Toronto International Film Festival 2014

[Stay Puft]

http://i.imgur.com/ZrY8zxl.jpg

September 4th to 14th, 2014.

Some major news highlights so far:

After Telluride got all up in Toronto's shit last year, Cameron Bailey has announced that the festival's first week slots will be booked exclusively for world and North American premieres.

Michael Moore will be delivering a keynote at the Doc Conference. The festival will also be screening Roger & Me in celebration of the film's 25th anniversary.

This year's City to City spotlight is Seoul, South Korea.

The closing night film will be the world premiere of Alan Rickman's A Little Chaos. Interestingly, the opening night film has yet to be announced. There appear to be some aggressive negotiations happening behind the curtains. NYFF has scooped up some pretty big fall premieres in the last few weeks.

And with that out of the way...

[Stay Puft]

The first batch of Galas and Special Presentations have been announced!

GALAS

Black and White (Mike Binder, USA)
The Equalizer (Antoine Fuqua, USA)
Foxcatcher (Bennett Miller, USA)
Haemoo (Shim Sung-bo, South Korea)
The Judge (David Dobkin, USA)
A Little Chaos (Alan Rickman, UK)
Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg, Canada/Germany)
The New Girlfriend (François Ozon, France)
Pawn Sacrifice (Ed Zwick, USA)
The Riot Club (Lone Scherfig, UK)
Samba (Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano, France)
This is Where I Leave You (Shawn Levy, USA)
Wild (Jean-Marc Vallée, USA)

SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS

99 Homes (Ramin Bahrani, USA)
American Heist (Sarik Andreasyan, USA)
Before We Go (Chris Evans, USA)
Breakup Buddies (Ning Hao, China)
Cake (Daniel Barnz, USA)
Coming Home (Zhang Yimou, China)
The Dead Lands (Tao Fraser, New Zealand/UK)
Dearest (Peter Ho-sun Chan, China/HK)
The Drop (Michael R. Roskam, USA)
Eden (Mia Hansen-Løve, France)
Far From Men (David Oelhoffen, France)
Force Majeure (Ruben Östlund, Sweden/Norwar/Denmark/France)
The Gate (Regis Wargnier, France)
Good Kill (Andrew Niccol, USA)
The Good Lie (Philippe Falardeau, France)
Hector and the Search for Happiness (Peter Chelsom, Germany/Canada)
The Humbling (Barry Levinson, USA)
Hungry Hearts (Saverio Costanzo, Italy)
The Imitation Game (Morten Tyldum, USA)
The Keeping Room (Daniel Barber, USA)
Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet (Roger Allers et al, Canada/France/Lebanon/Qatar/USA)
The Last Five Years (Richard LaGravenese, USA)
Learning to Drive (Isabel Coixet, USA)
Love & Mercy (Bill Pohlad, USA)
Manglehorn (David Gordon Green, USA)
Men, Women & Children (Jason Reitman, USA)
Miss Julie (Liv Ullman, Norway/UK/Ireland)
Mr. Turner (Mike Leigh, UK)
My Old Lady (Israel Horovitz, USA)
Ned Rifle (Hal Hartley, USA)
Nightcrawler (Dan Gilroy, USA)
Pasolini (Abel Ferrara, France/Italy/Belgium)
Phoenix (Christian Petzold, Germany)
The Reach (Jean-Baptiste Leonetti, USA)
Red Amnesia (Wang Xiaoshuai, China)
Return to Ithaca (Laurent Cantet, France)
Rosewater (Jon Stewart, USA)
A Second Chance (Susanne Bier, Denmark)
Still Alice (Richard Glatzer and Wash Westmoreland, USA)
The Theory of Everything (James Marsh, UK/USA)
Time Out of Mind (Oren Moverman, USA)
Top Five (Chris Rock, USA)
Whiplash (Damien Chazelle, USA)
Wild Tales (Damian Szifron, Argentina/Spain)
While We're Young (Noah Baumbach, USA)

[Gittes]

NYFF getting the world premiere of Inherent Vice is a big coup. I'm sure Toronto and Venice sought that one out pretty aggressively.

[Henry Gale]

As much as I completely understand the reasoning new "premiere" rules ever since I heard them announce it earlier this, I never really expected it to turn in their favour the first year of implementing it.

Looking at the list so far, it seems to be what I feared. I'm left holding out hope for what hasn't been announced yet instead of what's already on the table.

There's not too much I'd go out of my way to check out at this point beyond Foxcatcher, Rosewater, and maybe the new David Gordon Green, Yimou, and Baumbach works (even though I was not a fan of Frances Ha).

[Gittes]

I wonder if PTA chose NYFF to have another month to tinker with the edit. He has apparently screened a cut to Kent Jones and, as usual, to friends and family members, but I'm not sure if he's still preparing the final cut. Either way, I envy those who will be attending the screening. It's kind of amazing that a new PTA film will be out in the wild soon. The release of The Master still feels like yesterday.

[Ezee E]

Yeah, Toronto's new process sort of reveals what Telluride will end up getting, and in my mind, doesn't change a thing.

At least this year.

If Telluride's "exclusives" end up being hits or flops, then we'll see something happen.

[Stay Puft]

TIFF has selected The Judge, already announced as a Gala, as its opening night film.

It has also announced the line-up for four more programs. I'll post them shortly.

[Stay Puft]

First up, the documentaries. Joshua Oppenheimer's follow up to The Act of Killing is here! I've never anticipated/dreaded watching a film more than this!

