Sunday, September 14-------For the first time in the past few years, the Toronto International Film Festival will be best remembered for its discoveries, rather than the bigger-budget entries that graced the Galas. Many of those films were critical and industry disappointments (including The Burning Plain, The Third Man, Miracle of St. Anna, The Brothers Bloom, Pride And Glory, The Duchess and several others). Of course, they delivered the necessary stardust that has now become de rigeu...
Saturday, September 13------The Toronto International Film Festival came to a close today with the announcements of various awards. Although Toronto does not have an official competition section (positioning itself as a "public festival"), positive critical praise, strong industry reaction and awards from the discerning Toronto public are important components for the life of the films that have risen to the top at this important event. With ceremonies held at the Awards Reception at ...
Friday, September 12--------This year, Oscar didn't come to Toronto. Since the Academy Awards calendar was shortened in 2003, Toronto loomed large as the place to premiere Oscar contenders for the end-of-year awards season.In the past few years, films such as Atonement, No Country For Old Men and Last King of Scotland began their Oscar trajectories in Toronto. Many of the Galas here, which have contained some past awards successes, have been poorly received (including The Burning Plain, T...
Friday, September 12-------Che, the 4 1/2 hour epic on the life of revolutionary Che Guevera, has been acquired for all North American rights by IFC Films. The film, directed by Steven Soderbergh, had its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, where the film's lead Benicio del Toro won the Best Actor prize. It screened this past week at the Toronto International Film Festival and will be screening next at the New York Film Festival. Che gives IFC Films a strong contender for end-of-the-ye...
Thursday, September 11--------For those of us whose memories of the events of 9-11 coincided with the Toronto International Film Festival, there are moments that forever link those great metropolitan cities. I was indeed in Toronto for my final days of the Festival in 2001.I can remember the exact moment when I first heard about a plane crashing into one of the towers of the World Trade Center. I was in a taxicab with my colleague Malo Girod de l'Ain (whose company M21 Editions hosts both this ...
Thursday, September 11--------For those of us whose memories of the events of 9-11 coincided with the Toronto International Film Festival, there are moments that forever link those great metropolitan cities. I was indeed in Toronto for my final days of the Festival in 2001.I can remember the exact moment when I first heard about a plane crashing into one of the towers of the World Trade Center. I was in a taxicab with my colleague Malo Girod de l'Ain (whose company M21 Editions hosts both this ...
Wednesday, September 10-------Only in America could a disheveled, overweight mumbler become a bonafide movie star. Seth Rogen, the pudgy star of the current hit Pineapple Express, as well as other box office sensations Knocked Up, The 40 Year Old Virgin and Superbad, may have found the director of his dreams in indie bad boy Kevin Smith (the auteur of such slacker hits as Clerks, Chasing Amy, Dazed And Confused and Jay And Silent Bob Strike Back).The Weinstein Company, run by the brothers ...
Wednesday, September 10-------The question lingered.....would Paris Hilton show up or not show up for the red carpet premiere of the film PARIS, NOT FRANCE. Hilton has been vocally critical of the documentary and even tried to shut down public showings of the film. But even Paris Hilton could not resist the celebrity draw of Paris Hilton, so the blond babe (who is famous for being famous, and not for any particular talent) basked in the glow of the attention that the film stirred among the To...
Wednesday, September 10-----After a very quiet Cannes for the British film industry, there are 25 British films (a mix of shorts, documentaries and features) being presented in Toronto this week. The films range from the big-budget (Saul Dibb's The Duchess, starring Keira Knightley and Richard Eyre's tale of l'amour fou The Other Man, starring Liam Neeson, Laura Linney and Antonio Banderas) to the aggressively independent (including Slumdog Millionaire by Danny Boyle, Is There Anybody There? by ...
Monday, September 8------OK, true confessions time.....I have been a lifelong musical theater enthusiast and even a bit of a "Broadway baby", so a documentary that charts the birth and revival of a landmark piece of musical theater is right up my show biz alley. In the delightful and surprisingly emotional documentary Every Little Step, co-directors James D. Stern and Adam Del Deo have preserved the genesis and historical significance of the landmark musical A Chorus Line. The mus...
Tuesday, September 9-------"It's the quietest Toronto Film Festival that I can remember", one prominent distributor commented to me yesterday. But despite the indie sector being in a cautious mood, a number of Toronto films have announced major distribution deals.Less than 24 hours after it won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, Darren Aronofsky's drama The Wrestler has been picked up for U.S. distribution by Fox Searchlight, the specialty division of 20th Century Fox (the...
Monday, September 8--------Goodbye Solo, the latest film from New York writer/director Ramin Bahrani, has won the prestigious FIPRESCI International Critics Prize at the Venice Film Festival, which just concluded this past weekend. The film makes its North American debut this evening at the Toronto International Film Festival.I caught the press screening of the film yesterday, and I will go out on a limb and say that this is one of the best and most emotionally deep films of the Festival. Mixi...
Monday, September 8------I know, I know.....in my last piece I stated that a high-minded journalist like myself was more interested in seeing films than going to parties, but on Sunday evening, as I did the evening before, I found myself party hopping yet again. It is difficult to resist.....publicists for the films or the party venues lavish you with invitations, entice you with all the food you can gobble up and all the liquor you can consume. And you say to yourself....well, it's all about ...
Monday, September 8-------Controversial television comedian Bill Maher must be saying hallelujahs for the equally controversial candidacy of Sarah Palin as the Republican Vice Presidential candidate. In one fell swoop, Palin's entry into the race has brought up the subject of religion in a presidential campaign (yet again) and made it a topic of concern and, to some, outrage in the American popular imagination. So, the October release of Religulous, a comedic journey by the acerbic comedian into...
Monday, September 8-------Controversial television comedian Bill Maher must be saying hallelujahs for the equally controversial candidacy of Sarah Palin as the Republican Vice Presidential candidate. In one fell swoop, Palin's entry into the race has brought up the subject of religion in a presidential campaign (yet again) and made it a topic of concern and, to some, outrage in the American popular imagination. So, the October release of Religulous, a comedic journey by the acerbic comedian into...
Sunday, September 7------Let me make this one point perfectly clear.....I come to a film festival to see films, network with professionals, experience the host city and then (and only then) do the party circuit. While I am as much of a fan of passed hors d'oeuvres as any sane person can be, I don't think of festivals as one long party romp. But on the occasional evening I do give into temptation and do a roundelay of party events, to see and be seen, to feed and be fed, to drink and to be drun...
Sunday, September 7-------Although low clouds hover over Toronto this morning, the sun should be out by later this afternoon when the Canadian Film Centre hosts its annual CFC BBQ, a Toronto highlight for local and visiting filmmakers and professionals.Held on the picturesque grounds of Windfields Estate about 20 miles outside of town, the CFC and its founder director Norman Jewison will be welcoming a who's who of Canadian and international filmmaking talent, as CFC celebrates its 20th annive...
Babelgum, the independent web tv platform, hosted a brunch reception in the sky lounge atop the Sutton Place Hotel yesterday, announcing plans for the second edition of the Babelgum Online Film Festival and showcasing some of the short film winners from its first round. Babelgum is a free internet television platform that combines full-screen video quality of traditional television with the interactive capabilities of the internet, offering programming-on-demand of unique content to a global a...
