ormore) by processing their ticket submissions first in the Advance Order procedure, ahead of the rest of the general public.

Also of great concern was that the festival was putting too much emphasis on the high profile premieres. Screenings at the VISA Screening Room and Galas at Roy Thompson Hall saw price increases. The VISA Screening Room presentations, once available to those with passes at the standard rate,were now ineligible for use with the Coupon books in the Advance Order process. Meanwhile on a smaller scale, programs dedicated to challenging cinematic boundaries shrunk (Visions and Vanguard) while premieres in the Discovery program greatly increased.

For fear that the festival was becoming too elitist with priority given tothe rich, many critics lashed out publicly (read about it here and here) with the belief the festival's actions contradicted much of the idea that TIFF was the democratic "people's festival".

So this year, TIFF appears to be making an asserted effort to repair their relationship with festival-goers. Mailers sent out months in advance of this year's festival outlined significant changes to both their customer service and ticketing options.

Here is an overview of the changes you can expect to see this year, some of which are still being developed as planning for this year's festival continues:

· Repeat Gala Screenings will be available to ticket package-holders. Unlike last year, the repeat screenings of gala films will be available to those with passes or coupons.

· Increased access to the Visa Screening Room at the Elgin Theatre for ticket package-holders. Roughly half of these screenings will be at regular ticket prices and available to those with passes or coupons. I suspect most of these will be daytime, non celebrity driven titles, but I could always be wrong. If I had one qualm, it would be that all VISA Screening Room titles should be available to pass/coupon holders as they had been years before. I suggest hiking the price of the 8 pack instead, as these typically sell out due to high demand.

· Reduction of wait time for advance order pick ups. This includes identifying a better location for traffic flow, increased hours on pick-up day (Sept 3rd), and doubling the number of operators available on pick-up day. I am never available to pick up my tickets on the first day. Is this of great importance to those that do? What has the experience been like in the past?

· Ensuring a premium experience for premium-priced screenings and defining clear criteria for those premium-priced screenings. Premium screenings are defined as the first public screening at TIFF at either Roy Thomson Hall or the VISA Screening Room at the Elgin Theater. It will also meet at least one of the following criteria:
1. Be a red carpet event
2. Be a North American premiere (at minimum)
3. Include a Q&A with either the director or principal cast member. This I find to be an interesting inclusion since I have never been to a screening at either locations that included a Q&A…maybe a bloated introduction by the director, but never a Q&A.

· The single ticket sales will start on September 4 - six days prior to the beginning of the Festival.

· The Festival Programme Book and Advance Order Books are available a week earlier, starting August 25 and due August 31st, allowing six days for festival-goers to drop off their selections. That’s three more days than before. This is especially good for us out of towners who receive our books a day late and have to send them in a day early to make the lottery. Hopefully this will alleviate the “2-day scramble” we’ve all become accustomed to.

· Completed Advance Orders will be available for pickup on September 3 (this is a Thursday and not a holiday), before the Labour Day long weekend.

· In hopes to raise the event's profile, TIFF organizers are shifting and lengthening the red carpet outside Roy Thomson Hall by a few hundred feet. This will give the stars greater opportunity to interact with the crowds and media. Read more about this development here. This can only be a good thing in my opinion. Ever since TIFF “reorganized” the ticket holder’s lines in front of Roy Thomson Hall two years ago, the entry process has been disastrous. Hopefully, considering the cost of the tickets, things will be a bit more organized this year.

· Prices have gone up on many popular packages, but not by much. Price have increased between $4.64 and $15.27 based on the package. The good news is the Wavelengths program actually dropped in price by $11.09.

· Due to great demand, the 30-pack “Festival Package Lite” is back. Limit one ticket per screening.

· The new City to City program. It’s an exciting new programme that will explore the evolving urban experience while presenting the best documentary and fiction films from and about a select city. City to City's first location is Tel Aviv.

· Galas continue to be available as single tickets only, available Sept 4th when all single tickets go on sale.

· New ticket packages available this year:
- The Visa Screening Room at the Elgin Packages provides more access to one of the Festival's most popular venues, with 2-Day, 3-Day, Weekend and Mid-Festival packages to choose from.
- The Double Date Gala Package offers two sets of four tickets, a total of eight tickets, to evening Gala programming at Roy Thomson Hall selected by Festival Directors.
- The City to City Package offers one ticket to each of the City to City premiere screenings, two screenings per evening, from September 13 through September 17.

Back from the dead

2009-06-23T23:02:00.006-04:00

Yes, it's been some time since this blog inhaled a truely new breath. But with the Toronto International Film Festival just a few short months away, what better time than the present to revive this beast and give it fresh life - just in time to savor the pre-festival buzz. TIFF press releases, film speculation, festival news, announcements and ticket turmoil can all be expected in the coming months. I will also be active on Twitter. You can follow me here: http://twitter.com/MidnightCinema

Poll results

2007-09-18T22:48:00.000-04:00

Results of last week's poll looked like this:

HOW MANY FILMS WILL YOU SEE AT TIFF07?
1-10: 7 (38%)
11-20: 7 (38%)
21-30: 2 (11%)
31-40: 0 (0%)
41+: 2 (11%)

TIFF 07 winners announced

2007-09-17T23:39:00.000-04:00

TIFF has announced the titles of this year's award winners. Even though TIFF claims they are not a competitive festival with a juried competition, there are still a number of awards given out in a handful of specific categories. The big award, The People's Choice award, goes to the film with the best audience feedback, as determined by the ballots the audience fills out after each screening. This year's award goes to David Cronenberg's EASTERN PROMISES. An interesting choice considering the heartwarming, culturally significant nature of past winners such as WHALE RIDER, TOTSI and HOTEL RWANDA. Not to say it's not going to be a great film, it just appears to break the mold. Who would have thought the director of RABID, SCANNERS and CRASH would eventually make a picture that would please the masses.
The following is a full list of this year's winners...

- Best Canadian Short Film: Chris Chong Chan Fui's POOL.
- Citytv Award for Best Canadian First Feature Film: Stéphane Lafleur's CONTINENTAL, UN FILM SANS FUSIL.
- Toronto-City Award for Best Canadian Feature Film: Guy Maddin's MY WINNIPEG.
- DIESEL Discovery Award, voted on by the festival press corps: Israel Cárdenas and Laura Amelia Guzmán's COCHOCHI.
- Artistic Innovation Award, for a film in the Visions program: Anahí Berneri's ENCARNACION.
- Prize of the International Critics (FIPRESCI Prize): Rodrigo Plá's LA ZONA.
- Cadillac People's Choice Award (as determined by festival-goers): David Cronenberg's EASTERN PROMISES.
- Cadillac People's Choice Award, the first runner-up: Jason Reitman's JUNO.
- Cadillac People's Choice Award, the Second runner up is Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro's Body of War.

Catching Up: Reviews pt.2

2007-09-17T23:31:00.001-04:00

RELIGULOUS: A Conversation with Bill Maher and Larry Charles

As the title suggests, this is more a conversation with the two titular stars, than that of a film. The pair discuss the making of, and the ideas behind their upcoming film RELIGULOUS, a documentary that takes a satirical stab at organized religions across the world. Mahr and Charles spoke without a filter about their views on religion with the mentality of: “No one knows what happens when we die, so why make up stories and pretend like we do”? The results were eye opening, thought provoking, and utterly hilarious. The audience spent the majority of the hour and half program practically in tears laughing, as was I. The film promises to be the next BORAT, and after viewing 30 minutes of the work in progress, I can tell you I will be the first in line. This was my Sunday service.

THE BAND’S VISIT

Story follows a traveling Egyptian police band that gets stranded at an Isreali airport on their way to perform at the opening of an Israeli cultural centre. Without a host or place to stay, the band relies on the kindness of a café owner and fellow villagers for food and shelter, and in the process, discover a great deal of similarities that bridge strenuous cultural differences. It’s a gentle souffle of a comedy that allows the characters room to breath with minimal dialogue, and while funny and heartworming, the film never illicits a reaction it did not earn. Focus is on only a few central characters, but each is handled carefully with a specific path, and when their paths intersect, their connections allow the film to shine. Looking back, this was a breath of fresh air among the dark and serious fare.

OPERATION FILMMAKER

Documentary following what happens when the film crew on Liev Schreiber’s EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED invites a young Iraqi to work on their set after his film school is destroyed in the U.S. invasion. What follows is an unexpected turn of events after the young man fails to live up to expectations and proceeds to frustrate those around him, resulting in many broken relationships, including the documentary filmmaker’s. The film begs the question: What is the role of the documentary filmmaker, and how does this change the film and it's subject when he/she becomes involved? The director, Nina Davenport at first appears to have found the perfect character with the perfect idealistic story, but as the film progresses, we realize the person we’re following is not necessarily the person we thought, and he, as well, discovers the hard way; he may not be the person he thinks he is either. Davenport cleverly identifies parallels with that of the Iraq invasion with what is occurring on screen. The metaphor provides insight and perspective into the escalating tensions between her and her subject, and allows for a similar, unfortunate conclusion. Riveting from start to finish.

Catching Up

2007-09-15T21:48:00.003-04:00

Whew. After spending 5 days in Toronto in what I like to call “festival time”, my travels have finally caught up with me. I’m now finding time to catch up on all the things I didn’t get to do while away, such as adding my reviews to the blog, working, and of course, sleeping. It’s always sad when the festival is over, but the films will go on, and it will be exciting to track their progress as many will find homes at local cinemas.

I’ll start by gradually posting a few brief synopses of some of the films I took in at TIFF07. These will be sporadic, so anticipate more to come as I recover from my fest-lag…

NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN

It’s the tale of a Texas man who steels 2 million from a drug sale gone bad, the psychopath who hunts him, and the police chief who contemplates his future in the violent land. The Cohen brothers go back to their dark BLOOD SIMPLE / FARGO roots, but instead of North Dakota, this time it’s the Texan desert where their quiet, languid pace is perfectly at home. The tension is also perfectly crafted, the performances are all around solid, but Javier Bardem steels the show, transforming himself into a monster more frightening than those found in slasher films. I left the Visa Screening Room ready to see it again.

GEORGE A ROMERO’S DIARY OF THE DEAD
Film:

Experience:

Gone are the subtleties of the metaphors found in his previous efforts, and instead we now find Romero’s social messages repeatedly hammered into our heads, just as the many bullets and arrows find their way into the heads of zombies. These messages come in the form of a voiceover, shot from the first person perspective of an amateur film crew as they discover the dead have come back to life. It’s also found in the campy dialogue between the stilted and amateur performances, as the actors do their best to document the zombie uprising on two cameras and various forms of “new media”. Romero attempts to have his say on many issues such as the Katrina disaster, his lack of trust in the government, immigration, as well as the overriding message/vehicle of how information is spread and shared in the age of web 2.0.
Since this was a Midnight Madness selection, it’s hard to rate a film solely on its content, when the overall experience of watching it is so different when you’re at the Ryerson at midnight. The streets themselves were lined with fest-goers in zombie make-up, Romero and Dario Argento are present, and most importantly, the audience was pumped. So, while the film may have faltered, the experience did not. Every time a zombie was blown to bits (which happened quite frequently, a showcase for some standout FX such as when acid is poured onto a zombie’s head and it proceeds to melt convincingly into nothing within seconds), the audience erupted into cheers. Every time a line of bad dialogue was spoken, the audience erupted once more. In the end, there were a lot of noisy moments, but that’s what makes Midnight Madness so great.

Updated links

2007-09-06T23:26:00.000-04:00

If you're like me, you'll be tinkering with your schedule up to the very last minute. In that case, some of the new links in my TIFF RESOURCES section may be what you're looking for. Numerous websites and publications have dedicated entire sections to the Toronto International Film Festival. You can find tips on places to eat, how to spot celebrities, and even advance reviews of some of the festival's films. This section can arm you with the info you need to make the right choices at this year's TIFF.

Take a look at Now Magazine's TIFF Coverage for a full list of film reviews. Or, listen to the latest BlogTO podcast, which features scheduling tips, programers to avoid, as well as their personal film recommendations.

