In Contention

Tag: TIFF

  • ‘Bright Star,’ ‘Precious,’ ‘Informant’ and 19 more to play TIFF

    Matt Damon in The Informant!The Co-Directors of the Toronto International Film Festival took to the stage this morning at the first of three summer press conferences to begin announcing the slate of films that will comprise this, the 34th annual Toronto International Film Festival.

    This morning’s announcement of 22 titles brought some pleasant surprises, as well as some expected announcements.

    The Opening Night Gala will be Jon Amiel’s “Creation” featuring Paul Bettany as Charles Darwin and Jennifer Connelly as his wife.

    There were several Gala Presentations announced, among them “Get Low,” a film featuring the great Robert Duvall as Felix Breazeale, a backwoods eccentric who exiles himself from society for more than 40 years. Bill Murray and Sissy Spacek co-star with Oscar winner Duvall.

    As expected, Lee Daniels’s festival circuit hit “Precious” will land in Toronto, already an Oscar contender, as well as “The Invention of Lying,” directed by Ricky Gervais and Matthew Robinson.

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  • TIFF 2009 looms ahead

    2009 Toronto International Film FestivalWith Guy off to Scotland for the Edinburgh Film Festival, I’ve just received my invitation to attend the Toronto Fest once again as returning press. This marks the, um, 16th festival for me (I think)?

    I love TIFF.  I think it’s the single most important cultural event in Canada, and the fall’s most important film festival. Obviously I am biased, but having attended others, I think things are done very well here.

    The first press conference is slated for July 14, later than normal, but I trust that festival CEO Piers Handling knows what he’s doing.  After all, he’s the guy who took the upstart Festival of Festivals into international fame as The Toronto International Film Festival.  I am working on a feature article about the history of the fest and its evolution from a small event struggling to get films to the place to be leading in to the awards season.

    So many Oscar winners and nominees have come from Toronto, but what I like are the little discoveries that have been made, films that otherwise may not have been seen.  As I’ve mentioned before, I clearly remember the bidding war for Robert Duvall’s “The Apostle” when, during the screening of the film, two men got up and ran out of theater dialing their cell phones as they shot up the aisle. One was from Miramax, the other October. And of course October got the film and the rest is history.

    Looking at the films that might come this year I have high hopes that “Where the Wild Things Are” will be in the mix, along with “Shutter Island.”  But who knows?

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  • Most anticipated films of Toronto

    Miracle at St. AnnaArmed with the fat program book, detailing every single film to be screened at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, I have gone through it several times to find the films I am interested in seeing. The press schedule is announced online today, at which time I will begin the nightmarish process of creating a calendar that details screening times, interview times, and leave room for the unexpected, a last minute call from a frantic publicist to do an interview I had requested and been declined, but now they want me.

    I love TIFF.

    Aside from Christmas (for my kids) this is my favorite event of the year. Admittedly this one is a tad lower key than in other years as there were some last minute disappointments, films we thought were coming, rumored to be coming, and are not. The hottest whisper on the wind saw “Body of Lies” here with Leo, Russel and Sir Ridley, as well as “The Road,” a film I cannot wait to see, having read the amazing book in three scant days.

    I had hoped Eastwood’s “Changeling” would be here, but for some goofy reason Angelina Jolie could not make it and the festival folks felt Clint Eastwood was not enough star power on his own…(ouch!).

    Those minor complaints aside, I am now officially pumped for the festival to begin. Following are the ten most anticipated films of the fest for me and me alone. I will see more than 40 films over the 10 days, conduct 20 interviews or so, and maybe get four hours of sleep a night. I will ingest more coffee than is healthy, drink far too much water, and eat poorly, but hey…it’s festival.

    Check out the list after the jump…

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  • Seven-minute ‘Other Man’ preview/trailer/thing

    Richard Eyre’s latest hasn’t landed domestic distribution yet, but it could be a great vehicle for stars Liam Neeson, Laura Linney, Antonio Banderas and Romola Garai.

    UPDATE (5:04 p.m.): As it turns out, the footage that was in this space was a promo reel meant for distributors, not for audiences.  It’s been yanked from YouTube, so if you saw it, consider yourselves lucky.

  • TIFF 08 looks promising, but still some disappointment

    TorontoThere have been complaints in recent years that the Toronto International Film Festival had gone Hollywood, openly courting the directors and stars to bring their films to town.  Like Dorothy beginning the journey down the yellow brick road, the fest began to become a launching point for Oscar campaigns. No secret, many films that premiere at Toronto move on to win Academy Awards or grab nominations. What began as the upstart Festival of Festivals is now among the top three festivals on the planet, certainly the most important of the fall.

    I have many fond memories. Seeing Robert Duvall’s superb film “The Apostle” for the first time, not realizing a bidding war was happening in the lobby; watching Atom Egoyan’s haunting “The Sweet Hereafter” with the knowledge that Egoyan had become a world class director; seeing a star director born with “Boogie Nights”; knowing that “American Beauty” had begun its journey to Oscar here; screening “Almost Famous” and believing it too was headed for Oscar glory; Ellen Burstyn’s stunning performance in “Requiem for a Dream”; the brilliant Canadian films “The Barbarian Invasions” and “C.R.A.Z.Y.” both from our French speaking province of Quebec; Sofia Coppola becoming a major writer/director with “Lost in Translation”…on and on and on.

    This year, once again, the programmers have done an excellent job finding films from around the globe to bring to our fair city. Among the Gala Presentations are “Burn After Reading,” the latest from the brothers Coen, “The Lucky Ones,” “Pride and Glory,” a cop drama with Edward Norton and Colin Farrell, “Nothing But the Truth,” which Kris revealed yesterday, “Loss of a Teardrop Diamond” with Bryce Dallas Howard in a little known Tennessee Williams screenplay, and “Dean Spanley” with the great Peter O’Toole perhaps again making a run for the Oscar?