TIFF DOCS

Beats of the Antonov (Hajooj Kuka, Sudan/South Africa)
I Am Here (Lixin Fan, China)
Iraqi Odyssey (Samir, Iraq/Switzerland/Germany/UAE)
Merchants of Doubt (Robert Kenner, USA)
National Diploma (Dieudo Hamadi, France/Congo)
National Gallery (Frederick Wiseman, France/USA)
Natural Resistance (Jonathan Nossiter, Italy/France)
Red Army (Gabe Polsky, USA/Russia)
Seymour: An Introduction (Ethan Hawke, USA)
Silvered Water, Syria Self-Portrait (Ossama Mohammed and Wiam Simav Bedirxan, Syria/France)
Sunshine Superman (Marah Strauch, USA/Norway/UK)
Tales of the Grim Sleeper (Nick Broomfield, USA/UK)
The Look of Silence (Joshua Oppenheimer, Denmark/Indonesia/Norway/Finland/UK)
This is My Land (Tamara Erde, France)
The Yes Men Are Revolting (Laura Nix and The Yes Men, USA)

[Stay Puft]

Next, a series of "bold international films that walk the razor’s edge" (to quote the press release), including new works from the likes of Takashi Miike, Dave McKean and Peter Strickland. It's Midnight Madness for people who don't like Midnight Madness? Or just don't want to stay up late? Nobody knows, but every year these films make up the...

VANGUARD

Alleluia (Fabrice Du Welz, France/Belguim)
The Duke of Burgundy (Peter Strickland, UK)
Goodnight Mommy (Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, Austria)
Hyena (Gerard Johnson, UK)
Luna (Dave McKean, UK)
Over Your Dead Body (Takashi Miike, Japan)
Shrew's Nest (Juanfer Andrés and Esteban Roel, Spain)
Spring (Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead, USA)
They Have Escaped (JP Valkeapää, Finland)
Waste Land (Pieter Van Hees, Belgium)
The World of Kanako (Tetsuya Nakashima, Japan)

[Stay Puft]

And then there's the Colin Geddes genre shit show itself. This year's opening night film is Sion Sono's Tokyo Tribe. Sono returns to Midnight Madness after winning the people's choice award last year for Why Don't You Play in Hell?, so TIFF really seems to be grooving to the guy lately. I'm curious to check out It Follows, which Mike D'Angelo praised back at Cannes.

MIDNIGHT MADNESS

[REC] 4: Apocalypse (Juame Balagueró, Spain)
Big Game (Jalmari Heleander, Finland/UK/Germany)
Cub (Jonas Govaerts, Belgium)
Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films (Mark Hartley, Australia)
The Guest (Adam Wingard, USA)
It Follows (David Robert Mitchell, USA)
Tokyo Tribe (Sion Sono, Japan)
Tusk (Kevin Smith, USA)
What We Do in the Shadows (Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement, New Zealand/USA)

[Stay Puft]

And finally, the Masters program (where good filmmakers go to die, according to Michael Sicinski). This year's slate has some pretty exciting stuff. Godard in 3D! Andersson's long awaited A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence! I'm probably the only one who cares but a new film from Ann Hui! Yay!

MASTERS

1001 Grams (Bent Hamer, Norway/Germany/France)
A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence (Roy Andersson, Sweden/Norway/France/Germany)
The Face of an Angel (Michael Winterbottom, UK)
The Golden Era (Ann Hui, China/HK)
Goodbye to Language 3D (Jean-Luc Godard, France)
Hill of Freedom (Hong Sang-soo, South Korea)
Leviathan (Andrey Zvyagintsev, Russia)
Revivre (Im Kwon-taek, South Korea)
Timbuktu (Abderrahmane Sissako, France/Mauritania/Mali)

[Ezee E]

They're still making [REC]s??

[Stay Puft]

This week's announcement: Canadian films! /tumbleweed

SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS

An Eye for Beauty (Denys Arcand)
The Elephant Song (Charles Binamé)
Mommy (Xavier Dolan)
October Gale (Ruba Nadda)
Preggoland (Jacob Tierney)

TIFF DOCS

Monsoon (Sturla Gunnarsson)
The Price We Pay (Harold Crooks)
The Wanted 18 (Amer Shomali and Paul Cowan)

DISCOVERY

Backcountry (Adam MacDonald)
Bang Bang Baby (Jeffrey St. Jules)
Big Muddy (Jefferson Moneo)
Corbo (Mathieu Denis)
Guidance (Pat Mills)
In Her Place (Albert Shin)
Songs She Wrote About People She Knows (Kris Elgstrand)
The Valley Below (Kyle Thomas)
We Were Wolves (Jordan Canning)
Wet Bum (Lindsay Mackay)

CONTEMPORARY WORLD CINEMA

Félix and Meira (Maxime Giroux)
Heartbeat (Andrea Dorfman)
Love in the Time of Civil War (Rodrigue Jean)
Teen Lust (Blain Thurier)
Tu dors Nicole (Stéphane Lafleur)

MIDNIGHT MADNESS

The Editor (Matthew Kennedy and Adam Brooks)

MASTERS

Trick or Treaty? (Alanis Obomsawin)

TIFF CINEMATHEQUE

Speaking Parts (Atom Egoyan)
Crime Wave (John Paizs)

WAVELENGTHS

brouillard - passage #14 (Alexandre Larose)
The Innocents (Jean-Paul Kelly)
Red Capriccio (Blake Williams)
Lunar Almanac (Malena Szlam)

FUTURE PROJECTIONS

Anna and the Tower (Lynne Marsh)

[Stay Puft]

Wow, lots of stuff announced this week!

