No acting prizes but no less Oscar buzz either...
Toronto Diary: Who's Got Oscar Buzz?
By Leah Rozen (People Magazine)
The noisiest Oscar buzz at this year's festival, which wraps up its 10-day run today, was focused more on performances than films. Kate Winslet's passionate turn as an adulterous suburbanite in Little Children has a strong shot for a Best Actress nomination, as does Penelope Cruz's merry widow in the Spanish film Volver.
And I'd personally love to see Catherine O'Hara recognized for reaching comic perfection in For Your Consideration. She plays a hopelessly deluded, veteran Hollywood actress caught up in Oscar hype in the latest hilarious satire – this one about show-biz – from director Christopher Guest.
For men, the candidates coming out of Toronto include Derek Luke for a strong performance as a South African anti-apartheid activist in Catch a Fire. Forest Whitaker is mesmerizing as Ugandan despot Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland. Sean Penn wowed critics in All the King's Men, though the film did not. Acting legend Peter O'Toole is masterful in Venus, a touching comedy drama in which he plays an aging English actor who forms an unlikely friendship with a crass young woman.
Toby Jones, a less well-known English actor, gives an amazing performance as novelist Truman Capote in Infamous and may well get nominated. (Though it's unlikely Oscar magic will strike twice; Phillip Seymour Hoffman already nabbed a statue last year for portraying the fey author in Capote, which has the same story line as Infamous.)
As for supporting performances, plenty of possible nominees surfaced in Toronto. Bobby, the sprawling, ensemble film (shown as a work-in-progress) by writer-director Emilio Estevez about the day in Robert F. Kennedy was shot, is stuffed with the kind of showy turns that Oscar loves. Expect to hear Demi Moore and Sharon Stone's names bandied about as possible contenders from the film; Moore plays a booze-swilling nightclub singer while Stone, who's actually good, appears as a hair stylist.
Sandra Bullock, portraying writer Harper Lee, and Sigourney Weaver, as socialite Babe Paley, both offer impressive performances in Infamous. And Emma Thompson scores as a depressed novelist in Stranger than Fiction, a very funny conceptual comedy starring Will Ferrell.
For supporting men, Jackie Earle Haley is a likely shoo-in for a nomination for Little Children. Playing a man just out of jail after serving time for exposing himself to kids, he is alternately scary and heartbreakingly sympathetic. (Haley first came to fame 30 years ago as the lead in the original The Bad News Bears; he's only now returning to the screen after a 13-year break.)
Previous Oscar winners Tim Robbins and Dustin Hoffman both drew strong notices. Robbins gives a chilling performance as a cruelly manipulative cop in Catch a Fire and Hoffman is hilarious as a coffee-slurping literature professor in Stranger than Fiction. And Daniel Craig, the new James Bond, nearly steals Infamous as murderer Perry Smith. In one scene, already much chattered about in the press and on the Internet, his character smooches with Truman Capote.
This year's It Boy at Toronto, in the same way that Parker Posey routinely used to be the It Girl at the Sundance Film Festival, was dashing James McAvoy. The soulful Scottish actor, best known for playing the Faun in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,"] starred in three well-received films: The Last King of Scotland, Penelope and Starter for Ten.
Toronto
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TORONTO (Reuters) - "Bella," a romantic drama by Mexican director Alejandro Monteverde, was the surprise winner of the top award at the Toronto Film Festival on Saturday, while the contentious "Death of a President" took home a critics' prize.
A story of two people whose lives converge and turn upside down on a single day in New York, "Bella" received no buzz and little ink during the 10-day event, but still managed to win the festival's People's Choice Award, voted on by moviegoers.
The prize is often an indicator of future Academy Award nominations, with past recipients including best picture winners "American Beauty" and "Chariots of Fire." Last year's winner, "Tsotsi," won an Oscar for best foreign-language film.
"I really hope that this is not a dream and that I don't wake up at film school," a visibly surprised Monteverde said at an awards ceremony. "This festival is my first festival, it's my first film. it's my first everything."
The U.S.-produced film edged out Patrice Leconte's "Mon meilleur ami" and the politically charged "Dixie Chicks: Shut up and Sing" for the award.
"Death of a President," which stirred controversy in the days ahead of the festival, took home the Fipresci prize, which is chosen by international critics. The film, a fictional documentary showing the assassination of President Bush, was noted by the jury "for the audacity with which it distorts reality to reveal a larger truth."