TIFF TIP: What next?

2007-09-06T23:21:00.000-04:00

If you get your first choices, congratulations. Last year was the first year in five years I did not get all of my first selections, and being from Michigan, I have to do the Advance Draw every time. This year marks my second.

If you don’t get your first choices, like myself, then you have a few options. Be content with the second choice, or if after considering it for a few days and decided you MUST see that first choice selection, you can begin the quest for the golden tickets. This quest can consist of many things:

- Try to buy them when the individual tickets go on sale. This means waiting all morning in a line around multiple blocks, or logging onto the website to make the purchase. But many hardened festival veterans will tell you: Don't count on individual ticket sales. The online system is notoriously unpredictable and has been known to crash for long periods of time. I would tend to agree with this sentiment, but its still worth a try if you have the patience. But, I would still say do your best to get your choices in early for the advance draw and use the option for backup purposes only!

- Go to the festival box office routinely. When you get there, you will see a large board with a list of every title screening, listed by date. The films with red crosses over them indicate they are "off sale". This board can be very intimidating! But don’t put a ton of stock into it. I have discovered that tickets will become available throughout the week for films that were previously sold out and the Big Board will not reflect the addition of these newly added tickets. Ask a sales agent or call whenever possible.

- It is frowned upon by TIFF, but you may have luck trying the websites Tiffreviews.com or eBay. Many people who no longer can attend their films want to get rid of their extra tickets and use this as a forum to do so. But as with any internet based purchase not affiliated with TIFF, you run the risk of scams and bogus tickets. Buyer beware.

- Try the Rush lines. Rush lines are formed at the sold-out film’s box office prior to the film’s screening time. Moments before show time, empty seats are filled and any spare tickets are made available to the public. I have only had to do this once and had great success with it. The line was much longer than expected and I will admit, after taking one look at the line, I had my doubts. But it moved quickly and we got our tickets with time to spare. I have also spoken to many other attendees that swear by them. Attempting the Rush line is an underused and under appreciated option that I can recommend for those that have exhausted their other options.

What did I forget? Please add your suggestions in the Comments section below!

Show me your TIFF

2007-09-05T21:47:00.000-04:00

I must apologize for my lack of postings over the recent days. I've been spending every last minute pouring over the TIFF schedule, and fine tuning my daily itenerary with great precicion. Unfortunately, there were a handful of titles I didn't get, so now I'm trying to find ways to get the tickets I need, and get rid of the ones I don't. Below is my tentative TIFF schedule. I'm still not 100%, but I'm getting closer...

Saturday Sep 8 11:59pm George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead (RYERSON)

Sunday Sep 9 1pm Religulous: A Conversation with Bill Maher and Larry Charles (RYERSON)
Sunday Sep 9 3:30pm The Band's Visit (RYERSON)
Sunday Sep 9 7pm Operation Filmmaker (ROYAL ONTARIO MUSEUM)
Sunday Sep 9 9:15pm White Lies, Black Sheep (VARSITY 7)

Monday Sep 10 9am No Country for Old Men (RYERSON)
Monday Sep 10 9:15am King of the Hill (SCOTIABANK THEATRE 4)
Monday Sep 10 1:15pm The Counterfeiters (CUMBERLAND 1)
Monday Sep 10 9:15pm Lars and the Real Girl (RYERSON)
Monday Sep 10 9:30pm Across the Universe (ROY THOMSON HALL)

Tuesday Sep 11 12:15pm With Your Permission (CUMBERLAND 2)
Tuesday Sep 11 9pm Body of War (ISABEL BADER THEATRE)

Wednesday Sep 12 12pm Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (CUMBERLAND 2)
Wednesday Sep 12 3:30pm The Savages (SCOTIABANK THEATRE 1)
Wednesday Sep 12 8:30pm I'm Not There (RYERSON)

As you can probably see, I'm double booked Monday morning and Monday night. I'm also short a film or two on Saturday. So, based on what I end up seeing Saturday evening, I will trade or sell the duplicate tickets to the Monday screenings. I'm looking for IN BLOOM, NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, or EASTERN PROMISES on Saturday.

What's your TIFF look like? Feel free to share your TIFF schedules in the Comments section.

EDIT: Revised line-up...
Saturday Sep 8 6pm No Country for Old Men (Elgin)
Saturday Sep 8 11:59pm George A. Romero's Diary of the Dead (RYERSON)

Sunday Sep 9 1pm Religulous: A Conversation with Bill Maher and Larry Charles (RYERSON)
Sunday Sep 9 3:30pm The Band's Visit (RYERSON)
Sunday Sep 9 7pm Operation Filmmaker (ROYAL ONTARIO MUSEUM)
Sunday Sep 9 9:15pm White Lies, Black Sheep (VARSITY 7)

Monday Sep 10 9:15am King of the Hill (SCOTIABANK THEATRE 4)
Monday Sep 10 1:15pm The Counterfeiters (CUMBERLAND 1)
Monday Sep 10 9:30pm Across the Universe (ROY THOMSON HALL)

Tuesday Sep 11 12:15pm With Your Permission (CUMBERLAND 2)
Tuesday Sep 11 9pm Body of War (ISABEL BADER THEATRE)

Wednesday Sep 12 12pm Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (CUMBERLAND 2)
Wednesday Sep 12 3:30pm The Savages (SCOTIABANK THEATRE 1)
Wednesday Sep 12 8:30pm I'm Not There (RYERSON)

Telluride Film Festival

2007-09-02T01:03:00.000-04:00

From EW.com:
Every September, the Toronto Film Festival is where many movie journalists and industry folk go to get their first and most wide-ranging look at the fall's big films, but getting a jump on some of Toronto's movies are the festivalgoers at the Telluride Film Festival, a fest so exclusive and secretive that it doesn't even announce its lineup until the guests start arriving at the Colorado resort town. The slate has just been announced this afternoon for this year's Telluride gathering, which runs from tomorrow through Sept. 3. Some of the films on the list have already played at Cannes this spring (and won awards there, like Palme d'Or-winner 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days and Julian Schnabel's The Diving Bell and the Butterfly), but others will be screened at Telluride for the first time, notably, Sean Penn's Into the Wild, Noah Baumbach's Margot at the Wedding, and perhaps most eagerly anticipated, Todd Haynes' I'm Not There (featuring Cate Blanchett, pictured, and several other actors taking turns in the role of Bob Dylan). Keep an eye on PopWatch throughout Labor Day weekend for coverage from Telluride.

The full line-up can be found here.

Lucky box #66

2007-08-31T16:49:00.000-04:00

It appears that out of 75 total boxes this year, box #66 was selected. This is a significant increase, considering there were only 40 boxes total last year. Now, if you have submitted your selections remotely, it's my understanding that you can log onto the TIFF website, and under the "Buy Now" section, you can click "Check Order Status", then "View Detail", and it will reveal the selections you were granted. Otherwise, an email will be sent out sometime Monday with your list.

The next day

2007-08-30T21:24:00.000-04:00

After reading the multiple comments in the sections below, I must say that I sincerely hope that those of you that did not receive your OOT packages on Wednesday, have received them today. I share your aggrevation.

I had my doubts considering how things stood last night, but I was fortunate enough to receive my package today and get it back out to FedEx just hours later. It still doesn't mean I'll get my selections, nor does it mean the package won't get hung up at customs on it's way back. But, its out of my hands and the work is done for now.

For those of you are still completing your schedules and have given up on the MyTiff tool at the official website, Tiffreviews.com has created an alternative. It's a Google Calandar based tool that works directly with the Tiffreviews film list. You can give it a try here.

If the task of filling out the order forms is a bit confusing for you, the TIFFTalk blog has put together a thorough walk-through of the entire process. Nice work Richard. Just remember that all advance orders must be submitted by 1:00 PM this Friday, August 31, in order to be eligible for the advanced order lottery.

Let's all hope the online ordering system that's been beta-testing, worked out well this week. I know we would all appreciate an alternative to this madness next year. If you were one of the lucky one's to test the online ticket selection system this year, let us know how the experience went, and share your thoughts in the Comments section below.

Not happy...

2007-08-29T23:52:00.001-04:00

It's almost midnight, and I'm just completing my tentative schedule, in anticipation that my OOT package will arrive only 24 hours late. I am extremely dissappointed that it did not arrive today, and will be devestated if it fails to arrive tomorrow. FedEx has told me repeatedly that there is no missing information, and that its simply customs that is holding up the shipment due to an excessive amount of packages. Not sure if this is true or not, but its all I have to go on, considering at 11:00 PM EST Thursday, my package was still in Newark, New Jersey. I sincerely hope the festival will at least consider extending the deadline for the advance draw by at least a day, so all of the dedicated and devoted fans that have sponsored the festival with their business over the years, get a chance at the tickets they've been yearning for. Lets see how things develop tomorrow.

True story

2007-08-28T22:37:00.000-04:00

As most of you probably already know, the full 10 day schedule for the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival is now online at the TIFF website. But, for those of you that are receiving the Out Of Town packages, I had an interesting experience this evening I thought you might find interesting. About 20 minutes after I get home from work, I get a phone call from FedEx in Ontario. A man named Mark proceeds to tell me he’s sitting on 400-500 packages from the Toronto International Film Festival that cannot move unless he gets some additional information about where they’re going. It turns out, someone at TIFF did not download or submit the necessary information into the FedEx Powership system. This data is needed in order for FedEx to get the “manifest” that’s required so the packages can get to their destinations. So, he gives me the names of the senders on the labels, and asks me to let them know the packages aren’t moving tonight unless he gets the necessary info. Once I scrape my jaw off the floor, I tell him that I really don’t know who these people are, and that I would try and track them down via the website. Unfortunately the box office was closed and I ended up scrambling through phone numbers from the TIFF Industry website until I finally landed on a live human being at 7:30 EST. The kind woman assisted me with the necessary email addresses and phone numbers. Thankfully, the TIFF staff was on the ball, and got my email after-hours, thus contact was made. I received a confirmation email from the staff member and Mark confirmed he was able to get the info he needed. SO, long story short, the packages are slated to arrive ON TIME tomorrow morning. No mention of how FedEx got my phone number though…

TIFF interview from CBC

2007-08-27T21:23:00.000-04:00

From CBC news, Heather Hiscox interviews CBC film critic and TIFF jury member Jesse Wente on the upcoming festival and the slate of Canadian films. (Runs: 5:02)
Click here to watch the Real Media file.
Click here to watch the QuickTime file.

CONTROL wins top prizes

2007-08-27T17:20:00.000-04:00

Anton Corbijn's CONTROL took both top awards at the Edinburgh International Film Festival this past Sunday. Awards included the Michael Powell Award for new British feature, as well as the best performance award to lead actor Sam Riley for his portrayal of late Joy Division singer Ian Curtis.

TIFF TIP: Scheduling Pt.3 (Considerations)

2007-08-27T17:09:00.000-04:00

Premiere statuses revealed!

2007-08-26T22:17:00.000-04:00

I just happened to stumble upon a fantastic pdf Variety put together that reveals the official premiere status of each film at this year's TIFF. You may have noted in a past post, this information has been MIA from the official press releases this year. So anyone who uses this info as a deciding variable, you're in luck. Click here to download the document. As I also previously stated, I've been updating the TIFF RESOURCES section (in the column to the right) with new links as they appear, including this one. I anticipate adding at least another handful before the week's end so keep checking back.

TIFF trailers

2007-08-26T21:57:00.001-04:00

In order to help ease the pain of researching all 349 films this week, Twitch, a wonderful website with similar tastes, just created a page devoted to TIFF trailers. All trailers are neatly organized by category and will continue to be updated as they become available. Click here to check them out.

TIFF TIP: Scheduling Pt.2 (Prioritizing)

2007-08-26T10:00:00.000-04:00

As you begin to narrow down your film selections, you should establish what you hope to get out of the experience.