To begin, there's a brand new programme this year, Short Cuts International. It contains 36 international shorts representing 29 countries and perhaps most notably features a brand new film from Claire Denis. Lots to look through, so I'll just post a link to the press release for this one:

http://d12gbu3zt5gvms.cloudfront.net/docs/ElZY6v__Short_Cuts_Internation al_2014_8336918__8336918__1407 880935.pdf

Also, TIFF has announced more films to round out the headlining Gala and Special Presentations programmes:

GALAS

Boychoir (François Girard, USA)
The Connection (Cédric Jimenez, France/Belgium)
Escobar: Paradise Lost (Andrea Di Stefano, France)
The Forger (Philip Martin, USA)
Infinitely Polar Bear (Maya Forbes, USA)
Laggies (Lynn Shelton, USA)
Ruth & Alex (Richard Loncraine, USA)

SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS

Beyond the Lights (Gina Prince-Bythewood, USA)
Clouds of Sils Maria (Olivier Assayas, France/USA)
The Cobbler (Thomas McCarthy, USA)
Don't Go Breaking My Heart 2 (Johnnie To, HK/China)
Gemma Bovery (Anne Fontaine, France)
Gentlemen (Mikael Marcimain, Sweden)
Gomorrah (Stefano Sollima, Italy)
Human Highway (Bernard Shakey and Dean Stockwell, USA)
Madame Bovary (Sophie Barthes, UK/Belgium)
Maggie (Henry Hobson, USA)
Pride (Matthew Warchus, UK)
Revenge of the Green Dragons (Andrew Lau and Andrew Loo, USA)
The Search (Michel Hazanavicius, France)
Shelter (Paul Bettany, USA)
Three Hearts (Benoît Jacquot, France)
Two Days, One Night (Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Belgium/France)
Welcome to Me (Shira Piven, USA)

[Stay Puft]

The avant-garde programmes have been announced this week, too.

Hit this link for info on the various (and free!) Future Projections installations around the city:
http://d12gbu3zt5gvms.cloudfront.net/docs/48kAK6__FutureProjections_2014 _8337081__8337081__1407880936. pdf

And then of course the main event: the all-encompassing, 3-in-1 TIFF programme monstrosity that is...

MOTHERFUCKING WAVELENGTHS

SHORT FILM PROGRAMMES

1. Open Forms
brouillard – passage #14 (Alexandre Larose, Canada)
Against Landscape (Josh Gen Solondz, USA)
Open Form – Game on an Actress's Face (KwieKulik Group, Poland)
The Dragon is the Frame (Mary Helena Clark, USA)
Open Form – Street and Tribune in Front of PKiN (KwieKulik Group, Poland)
Poetry for Sale (Friedl vom Gröller, Austria)

2. Something in the Atmosphere
The pimp and his trophies (Antoinette Zwirchmayr, Austria)
The Innocents (Jean-Paul Kelly, Canada)
Catalogue (Dana Berman Duff, USA)
Relief (Calum Walter, USA)
Red Capriccio (Blake Williams, Canada)
Under the Atmosphere (Mike Stoltz, USA)
Beep (Kim Kyung-man, South Korea)

3. Tales Told
Twelve Tales Told (Johann Lurf, Austria)
San Siro (Yuri Ancarani, Italy)
Intransit (Jakrawal Nilthamrong, Thailand)
Canopy (Ken Jacobs, USA)
Detour de Force (Rebecca Baron, Austria/USA)

4. Night Noon
Lunar Almanac (Malena Szlam, Canada/Chile)
Deep Sleep (Basma Alsharif, Malta/Greece/France/Palestine)
Orizzonti Orizzonti! (Anna Marziano, Italy)
The Policeman’s House (Mich’ael Zupraner, Israel/Palestine)
Night Noon (Shambhavi Kaul, USA/Mexico)
Sea of Vapors (Sylvia Schedelbauer, Germany)

MEDIUM-LENGTH GROUPINGS

The Figures Carved into the Knife by the Sap of the Banana Trees (Joana Pimenta, USA/Portugal)
The Old Man of Belem (Manoel de Oliveira, Portugal/France)
Taprobana (Gabriel Abrantes, Portugal/Sri Lanka/Denmark)
Journey to the West (Tsai Ming-liang, France/Taiwan)
Spectrum Reverse Spectrum (Margaret Honda, USA)

FEATURES

A Single Word (Mariama Sylla and Khady Sylla, Senegal/Qatar)
Horse Money (Pedro Costa, Portugal)
Episode of the Sea (Lonnie van Brummelen, Siebren de Haan and the inhabitants of Urk, Netherlands)
Fires on the Plain (Shinya Tsukamoto, Japan)
From What is Before (Lav Diaz, Philippines)
Heaven Knows What (Joshua Safdie and Benny Safdie, USA/France)
Jauja (Lisandro Alonso, Denmark/USA/Argentina/Mexico/Netherlands/Germany/France)
La Sapience (Eugène Green, France/Italy)
Le beau danger (René Frölke, Germany)
Letters to Max (Eric Baudelaire, France)
Maidan (Sergei Loznitsa, Ukraine/Netherlands)
The Princess of France (MatÃ*as Piñeiro, Argentina)
Songs From the North (Soon-Mi Yoo, USA/South Korea/Portugal)

[Stay Puft]

This year's city to city spotlight is Seoul, as previously announced. Here are the films:
http://d12gbu3zt5gvms.cloudfront.net/docs/g5xRQY__City_to_City_2014_8336 900__8336900__1407880934.pdf

Also, enjoy free screenings of restored classics in the...