The Diesel Discovery Award, voted on by the hundreds of journalists that attend the festival, went to the Norwegian production "Reprise," directed by Joachim Trier.
Canadian film prizes went to "Sur la trace D'Igor Rizzi," "Manufactured Landscapes," and the short film "Les Jours." An award for cultural innovation went to "Takva - A Man's Fear of God," a joint Turkish-German production.
OSCAR SEASON BEGINS
The festival, considered the kickoff to Hollywood's Oscar season, featured both high-profile disappointments and surprising favorites as it screened 352 films over 10 days.
Early buzz surrounded films such as the Sean Penn political drama "All the King's Men" and the Ridley Scott-directed romantic comedy "A Good Year," starring Russell Crowe.
Reception for those films ranged from lukewarm to cold, as audiences and critics instead embraced films such as "Little Children," featuring Kate Winslet as an unhappy stay-at-home mom, and "Venus," starring Peter O'Toole as an aging actor with an eye for younger women.
For many, the main business of the festival was securing distribution rights, and films such as "Death of a President," the Werner Herzog-directed "Rescue Dawn" and "Away From Her," the debut feature by Sarah Polley, scored deals.
The biggest deal of the festival was for the Jennifer Lopez-produced biopic "El Cantante," whose North American distribution rights were acquired on Friday by arthouse distributor Picturehouse for just under $6 million.
The festival will take its bow later on Saturday with the world premier of Michael Apted's "Amazing Grace," a historical drama of British parliamentarian William Wilberforce's fight to abolish the slave trade in the late 18th century.
Apted, best known for films such as "Coal Miner's Daughter" and the groundbreaking "7 Up" documentary series, said he was drawn to the story of Wilberforce as an example of political debate that was able to effect change.
"In a gentle way, this is an attempt to kind of try and restore a little faith in political action," Apted, 65, told Reuters in an interview.
A story of two people whose lives converge and turn upside down on a single day in New York, "Bella" received no buzz and little ink during the 10-day event, but still managed to win the festival's People's Choice Award, voted on by moviegoers.
The prize is often an indicator of future Academy Award nominations, with past recipients including best picture winners "American Beauty" and "Chariots of Fire." Last year's winner, "Tsotsi," won an Oscar for best foreign-language film.
"I really hope that this is not a dream and that I don't wake up at film school," a visibly surprised Monteverde said at an awards ceremony. "This festival is my first festival, it's my first film. it's my first everything."
The U.S.-produced film edged out Patrice Leconte's "Mon meilleur ami" and the politically charged "Dixie Chicks: Shut up and Sing" for the award.
"Death of a President," which stirred controversy in the days ahead of the festival, took home the Fipresci prize, which is chosen by international critics. The film, a fictional documentary showing the assassination of President Bush, was noted by the jury "for the audacity with which it distorts reality to reveal a larger truth."
The Diesel Discovery Award, voted on by the hundreds of journalists that attend the festival, went to the Norwegian production "Reprise," directed by Joachim Trier.
Canadian film prizes went to "Sur la trace D'Igor Rizzi," "Manufactured Landscapes," and the short film "Les Jours." An award for cultural innovation went to "Takva - A Man's Fear of God," a joint Turkish-German production.
OSCAR SEASON BEGINS
The festival, considered the kickoff to Hollywood's Oscar season, featured both high-profile disappointments and surprising favorites as it screened 352 films over 10 days.
Early buzz surrounded films such as the Sean Penn political drama "All the King's Men" and the Ridley Scott-directed romantic comedy "A Good Year," starring Russell Crowe.
Reception for those films ranged from lukewarm to cold, as audiences and critics instead embraced films such as "Little Children," featuring Kate Winslet as an unhappy stay-at-home mom, and "Venus," starring Peter O'Toole as an aging actor with an eye for younger women.
For many, the main business of the festival was securing distribution rights, and films such as "Death of a President," the Werner Herzog-directed "Rescue Dawn" and "Away From Her," the debut feature by Sarah Polley, scored deals.
The biggest deal of the festival was for the Jennifer Lopez-produced biopic "El Cantante," whose North American distribution rights were acquired on Friday by arthouse distributor Picturehouse for just under $6 million.