Step 1: Decide what kind of festival-goer you are:
Many people like to only select the smaller films that don’t have wide releases planned or distribution deals inked. The rationale is that they can eventually see the studio films when they are released officially later in the year. This would mean avoiding many of the Galas or any film from a large studio. If this is what you’re interested in, the latest issue of Entertainment Weekly is the fall movie preview and outlines the upcoming films by date. You can also access this list online here. Other festival-goers prefer to follow the stars. For this, I would suggest Galas and the Special Presentation programs. But if catching a glimpse of a celebrity is something you take seriously, you don’t necessarily need tickets to do that. Go to the film’s theater an hour to two early and get a great spot in front of the theater. This way you can catch the stars entering the theater at a good distance without having to be restrained by the length and distance of the ticket line. The bigger stars are typically in the larger films, which are the Galas. But, from my experience, you have a better chance staking out a smaller venue to see the smaller films with marquee names. And lastly, if you don't care who's in the movie, when it’s coming out, and simply want to see a good film, then the selection process is wide-open. I personally don’t have the luxury of skipping out on the studio films since I have 2 kids and don’t get out to the theater as often as I would like. So, I simply select a wide mix of films that simply cater to my tastes. For this, there is no real way to immediately narrow down the selection besides following your instincts and the intrigue of the film’s premise.

Step 2: With such a large and wonderful selection of films, you will have to start prioritizing somewhere. As I stated in my previous posting, start by highlighting and identifying the films you absolutely CANNOT miss. This will make things surprisingly more concrete because, as luck will always have it, there will be 3 films you think you HAVE TO SEE that are playing simultaneously. So, by identifying which of those Must See films are most important, you have already made some decisions about your priorities. Consider making the films that are playing simultaneously and subsequently not chosen, your Second Choice selections.

Step 3: Determine your First and Second Choices. If you’re doing the advance draw, take the First and Second Choice labels seriously and be sure to always have a Second Choice identified. This determination will shape your entire schedule. If you want to see both the First and Second Choice films, look to find when their repeat screening takes place and try to select that one as your First Choice on another day. But sooner or later, you have to accept that a Must See film may become a Second Choice film by scheduling default. Also, make sure your Second Choice works with your next/upcoming First and Second choices later in the day. So in actuality, you’re creating two schedules and they both have to work interchangeably.

You have identified your must list, now its time to fill in the gaps. This will be the majority of your film selections. The next TIFF Tips will explore all the things to consider when narrowing down your final film list.

Questions about the post or having trouble navigating the festival? Post your questions in the Comments section and I will do my best to respond promptly.

LUST, CAUTION receives NC-17 rating

2007-08-24T11:56:00.000-04:00

On Wednesday, Ang Lee's espionage thriller, LUST CAUTION, went before the MPAA for review and was slapped with the dreaded NC-17 rating. Focus Features has decided to keep the rating without appeal. This rating typically makes it hard for a film to find advertising outlets, as many publications, not to mention theaters, ban promoting what they consider an adult film. Click here for more on this story.

The film is screening at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival in its original form as a Special Presentation at 9:00 on Friday, September 7th at the Visa Screening Room.

TIFF TIP: Scheduling Pt.1 (The Technique)

2007-08-23T22:09:00.000-04:00

What I consider to be Christmas in August is the day the Festival Guidebook and Schedule arrive at my doorstep. This year that day is August 29th and it’s already less than a week away. So before the three day hysteria of studying 349 films, 3AM scheduling debates, and strategic time management exercises, I thought it might be helpful to share my TIFF scheduling technique, and hopefully you, the casual reader will feel inclined to share yours!

The TIFF website traditionally offers a helpful resource to organizing and saving your films with a system called My Film List. You can currently find buttons on the official site that read “+Add”. This will add the film to a master list of films that you have personally selected. You can log in to retrieve this list and even update it to reflect your actual final selections. Its handy and quite easy to use, being that the interactivity resides alongside the film descriptions. I use it to get a head start on my planning the day the schedules go live, simply to create a general list of the films I’m interested in.

But I leave the tool to do only that. It’s useful, but not yet perfect (but who knows, this year may be different). Next, I will print out the schedules from the website by day, for each day I will attend. Sometimes the day’s schedule doesn’t fit onto one page so I’ll have to tape them together vertically. This allows me an easy way to get the entire day’s schedule at a glance. You can also photocopy the pages in the official festival schedule book, but being that I am in Michigan, I do not receive it until Wednesday, so this option allows me an extra day to work. It’s important to note that it’s good to print the pages in black and white as opposed to color. It will make your notes and markings easier to read.

At this point, the selection process begins. I use a pencil to immediately circle anything I know I want to see, and cross off anything I know I don’t want to see. Then with a range of colored highlighters, I will highlight the films that I am interested in ranging from very interested, to hardly interested. I will most likely have more than one copy of each day on hand in order to transfer my findings/notes from the “draft” onto a new “working” version. That just makes it easier for me to read after all the highlighting and pencil markings.

What comes next is determined by the types of films you want to see while there, and what type of festival-goer you consider yourself to be. The next TIIF Tips I post will explore those questions.

Again, feel free to use the Comments section to share your neurotic, systematic, or just plain logical scheduling solutions, to what I consider the three day scramble of TIFF scheduling madness!

Full TIFF line-up announced

2007-08-22T20:39:00.000-04:00

The complete line-up to the Toronto International Film Festival was posted today, as well as the schedules for the Galas and Special Presentation programs. There were also a number of newly announced titles, many of them rather significant. The festival has also added what they are calling a “screening room” with trailers and clips from a small selection of films. It’s not working for me at the moment, but it may possibly be working by the time you read this. Click here to go check it out.

Below is a summary of today’s announcement from the TIFF press release:

Today's announcements feature six Gala Presentations, including Renny Harlin's CLEANER, starring Samuel L. Jackson, Ed Harris, Eva Mendes and Keke Palmer; Richard Attenborough's CLOSING THE RING, starring Shirley MacLaine, Christopher Plummer, Mischa Barton, Neve Campbell, Pete Postlethwaite and David Alpay; Alain Corneau's LE DEUXIÈME SOUFFLE, starring Daniel Auteil, Monica Bellucci, Eric Cantona, Michel Blanc, Jacques Dutronc, and Daniel Duva; Robin Swicord's THE JANE AUSTEN BOOK CLUB, starring Kathy Baker, Maria Bello, Marc Blucas, Emily Blunt, Amy Brenneman, Hugh Dancy, Maggie Grace, Jimmy Smits, Kevin Zegers and Lynn Redgrave; Kenneth Branagh's SLEUTH, starring Michael Caine and Jude Law; and Paul Schrader's THE WALKER, starring Woody Harrelson, Kristin Scott Thomas, Lauren Bacall, Lily Tomlin, Willem Defoe, Ned Beatty, Moritz Bleibtreu and Mary Beth Hurt.

Four enlightening Mavericks presentations will feature appearances by Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter, Bill Maher, Larry Charles, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, Don Cheadle, Mira Nair, Santosh Sivan and more. Eight presentations in Dialogues: Talking with Pictures will feature Max von Sydow, Bell Festival Centre architect Bruce Kuwabara, Ken Loach, Arthur Dong and Nancy Kwan, Peter Bogdanovich, Ellen Burstyn, Sidney Lumet, and Lord Richard Attenborough showcasing films that have inspired them or have marked a significant period in their careers.

For the first time in ten years, Wayne Wang returns to the low-budget filmmaking that made him a leader in the American independent cinema movement with A THOUSAND YEARS OF GOOD PRAYERS and THE PRINCESS OF NEBRASKA, two tales about the experience of Chinese immigrants in the United States screening as part of Masters. This year's Masters will feature a complete line-up of 20 films.

Thirteen titles have been added to Special Presentations for a complete programme of 50 films. Titles announced today include Sidney Lumet's BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD, Melisa Wallack and Bernie Goldmann's BILL, Michael Moore's CAPTAIN MIKE ACROSS AMERICA, Gillian Armstrong's DEATH DEFYING ACTS, Vadim Perelman's IN BLOOM, Jason Reitman's JUNO, Ira Sachs' MARRIED LIFE, Jonathan Demme's MAN FROM PLAINS, Alison Eastwood's RAILS & TIES, Brian De Palma's REDACTED, Brad Furman's THE TAKE, Thomas McCarthy's THE VISITOR, and Anand Tucker's WHEN DID YOU LAST SEE YOUR FATHER?

Eight documentaries join Real to Reel for a complete programme featuring 32 of the world's finest non-fiction films. Titles announced today include Paul Crowder/Murray Lerner's AMAZING JOURNEY: THE STORY OF THE WHO, Julian Schnabel's LOU REED'S BERLIN, Ran Tal's CHILDREN OF THE SUN, Philippe Kholy's CALLAS ASSOLUTA, Wang Bing's FENGMING: A CHINESE MEMOIR, Grant Gee's JOY DIVISION, Olga Konskaya and Andreï Nekrasov's REBELLION: THE LITVINENKO CASE, and Jia Zhang-ke's USELESS. A series of conversations with directors and producers exploring the how and why of documentary filmmaking, Doc Talks will be open to the public for the first time this year; previously the series was offered exclusively to the Festival's industry delegates.

The 32nd Toronto International Film Festival is proud to announce a Special Event at which Hollywood great Peter Bogdanovich (THE LAST PICTURE SHOW) will be presented with the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) Award for his contribution to film preservation. He has chosen to screen Jean Renoir's historic gem LA GRANDE ILLUSION (1937) as an example of the importance of film restoration.

TIFF TIP: Research

2007-08-21T18:29:00.000-04:00

The full list of films is only a day away. From the point in which the titles go live, this gives you exactly 6 days to get a head start on researching your films prior to receiving the festival guidebook and there is no need to wait for that. There are typically over 350 films each year, and if you end up waiting until the book and schedules go out, then you have a lot of ground to cover in a very short period of time, especially if you plan on attending most of the festival. Now, if you don’t plan on submitting your selections for the advance draw, then you have a bit more time, but you also run the risk of your films selling out before you get tickets.

The most common method to researching is to scour the past press releases for that one or two sentence synopsis. That can help, but it’s not necessarily the most efficient method, nor does it tell you much about each film. Here are a few great tools for researching that are right under your nose:

IMDB.com is an incredible resource and houses background info on most releases, even if the film is still in development. If it’s not listed here, there may not be much info elsewhere. Try this site first.

Use a search engine to look for the official websites. Many films have websites, even if they don’t have a distributor. These sites can contain a wealth of information, providing summaries, trailers, photo galleries and more.

Many trailers are added to YouTube for promotional and marketing purposes. This is especially true for the larger more commercial films such as those in the Galas or Special Presentation programs. A good trailer can give you a better idea of the film’s tone and content, something descriptions don’t always convey. But proceed with caution. One of the things I like best about seeing films at TIFF is the ability to go in knowing very little. The experience can be greatly rewarding.

Check websites and magazines like Variety, Film Comment and Entertainment Weekly. Many of the films that screened previously at Cannes have already been covered to some length in these publications. I just picked up the August issue of Film Comment and there are 14 pages dedicated to the films at Cannes. Some sites have also dedicated specific sections to festivals, like Variety, (see right sidebar). I will be posting more links to similar sites as they go live and as the festival draws near.

What did I leave out? Share your film researching methods in the comments section. I will be sure to link to additional resources as they appear.

The HOW TO of TIFF...

2007-08-20T22:24:00.000-04:00

Over the course of the next couple weeks, I will be offering a series of tips to help guide TIFF-goers through the festival madness. These will include research, film selection, festival navigation, as well as just general TIFF advice. Now, many of you have probably attended before, so hopefully there will be something of benefit for you as well, but if not, feel free to chime in with a comment to share with others. Hopefully this can become a resource for those of you looking for a few pointers. I’ve attended for over five years now, and I can still use advice because I know the moment those schedules and books go out, every second counts!

TIFF update

2007-08-19T11:21:00.000-04:00

Due to the passing of TIFF colleague Richard Bradshaw this week, and the following funeral on Tuesday, the Toronto International Film Festival Group has rescheduled the Tuesday press conference in which the full list of films were to be announced, to Wednesday, August 22nd at 12 noon. My condolences to Richard Bradshaw's friends and family.