TIFF CINEMATHEQUE

The Color of Pomegranates (Sergei Parajanov, Armenia)
Crime Wave (John Paizs, Canada)
Cruel Story of Youth (Nagisa Ôshima, Japan)
Dragon Inn (King Hu, Taiwan)
The Goddess (Wu Yonggang, China)
In Comparison (Harun Farocki, Germany/Austria)
My Darling Clementine (John Ford, USA)
Speaking Parts (Atom Egoyan, Canada)

And, finally, TIFF gives us the opportunity to put our fingers on the pulse of..

CONTEMPORARY WORLD CINEMA

Aire Libre (AnahÃ* Berneri, Argentina)
Amour Fou (Jessica Hausner, Austria/Luxembourg/Germany)
Behavior (Ernesto Daranas, Cuba)
Bird People (Pascale Ferran, France)
Black Souls (Francesco Munzi, Italy)
Breathe (Mélanie Laurent, France)
Charlie’s Country (Rolf de Heer, Australia)
Cut Snake (Tony Ayres, Australia)
The Dark Horse (James Napier Robertson, New Zealand)
Don’t Breathe (Nino Kirtadze, France)
The Farewell Party (Sharon Maymon and Tal Granit, Germany/Israel)
Frailer (Mijke de Jong, Netherlands)
Gett, The Trial of Viviane Amsalem (Ronit Elkabetz and Shlomi Elkabetz, France/Germany/Israel)
Girlhood (Céline Sciamma, France)
The Grump (Dome Karukoski, Finland)
High Society (Julie Lopes Curval, France)
Impunity (Jyoti Mistry, South Africa)
In the Crosswind (Martti Helde, Estonia)
Itsi Bitsi (Ole Christian Madsen, Denmark/Sweden)
Justice (Joel Lamangan, Philippines)
Kabukicho Love Hotel (Ryuichi Hiroki, Japan)
Kill Me Three Times (Kriv Stenders, Australia)
Labyrinth Of Lies (Giulio Ricciarelli, Germany)
Leopardi (Mario Martone, Italy)
The Lesson (Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov, Bulgaria/Greece)
Li'l Quinquin (Bruno Dumont, France)
Lulu (Luis Ortega, Argentina)
Margarita, with a Straw (Shonali Bose, India)
Meet Me in Montenegro (Alex Holdridge and Linnea Saasen, USA/Germany/Norway)
Men Who Save The World (Liew Seng Tat, Malaysia/Netherlands/Germany/France)
Mirage (Szabolcs Hajdu, Hungary/Slovakia)
Modris (Juris Kursietis, Latvia/Germany/Greece)
Not My Type (Lucas Belvaux, Belgium/France)
Out of Nature (Ole Giæver, Norway)
The Owners (Adilkhan Yerzhanov, Kazakhstan)
Partners in Crime (Chang Jung-Chi, Taiwan)
The Reaper (Zvonimir Jurić, Croatia/Slovenia)
Red Rose (Sepideh Farsi, France/Greece/Iran)
Sand Dollars (Laura Amelia Guzmán and Israel Cárdenas, Dominican Republic/Argentina/Mexico)
Still the Water (Naomi Kawase, Japan/France/Spain)
Tales (Rakhshan Banietemad, Iran)
Today (Reza Mirkarimi, Iran)
Tokyo Fiancée (Stefan Liberski, Belgium/Canada/France)
Tour de Force (Christian Zübert, Germany)
Two Shots Fired (Martin Rejtman, Argentina/Chile/Germany/Netherlands)
The Valley (Ghassan Salhab, France/Germany/Lebanon/Qatar)
Venice (Kiki �lvarez, Cuba/Colombia)
Voice Over (Cristián Jiménez, Chile)
Where I Am King (Carlos Siguion-Reyna, Philippines)
Who Am I – No System is Safe (Baran bo Odar, Germany)
Xenia (Panos H. Koutras, Greece/France/Belgium)

[Gittes]

Oh, man, this (http://www.tiff.net/programming/specialevents/gala-party/3rd-annual-tiff-gala) is kind of ridiculous:




https://s3.amazonaws.com/media.tiff.net/content/carousel/f01908034db930d773b7c4cd13ad28 63.jpg

Join us on Wednesday, September 3 for an exclusive kick off to 39th Toronto International Film Festival. This once-in-a-lifetime fundraising soirée will include an exclusive onstage conversation with Academy Award-winner Al Pacino, a glamorous cocktail party, live musical entertainment, special guests, and a few surprises!

Wednesday, September 3
TIFF Bell Lightbox
Reitman Square, 350 King Street West

5:30pm – Guest arrival, cocktail reception
7pm – Onstage conversation with special guest Al Pacino
8:30pm – Rooftop party
Tickets are $1,500. Only 300 will be sold. Get yours today!

[Stay Puft]

The film schedule is live!
http://www.tiff.net/festivals/thefestival/schedule

Or at least it's supposed to be, but it doesn't load for me at the moment.