The festival will take its bow later on Saturday with the world premier of Michael Apted's "Amazing Grace," a historical drama of British parliamentarian William Wilberforce's fight to abolish the slave trade in the late 18th century.
Apted, best known for films such as "Coal Miner's Daughter" and the groundbreaking "7 Up" documentary series, said he was drawn to the story of Wilberforce as an example of political debate that was able to effect change.
"In a gentle way, this is an attempt to kind of try and restore a little faith in political action," Apted, 65, told Reuters in an interview.
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TORONTO (Reuters) - Some of the biggest names in Hollywood had their egos bruised at this year's Toronto International Film Festival.
Critics and film buffs at the festival, which ends on Saturday with awards for audience favorites, took special aim at Steven Zaillian's "All the King's Men," starring Sean Penn, Jude Law and Kate Winslet.
They were also disappointed in the most controversial film at the festival, "Death of a President," a fictional documentary about the assassination of President George W. Bush.
"The last few years at the festival, we saw massive bombs like 'Elizabethtown' and 'The Human Stain,' movies that came in with glowing expectations and just bombed," said Tom O'Neil, show business awards columnist for The Envelope.com.
"But 'All the King's Men' was nuclear, because it dared to remake an Oscar best picture winner of 1949 and it had a galaxy of superstars performing very badly," he added.
Penn plays Willie Stark, an idealistic politician who rises from the poverty of the Great Depression to become governor of Louisiana, but then gives in to corruption.
Todd McCarthy, a critic for Daily Variety, called the film "overstuffed and fatally miscast," and said in a review that the movie "never comes to life."
Other disappointments included Christopher N. Rowley's "Bonneville," starring Kathy Bates, Joan Allen and Jessica Lange in a road-trip flick.
"It had huge expectations, but massive disappointment. It looked like a made-for-Lifetime TV movie," said O'Neil.
Ken Loach's "The Wind That Shakes the Barley," which won the Palme d'Or in Cannes, proved to be a letdown in Toronto, with members of the audience walking out of the screening.
Sir Ridley Scott's "A Good Year" which stars Russell Crowe in a feel-good movie, also fell short of expectations. Crowe plays a cocky financier who inherits a vineyard estate in France. Initially he plans to sell it but then falls in love with it.
"It wasn't panned, but it wasn't beloved. People enjoyed watching it, but it just didn't live up to the greatness you expect from a Ridley Scott-Russell Crowe combo," said O'Neil.
Gabriel Range's "Death of a President" was criticized for a dramatic collapse after the president is killed.
"'Death of a President' does not have the requisite brains to take on its conservative targets, much less exploit the potential or implications of its own gimmick," wrote New York Times critic Manohla Dargis.
"Marred by unpersuasive performances and sloppy errors, the film is all setup and no payoff. It also manages to be another presumably political film without any actual politics."
India's "Never Say Goodbye," at 3 hours and 12 minutes, was one of the longest feature films at the festival, and it was the first Bollywood feature to win a coveted Gala showing.
But the audience at the press and industry screening started drifting out after the first hour, and India's DNA Web site grumbled there were only around 20 reporters at a news conference that would have filled a stadium in India.
Critics and film buffs at the festival, which ends on Saturday with awards for audience favorites, took special aim at Steven Zaillian's "All the King's Men," starring Sean Penn, Jude Law and Kate Winslet.
They were also disappointed in the most controversial film at the festival, "Death of a President," a fictional documentary about the assassination of President George W. Bush.
"The last few years at the festival, we saw massive bombs like 'Elizabethtown' and 'The Human Stain,' movies that came in with glowing expectations and just bombed," said Tom O'Neil, show business awards columnist for The Envelope.com.
"But 'All the King's Men' was nuclear, because it dared to remake an Oscar best picture winner of 1949 and it had a galaxy of superstars performing very badly," he added.
Penn plays Willie Stark, an idealistic politician who rises from the poverty of the Great Depression to become governor of Louisiana, but then gives in to corruption.
Todd McCarthy, a critic for Daily Variety, called the film "overstuffed and fatally miscast," and said in a review that the movie "never comes to life."
Other disappointments included Christopher N. Rowley's "Bonneville," starring Kathy Bates, Joan Allen and Jessica Lange in a road-trip flick.
"It had huge expectations, but massive disappointment. It looked like a made-for-Lifetime TV movie," said O'Neil.