Unofficial TIFF addition: DEATH OF A POET

2007-08-19T10:41:00.000-04:00

Another pre-Tuesday title addition comes by the way of the Asian Journal Online, which reports that Laverente Diaz’s DEATH OF A POET has been added to the TIFF07 line-up. No additional information was given concerning the title. Look for more information to come this Tuesday via the TIFF website.

Ira Sachs MARRIED LIFE to screen at TIFF

2007-08-18T21:01:00.000-04:00

Yet another title has been unofficially announced. Commercialappeal.com has reported that the dark comedy MARRIED LIFE, starring Pierce Brosnan, Rachel McAdams, Patricia Clarkson and Chris Cooper, will screen Wednesday September 12th at this year's TIFF. It will also screen later in the month at the 45th New York Film Festival. The website describes the film as this: "The story concerns an adulterous husband (played by Chris Cooper) who decides it would be kinder to murder his loyal wife than to divorce her." The film is currently planned to open wide in early 2008.

2 unofficial TIFF additions

2007-08-16T12:03:00.000-04:00

In addition to yesterday's big TIFF update, there were a few additional inclusions that apparently did not make the press release. The Toronto Star has reported that 2 additional films will be joining the line-up this year. Although not "official" since it was not published by the Toronto International Film Festival Group, it at least provides a good idea of what will be included in next week's big announcement. From Martin Knelman at the Toronto Star, the titles are:

The Second Wind (Deuxième souffle): Gets a Gala slot. It's French director Alain Corneau's remake of a 1966 crime thriller about a gangster who has escaped from jail but needs to pull off one more robbery.

The Edge of Heaven (directed by Fatih Akin): It won the prize at Cannes for best script. It's about a university professor in Germany who is less than thrilled when his immigrant father chooses a prostitute from Turkey as his new girlfriend. But then they form an unlikely bond.

73 new titles from around the globe

2007-08-16T09:36:00.000-04:00

The Toronto International Film Festival has announced an absolute slew of new titles from multiple categories. Galas, Special Presentations, Masters, Visions, Vanguard as well as the Contemporary World Cinema programs all have new additions from countries around the globe. The list is quite expansive and will most likely be the last significant press release prior to the complete film lineup, to be announced this coming Tuesday (Aug. 21st). Below is a list of titles by country, courtesy the TIFF press release. Click here to read it in full with complete film descriptions.

Argentina
THE PAST Hector Babenco, Argentina/Brazil Masters

Australia
UNFINISHED SKY Peter Duncan, Australia Contemporary World Cinema

Austria
LOVE COMES LATELY Jan Schütte, Germany/Austria/USA Special Presentations
RECLAIM YOUR BRAIN Hans Weingartner, Germany/Austria Special Presentations
THE COUNTERFEITERS Stefan Ruzowitzky, Austria/Germany Contemporary World Cinema
FOREVER NEVER ANYWHERE Antonin Svoboda, Austria Contemporary World Cinema

Bangladesh
ON THE WINGS OF DREAMS Golam Rabbany Biplob, Bangladesh Contemporary World Cinema

Belgium
ANGEL François Ozon, France/UK/Belgium Special Presentations
L'AMOUR CACHÉ Alessandro Capone, Italy/Luxembourg/Belgium Visions

Brazil
THE PAST Hector Babenco, Argentina/Brazil Masters

China
BLOOD BROTHERS Alexi Tan, Taiwan/China/Hong Kong Gala Presentation
THE SUN ALSO RISES Jiang Wen, China Special Presentations

Czech Republic
EMPTIES Jan Sverák, Czech Republic Contemporary World Cinema

Denmark
ERIK NIETZSCHE THE EARLY YEARS Jacob Thuesen, Denmark Contemporary World Cinema
JUST LIKE HOME Lone Scherfig, Denmark Contemporary World Cinema

Egypt
CHAOS Youssef Chahine and Youssef Khaled, Egypt/France Masters

France
ANGEL François Ozon, France/UK/Belgium Special Presentations
CHACUN SON CINÉMA Various, France Special Presentations
PERSEPOLIS Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, France Special Presentations
LES AMOURS D'ASTRÉE ET DE CÉLADON Eric Rohmer, France Masters
CHAOS Youssef Chahine and Youssef Khaled, Egypt/France Masters
DÉSENGAGEMENT Amos Gitai, Israel/France/Germany/Italy Masters
LA FILLE COUPÉE EN DEUX Claude Chabrol, France/Germany Masters
AVANT QUE J'OUBLIE Jacques Nolot, France Contemporary World Cinema
THE BAND'S VISIT Eran Kolirin, Israel/France Contemporary World Cinema
DANS LA VIE Philippe Faucon, France Contemporary World Cinema
L'ENNEMI INTIME Florent Siri, France Contemporary World Cinema
JELLYFISH Etgar Keret and Shira Geffen, Israel/France Contemporary World Cinema
THE SECRETS Avi Nesher, Israel/France Contemporary World Cinema
SON OF RAMBOW Garth Jennings, France/UK Contemporary World Cinema
UNE VIEILLE MAÎTRESSE Catherine Breillat, France Contemporary World Cinema
MISTER LONELY Harmony Korine, UK/France/Ireland/USA Vanguard

Germany
LOVE COMES LATELY Jan Schütte, Germany/Austria/USA Special Presentations
MONGOL Sergei Bodrov, Germany/Kazakhstan/Mongolia/Russia Special Presentations
RECLAIM YOUR BRAIN Hans Weingartner, Germany/Austria Special Presentations
DÉSENGAGEMENT Amos Gitai, Israel/France/Germany/Italy Masters
LA FILLE COUPÉE EN DEUX Claude Chabrol, France/Germany Masters
IT'S A FREE WORLD… Ken Loach, UK/Italy/Germany/Spain Masters
THE COUNTERFEITERS Stefan Ruzowitzky, Austria/Germany Contemporary World Cinema
JAR CITY Baltasar Kormákur, Iceland/Germany Contemporary World Cinema
MY BROTHER IS AN ONLY CHILD Daniele Luchetti, Italy/France Contemporary World Cinema
THE TRAP Srdan Golubovic, Serbia/Germany/Hungary Contemporary World Cinema

Hong Kong
BLOOD BROTHERS Alexi Tan, Taiwan/China/Hong Kong Gala Presentation
MAD DETECTIVE Johnnie To and Wai Ka Fai, Hong Kong Special Presentations
THE EXODUS Pang Ho-cheung, Hong Kong Vanguard

Hungary
THE TRAP Srdan Golubovic, Serbia/Germany/Hungary Contemporary World Cinema

Iceland
JAR CITY Baltasar Kormákur, Iceland/Germany Contemporary World Cinema

India
THE LAST LEAR Rituparno Ghosh, India Gala Presentation
FOUR WOMEN Adoor Gopalakrishnan, India Masters
THE VOYEURS Buddhadeb Dasgupta, India Masters

Iran
UNFINISHED STORIES Pourya Azarbayjani, Iran Contemporary World Cinema

Ireland
GARAGE Lenny Abrahamson, Ireland Contemporary World Cinema
KINGS Tom Collins, Ireland/UK Contemporary World Cinema
MISTER LONELY Harmony Korine, UK/France/Ireland/USA Vanguard

Israel
DÉSENGAGEMENT Amos Gitai, Israel/France/Germany/Italy Masters
THE BAND'S VISIT Eran Kolirin, Israel/France Contemporary World Cinema
JELLYFISH Etgar Keret and Shira Geffen, Israel/France Contemporary World Cinema
THE SECRETS Avi Nesher, Israel/France Contemporary World Cinema

Italy
DÉSENGAGEMENT Amos Gitai, Israel/France/Germany/Italy Masters
IT'S A FREE WORLD… Ken Loach, UK/Italy/Germany/Spain Masters
DAYS AND CLOUDS Silvio Soldini, Italy/Switzerland Contemporary World Cinema
MY BROTHER IS AN ONLY CHILD Daniele Luchetti, Italy/France Contemporary World Cinema
L'ORA DI PUNTA Vincenzo Marra, Italy Contemporary World Cinema
L'AMOUR CACHÉ Alessandro Capone, Italy/Luxembourg/Belgium Visions

Japan
GLORY TO THE FILMMAKER! Takeshi Kitano, Japan Masters
A GENTLE BREEZE IN THE VILLAGE Nobuhiro Yamashita, Japan Contemporary World Cinema
SAD VACATION Aoyama Shinji, Japan Vanguard

Kazakhstan
MONGOL Sergei Bodrov, Germany/Kazakhstan/Mongolia/Russia Special Presentations

Luxembourg
L'AMOUR CACHÉ Alessandro Capone, Italy/Luxembourg/Belgium Visions

Republic of Macedonia
SHADOWS Milcho Manchevski, Republic of Macedonia Special Presentations

Mongolia
MONGOL Sergei Bodrov, Germany/Kazakhstan/Mongolia/Russia Special Presentations

Netherlands
WOLFSBERGEN Nanouk Leopold, Netherlands Contemporary World Cinema

Norway
GONE WITH THE WOMAN Petter Næss, Norway Contemporary World Cinema

Philippines
PHILIPPINE SCIENCE Auraeus Solito, Philippines Contemporary World Cinema
SLINGSHOT Brillante Mendoza, Philippines Contemporary World Cinema

Portugal
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS, THE ENIGMA Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal Masters

Romania
CALIFORNIA DREAMIN' (ENDLESS) Cristian Nemescu, Romania Contemporary World Cinema
4 MONTHS, 3 WEEKS AND 2 DAYS Cristian Mungiu, Romania Visions

Russia
MONGOL Sergei Bodrov, Germany/Kazakhstan/Mongolia/Russia Special Presentations

Serbia
THE TRAP Srdan Golubovic, Serbia/Germany/Hungary Contemporary World Cinema

South Korea
BEYOND THE YEARS Im Kwon-taek, South Korea Masters
HAPPINESS Hur Jin-ho, South Korea Contemporary World Cinema

Spain
FADOS Carlos Saura, Spain Masters
IT'S A FREE WORLD… Ken Loach, UK/Italy/Germany/Spain Masters
CHAOTIC ANA Julio Medem, Spain Special Presentations
BARCELONA (A MAP) Ventura Pons, Spain Contemporary World Cinema

Sweden
TO LOVE SOMEONE Åke Sandgren, Sweden Contemporary World Cinema

Switzerland
DAYS AND CLOUDS Silvio Soldini, Italy/Switzerland Contemporary World Cinema

Taiwan
BLOOD BROTHERS Alexi Tan, Taiwan/China/Hong Kong Gala Presentation
LUST, CAUTION Ang Lee, Taiwan Special Presentations

United Kingdom
ANGEL François Ozon, France/UK/Belgium Special Presentations
IT'S A FREE WORLD… Ken Loach, UK/Italy/Germany/Spain Masters
BATTLE FOR HADITHA Nick Broomfield, UK Contemporary World Cinema
BRICK LANE Sarah Gavron, UK Contemporary World Cinema
KINGS Tom Collins, Ireland/UK Contemporary World Cinema
RUN, FAT BOY, RUN David Schwimmer, UK Contemporary World Cinema
SON OF RAMBOW Garth Jennings, France/UK Contemporary World Cinema
BOY A John Crowley, UK Vanguard
MISTER LONELY Harmony Korine, UK/France/Ireland/USA Vanguard

Uruguay
THE POPE'S TOILET Enrique Fernandes and César Charlone, Uruguay Contemporary World Cinema

USA
LOVE COMES LATELY Jan Schütte, Germany/Austria/USA Special Presentations
CHOP SHOP Ramin Bahrani, USA Contemporary World Cinema
KING OF CALIFORNIA Mike Cahill, USA Contemporary World Cinema
STARTING OUT IN THE EVENING Andrew Wagner, USA Contemporary World Cinema
NEW YORK CITY SERENADE Frank Whaley, USA Contemporary World Cinema
MISTER LONELY Harmony Korine, UK/France/Ireland/USA Vanguard
SMILEY FACE Gregg Araki, USA Vanguard
WHITE LIES, BLACK SHEEP James Spooner, USA Vanguard

Discoveries

2007-08-13T22:57:00.000-04:00

Thirteen titles have been added to the Toronto International Film Festival lineup under the Discovery program, a showcase for new and emerging filmmakers. Past years have brought us the fine film THE MAGDALENE SISTERS as well as one of my personal favorites, WHALE RIDER. It should also be noted that these films are eligible for the DIESEL Discovery Award. The winning filmmaker will walk away with a cash prize of $10,000 as determined by 1000 members from the international media. At first glance, this looks to be a promising year for the program with some very intriqing films. Of personal interest are FROZEN, THE PASSAGE, and WITH YOUR PERMISSION. Who knows what gems will be found...
Below is a complete list of the newly added titles from the TIFF press release:

THE BABYSITTERS David Ross, USA
Sixteen-year-old Shirley (Katherine Waterston) turns her babysitting service into a call girl ring for married men after she begins an affair with a customer. Writer David Ross' (THE WOODS) directorial debut stars John Leguizamo, Cynthia Nixon, Denis O'Hare and Andy Comeau.