And with that, of course, comes the final batch of films being announced:

SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS

Roger Waters The Wall (Sean Evans and Roger Waters, UK)
The Sound and the Fury (James Franco, USA)
St. Vincent (Theodore Melfi, USA)

MASTERS

Foreign Body (Krzysztof Zanussi, Poland/Italy/Russia)
Murder in Pacot (Raoul Peck, Haiti/France/Norway)
The Tale of The Princess Kaguya (Isao Takahata, Japan)
Winter Sleep (Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Turkey/France/Germany)

TIFF DOCS

The Kingdom of Dreams and Madness (Mami Sunada, Japan)
The Years of Fierro (Santiago Esteinou, Mexico)

VANGUARD

The Voices (Marjane Satrapi, USA/Germany)

CONTEMPORARY WORLD CINEMA

Cut Bank (Matt Shakman, USA)
Tigers (Danis Tanović, India/France/UK)

And the final two programs to be announced are Mavericks, featuring panel discussions with various filmmaking talent, and Discovery, featuring debut and sophomore films from around the world. I'll just post the links for those, for the curious:

Mavericks:
http://d12gbu3zt5gvms.cloudfront.net/docs/Nx792L_Mavericks2014_8354724_1 408455636.pdf

Discovery:
http://d12gbu3zt5gvms.cloudfront.net/docs/Y6VvBp_DISCOVERY_2014_8354676_ 1408455634.pdf

[Stay Puft]

Also, the secret volunteer screening is tomorrow!

In previous years, I saw previews of On the Road (2012) and Belle (2013). I gave both of those films two stars. Let's see if the pattern holds...

[Boner M]

I'll never get TIFF's programming, outside of Wavelengths, City to City & Midnight Madness. 90% of every section is practically interchangeable with several other sections.

[Stay Puft]

Tickets on sale tomorrow. I'm not lining up this year, been way too busy this week. I'll take my chances online as my schedule permits.

Looking over the schedule again I realized Fatih Akin's new film didn't make TIFF. A little disappointed about that. He has finally finished the trilogy! I was hoping to see that. It plays in Venice tomorrow so I'm eager to see the twitter reaction.

[Stay Puft]

I paid $47 for a ticket to see Jon Stewart. That is an amount of money that I have paid.


It plays in Venice tomorrow so I'm eager to see the twitter reaction.

A misfire, apparently. What a shame. Head-On and The Edge of Heaven were both pretty great.

[Ezee E]

Did TIFF impact Telluride or not?

I don't think so, but I think pundits may say it is on a quick reaction. I simply think this year isn't providing a great amount of movies like last year did. As a result, there aren't the BIG HITS that would be at a film festival. New York's promising of PTA and Fincher are the most appealing this year. Neither of those directors have ever had their movies at Toronto or Telluride anyway (I may be wrong.)

And FUCK, I missed out on Apocalypse Now on a big screen with Meyer sound

[Stay Puft]

Yeah, it's hard to tell from this (the audience) side. The TIFF stat sheet they released this year seems par for the course. I read an interview with Bailey in which he said it made their job easier as programmers because they knew up front what they were dealing with, instead of having other fests steal their thunder or whatever.

The Master was at TIFF. I remember because they were making a big deal about 70mm screenings.

[Ezee E]

Yeah, it's hard to tell from this (the audience) side. The TIFF stat sheet they released this year seems par for the course. I read an interview with Bailey in which he said it made their job easier as programmers because they knew up front what they were dealing with, instead of having other fests steal their thunder or whatever.

The Master was at TIFF. I remember because they were making a big deal about 70mm screenings.


True. I also think that The Master may have had a few showings before Toronto/Telluride with some random 70 MM screenings? But fair point.

[Stay Puft]

Well, it starts tomorrow!

I might check out the Festival Street tomorrow, but I don't think I'm seeing anything. I want to see Clouds of Sils Maria but the tsunami of Twilight fans will ensure that I don't. I wonder how they'll react to Olivier Assayas?

[Ezee E]

Well, it starts tomorrow!

I might check out the Festival Street tomorrow, but I don't think I'm seeing anything. I want to see Clouds of Sils Maria but the tsunami of Twilight fans will ensure that I don't. I wonder how they'll react to Olivier Assayas?

About the same as the Channing Tatum fans will react to Foxcatcher.

[Gittes]

Oh, man, this (http://www.tiff.net/programming/specialevents/gala-party/3rd-annual-tiff-gala) is kind of ridiculous:

In retrospect, I'm less certain that this was an appropriate response, as I've since noticed that this event is being described as a "charity gala." I can't find any specific details, though. Are the proceeds actually going to a worthy cause? Or does the "fundraising" entail money that will be funnelled back into TIFF? That would be fine, of course, even if the organization obviously occupies a lower position on the totem pole relative to more worthy causes. At any rate, my knee-jerk reaction had nothing to do with any of that, but was solely based on the idea of spending $1500 to see Al Pacino in person and attend a swanky rooftop party. At first glance, this smacked of exclusivism and celebrity obsessed frivolity, which are among the most unappealing film festival characteristics. So, my mistake; I shouldn't have hastily seized on those aspects and failed to consider the wider context and value of the event.

[Stay Puft]

I can't find any specific details, though. Are the proceeds actually going to a worthy cause? Or does the "fundraising" entail money that will be funnelled back into TIFF?

They answer this question in the FAQ section for festival tickets ("where does my money go?").

All of the details are on their donation page:
http://www.tiff.net/join/donate

It's all film related of course but it's important stuff for Canada's film culture.

[Stay Puft]

I want to see Clouds of Sils Maria but the tsunami of Twilight fans will ensure that I don't.