Ken Loach's "The Wind That Shakes the Barley," which won the Palme d'Or in Cannes, proved to be a letdown in Toronto, with members of the audience walking out of the screening.
Sir Ridley Scott's "A Good Year" which stars Russell Crowe in a feel-good movie, also fell short of expectations. Crowe plays a cocky financier who inherits a vineyard estate in France. Initially he plans to sell it but then falls in love with it.
"It wasn't panned, but it wasn't beloved. People enjoyed watching it, but it just didn't live up to the greatness you expect from a Ridley Scott-Russell Crowe combo," said O'Neil.
Gabriel Range's "Death of a President" was criticized for a dramatic collapse after the president is killed.
"'Death of a President' does not have the requisite brains to take on its conservative targets, much less exploit the potential or implications of its own gimmick," wrote New York Times critic Manohla Dargis.
"Marred by unpersuasive performances and sloppy errors, the film is all setup and no payoff. It also manages to be another presumably political film without any actual politics."
India's "Never Say Goodbye," at 3 hours and 12 minutes, was one of the longest feature films at the festival, and it was the first Bollywood feature to win a coveted Gala showing.
But the audience at the press and industry screening started drifting out after the first hour, and India's DNA Web site grumbled there were only around 20 reporters at a news conference that would have filled a stadium in India.
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Normally, between Toronto and Venice, pretty much every seriously intended September-November film gets a screening, and there are often a few early showings of December releases (last year, Brokeback and Mrs. Henderson). This year, as we'd already heard, The Departed and Flags of Our Fathers are not at either festival (the former, it seems, is going strictly commercial/wide-release; the latter is, sensibly, going to an Asian festival), but also missing are Running with Scissors, The Prestige, Fur and The History Boys -- all of which seemed very logical festival candidates. And, of the December releases, Notes on a Scandal certainly seemed the sort to storm Toronto.
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Mister Tee
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The full line-up, per Variety. Seems a bit thinner than recent years; I'll check in a bit and see which titles I expected are missing.
Fest runs September 7 to 16.
GALA PRESENTATIONS - OPENING NIGHT
"The Journals of Knud Rasmussen"
GALA PRESENTATIONS - CLOSING NIGHT
"Amazing Grace"
GALA PRESENTATIONS
"After the Wedding"
"All The King's Men"
"Away From Her"
"Babel"
"Banquet"
"Black Book"
"Bobby"
"Bonneville"
"Breaking and Entering"
"Dixie Chicks - Shut Up and Sing"
"For Your Consideration"
"Good Year"
"Infamous"
"Mon Meilleur Ami"
"Never Say Goodbye"
"Penelope"
"Volver"
GALA PRESENTATIONS - SPROCKETS FAMILY ZONE
"White Planet"
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
"10 Items or Less"
"A Chairy Tale"
"Alatriste"
"Begone Dull Care"
"Blinkity Blank"
"Brand upon the Brain!"
"Bubble"
"Cantante"
"Catch a Fire"
"Congorama"
"Crime"
"Dog Problem"
"Exiled"
"Fall"
"Fay Grim"
"Fountain"
"Golden Door"
"HANA"
"Hen Hop"
"Homme de sa Vie"
"Horizontal Lines"
"Jindabyne"
"Kabul Express"
"Last King of Scotland"
"Last Kiss"
"Little Children"
"Lives of Others"
"Love and Other Disasters"
"Magic Flute"
"Manufactured Landscapes"
"Merle"
"Mon Colonel"
"Namesake"
"Neighbours"
"Nue Propriété"
"Opening Speech"
"Pan's Labyrinth"
"Paris, Je T'aime"
"Pas de Deux"
"Pleasure of Your Company"
"PostModern Life of My Aunt"
"Quelques Jours en Septembre"
"Seraphim Falls"
"Snow Cake"
"Stars and Stripes"
"Stranger than Fiction"
"Synchromy"
"This Is England"
"Venus"
"Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days & 30 Nights – Hollywood to the Hea"
"Woman on the Beach"
CANADA FIRST!