BLIND Tamar van den Dop, Netherlands/Belgium/Bulgaria
Marie (Halina Reijn) a young albino woman struggling with her looks finds love with a blind man named Ruben (Joren Seldenslachts). Marie becomes disheartened when she discovers that surgery may repair Ruben's eyesight. A period piece, BLIND is a touching portrait of how blind love can be.

COCHOCHI Israel Cárdenas and Laura Amelia Guzmán, Mexico/UK/Canada
After returning home from elementary boarding school, two brothers Tony (Luis Antonio Lerma Batista) and Evaristo (Evaristo Lerma Batista) are sent to deliver a package to a far community in La Sierra Tarahumara, Mexico, by their grandfather. Without permission, the brothers take the family horse but lose the horse and one another after making a wrong turn. They each then embark on a separate adventure, leading them to discover a new world.

CORROBOREE Ben Hackworth, Australia
A dying theatre director hires a young man named Conor (Conor O'Hanlon) to visit him in a meditation retreat and perform scenes from the director's life. Following a tape of instructions, the young man must visit different rooms over the weekend and in these rooms, encounters five actresses who portray key women in the director's life. As the final scenes unfold, Conor must decide whether the performance has gone too far.

FROZEN Shivajee Chandrabhushan, India
Lasya (Gauri), a girl in her late teens, lives with her father Karma (Danny Denzongpa) and younger brother Chomo (Angchuk) in a remote village, somewhere in the mountains of the northern Himalayas. The family's quiet life is disturbed when the army moves into the village in search of the enemy but instead they find a frozen body. Director Shivajee Chandrabhushan strips away excess to reveal a simple succession of telling moments that build to a remarkable final image.

I AM FROM TITOV VELES Teona Strugar Mitevska, Macedonia
A social drama, I AM FROM TITOV VELES is the story of three sisters living in Veles, a small industrial town in Macedonia, searching for a better life. With painful honesty, writer/director Teona Strugar Mitevska follows the sisters as they struggle with themselves, their dissolving family and difficult relationships.

KING OF THE HILL Gonzalo LGpez-Gallego, Spain
While travelling through an isolated area in Spain, Quim (Leonardo Sbaraglia) meets Bea, a young woman (María Valverde), at a stop at a gas station. After a brief encounter, Bea steals his wallet, and takes off. Quim pursues her on an unmarked road, but during the chase, he is suddenly shot and wounded by a sniper. As he searches for safe cover, he eventually finds Bea, who has also been mysteriously shot at. With a small cast and few locations, director Gonzalo LGpez-Gallego (OVER THE RAINBOW, NOMADS) keeps the tension high throughout this thrilling and surprising film.

LA ZONA Rodrigo Plà, Spain/Mexico
Three youths from the slums break into one of the houses of The Zone, an exclusive residential neighbourhood in Mexico City. Miguel (Alan Chávez), one of the intruders, survives the botched burglary and escapes deeper into The Zone. Alejandro (Daniel Tovar), a young boy celebrating his birthday, discovers Miguel but makes a difficult decision to protect him from The Zone residents who want to carry out justice themselves.

THE PASSAGE Mark Heller, USA
During a trip to Morocco, Luke (Stephen Dorff) meets and falls in love with Zahra (Sarai Givaty) a beautiful local. After discovering that their forbidden romance could cost them their lives, the couple leaves the confines of the city for the Atlas Mountains. However, they soon discover that being miles away from anywhere leaves them unprotected and without a place to hide.

ROMING Jirí Vejdelek, Czech Republic/Romania/Slovakia
A slapstick road-movie, ROMING traces the misadventures of Romany community members, Jura (Vítezslav Holub), his father Roman (Marián Labuda), and an old family friend Stano (Bolek Polívka) as they journey in a broken truck from northern Bohemia in the Czech Republic to Slovakia. More than just a comedy, this film is a portrait of a nomadic culture searching for identity and acceptance.

SEPTEMBER Peter Carstairs, Australia
A coming-of-age story set in the Australian wheat-belt in 1968, SEPTEMBER tells the story of two 16-year-old boys, Ed (Xavier Samuel) and Paddy (Clarence John Ryan) - one white and one Aboriginal - as the social and political climate of the time threatens to fracture their close friendship, especially with the arrival of a new girl in town.

WITH YOUR PERMISSION Paprika Steen, Denmark/Sweden
Paprika Steen's (AFTERMATH) second feature film, WITH YOUR PERMISSION, is a dark and twisted comedy on marital discord. Jan (Lars Brygmann) and Bente (Sidse Babett Knudsen) are in an unhappy marriage. Upon insistence of his boss, Jan goes into therapy where he meets two mechanics willing to get rid of Bente. Everyone's lives take an unexpected turn when the two hitmen meet Bente and take a liking to her.

THE WORLD UNSEEN Shamim Sarif, UK/South Africa
Free-spirited Amina (Sheetal Sheth) and the married Miriam (Lisa Ray) fall in love in the 1950's apartheid South Africa and set in motion a chain of events that changes both women forever. THE WORLD UNSEEN, is a captivating drama, based on a highly acclaimed awarding-winning novel of the same title by director Shamim Sarif.

The Visions program

2007-08-08T22:25:00.000-04:00

Last year, a selection in the TIFF Visions program - a program highlighting films that utilize experimental or innovative techniques to aid in storytelling - became an overnight sensation after its initial screening. The film was TEN CANOES. It told the story of how an aborigine tribe, while building canoes, taught another tribe member the virtues and dangers of lust, jealousy, pride and revenge through elaborate ancestral stories. It was beautifully shot, utilized native environments, an all-Aboriginal cast, and was filmed in both black and white as well as color. It was the first feature in an Australian Aboriginal language and celebrated the power of the spoken word.

After the screening, the public quickly raved about its powerful imagery and its ability to resonate across cultures and generations. But then word got out that the print was not complete and was not intended to be seen as is. What could have been missing?

Subtitles.

It lacked a translated soundtrack, but the film left an impact through its strong visual and narrative techniques, and was clearly at home in the Visions program. What can we expect from the program this year? The director of TEN CANOES, Rolf de Heer, is back again this year with DR PLONK, a black and white silent comedy set in 1907, about a scientist determined to prove the world will end in 2008, and creates a time machine in order to gather the proof. It appears lightning will not strike twice as there will be no audio to translate.

The festival also announced an additional 12 films to the program this week. All of which will be eligible for the Artistic Innovation Award, now in it’s second year. Click here to read descriptions of each new title at TIFF web site.

2 official, 2 unofficial TIFF announcements

2007-08-05T11:48:00.000-04:00

The big TIFF07 news this week is that Woody Allen’s newest feature, CASSANDRA’S DREAM, will premiere at the festival as a Gala presentation. The film stars Colin Farrell, Tom Wilkinson, and Ewan McGregor and will no doubt be on many critc's must see lists as the festival countdown continues. The festival describes the film as "...a powerful and thrilling story about two brothers (Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell) who are desperate to better their troubled lives. One is a chronic gambler up to his ears in debt; the other is a young man in love with a beautiful actress (newcomer Hayley Atwell) whom he has just recently met. Their lives gradually become entangled as a result of a sinister situation with intense and unfortunate results."

It seems that there are 2 types of filmgoers; the kind that adores the filmmaker that brought us the films ANNIE HALL and MANHATTAN, and those that will respond to this announcement with a shrug of the shoulders and the click of a mouse. So depending on the camp you’re in, this announcement may or may not have the resonance a press release like this tends to garner. Either way, it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise considering its appearance in Venice days earlier.

The other title that was “officially” announced this week is the film ACROSS THE UNIVERSE from Julie Taymor. This will also be screening as a Gala presentation and unfortunately, seems to have been overshadowed by the above announcement. The film is a romantic musical set in the 1960’s and follows the story of two lovers as they explore the challenges and changes of the turbulent times, all to the soundtrack of “30 revolutionary, generation-defining songs”. As the current list stands, this looks like one of the more intriquing Gala releases.

Two more titles were also added to the festival roster recently, albeit unofficially. Outside sources report that Ang Lee’s World War II-era espionage thriller LUST, CAUTION will have an official screening, as well as Shinji Aoyama's SAD VACATION. SAD VACATION will be a part of the Vanguard program, while the program for LUST, CAUTION has yet to be confirmed. While these have not been officially announced by the festival, expect to see a press release with these titles soon.

DVD releases for 7/31/07

2007-08-03T12:19:00.000-04:00

The last time we saw Simon Pegg, he was a lumbering, slow moving, disheveled couch potato, flinging records and beer bottles at lumbering, slow moving, disheveled zombies. His wonderful fondness and understanding for all things undead gave the film SHAUN OF THE DEAD a silly, relaxed sense of humor while staying true to it's genre. Simon Pegg's newest venture, HOT FUZZ, out now on DVD, is another affectionate homage to the genre film, but this time he takes on the buddy-cop film. Expect the same dry wit you've come to expect from the rising Brit writing team of Pegg and Edgar Wright, but instead of scares, expect guns, explosions and most of all, a thoroughly entertaining 2 hours for any couch potato.

Other notable releases this week include:

300

Everything’s Gone Green

The Darwin Awards

Encounter Point

Real to Reel and Vanguard selections

2007-07-31T21:37:00.000-04:00

Below are the newly added titles to the Real to Reel and Vanguard programs. Standouts are the eagerly anticipated Phil Donahue documentary BODY OF WAR and Gus Van Sant’s Cannes selection PARANOID PARK. Full list and descriptions from the TIFF website are below:

VANGUARD TITLES

PARANOID PARK Gus Van Sant, France
Alex (Gabe Nevins), a teenaged skateboarder, is at the centre of a criminal investigation after a security guard is killed near a skate park. Through non-linear fragments of action, voiced memories, skating scenes and Alex's inner conflict, his connection to the case is made clear. Like Van Sant's recent trilogy (GERRY, ELEPHANT and LAST DAYS) the sophisticated PARANOID PARK, based on the novel by Blake Nelson, is a provocative work about the human condition.

DÉFICIT Gael García Bernal, Mexico
Mexican star Gael García Bernal's compelling directorial debut is about a 20-something rich kid named Cristobal (Bernal) and a party he throws over a weekend. The clash between his and his younger sister's friends is comic and intense; class differences also reveal a unique social commentary on the state of Mexico.

CHRYSALIS Julien Leclercq, France
In Julien Leclercq's action feature debut, a lieutenant returns to the line of duty to hunt down a dangerous smuggler behind a series of murders, including his wife's own. The investigation leads him to a state-of-the-art clinic where memories are a precious and highly coveted commodity. Starring Albert Dupontel, Estelle Lefébure, Marie Guillard, Marthe Keller and Mélanie Thierry.

EX DRUMMER Koen Mortier, Belgium
Three disabled punk rockers find their perfect drummer in the uber-hip and arrogant author Dries, except for the fact that he can't actually play drums. Dries' unscrupulous behaviour sets off tension within the band, as family vendettas and personal disputes begin to jeopardize their fragile future. Set to a blood-soaked, sweat-drenched punk rock soundtrack, Koen Mortier's debut feature is as coarsely gruesome, sexually raunchy and blackly comic as the novel - by controversial writer Herman Brusselmans - on which it is based.