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  • Audiences to handle ‘Nothing But the Truth’ in Toronto

    Kate Beckinsale in Nothing But the TruthThe final announcements for this year’s Toronto International Film Festival will land tomorrow morning, and one of the films that will be on the list is Rod Lurie’s “Nothing But the Truth.”

    The festival organizers have been hopeful that they could show the flick as a Gala and now they’ll be doing just that. ‘Truth’ won’t release until December, leaving quite a gap between the festival bow and the domestic unveiling. But this is a good move if early buzz is going to start building for actors Vera Farmiga, Kate Beckinsale, Alan Alda and, to a lesser extent, Matt Dillon.

    I suppose now is as good a time as any to mention that I saw an early cut of the film a few weeks back. And to be sure, I think Beckinsale is going to turn a few heads with her work as a reporter caught on the fence between the security of a source and the demands of the federal government. It’s a de-glam role but not in the typical sense. She is still beautiful throughout, of course, but seems capable of wearing that tired look of a downtrodden warrior.

    Alan Alda is, as usual, a perfect fit as Beckinsale’s attorney. He rolls the dialogue off his tongue in just the right ways and when he’s off screen, I was left wanting more of him. That can go a long way in a supporting campaign. Speaking of which, Vera Farmiga is an absolute firecracker every moment she’s on the screen as the Valerie Plame-like outed CIA operative Erica Van Doren.

    In the film, Lurie is taking what we learned from the Plame affair and spinning it into the realm of (not-so-unthinkable) fiction. He explores the vague nature of shield laws and the perfect track record “national security” enjoys over the First Amendment in this regard, and he does so in typical Lurie fashion.

    Lurie has always been a filmmaker willing to face down tough issues in his films, displaying a knack for boiling them down to a serviceable and entertaining essence. He’s also proven to be more than capable of drawing stellar performances out of his actors (Jeff Bridges, Gary Oldman, Joan Allen, Samuel L. Jackson). I think we could be looking at his next dance with the awards season with this effort.

    Anyway, now is not the time for an in-depth review of “Nothing But the Truth.” Something along those lines will drop closer to the festival, but for now, I’d wager it is a film that will have some support. Hopefully it’ll get the same from a studio with nothing else on the slate this year.

    (Also playing at the fest, by the way, is the Lurie-produced “What Doesn’t Kill You.” That film will be looking to make a splash in an already indie-heavy TIFF slate with Mark Ruffalo and Ethan Hawke starring.)

  • More announcements from TIFF

    Toronto International Film FestivalPaul Dano and Zooey Deschanel are to be featured in “Gigantic” with John Goodman in a supporting role. In “Lovely Still,” acting icons Martin Landau and Ellen Burstyn portray two seniors who find love late in life struggling with the baggage that comes with a life so long lived.

    “Lymelife” looks interesting, a film seen through the eyes of a young boy, portrayed by Rory Culkin, and what happens when an outbreak of Lyme disease hits a small town. Alec Baldwin portrays the boy’s loud mouth father with strong support from Cynthia Nixon, Timothy Hutton and Kiran Culkin in a film executive produced by no less than Martin Scorsese.

    One of the more intriguing films of the fest will be the US film, “The Stoning of Soraya M”, a study of an Iranian woman falsely accused of adultery which is a crime punished with death by stoning. Oscar nominee Shohreh Aghdashloo stars in the film.

    Mark Ruffalo is back in town with more than one film, co-starring with Ethan Hawke in “What Doesn’t Kill You” about two friends looking out for one another in a tough Boston neighborhood. The film was produced by filmmaker Rod Lurie, who’ll be in the thick of the Oscar hunt this year with his own “Nothing But the Truth.”

    The other titles include “Rain” from the Bahamas, “Cold Lunch” from Norway, “Vacation” from Japan, “Apron Strings” from New Zealand, “Better Things” from the United Kingdom, and “Daytime, Drinking” from South Korea.

  • ‘Che’ and ‘Porno’ among 20 new films announced for Toronto

    Benicio Del Toro in CheJohn hasn’t addressed this yet, so I’ll put it out there…

    Variety’s Anne Thompson is reporting on 20 new films added to the line-up of this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. Following suit with yesterday’s New York fest news, Darren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler” and Steven Soderbergh’s “Che” (listed as “Part One” and “Part Two” for Toronto) will make the trip up north.

    Other special presentations of note include Rian Johnson’s “The Brothers Bloom,” Richard Linklater’s “Me and Orson Welles,” Danny Boyle’s “Slumdog Millionaire,” Kevin Smith’s controversial “Zack and Miri Make a Porno,” Guillermo Arriaga’s “The Burning Plain” (could be Oscar bait for actress Charlize Theron), Charlie Kaufman’s “Synecdoche, New York” and Marc Abraham’s “Flash of Genius” (which could be an awards vehicle for Greg Kinnear).

    The big news, however, seems to be that Clint Eastwood’s “Changeling” will not be heading to the fest. Here’s Thompson on that front:

    Clint Eastwood’s Cannes Fest entry “Changeling,” which will be the centerpiece of the New York Film Festival, will not be at Toronto because there was uncertainty about new mother Angelina Jolie’s availability to participate in a gala premiere. “We would have loved to have had Clint Eastwood,” said Bailey, “but the only way to present the movie in a big way was as a gala with Eastwood and Jolie.”

    Basically, the Toronto crew can’t star-fuck, so they’d rather not show it. Gotcha.

    Anyway, read all about the new additions here. The full line-up will be unveiled next Tuesday.