"Acts of Imagination"
"Cheech"
"Coupure"
"End of the Line"
"Everything's Gone Green"
"Fido"
"Mercy"
"Stone's Throw"
"Sur la trace d'Igor Rizzi"
CANADIAN OPEN VAULT
"Paperback Hero"
CANADIAN RETROSPECTIVE - PETER METTLER
"Balifilm"
"Eastern Avenue"
"Gambling, Gods and LSD"
"Lancalot Freely"
"Picture of Light"
"Scissere"
"Tectonic Plates"
"The Top of His Head"
CONTEMPORARY WORLD CINEMA
"12:08 East of Bucharest"
"Abeni"
"Antonia"
"Beauty in Trouble"
"Bella"
"Bet Collector"
"Born and Bred"
"Bothersome Man"
"Candy"
"Chronicle of an Escape"
"Citizen Duane"
"Confetti"
"Copying Beethoven"
"Diggers"
"Dimanche à Kigali"
"Dog Pound"
"Falling"
"Few Days Later..."
"Fiction"
"Four Minutes"
"Grbavica"
"Half Life of Timofey Berezin"
"Hula Girls"
"Indigènes"
"Italian"
"Last Winter"
"Mainline"
"Monkey Warfare"
"Nouvelle Chance"
"Offside"
"Outsourced"
"Palimpsest"
"Prague"
"Rain Dogs"
"Red Road"
"Requiem"
"Retrieval"
"Silence"
"Sleeping Dogs"
"Slumming"
"Starter For Ten"
"Suely in the Sky"
"Summer '04"
"Summer Palace"
"Sweet Mud"
"Times and Winds"
"To Get to Heaven First You Have to Die"
"Tourneuse de Pages"
"Transe"
"Transylvania"
"Twilight Dancers"
"Unnatural and Accidental"
"Violin"
"Waiter"
"Wake"
"Way I Spent the End of the World"
"White Palms"
"Winter Journey"
DIALOGUES: TALKING WITH PICTURES
"Beales of Grey Gardens"
"haine"
"Harder They Come"
"Let's Get Lost"
"London to Brighton"
"Psychiatry in Russia"
"Velvet Goldmine"
DISCOVERY
"7 ans"
"Art of Crying"
"As the Shadow"
"Bliss"
"Cashback"
"DarkBlueAlmostBlack"
"Falkenberg Farewell"
"Family Ties"
"Glue"
"Grave-Keeper's Tale"
"Griffin & Phoenix"
"King and the Clown"
"Out of the Blue"
"Reprise"
"Silly Age"
"Thicker than Water"
"True North"
"Vanaja"
MASTERS
"Caiman"
"Cœurs"
"EMPz 4 Life"
"I Am the Other Woman"
"Intouchable"
"Lights in the Dusk"
"Missing Star"
"Optimists"
"Rescue Dawn"
"STRIKE"
"Voyage en Arménie"
"When The Levees Broke: A Requiem In Four Acts"
"The Wind that Shakes the Barley"
MAVERICKS
"Evening with Michael Moore"
"Making of a Bollywood Blockbuster: Karan Johar, Shah Rukh Khan, Rani Mukherji"
"Vanguard Cinema: John Waters in conversation with John Cameron Mitchell"
MIDNIGHT MADNESS
"Abandoned"
"All the Boys Love Mandy Lane"
"Black Sheep"
"Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan"
"Host"
"Princess"
"S&MAN"
"Severance"
"Sheitan"
"Trapped Ashes"
MOZART'S VISIONARY CINEMA: NEW CROWNED HOPE
"Daratt"
"Half Moon"
"Hamaca Paraguaya"
"I Don't Want to Sleep Alone"
"Meokgo and the Stickfighter"
"Opera Jawa"
"Syndromes and a Century"
REAL TO REEL
"...So Goes the Nation"
"American Hardcore"
"Blindsight"
"Cry in the Dark"
"Deliver Us From Evil"
"Dong"
"Esprit des lieux"
"Ghosts of Cité Soleil"
"Iran: Une Révolution cinématographique"
"Killer Within"
"Kurt Cobain About A Son"
"Lake of Fire"
"Made in Jamaica"
"My Life as a Terrorist: The Story of Hans-Joachim Klein"
"Office Tigers"
"Pervert's Guide to Cinema"
"Primo Levi's Journey"
"Prisoner or How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair"
"Radiant City"
"Remembering Arthur"
"Sari's Mother"
"Session Is Open"
"Shame"
"Sharkwater"
"Shot in the Dark"
"Sugar Curtain"
"Summercamp!"