HELP ME EROS Lee Kang-sheng, Taiwan
From acclaimed actor Lee Kang-sheng comes a darkly comic and sexually daring tale that follows a young, penniless stock broker (Lee) who consoles himself with marijuana grown in his apartment closet. In his misery, he calls a suicide help line and falls for his counsellor, then sets a love triangle in motion when he projects his fantasy of her onto another girl who sells nuts at a nearby stall.

ME Rafa Cortés, Spain
The feature-directorial debut from Spain's Rafa Cortés, ME sees the writer-director musing on the place of his birth - the island of Majorca. When Hans (co-writer Alex Brendemühl) arrives in a small island town to take up work as a caretaker, his presence persistently invokes memories of the previous caretaker, also named Hans - memories that hang heavily over him as he searches and struggles to find an identity to call his own.

PING PONG PLAYA' Jessica Yu, USA
Streetwise swaggering Christopher "C-dub" Wang is a suburban guy who waxes political on all things Asian American and clings to pro basketball pipe dreams. But when misfortune strikes his family, C-dub must overcome living at home, working a dead-end job and his worldly older brother, to run his Mom's ping pong classes and defend the family's athletic dynasty.

XXY Lucía Puenzo, Argentina/Spain/France
Fifteen-year old Alex carries a heavy secret about her gender status and, at puberty, must make a decision one way or the other. But friends visiting from the family's former hometown with their 16-year-old son, Álvaro, and the inevitable attraction between teenagers, complicates matters.

REAL TO REEL

ALGERIE, HISTOIRES A NE PAS DIRE Jean-Pierre Lledo, Algeria
Four Algerians of Muslim origin revisit the last years of their country's War of Independence, searching for truth about their own lives while recalling memories of troubled relationships with their Jewish and Christian neighbours.

BODY OF WAR Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro, USA
Wounded after serving in Iraq for less than a week, 25-year-old Tomas Young - now paralyzed from the chest down - transforms his personal suffering into political activism, evolving as a powerful voice against the ongoing war. Featuring new music by Eddie Vedder of Pearl Jam.

DARFUR NOW Ted Braun, USA
A call to action to help stop the genocide in Darfur, the struggles and achievements of six very different individuals - including actor Don Cheadle - bring to light the situation in Darfur and illustrate the need to get involved.

THE DICTATOR HUNTER Klaartje Quirijns, The Netherlands/USA
Revisiting the horrific torture, imprisonment and murder carried out in the 1980s under the regime of former Chadian dictator Hissène Habré, THE DICTATOR HUNTER follows Human Rights Watch activist Reed Brody in his quest to bring Habré to justice.

DINNER WITH THE PRESIDENT: A NATION'S JOURNEY Sabiha Sumar and Sachithanandam Sathananthan, Pakistan
In October 1999, Pervez Musharraf assumed power in Pakistan through a bloodless military coup. Hearing his vision for Pakistan over dinner, filmmakers Sumar and Sathananthan ponder the irony of a President in army fatigues delivering democracy to the masses. A part of Why Democracy?.

ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD Werner Herzog, USA
In his first documentary since GRIZZLY MAN, Herzog, accompanied only by his cameraman, travels to Antarctica, gaining unrestricted access to the raw beauty and humanity of the ultimate Down Under.

GLASS: A PORTRAIT OF PHILIP IN TWELVE PARTS Scott Hicks, Australia
Filmmaker Scott Hicks (SHINE) documents an eventful year in the career and personal life of distinguished composer Philip Glass as he interacts with a number of friends and collaborators, including Chuck Close, Ravi Shankar and Woody Allen.

HOLLYWOOD CHINESE Arthur Dong, USA
Punctuated with clips from over 100 movies, HOLLYWOOD CHINESE offers a captivating revelation on the Chinese in American feature films, from the very first Chinese-American film produced in 1916 to Ang Lee's triumphant BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN.

IRON LADIES OF LIBERIA Siatta Scott Johnson and Daniel Junge, USA
As the first freely elected female head of state in Africa, Liberian President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf appointed other extraordinary women to leadership positions in all areas of government. IRON LADIES OF LIBERIA asks the question, 'can Liberia's first female president bring sustainable democracy and peace to such a devastated country'? A part of Why Democracy?.

A JIHAD FOR LOVE Parvez Sharma, USA/UK/France/Germany/Australia
The first feature-length documentary to investigate the complex global intersections of Islam and homosexuality, Sharma's feature directorial debut brings to light the hidden lives of gay and lesbian Muslims with empowering stories from twelve countries.

MAN OF CINEMA: PIERRE RISSIENT Todd McCarthy, USA
Variety critic Todd McCarthy explores the legacy of Pierre Rissient, a key behind-the-scenes figure in Cannes for more than 40 years.

MY ENEMY'S ENEMY Kevin Macdonald, France/UK
From the director of THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND comes a documentary about the post-war activities of one-time Gestapo commander Klaus Barbie, infamously known as the "Butcher of Lyon."

MY KID COULD PAINT THAT Amir Bar-Lev, USA
Chronicling the rise to fame of Marla Olmstead - a four-year-old painter whose work has taken in over $300,000 - filmmaker Amir Bar-Lev examines society's obsession with child prodigies while exploring the complex on-going debate over what constitutes art.

OBSCENE Neil Ortenberg and Daniel O'Connor, USA
Drawn from more than 60 years of home movies, media appearances and rare archival footage, OBSCENE tells the story of American publisher Barney Rosset, who fought battles in court to put out some of the most forbidden works of the explosive post-war decades, including Tropic of Cancer and Naked Lunch.

OPERATION FILMMAKER Nina Davenport, USA
When the dreams of a young Iraqi film student are crushed following the bombing of Baghdad's film school, actor Liev Schreiber invites him to intern on the production of EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED. But in a comedic turn of events, Schreiber's good intentions quickly backfire as the eager student proves to have intentions of his own.

PLEASE VOTE FOR ME Weijun Chen, China
In an experiment to determine how democracy might be received in China, third-graders hold an election to select a Class Monitor, competing against one other for the coveted position while being egged on by teachers and doting parents. A part of Why Democracy?.

SURFWISE Doug Pray, USA
Filmmaker Doug Pray tells the bizarre story of an eccentric family: 85-year-old legendary surfer Dr. Dorian "Doc" Paskowitz, his wife Juliette, and their nine children - raised and home-schooled in a camper on a California beach.

TERROR'S ADVOCATE (L'AVOCAT DE LA TERREUR) Barbet Schroeder, France
Veteran director Barbet Schroeder explores the life, career and conscience of criminal lawyer Jacques Vergès, whose clients - including Klaus Barbie, Slobodan Milosevic and Saddam Hussein - are among the most infamous figures of the 20th century.

TRUMBO Peter Askin, USA
Told through spoken-word performances of some of its subject's extraordinary letters, TRUMBO presents a portrait of screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, who fought back after being blacklisted by HUAC. Featuring appearances by Donald Sutherland, Michael Douglas, Joan Allen and Liam Neeson.

VERY YOUNG GIRLS David Schisgall, USA An eye-opening survey of teenage prostitution in New York City, David Schisgall's film also tells the story of Rachel Lloyd, the remarkable woman who founded Girls Education & Mentoring Services (GEMS), dedicating her live to help ensure that young girls avoid making the same mistakes that she did.

30 new titles

2007-07-31T17:03:00.000-04:00

It looks like TIFF has turned an ordinary Tuesday into an event. I was only aniticipating the announcement of the final two Midnight Madness films, and instead, we are introduced to 30 new titles, including the 2 remaining from Midnight Madness, most of the Reel to Real program, and 8 new Vangaurd titles.
The final 2 Midnight Madness titles are...

THE MOTHER OF TEARS Dario Argento

SUKIYAKI WESTERN DJANGO Takashi Miike

Fest winner finds distribution

2007-07-30T23:05:00.000-04:00

The TIFF06 "People's Choice Award" winner BELLA, looks to have found a distribution deal almost one year after it's premiere in Toronto. Bella follows in the footsteps of past winners TSOTSI, HOTEL RWANDA, ZATOICHI and WHALE RIDER. It was also the first winner since the festival changed their voting procedure. Only time will tell if the new system is a good indicator of future success, as it was with the last three out of four.

Article is by By John Jalsevac for Lifesite.net:

July 26, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Bella, the heart-warming independent film that took the 2006 Toronto Film Festival by storm, winning the prestigious "People's Choice Award," is in final negotiations with a major U.S. distributor, a representative at Metanoia Films told LifeSiteNews.com.
According to the representative, barring any last minute glitches in the signing of the papers, the film will be released in theatres across the country on October 26 of this year. Currently, however, he said, further details cannot be released until the contract is finalized.

Click here to read the full article.

Wishful thinking

2007-07-29T22:21:00.000-04:00

Even though the announcement of the final 2 Midnight Madness selections are only days away, I can’t help but keep my fingers crossed for a very unlikely entry; [REC] is receiving all kinds of hype due to it’s (originally) imaginative execution and simplistic teaser trailer (see below). The idea of a zombie film shot with hand-held camera footage, documentary style, was an interesting concept months ago, but now with the technique becoming so popular, by the time J.J. Abrams CLOVERFIELD hits theaters in March, it may have already become a tiresome gimmick. Anyone remember the noise theatergoers raised after sitting through THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT? Regardless, I’m sure DIARY OF THE DEAD will be fantastic, given this is Romero’s first independently produced film in over 20 years, and I’m sure it will be filled with his unique blend of social commentary and scares. But for me, [REC] was the one to beat. With such a similar theme and execution, I doubt we’ll see two hand-held, first person perspective zombie films in the same festival. So what are the chances? Not great, but [REC] is playing Venice days earlier, so there is always hope (and whatever the 2 selections are, they’re not UNDERWORLD)!

What's missing?

2007-07-27T23:55:00.000-04:00

You may have noticed something is missing from the TIFF press releases this year. The film descriptions are missing that drum roll of hype that typically follows the sprawling list of stars. Give up? It's that there is absolutely no mention of whether a film is having its World Premiere, International Premiere or North American Premiere at the festival. These types of titles that accompany most films are what have typically helped festivals build prestige, pride and publicity. They help festivals define themselves and stand out amongst their competition. Apparently TIFF no longer believes this is effective. Or, it’s quite possible that, in this strange overlapping festival universe, that Venice and Telluride are stealing their thunder. Both festivals have the ability to show the same films, just days earlier. Granted, distinguishing an International premiere from a North American premiere is strictly for the PR/marketing professionals and rarely resonates with the general festival going audience. But what does this say about the TIFF? Does festival director Noah Cowan have a bigger picture in mind for the festival, or is this simply a ploy to prevent the appearance of eating leftovers?

Since Venice (which is similar to Cannes - both are considered “competitive” festivals, unlike Toronto) runs Aug. 29-Sept 8., many films will screen there prior to playing in Toronto. Take a look below for their complete list, just released Thursday:

64TH ANNUAL VENICE FILM FESTIVAL COMPETITION

Opening Film: "Atonement," Joe Wright, (U.K-U.S.)

