The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is fast becoming THE event to indulge in some of the year’s greatest cinema from all over the globe and the press conference I attended last week bore no indication of them slacking this year.
The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is fast becoming THE event to indulge in some of the years greatest cinema from all over the globe and the press conference I attended last week bore no indication of them slacking this year. The conference was held in the Hyatt, and got down to business pretty quickly, which I was rather grateful for. I sat in the first few rows, directly in front of the podium where festival organisers; Piers Handling and Cameron Bailey stood and announced a large selection of the films that will be showing this year. Needless to say, it was a rather impressive list that now has me salivating just at the thought of all the enticing cinema the attendees of the festival will be treated to. It is evident that Mr Handling and Mr Bailey have worked tirelessly to ensure that only the most appropriate and intriguing films, across all genres have been selected for this very ambitious festival. In fact they exemplified this by choosing to create a first for the festivals 36 year run... TIFF will open this year with a documentary, none other than Davis Guggenheims (Waiting for Superman, An Inconvenient Truth, It Might Get Loud) latest offering: Down From The Sky, a documentary charting the creation of U2s groundbreaking album Actung Baby! And their monolithic rise from it. While some people may not like U2, one cannot argue that this is a truly inspired decision on the part of the festival organisers. As Piers Handling rightfully said:
Davis Guggenheims fascinating account of this world renowned band is the perfect film to kick off our 11 day celebration of artists, stories and voices from around the world.
One could also make an effective case for it being an attempt to try and attract the common man to the festival. Film festivals have long been trying to fight the assumption that they are only for film snobs, critics and purists, which is obviously incorrect. Its an unfortunate stigmata, but one that could potentially be lessened by opening a prestigious festival with a well made documentary about one of the worlds most colossal and recognisable bands. At the press conference the leading men also took the time to announce 10 Galas and 43 Special Presentations including 31 World premieres and a number of North American premieres, which consist of: Albert Nobbs World Premiere Butter World Premiere A Dangerous Method North American PremiereA Happy Event - World Premiere The Ides Of March North American PremiereThe Lady - World Premiere Moneyball - World PremierePeace, Love & Misunderstanding - World Premiere Take This Waltz - World Premiere W.E. North American Premiere Special Presentations 11 Flowers - World Premiere 50/50 - World Premiere http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mMaJET7mD0M 360 - World Premiere The Artist Toronto Premiere Americano World Premiere Anonymous - World PremiereA Better Life - World PremiereBurning Man - World Premiere Chicken With Plums North American Premiere Coriolanus North American Premiere Countdown - World Premiere Dark Horse North American Premiere The Deep Blue Sea - World Premiere The Descendants - World PremiereDrive Canadian PremiereElles World Premiere The Eye Of The Storm International PremiereFriends With Kids World Premiere Habemus Papam North American Premiere(Sadly no English subs on the trailer, but hey if you want a feel for the film, the trailers there) Headhunters North American PremiereHick - World Premiere The Hunter - World Premiere Jeff, Who Lives At Home - World Premiere Killer Joe North American Premiere Like Crazy International Premiere Machine Gun Preacher - World Premiere Martha Marcy May Marlene Canadian PremiereMelancholia North American PremiereThe Oranges World Premiere Pearl Jam Twenty - World Premiere http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oSp1YVGqw1Y&ob=av2n Rampart - World Premiere Salmon Fishing In The Yemen - World Premiere Shame North American Premiere A Simple Life North American Premiere The Skin I Live In North American Premiere http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIt1V3qP_mg&feature=related Take Shelter Canadian PremiereTen Year - World Premiere Trishna - World Premiere Twixt - World Premiere Tyrannosaur Canadian Premiere We Need To Talk About Kevin North American Premiere Where Do We Go Now? International Premiere Woman In The Fifth - World Premiere As you can see there are some pretty exciting films listed there and I am now incredibly enthused about attending this years event, which is surely set to be one of the best in their history. If TIFF keep this great selection up they will soon surpass Cannes as THE must attend film event of the year. You can now purchase your ticket packs online and any lover of film really should. See you in September! The Toronto International Film Festival takes place on the 8th September to the 18th and spans 11 days. You can purchase tickets online at www.tiff.net