"Tales of the Rat Fink"
"Tanju Miah"
"These Girls"
"This Filthy World"
"Toi, Waguih"
"U.S. vs. John Lennon"
"Very Nice, Very Nice"
"Yokohama Mary"
SHORT CUTS CANADA
"À l'ombre"
"Air de rien"
"Aruba"
"Broken Hearted"
"By the Hour"
"Christ in Wood"
"Cloudbreaker"
"Couldn't Be Happier"
"Double Woman"
"Down Payment on a Dead Horse"
"Eaux mortes"
"Ecstasy Note"
"Elizabeth Short"
"Eyes of Edward James"
"Homme Qui Attendait"
"If I See Randy Again Do You Want Me To Hit Him With The Axe?"
"Intolerable"
"Jours"
"Last Bang"
"Life of Errors"
"Love Seat"
"Ninth Street Chronicles"
"Nude Caboose"
"Où est Maurice?"
"Patterns 2"
"Patterns 3"
"Plume"
"Pretty Broken"
"Runner"
"Saddest Boy in the World"
"Saskatchewan Part 3"
"Screening"
"Starlight Tour"
"Supposed To"
"Suspect"
"Tell Me Everything"
"Tête Haute"
"Tragic Story of Nling"
"True Love"
"Wait"
SPROCKETS FAMILY ZONE
"Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker"
"Hairy Tooth Fairy"
"U"
"Ugly Duckling and Me"
VANGUARD
"2:37"
"Bunny Chow"
"Chacun sa nuit"
"Drama/Mex"
"Election"
"Election 2"
"Hottest State"
"Jade Warrior"
"Macbeth"
"Renaissance"
"Shortbus"
"Sleeping Dogs Lie"
"Suburban Mayhem"
VISIONS
"August Days"
"Bamako"
"Belle toujours"
"Big Bang Love, Juvenile A"
"Blessed are the Dreams of Men"
"Book of Revelation"
"Bugmaster"
"Building a Broken Mousetrap"
"Cages"
"Climates"
"Colossal Youth"
"D.O.A.P."
"Dans les villes"
"Day Night Day Night"
"Day on Fire"
"Fantasma"
"Flandres"
"Gathering the Scattered Cousins"
"In Between Days"
"Invisible Waves"
"Island"
"Khadak"
"Kinshasa Palace"
"No Place Like Home"
"NYC Weights and Measures"
"Sistagod"
"Takva - A Man's Fear of God"
"Taxidermia"
"Ten Canoes"
"Time"
"Zidane: Un Portait du XXIème Siècle"
WAVELENGTHS
"18 Videos; #8"
"3 Minuten"
"Afraid So"
"Bouquets 28-30"
"Circa 1960"
"Ema/Emaki II"
"hysteria"
"In This House"
"Kristall"
"Lancia Thema"
"lions and tigers and bears"
"Memo to Pic Desk"
"Nachtstück"
"Poet's Dream"
"Pont sur la Drina"
"PSA Project: 09 Body Count"
"PSA Project: 10 Occupation"
"PSA Project: 14 Target"
"Roads of Kiarostami"
"Schuss!"
"Seascape #1 Night, China Shenzhen 05"
"Silk Ties"
"Song and Solitude"
"Swivel"
"Tsuioku"
"v-r"
"Zone of Total Eclipse"
Fest runs September 7 to 16.
GALA PRESENTATIONS - OPENING NIGHT
"The Journals of Knud Rasmussen"
GALA PRESENTATIONS - CLOSING NIGHT
"Amazing Grace"
GALA PRESENTATIONS
"After the Wedding"
"All The King's Men"
"Away From Her"
"Babel"
"Banquet"
"Black Book"
"Bobby"
"Bonneville"
"Breaking and Entering"
"Dixie Chicks - Shut Up and Sing"
"For Your Consideration"
"Good Year"
"Infamous"
"Mon Meilleur Ami"
"Never Say Goodbye"
"Penelope"
"Volver"
GALA PRESENTATIONS - SPROCKETS FAMILY ZONE
"White Planet"
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
"10 Items or Less"
"A Chairy Tale"
"Alatriste"
"Begone Dull Care"
"Blinkity Blank"
"Brand upon the Brain!"
