TIFF ’11 Preview: Contemporary World Cinema

This is always one of the hardest categories for me at TIFF because there are so many titles from around the world, and there’s usually nothing to go on but a catalog description in helping to determine which of them might end up breaking out and being a “buzz” film at TIFF, and which will…

TIFF ’11 Preview: Special Presentations

There are a lot of films to choose from at TIFF, and with only 20-30 I’ll have time to see and write about, I have to be a little choosy. Here are some of the films from the Special Presentations section of the Festival that are on my “want to see these” list. SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS…

TIFF’11 Preview: Galas and Masters

Next week the Toronto International Film Festival will kick off, and cinephiles, film critics and industry folks will be running amok all over downtown Toronto, rushing to get to screenings and saying things like, “Hey, I’d love to chat, but I’m rushing to get to the new Cronenberg! Catch you for drinks later?” And sometimes…

6 Weeks To TIFF: a 20 weeks to oscar prequel (part 3 of 3)

There are movies that avoid Toronto, movies that disregard Toronto, and movies that happily use Toronto as an opportunity to launch themselves into the awards race. This, the 3rd TIFF Season preview of the week, looks at all of those groups.

6 Weeks To TIFF: a 20 weeks to oscar prequel (part 2 of 3)

There are 10 films heading to Toronto for the film festival without US distribution, but with a shot of being Oscar players if expectations hold and if they can find the right domestic distribution partners. Lots of big name directors, writers, and actors on the Wheel of Movie Fortune.

6 Weeks To TIFF: a 20 weeks to oscar prequel (part 1 of 3)

Before diving into a full Oscar column and 1st set of charts, a quick look at 15 titles that will be coming to TIFF without US distribution, but will be getting a LOT of attention nonetheless. First, the HIGH profile titles that are not likely to be on Oscar charts this year…

DP/30@Sundance: The Devil’s Double, actors Dominic Cooper & Ludivine Sagnier

TIFF Review: Hereafter

After a pretty spectacular opening scene, I was hopeful that Clint Eastwood‘s highly anticipated film, Hereafter, with a script by Peter Morgan, was going to be something special. Then it became evident that the setup is a triptych, which is really hard to weave together into a coherant story without it feeling enormously contrived. Unfortunately,…

TIFF Review: It’s Kind of a Funny Story

I had mixed feelings about It’s Kind of a Funny Story, directed by Half Nelson and Sugar directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck. They were so mixed, in fact, that I ended up doing something I’ve never done at a fest before — I saw the film twice, once at a P&I screening and once…

TIFF Review: Let Me In

Here’s the thing with American remakes of foreign films: while I get that studios have a vested interest in making a lot of money off of taking a well-received foreign film and purging it of its, well, foreign-ness, to make it more appealing to the subtitle-averse mainstream American filmgoer, I’m also a pretty firm believer…

DP/30 @ TIFF ’10: Henry’s Crime actors Keanu Reeves, James Caan, Vera Farmiga

DP/30 – The stars of the unexpected TIFF hit get together to chat with David Poland about making the film.

DP/30: State of the Union – Christine Vachon, producer

The queen of Killer Films, Christine Vachon, sits on a corner in Toronto with David Poland and talks about the indie industry, where she’s at (including a 5-part mini-series for HBO, Todd Haynes’ Mildred Pierce) and where we all might be going. (Watch out for passing buses!).

TIFF 2010: Photo & Video Array (all on iPhone)

Random moments at TIFF 2010, featuring Ebert, Dennings, Lucas, Ferrell, and Rainn Wilson

Confessions of a Film Festival Junkie: Perspectives

C’est fini le fete international de film de Toronto. To be honest, the eleven days of the somewhat revamped Toronto International Film Festival are a blur. Three or four films a day, three or four hours of writing a night, one reception, innumerable dangling conversations and what do you get. The best I can come…

TIFF 2010: It’s a Wrap

Another year of TIFF has officially wrapped, the awards have been announced, and everyone’s gone home. It was a really great fest this year with a solid slate, although I can’t say I disagree with those who feel the fest would benefit from cutting their slate a bit to be a little more discriminating. I…

Never Let Me Go, screenwriter Alex Garland & novelist Kazuo Ishiguro

DP/30 – A chat with the two wordsmiths behind Never Let Me Go, screenwriter Alex Garland & novelist Kazuo Ishiguro

TIFF Review: Three

One thing about Tom Tykwer: He always makes exactly the kind of film he wants to make, down to the smallest detail. His latest film, Three, explores ideas around relationships, love, sex and sexuality through a tale of a long-time couple, Simon (Sebastian Schipper) and Hanna (Sophie Rois), who have fit together comfortably for so…

Toronto Sales

TIFF 2010 is being promoted as a great sales fest. But is it really?

TIFF Review: A Night for Dying Tigers

Tolstoy would have loved the Yates family in Terry Miles‘ A Night for Dying Tigers. Every unhappy family may be unhappy in its own way, but the Yates, more-or-less normal though they may seem on the surface, are just about as messed up a family as you can hope to find in an indie film….

TIFF Review: Cool It

Pssst. Have you heard about global warming? Sure you have. We’ve all heard about that, right? Especially since Al Gore told us a few years ago the inconvenient truth that the world as we know it is going to come to its catastrophic end if we don’t do something about it right now. The trouble…