Toronto International Film Festival 2014

[Stay Puft]

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...1407880935.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...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...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 is kind of ridiculous:

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...1408455636.pdf

Discovery:
http://d12gbu3zt5gvms.cloudfront.net...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.