Tsunami thwarted. Ticket secured.

http://media.giphy.com/media/FjeGBljESVAzu/giphy.gif

[Stay Puft]

Are there any other Match Cutters at TIFF this year? Where's everybody at? It's going to be lonely in this thread...


I paid $47 for a ticket to see Jon Stewart. That is an amount of money that I have paid.

It was pretty great, though. Maziar Bahari was part of the talk, as well. Lots of laughs, lots of great insights. Kind of feels weird that I don't have tickets to see Rosewater proper, but there are only two screenings and they've both been sold out since day one. I might try to rush but it also conflicts with Foxcatcher, which I might to try to see instead. Haven't decided yet.

[Stay Puft]

Anyways, here's the story so far...

Day -15
Pride (Matthew Warchus) **½

Day 1
Frailer (Mijke de Jong) ***
Clouds of Sils Maria (Olivier Assayas) ***½

Day 2
Eden (Mia Hansen-Løve) ***½

Day 3
nothing (worked all day, had a volunteer shift in the evening)

Day 4
Mavericks Conversation With Jon Stewart

Today is day four of the festival and I just got out of the Mavericks panel. Haven't seen a film yet today, but I'll be going to the Midnight Madness screening of It Follows and I plan on seeing something else before that (I have a couple conflicting options so I'm still trying to make a decision there).

Pride was the film I got to see at the secret volunteer preview screening. It didn't quite break the streak of middling experiences but I'd say my reaction is more mixed to positive because it did make me laugh, and the cast is pretty damn good. It's also aggressively crowd pleasing, though, which sometimes strikes a false chord w/r/t content and tone, and of course also means a predictable and cliché narrative trajectory.

[Henry Gale]

Are there any other Match Cutters at TIFF this year? Where's everybody at? It's going to be lonely in this thread...

It was pretty great, though. Maziar Bahari was part of the talk, as well. Lots of laughs, lots of great insights. Kind of feels weird that I don't have tickets to see Rosewater proper, but there are only two screenings and they've both been sold out since day one. I might try to rush but it also conflicts with Foxcatcher, which I might to try to see instead. Haven't decided yet.

Yes and yes. Though to the former I've mainly just gone after a few tickets for screenings here and there as my job (usual, not festival related) being within visual distance of the Roy Thompson / King Street core of everything going on has both helped and stunted my ability to see a lot there.

Stewart's Mavericks thing was the only event I've gotten to go to so far, but it was indeed pretty effortlessly compelling, mainly thanks to him just being so easily entertaining, quick and articulate (with Ghomeshi pursuing so many perfect topics and subsequent smaller threads in his answers), while ultimately just being so refreshingly open and blunt about his creative processes but particularly about his deeply ingrained insecurities, fears and perceived personal weaknesses, and how those almost act as an essential multi-faceted core that ends up being a key catalyst to how he finds his voice in his work. It's a very everything-is-relative, unified, cyclical fuel of disappoint and drive that made him find a much saner transition from TV comedy to dramatic film, since it just acts as one ultimate instinct within him informing the way he deals with the frustration of a subject. (The past and present selves, "You take all the people you used to be with you" nugget is something I like to think he didn't just come up with on the spot because it was so stunning in its weight and simplicity.) Up until now that mechanism has been a late night show, but I liked how he doesn't really view the film as some crazy foreign medium to his television platform. To him they're just different lenses to deal with stories and their absurdity, just Rosewater doesn't do it overtly comedically (though they did make it seem like it's still an important element of anchoring the reality of the film in how it finds ways to almost ironically creep into the mundane hopelessness of it all).

But yeah, anyway, lots of other ideas came and went those sort of topic to try to just neatly, broadly summarize one specific take on the crux of even those touched-on themes, but it was definitely really stunning and invigorating at times, especially with Bahari's profoundly personal input and his willingness to try to match Stewart's solo portion's layered wit and tone to how he shared stories.

Whatever clips they decide to put online from their filming of it, I can imagine they'll be well worth checking out. The slight awkwardness of having this take place in a 1,700 person venue before any public screenings of the film was definitely a worry for me going in, but even considering how much dealt with the process and specifics of the films I came out extremely gratified by what was discussed regarding it.

[Henry Gale]

It was at least an hour after their usual 7am standard for opening new blocks of tickets, but they JUST posted new ones for Foxcatcher at noon today. So I'll be seeing that and then Look of Silence right after!

Good day!

[Stay Puft]

It was at least an hour after their usual 7am standard for opening new blocks of tickets, but they JUST posted new ones for Foxcatcher at noon today.

Oh fuck that. I was checking at 7, too. And I was so tired I fell asleep again.

These last couple days have been a total bust. I even slept through one of my movies on Sunday. I remember when doing 4 or 5 movies a day was awesome and now I can barely manage two or three, and I'm still feeling tired today even though I got shut out of stuff yesterday. Work has been killing me, checking for tickets and waiting in lines has been killing me... I think it's time to rethink how I go about this festival. I feel so old now.

[Stay Puft]

The slight awkwardness of having this take place in a 1,700 person venue before any public screenings of the film was definitely a worry for me going in, but even considering how much dealt with the process and specifics of the films I came out extremely gratified by what was discussed regarding it.