"The Darjeeling Limited," Wes Anderson (U.S.)
"Sleuth," Kenneth Branagh (U.K.-U.S.)
"This Is Chaos, " Youssef Chahine (Egypt)
"Redacted," Brian De Palma (U.S.)
"The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford," Andrew Dominik (U.S.)
"Nessuna qualita agli eroi," Paolo Franchi (Italy)
"Michael Clayton," Tony Gilroy (U.S.)
"Nightwatching," Peter Greenaway (Canada-France-Germany-Poland-Netherlands-U.K.)
"En la cuidad de Sylvia," Pilae Lopez De Ayala, Xavier Lafitte (Spain)
"In the Valley of Elah," Paul Haggis (U.S.)
"I'm Not There," Todd Haynes (U.S)
"The Sun Also Rises," Jiang Wen (China-Hong Kong)
"Help Me Eros," Lee Kang Sheng (Taiwan)
"La Graine et le mullet," Abdellatif Kechiche (France)
"Lust, Caution," Ang Lee (U.S.- Taiwan)
"It's a Free World." Ken Loach (U.K.-Italy-Germany-Spain )
"L'ora di punta," Vincenzo Marra (Italy)
"Sukiyaki Western Django," Takashi Miike (Japan)
"12," Nikita Mikhalkov (Russia)
"Il dolce e l'amaro," Andrea Porporati (Italy)
"Les Amours d'Astree et de Celadon," Eric Rohmer (France-Italy-Spain)

OUT OF COMPETITION - VENICE MASTERS
"Cassandra's Dream," Woody Allen (U.K.-U.S)
"Cleopatra," Julio Bressane (Brazil)
"La Fille coupee en deux," Claude Chabrol (France)
"Beyond the Years," Im Kwon Taek (South Korea)
"Glory to the Filmmaker," Takeshi Kitano (Japan)
"Cristovao Colombo-O enigma," Manoel de Oliveira (Portugal-France)

VENETIAN NIGHTS - OPENING AND CLOSING FILMS
"For a Fistful of Dollars," Sergio Leone (Italy-Spain-Germany) (as part of Spaghetti Westerns retro)
"Blood Brothers," Alexi Tan (Taiwan-China-Hong Kong)
"REC," Paco Blaza and Jaume Balaguero (Spain)

VENETIAN NIGHTS
"Far North," Asif Kapadia (U.K.-France)
"The Hunting Party," Richard Shepard (U.S.-Croatia-Bosnia)
"The Nanny Diaries," Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini (U.S.)
"Nocturna," Adria Garcia, Victor Maldonado (Spain-France)

HORIZONS
"Sad Vacation," Shinji Aoyama (Japan)
"Mal nascida," Joao Canijo (Portugal)
"Searchers 2.0," Alex Cox (U.K.)
"Medee Miracle," Tonino De Bernardi (Italy)
"Cochochi," Laura Amelia Guzman, Israel Cardenas (Mexico-U.K.-Canada)
"With the Girl of Black Soil," Jeon Soo-il (South Korea-France)
"L'Histoire de Richard O," Damien Odoul (France)
"Autumn Ball," Veiko Ounpuu (Estonia)
"The Silence Before Bach," Pere Portabella (Spain)
"Exodus," Penny Woolcock (U.K.)
"The Obscure," Lu Yue (China)

HORIZONS DOC
"Dust," Hartmut Bitomsky (Germany)
"Madri," Barbara Cupisti (Italy)
"Death in the Land of Encantos," Lav Diaz (Philippines)
"Man From Plains," Jonathan Demme (U.S.)
"L'Aimee," Arnaud Desplechin (France)
"Umbrella," Du Haibin (China)
"Andarilho," Cao Guimares (Brazil)
"Useless," Jia Zhangke (China)
"Il Passaggio delle linea," Pietro Marcello (Italy)
"Anabazys," Joel Pizzini, Paloma Rocha (Brazil)
"Berlin," Julian Schnabel (U.S.)

OUT-OF-COMPETITION SPECIAL EVENT
"Hotel Chevalier," Wes Anderson (U.S.)

SPECIAL EVENTS - BERNARDO BERTOLUCCI: GOLDEN LION FOR THE 75TH
"La Via del petrolio," Bernardo Bertolucci (Italy)
"Spider's Stratagem," Bernardo Bertolucci (Italy)

SPECIAL EVENTS - TIM BURTON: GOLDEN LION FOR CAREER ACHIEVEMENT 2007
"Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3-D," Tim Burton and Henry Selick (U.S.)

Roll out the red carpets

2007-07-27T12:24:00.000-04:00

The star power just got kicked up a few notches when the TIFF released 8 additional titles to their Special Presentations program, a showcase for high-profile films featuring major stars and directors. Great news for the celeb spotters and red carpet regulars this year. Click here for the full film descriptions.

THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD
A film from Andrew Dominik and stars Brad Pitt, Casey Affleck, Sam Shepard, Mary-Louise Parker, Paul Schneider, Jeremy Renner, Zooey Deschanel and Sam Rockwell.

ATONEMENT A film from Joe Wright and based on the award-winning novel by Ian McEwan. The film stars Keira Knightley, James McAvoy, Romola Garai and Vanessa Redgrave.

BATTLE IN SEATTLE from Stuart Townsend and stars Andre Benjamin, Woody Harrelson, Joshua Jackson, Ray Liotta, Michelle Rodriguez, Channing Tatum and Charlize Theron.

I'M NOT THERE from Todd Haynes and sees Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger, Ben Whishaw and Marcus Carl Franklin as the embodiment of different 'Dylanesque' characters - expressions of Dylan's mercurial personality and his chameleon-like persona. Also starring Julianne Moore, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Bruce Greenwood and Michelle Williams.

IN THE VALLEY OF ELAH from Paul Haggis and stars Tommy Lee Jones, Susan Sarandon, Charlize Theron, Jason Patric, Josh Brolin and James Franco.

INTO THE WILD from Sean Penn, and based on a true story documented by author Jon Krakauer. The film stars Emile Hirsch, Marcia Gay Harden, William Hurt, Jena Malone, Catherine Keener and Vince Vaughn.

MARGOT AT THE WEDDING from Noah Baumbach, and stars Jennifer Jason Leigh, Nicole Kidman and Jack Black.

THE SAVAGES from Tamara Jenkins, stars Laura Linney, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Philip Bosco.

DVD releases for 7/24

2007-07-26T22:44:00.000-04:00

A couple TIFF06 selections are debuting this week on DVD. THE HOST is available in a standard issue single disc as well as the two-disc Collector's Edition. It's a fantastic film that's become an international sensation and will hopefully find a new audience here on DVD. I've gushed over the film in a previous posting, so all I will say is: If you have not seen it yet, rent/buy it now.

The other release is RENAISSANCE, which was featured in last year's newly formed Vanguard program, and is created in what Colin Geddes labeled "revolutionary high-tech animation" in striking black and white. It also includes a talented voice cast of Daniel Craig and Catherine McCormack just to name a few. Netflix summarizes it best; "It's 2054 Paris, and a megacorporation called Avalon dominates contemporary life and sells eternal youth and beauty to the citizenry in this animated sci-fi thriller. When promising young Avalon scientist Ilona Tasuiev is kidnapped, the company hires top detective Barthélémy Karas (voiced by Daniel Craig) to find her. As he investigates, Karas discovers others on the hunt for Tasuiev -- along with a trail of witnesses that keep turning up dead."

Other notable DVD releases this week include:

Zodiac

The Number 23

Raise the Red Lantern

Hard Boiled Collector's Edition

Les Enfants Terribles

The Monster Squad

A few updates

2007-07-25T19:36:00.000-04:00

In order to make this site more useful, I've added a few new sections to highlight some helpful TIFF info. In the left column, I've added TIFF box office locations, TIFF participating cinemas, and (to some, most importantly) theater seating numbers. When it comes time to select your first and second choice film selections, seating may become an important factor in your decision making process (more on that to come).

On the right, I've created a TIFF Resources section to feature links to sites dedicated (or sites with sections dedicated) to the TIFF. I have many, many more links ready to post once the sites go live. This will be a great resource for those of you looking to get an early scoop on film reviews, film buzz, and festival events. Keep checking back as it gets closer to the festival for those.

If there is anything else you would find useful, or would like to see added to the blog, please post a comment below and I will do my best to accommodate. Just 43 days to go!

Midnight Madness announced!

2007-07-23T21:10:00.000-04:00

New this year, the festival is releasing a handful of full program lists and schedules before the usual full schedule announcement in August. 8 out of the 10 Midnight Madness program titles were announced today and as usual, they are a rowdy mix of blood, kinetic marital arts, edgy animation, and (new this year) superhero giants! The final 2 titles will be announced July 31st. Anyone know, or have any speculation of what those final 2 films will be?

To wet your appetite, I posted the schedule as well as the trailers to (most) of the selections below. Let the madness begin...
(Beware, some trailers may not be for the squeamish.)

Friday, September 7
FRONTIÈRES:

Watch more Frontieres Trailer 's

Saturday, September 8
DIARY OF THE DEAD:
(no link as of yet, keep posted!)

Sunday, September 9
VEXILLE:

Monday, September 10
STUCK:
Click the link below or copy and paste:
http://www.bloody-disgusting.com/bdtv/Player.php?id=866

Tuesday, September 11
THE DEVIL'S CHAIR:

Wednesday, September 12
FLASH POINT:

Thursday, September 13:
TBA

Friday, September 14
DAINIPPONJIN:
http://www.dainipponjin.com/index.html?jump=INTRO
(5th link from the left)

Saturday, September 15
À L'INTÉRIEUR:

Before Midnight...

2007-07-22T00:30:00.000-04:00

For those of you who cannot wait for the 2007 Midnight Madness program to begin, here’s something that may tide you over in the meantime. If you live in the Toronto vicinity, head on down to the Bloor Cinema (506 bloor st. w.) for the Fight n’ Fright festival, occurring every Friday night until August 31st. It’s a classic double feature with an asian Martial arts pic followed by a classic horror flick. Check out the website for more info.

2007 artwork revealed

2007-07-19T23:03:00.000-04:00

Above is the just released poster design for this year's festival. I appreciate its stark simplicity. Although some may call it safe, I've always appreciated the creative use of theatrical imagery, such as the dramatic curtains, rows of seats, and the decorative ceilings - imagery we moviegoers relish. In a day in age of movies on demand, high-def, and elaborate home theaters, it’s more relevant than ever to romanticize the movie theater itself as a destination for adventure. And while it wasn't "safe", the abstract style of last year's design did not appear to be a favorite of recent years...everyone I spoke with thought the wings were eyebrows! It’s a nice image to have as part of my growing TIFF poster collection.

Also announced is the closing night film, EMOTIONAL ARITHMETIC. From the festival website:

Based on Matt Cohen's eponymous novel and adapted for the screen by Jefferson Lewis and Barzman, EMOTIONAL ARITHMETIC is a story of redemption, healing and reconciliation ignited by the reunion of three Holocaust survivors. The film stars Susan Sarandon, Christopher Plummer, Gabriel Byrne, Roy Dupuis, and Max von Sydow.

With its prestigious closing slot and marquee names, it's yet another suggestion of the growing strength and influence of Canadian cinema at this year's TIFF. With offerings in Canada First!, Real to Reel, and Contemporary World Cinema, it's really shaping up to be a strong lineup, gala or no gala.

Thank you TIFF

2007-07-18T22:44:00.000-04:00

I would like to thank the Toronto International Film Festival for linking to my blog as featured in their new TIFF Blogs section. I would also like to welcome any new visitors who may have stumbled over here from the festival website. I hope you enjoy what you read, and feel free to leave any comments concerning my posts or film festival experiences.

Yesterday, the festival announced the inclusion of at least 26 more titles to their lineup. Most notable is David Cronenberg’s EASTERN PROMISES, which is receiving the gala treatment and reunites him with A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE’s Viggo Mortensen. In EASTERN PROMISES, Mortensen plays Nikolai, a Russian gangster whose life is thrown into turmoil by an encounter with an innocent midwife which leads him into “a harrowing chain of murder, deceit, and retribution”.

It’s nice to see Cronenberg taking his talent of packaging the allegory and substance of his earlier horror films and applying them in a more universal context. He’s moved far from his fascination with biological / sexual horror of the body (see SHIVERS, the BROOD, and RABID), to the horrors of reality, which he applies so successfully in 2005’s A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE. HISTORY was the rare film that exposes violence through its roots, its offspring and its consequences without stooping to a showcase of blood and fireworks. Granted it contained its brutal moments, but they are not without the emotional and contextual impact necessary for the scenes. I have high hopes for this film, and even though its currently slated for a U.S. release at the same time as its festival premiere, I still hope to catch it at the festival. Fingers crossed for a non-gala Q+A.

Other highlights are:
L'ÂGE DES TÉNÈBRES by Denys Arcand, which is also being shown as a Gala.
HERE IS WHAT IS – A look at the inner workings of music production with appearances by U2 and Brian Eno.
THEY WAIT - A ghost story inspired by true events.
WEIRDSVILLE – An overdose leads a group to a satanic cult performing a sacrificial ritual.
MY WINNIPEG – Guy Maddin’s newest experiment with live narration from the director.
THE WILD HORSE REDEMPTION – A look at how a prison in the Colorado Rocky Mountains handles prisoner rehabilitation in a most unique fashion.