"Bubble"
"Cantante"
"Catch a Fire"
"Congorama"
"Crime"
"Dog Problem"
"Exiled"
"Fall"
"Fay Grim"
"Fountain"
"Golden Door"
"HANA"
"Hen Hop"
"Homme de sa Vie"
"Horizontal Lines"
"Jindabyne"
"Kabul Express"
"Last King of Scotland"
"Last Kiss"
"Little Children"
"Lives of Others"
"Love and Other Disasters"
"Magic Flute"
"Manufactured Landscapes"
"Merle"
"Mon Colonel"
"Namesake"
"Neighbours"
"Nue Propriété"
"Opening Speech"
"Pan's Labyrinth"
"Paris, Je T'aime"
"Pas de Deux"
"Pleasure of Your Company"
"PostModern Life of My Aunt"
"Quelques Jours en Septembre"
"Seraphim Falls"
"Snow Cake"
"Stars and Stripes"
"Stranger than Fiction"
"Synchromy"
"This Is England"
"Venus"
"Vince Vaughn's Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days & 30 Nights – Hollywood to the Hea"
"Woman on the Beach"
CANADA FIRST!
"Acts of Imagination"
"Cheech"
"Coupure"
"End of the Line"
"Everything's Gone Green"
"Fido"
"Mercy"
"Stone's Throw"
"Sur la trace d'Igor Rizzi"
CANADIAN OPEN VAULT
"Paperback Hero"
CANADIAN RETROSPECTIVE - PETER METTLER
"Balifilm"
"Eastern Avenue"
"Gambling, Gods and LSD"
"Lancalot Freely"
"Picture of Light"
"Scissere"
"Tectonic Plates"
"The Top of His Head"
CONTEMPORARY WORLD CINEMA
"12:08 East of Bucharest"
"Abeni"
"Antonia"
"Beauty in Trouble"
"Bella"
"Bet Collector"
"Born and Bred"
"Bothersome Man"
"Candy"
"Chronicle of an Escape"
"Citizen Duane"
"Confetti"
"Copying Beethoven"
"Diggers"
"Dimanche à Kigali"
"Dog Pound"
"Falling"
"Few Days Later..."
"Fiction"
"Four Minutes"
"Grbavica"
"Half Life of Timofey Berezin"
"Hula Girls"
"Indigènes"
"Italian"
"Last Winter"
"Mainline"
"Monkey Warfare"
"Nouvelle Chance"
"Offside"
"Outsourced"
"Palimpsest"
"Prague"
"Rain Dogs"
"Red Road"
"Requiem"
"Retrieval"
"Silence"
"Sleeping Dogs"
"Slumming"
"Starter For Ten"
"Suely in the Sky"
"Summer '04"
"Summer Palace"
"Sweet Mud"
"Times and Winds"
"To Get to Heaven First You Have to Die"
"Tourneuse de Pages"
"Transe"
"Transylvania"
"Twilight Dancers"
"Unnatural and Accidental"
"Violin"
"Waiter"
"Wake"
"Way I Spent the End of the World"
"White Palms"
"Winter Journey"
DIALOGUES: TALKING WITH PICTURES
"Beales of Grey Gardens"
"haine"
"Harder They Come"
"Let's Get Lost"
"London to Brighton"
"Psychiatry in Russia"
"Velvet Goldmine"
DISCOVERY
"7 ans"
"Art of Crying"
"As the Shadow"
"Bliss"
"Cashback"
"DarkBlueAlmostBlack"
"Falkenberg Farewell"
"Family Ties"
"Glue"
"Grave-Keeper's Tale"
"Griffin & Phoenix"
"King and the Clown"
"Out of the Blue"
"Reprise"
"Silly Age"
"Thicker than Water"
"True North"
"Vanaja"
MASTERS
"Caiman"
"Cœurs"
"EMPz 4 Life"
"I Am the Other Woman"
"Intouchable"
"Lights in the Dusk"
"Missing Star"
"Optimists"
"Rescue Dawn"
"STRIKE"
"Voyage en Arménie"
"When The Levees Broke: A Requiem In Four Acts"
"The Wind that Shakes the Barley"
MAVERICKS
"Evening with Michael Moore"
"Making of a Bollywood Blockbuster: Karan Johar, Shah Rukh Khan, Rani Mukherji"
"Vanguard Cinema: John Waters in conversation with John Cameron Mitchell"