Yup. And there was so much covered beyond the scope of just the film that it was a great conversation about art and humor and politics in general: Stewart's perspective on how the film fits into his work (the seriousness of comedy, humor as a political reaction), Bahari's insights into the nature of his captivity (humor as personal freedom, the dual purpose of being blindfolded, etc.), the discussion of the mundane bureaucracy of torture, and so on.

I wish I could have seen Rosewater here just to hear more from these guys, but alas. (Though I'm sure the Q&As will be uploaded as well.)

[Henry Gale]

Well, I was kind stunned that Bennett Miller, Tatum, Carell and Ruffalo came out to do a Q&A after Foxcatcher since they'd already done the premiere the night before, but I have couldn't have any less qualms about it as I chose to sit in the third row for the Princess of Wales' relatively/not overly large sized screen (especially as I did the same for Gravity last year and loved the experience), and it meant that they were all just a handful of feet in front of us for it once they made their way to the stage. Probably the most high-profile screening I've ever found myself at with the festival for that reason.

But then, Joshua Oppenheimer's contributions to his Lightbox screening of The Look of Silence were even more incredible, first by briefly introducing the film with such a palpable sense of gratitude, but then also his amazing, articulate and then beautiful post-movie talk, where after accepting our standing ovations, pointed out just how many contributors to the film and his life were also in attendance, from his producers to his husband to his parents, which then led to talking a bit more with Thom Powers (who he apparently did an hour-long talk with the previous day recorded for the eventual Blu-ray/DVD release), before blowing everyone away by bringing out Adi Rukun, the key figure of the whole film, who was so visibly moved upon his entrance, and overwhelmed in ways I can only imagine to see these years of work, fear, and grief come together into such an emotional experience for not only him and but also an audience to reflect off of. I think I already said more about this in the thread I made for the film itself, but yeah, just such a fantastic experience.

Also I was surprised at how Oppenheimer's film managed to find itself as the less hopeless or tonal downtrodden of the two films yesterday, but it's those sort of nuances with Silence's content and perfect stylistic etching that are a big part of why I can't call it anything other than a masterpiece, as well as a discernible improvement on The Act of Killing and even something of retroactive embellishment of it.

[Stay Puft]

This weather. Why. At least I'm volunteering and not standing in lines today.

[Stay Puft]

Match Cut has been rather slow/unresponsive for me the last couple days. Anyways, a belated update:

Day 4 (continued)
A Single Word (Khady and Mariama Sylla) this is the one I slept through, alas
It Follows (David Robert Mitchell) ***

Day 5
nothing (hey, I thought, I'll try to get into some high profile films for a change; NOPE)

Day 6
Red Amnesia (Wang Xiaoshuai) ***½
Fires on the Plain (Shinya Tsukamoto) ***
[REC] 4: Apocalypse (Jaume Balagueró) **½

Day 7
Cub (Jonas Govaerts) **

And despite my complaining about lines, falling asleep, weather, getting shut out of Foxcatcher and Rosewater, etc., this has actually been a rather solid and satisfying TIFF so far. I haven't seen A LOT of films or anything but I've generally been enjoying what I've seen, and have had some great experiences.

I haven't been on Match Cut to write much about my festival experience so far, I'll try to do that later, but so far I have to say this year has been an especially informative and insightful festival. The Jon Stewart event has already been discussed above, but many of the films have led to similarly educational experiences, such as Wang Xiaoshuai's Red Amnesia and the subsequent post-film discussion, which revealed a lot about Wang's past and provided insight into a small chapter of China's history that I knew nothing about. Also, Shinya Tsukamoto came to the Lightbox to discuss his adaptation of Nobi (Fires on the Plain), revealing a side of him I've never seen before: a voice of political urgency. Surprisingly, Tsukamoto has spent twenty years trying to make this film. Nobi has been a passion project, and its completion closes a chapter of his life that I had no idea even existed. The arrival of this film in Toronto, and in his filmography, seemed entirely out of the blue. It has transformed my perspective of him as an artist in a way I've never really experienced before with a filmmaker.

[dreamdead]

Strickland's The Duke of Burgundy is the film coming out of this festival that sounds positively wonderful. It feels very 70s and yet seems to be progressive in its treatment of gender. After the Assayas and Mitchell films, it's the one I most want to see, and makes me interested in queuing up his other work as well.

[Pop Trash]

Strickland's The Duke of Burgundy is the film coming out of this festival that sounds positively wonderful. It feels very 70s and yet seems to be progressive in its treatment of gender. After the Assayas and Mitchell films, it's the one I most want to see, and makes me interested in queuing up his other work as well.

Same here. Mike D'Angelo even gave it five stars on letterboxd which is like a Sasquatch sighting.

[Henry Gale]

Day 7
Cub (Jonas Govaerts) **

Aw, any elaborating on this? Considered seeing this even though the only screenings with the "Scene40" 40% off discount code was the Midnight Madness screening, and I couldn't make that or any others for it either. I was really intrigued by it just from the premise, and then the stellar trailer only increased that interest.

Tusk tomorrow for me!

[Stay Puft]

Aw, any elaborating on this? Considered seeing this even though the only screenings with the "Scene40" 40% off discount code was the Midnight Madness screening, and I couldn't make that or any others for it either. I was really intrigued by it just from the premise, and then the stellar trailer only increased that interest.

Tusk tomorrow for me!