But who am I kidding? They all sound great. So head on over to the TIFF website to read about all 32 titles.

DVD releases for 7-17

2007-07-17T22:09:00.000-04:00

Notable releases this week include:

The Hills Have Eyes 2 - Gratuitous gore? Check. Unknown cast? Check. Limited budget? Check. Iraq metaphor? Check. It apparently contains all the ingredients of a successful contemporary horror movie (unfortunately). What else do you need to know? It's a sequel of a remake. The real highlight this week? Check out ACE IN THE HOLE, one of Billy Wilder's most important films. Expect a fantastic transfer and insightful extras courtesy of Criterion (who else?).

Also this week:

Avenue Montaigne

Factory Girl

Baxter

Ace in the Hole

Poison Friends

Basic Tsukamoto

Chalkdust Memories

Recommended: RESCUE DAWN

2007-07-16T23:57:00.000-04:00

It's easy to get caught up in the blockbuster frenzy occurring this summer; trilogies, wizards and robots are converging on what will surely be one of the biggest box office seasons in years. But if you're looking for an escape from the marketing vehicles we're now calling movies, take a stroll down to your local arthouse to see this years potential Best Actor nominee Christain Bale in the prisoner of war pic RESCUE DAWN. Opening July 27th, Bale gives yet another self-sacrificing performance as Dieter Dengler, a U.S. fighter pilot who is shot down and captured in Laos during the early stages of the Vietnam War. The film is a real-life story that was previously documented by the director in the 1997 documentary LITTLE DIETER NEEDS TO FLY. It’s also worth noting that Steve Zahn, while known for his comedic roles as a stoner friend or goofy side-kick, also turns in a devastating portrait of a fragile POW joining Deiter in his desperate attempt to escape. It's a frightening, rousing, and ultimately moving experience at the movies. Who needs a hundred million dollar blockbuster when you have this? What else could you want?

DVD releases for 7-10

2007-07-11T22:25:00.000-04:00

Notable releases this week include:

After the Wedding (Efter brylluppet) - Oscar nominated festival favorite.

Bodyguard Kiba 2: Combat Apocalypse - Relatively unknown early Takashi Miike film.

Sweet Land - Independent Spirit Award-winning tale of a German immigrant's struggles in America.

The Page Turner (La Tourneuse de Pages) - Stylish psychological drama.

And in true Midnight Screenings spirit and not to be forgotten; Warner Home video released Cult Camp Classics Volumes 1-4 on DVD last week, featuring the titles: ATTACK OF THE 50 FT. WOMAN (1958), GIANT BEHEMOTH, QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE, THE BIG CUBE, CAGED, TROG, HOT RODS TO HELL, SKYJACKED, ZERO HOUR, COLOSSUS OF RHODES, LAND OF THE PHAROAHS, and THE PRODIGAL.

TIFF passes and coupons on sale today

2007-07-09T17:17:00.001-04:00

Passes and coupon books went on sale today to VISA card holders via phone and internet sales. If you're planning on attending, this is a recommended purchase, and if you're located outside of Toronto (like I am), then I would highly recommend getting in on these quickly. Out of towners should also pick up the Out of Town Ticket Selection service with Program Book. To those unfamiliar, the passes and coupon books allow you to select your films in advance. The Out of Town Selection service includes the Program Book, schedule, ticket order forms, as well as a pre-paid FedEx envelope with which to return your completed order forms. On August 26th, you will be able to exchange your coupons for films in the Advance Order Draw (film selection). The Advance Order Draw takes place on Friday, August 31, 2007 at 1:00pm. Individual tickets will be available on September 5th, but many screenings can and will be sold out. The Advance Order Draw is your first and best chance to get your first choice selections.

Also available are packages to the following programs: Canadian Retrospective, Midnight Madness, Sprockets Family Zone and Wavelengths. Gala and Visa screening room passes are also available, and if you're serious about attending the red carpet premieres at Roy Thomson Hall, I would recommend picking up the passes NOW to ensure you get tickets. Many of the more popular titles sell out fast due demand, not to mention, the larger studio films tend to have less tickets available to the public. The only drawback is that you have to purchase all 8 nights in advance of knowing the schedule. The positive is you're guaranteed tickets to some of the biggest, most in demand premieres of the festival. Some of the recent Galas were: VOLVER, BABEL, A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE, RAY, and WALK THE LINE.

Good luck!

Transformers

2007-07-08T16:16:00.000-04:00

It looks like the Michael Bay spectacle THE TRANSFORMERS destroyed this week's box office, taking in $152.5 million in its extended 6 day opening. It also scored the highest seven-day performance for a non-sequel in history, previously held by Spiderman. And while many critics say it's more car advertisement than film, word of mouth contintues to be positive, but only next week's BO will tell.
In the spirit of transformations, the Fantasia Festival 2007 also kicked off this week, and one of their many fantastical selections is WOMAN TRANSFORMATION (Yokai Kidan). It's a different kind of transformation all-together. Check out it's teaser trailer here. From the Fantasia website:

Michiko is an unhappy young model whose body is going through some bizarre changes. She checks into the hospital where she is diagnosed with an highly unusual spinal-cord disorder that manifests itself in a superhuman elasticity, allowing her to stretch her neck to fantastic heights. In a subsequent story, a teenage girl obsessed with her expensive fake nails starts noticing that her real nails are growing at an alarming rate, to the point where she can't work, can't eat, can't function. Cutting her nails proves futile, as well as intensely painful. Eventually she is driven to drastic measures. In the last of three tales, Mana is a cruel and thoughtless high school student whose transformation involves a bizarre loss of identity.

While anthology films have a bad rep, these three grim tales of female bodily transformation co-exist through peripherally connected characters, imbuing the film with a fluidity that allows it to bypass the patchiness that plagues efforts at a similar structure. The Japanese title Yokai Kidan translates directly as “Strange Story of Monsters,” a title that deliberately conjures images of classic Japanese monster movies like 100 Monsters and Spook Warfare (both of which also feature the mythological long-necked woman). But what sets this film from director Toru Kamei (Double Suicide Elegy, 2005) apart is his use of the “yokai” concept to externalize the inner ugliness and turmoil of his characters.

Kamei's latest recalls the suspicion of femininity espoused in classic horror films like Cat People, Wasp Woman and The Reptile -- but the sombre tone of the film is all its own. Each girl is forced to undergo her respective transformation alone; the film emphasizes their physical and emotional isolation with a solemn score, moody lighting and the distinct lack of helpful authority figures. In this particularly terrifying reference to female puberty, each woman is driven to despair over her bodily changes -- which, at such an image-conscious age, can be deadly.
—Kier-la Janisse

New TIFF07 films announced

2007-07-04T22:05:00.000-04:00

Last week, The Toronto International Film Festival announced the titles of 32 new films making their premieres this September. The one garnering the most attention is ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE, a sequel of sorts that features Cate Blanchett and Geoffrey Rush reprising their roles from the original 1998 ELIZABETH. It's being touted as a Gala presentation, the most prestigious of the premieres in Toronto. Galas, which generate a considerable amount of pre-festival buzz, are typically reserved for more commercial Hollywood fare than that of your typical festival screening. Held at the magnificent Roy Thomson Hall with a long red carpet sprawled down the walk, the stars always make a point to show up and support their films. And while the press is always present and the tickets are in constant demand, their hype sometimes overshadows the films, as buzz does not equate to quality. Case in point: last year's snoozer ALL THE KING'S MEN.

ELIZABETH: THE GOLDEN AGE may be an exciting premiere considering it's high profile stars and familiar subject matter, but the film I'm most excited about is the highly praised Cannes selection NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN. It's the latest from the acclaimed Coen brothers and after taking a couple comedic detours, this one promises a return to their pitch-black thriller territory they nailed so well with FARGO and BLOOD SIMPLE. Initial word is Javier Bardem (no stranger to quality) steals the show as a vicious drug trafficker.

You can read about all 32 international releases here in the TIFF press release here.

Focus

2007-07-02T12:15:00.000-04:00

As the Toronto International Film Festival gets closer, I'm starting to realize this blog's focus will be shifting. It's not exactly my desire, well maybe it is a little, but I tend to become infected with the festival buzz as it grows louder, and with each announcement or press release, I get the urge to share my excitement with the world. Whether the causal reader is going to attend the festval or not, hopefully you will appreciate the info on upcoming films and their treck from festival screenings to the art houses near you. So again, expect to find weekly announcements on new titles, details on changes to programs or ticketing procedures, TIFF events, TIFF locations, as well as general TIFF info as it becomes available. I will also do my best to keep you in the loop with my festival experience from ticketing, to the actual film screenings, and if all goes well, possibly share some recommendations. Feel free to contact me or post them here if you have any festival topics, questions or just want a place to add your $.02.

The Toronto International Film Festival

2007-05-30T23:07:00.000-04:00

I am a huge supporter and fan of the Toronto International Film Festival since I began attending in 2002. This year will be no exception as I plan to attend again, and over the next couple months, I will be sharing with you my experience prior to the festival (ticket ordering, film selections, scheduling etc.) as well as updates during the festival. I also hope to hear from some of you about your experiences past and present with the festival. Keep checking back as I will be posting the latest news and links concerning all things TIFF 2007.

The most current TIFF news of note is that the Opening Night gala film has been announced. FUGITIVE PIECES will make it's world premiere Thursday September 6 2007. Click here to read more about this film.

Your HOST

2007-05-07T14:00:00.000-04:00

With the inception of Midnight Screenings, my desire is to create a forum in which I can share with you some of the wonderful films that tend to go unnoticed among the big budget Hollywood spectacles. I also have an implicit affinity for the strange, unclassifiable and just plain weird, and many of those films find themselves regulated to the witching hour, hence the name of the site. So expect news, reviews and hopefully discussions on quality films, regardless if they’re from the art-house or the grind-house.

There’s not a better way to kick off the site than with the mention of a past TIFF Midnight Madness offering called THE HOST (Gwoemul). Now in limited theatrical release, and releasing on dvd July 24th, this South Korean blockbuster is an intelligent creature feature that dares to redefine its genre. The US army secretly dumps toxic chemicals into the Han River in Seoul, South Korea, that many years later results in the form of a terrifying creature that preys on human beings. Yes, this has been done countless times (EMPIRE OF THE ANTS being a personal favorite), the film is in no way your typical giant monster pic. This fact is immediately noticeable when the creature first makes its appearance. You experience it first-hand; as you would a bystander while standing along the river bank, staring into the water in complete disbelief. And when it eventually moves, it’s fluidity is not the unnatural mess most CGI creatures inhabit - the production quality is in a league of its own as the creature blends into its environments seamlessly (thanks to the magic makers at the Weta Workshop ("The Lord of the Rings") and The Orphanage). So when it starts charging down the sidewalk, it emerges from a blur in the distance, and its entrance is invigorating. But for all its action and effects, there is a heart and brain to this beast. Similar to the cold war era monster movies of the 50’s, this film similarly allows itself open to interpretation. These latent meanings are what gives these films such longevity. It’s until we separate ourselves from the plot and consider our surroundings, it’s cultural context, and perspective, are we additionally rewarded. The host in question becomes a metaphor for many; the dangers of pollution, the distrust of the U.S. (and quite possibly how the South plays as the “host” country for the U.S.’s ongoing turmoil with North Korea), SARS, as well as the nuclear threat from the North. Director Bong Joon-ho mixes this madness with great tonal shifts, infusing scenes of great dramatic tension into scenes of hilarity and slap stick. This element could be seen as a negative rather than as a positive, and it is something of personal taste, but I thought this was what really made this film stand out. It acknowledges its roots in popcorn movie-dom, and by mixing in humor, satire, and scares, he has made a film that refuses to be easily classified as simply another giant monster pic. Do yourself a favor: Catch it on the big screen, and make sure you bring enough popcorn to spill.