Well it's not a bad rating from me. I was similarly intrigued, and to the film's credit it's nicely textured and accomplished for a debut. The setup is good and there are a lot of clever sequences, and the audience I was with was really eating it up (lots of cheering throughout, and a lot of people were voting for it afterwards). But the narrative that connects some of those impressive sequences together is lackluster. The drama is shallow and dull. Thinly sketched characters, no real focus on the scout dynamics, the bikers don't contribute anything beyond fodder for the killer... there are a lot of different threads here (the main kid's troubled past, the serial killer in the woods, the mystery surrounding Kai) that don't coalesce into anything substantially interesting, just a few dumb and obvious twists at the end, cut to black, roll credits.

I haven't seen Tusk, but I was at the world premiere as a volunteer, and I was in the auditorium for the house check, when they play part of the film to check audio, focus, etc. I'm pretty sure I was watching the ending, and I'll say this: It delivers. A co-worker of mine was actually at the screening and I talked to him afterwards, and he said it was okay, but probably would have been better if Kevin Smith handed it off to someone else to direct, so take that for what you will. As someone who wasn't interested in the film, and isn't much of a Kevin Smith fan at all, I am sort of intrigued now.

[Skitch]

I hear crazy things about Tusk. Really looking forward to seeing it.

[Stay Puft]

Heading into the final weekend...

Day 8
The Editor (Adam Brooks and Matthew Kennedy) **½

Day 9
Spectrum Reverse Spectrum (Margaret Honda) ***
Journey to the West (Tsai Ming-liang) ***

I saw the first few minutes of What We Do in the Shadows during the house check tonight and I couldn't stop laughing. Might try to see that one when it plays again on the last day.

[Stay Puft]

A miserable end to the festival. I never expected so many screenings to go off sale on the last day. I tried to rush a couple with my vouchers and got shut out, which has never happened before. Seven years of attending TIFF and my luck has finally run out. I had a lot of fun volunteering, as always, but damn I didn't get to see nearly as much as I wanted. One screening a day is just lame.

So anyways...

Day 10
The Guest (Adam Wingard) **

Day 11
Sea Fog (Shim Sung-bo) **½

Oh well.

[Henry Gale]

The Awards!

People's Choice Award - The Imitation Game (dir. Morten Tyldum)
People's Choice Award, First Runner Up - Learning to Drive (dir. Isabel Coixet)
People's Choice Award, Second Runner Up - St. Vincent (dir. Theodore Melfi)

People's Choice Award, Documentary Winner - Beats of the Antonov (dir. Hajooj Kuka)
People's Choice Award, Documentary, First Runner Up - Do I Sound Gay? (dir. David Thorpe)
People's Choice Award, Documentary, Second Runner Up - Seymour: An Introduction (dir. Ethan Hawke)

People's Choice Award, Midnight Madness Winner - What We Do in the Shadows (dir. Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement)
People's Choice Award, Midnight Madness First Runner Up - Tusk (dir. Kevin Smith)
People's Choice Award, Midnight Madness Second Runner Up - Big Game (dir. Jalmari Heleander)

Best Canadian Feature Film - Felix and Meira (dir. Maxime Giroux)
Best Canadian Short Film - The Weatherman and the Shadowboxer (dir. Randall Okita)
Best Canadian First Feature Film - Bang Bang Baby (dir. Jeffrey St. Jules)

FIPRESCI Discovery - May Allah Bless France (dir. Abd Al Malik)
FIPRESCI Special Presentations - Time Out of Mind (dir. Oren Moverman)
Best International Short Film - A Single Body (dir. Sotiris Dounoukos)
Netpac Award for World or International Asian Film - Margarita, with a Straw (dir. Shonali Bose)

I saw one! (MM runner up, Tusk) And even the movie that beat it was one of my most anticipated of the festival that I'm more than happy for.

Imitation Game was kind of expected (to the point that it was my one vocalized prediction this morning). Especially since the other big Oscar-potential would-be-crowdpleaser was probably Foxcatcher, and I'll say it plays a little too cold and downbeat to have elicited the sort of optimistic groundswell to win the award that has previously gone to things like The King's Speech, Slumdog and Silver Linings Playbook.

[Stay Puft]

I worked most of the Midnight Madness screenings and based on the voting I thought it would be either What We Do in the Shadows or The Guest. I'm surprised The Guest didn't even make the top three, I collected a metric ton of votes and the audience was really enthusiastic coming out of the theatre (whereas you can tell when they come out of something like [REC] 4 that it doesn't have a chance in hell).

I had no idea what would win the top prize. Last year, people were calling 12 Years a Slave from the beginning, but I never heard much this year. When some of the staff were speculating yesterday, St. Vincent was mentioned, so that was a good guess. I had completely ignored The Imitation Game, but a film like that winning isn't a surprise, either. What does surprise me is that we were THIS CLOSE to giving the top prize to Isabel Coixet. I haven't even heard from one person who has seen it, and most of the critics I follow seem to avoid her work on principle.

[Pop Trash]

Imitation Game was kind of expected (to the point that it was my one vocalized prediction this morning). Especially since the other big Oscar-potential would-be-crowdpleaser was probably Foxcatcher, and I'll say it plays a little too cold and downbeat to have elicited the sort of optimistic groundswell to win the award that has previously gone to things like The King's Speech, Slumdog and Silver Linings Playbook.

Well if the track record of TIFF's People's Choice Award is an indicator, it looks like Imitation Game will not only get a BP nod, it's probably the front runner to win at this point.

What I like about Miller's films esp. Moneyball (and I'm assuming Foxcatcher follows suite) is that they seem awards baity on paper, but when you actually see them, the films are way more cold, thorny, and ambiguous than expected.