MIDNIGHT MADNESS
"Abandoned"
"All the Boys Love Mandy Lane"
"Black Sheep"
"Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan"
"Host"
"Princess"
"S&MAN"
"Severance"
"Sheitan"
"Trapped Ashes"
MOZART'S VISIONARY CINEMA: NEW CROWNED HOPE
"Daratt"
"Half Moon"
"Hamaca Paraguaya"
"I Don't Want to Sleep Alone"
"Meokgo and the Stickfighter"
"Opera Jawa"
"Syndromes and a Century"
REAL TO REEL
"...So Goes the Nation"
"American Hardcore"
"Blindsight"
"Cry in the Dark"
"Deliver Us From Evil"
"Dong"
"Esprit des lieux"
"Ghosts of Cité Soleil"
"Iran: Une Révolution cinématographique"
"Killer Within"
"Kurt Cobain About A Son"
"Lake of Fire"
"Made in Jamaica"
"My Life as a Terrorist: The Story of Hans-Joachim Klein"
"Office Tigers"
"Pervert's Guide to Cinema"
"Primo Levi's Journey"
"Prisoner or How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair"
"Radiant City"
"Remembering Arthur"
"Sari's Mother"
"Session Is Open"
"Shame"
"Sharkwater"
"Shot in the Dark"
"Sugar Curtain"
"Summercamp!"
"Tales of the Rat Fink"
"Tanju Miah"
"These Girls"
"This Filthy World"
"Toi, Waguih"
"U.S. vs. John Lennon"
"Very Nice, Very Nice"
"Yokohama Mary"
SHORT CUTS CANADA
"À l'ombre"
"Air de rien"
"Aruba"
"Broken Hearted"
"By the Hour"
"Christ in Wood"
"Cloudbreaker"
"Couldn't Be Happier"
"Double Woman"
"Down Payment on a Dead Horse"
"Eaux mortes"
"Ecstasy Note"
"Elizabeth Short"
"Eyes of Edward James"
"Homme Qui Attendait"
"If I See Randy Again Do You Want Me To Hit Him With The Axe?"
"Intolerable"
"Jours"
"Last Bang"
"Life of Errors"
"Love Seat"
"Ninth Street Chronicles"
"Nude Caboose"
"Où est Maurice?"
"Patterns 2"
"Patterns 3"
"Plume"
"Pretty Broken"
"Runner"
"Saddest Boy in the World"
"Saskatchewan Part 3"
"Screening"
"Starlight Tour"
"Supposed To"
"Suspect"
"Tell Me Everything"
"Tête Haute"
"Tragic Story of Nling"
"True Love"
"Wait"
SPROCKETS FAMILY ZONE
"Alex Rider: Operation Stormbreaker"
"Hairy Tooth Fairy"
"U"
"Ugly Duckling and Me"
VANGUARD
"2:37"
"Bunny Chow"
"Chacun sa nuit"
"Drama/Mex"
"Election"
"Election 2"
"Hottest State"
"Jade Warrior"
"Macbeth"
"Renaissance"
"Shortbus"
"Sleeping Dogs Lie"
"Suburban Mayhem"
VISIONS
"August Days"
"Bamako"
"Belle toujours"
"Big Bang Love, Juvenile A"
"Blessed are the Dreams of Men"
"Book of Revelation"
"Bugmaster"
"Building a Broken Mousetrap"
"Cages"
"Climates"
"Colossal Youth"
"D.O.A.P."
"Dans les villes"
"Day Night Day Night"
"Day on Fire"
"Fantasma"
"Flandres"
"Gathering the Scattered Cousins"
"In Between Days"
"Invisible Waves"
"Island"
"Khadak"
"Kinshasa Palace"
"No Place Like Home"
"NYC Weights and Measures"
"Sistagod"
"Takva - A Man's Fear of God"
"Taxidermia"
"Ten Canoes"
"Time"
"Zidane: Un Portait du XXIème Siècle"
WAVELENGTHS
"18 Videos; #8"
"3 Minuten"
"Afraid So"
"Bouquets 28-30"
"Circa 1960"
"Ema/Emaki II"
"hysteria"
"In This House"
"Kristall"
"Lancia Thema"
"lions and tigers and bears"
"Memo to Pic Desk"
"Nachtstück"
"Poet's Dream"
"Pont sur la Drina"
"PSA Project: 09 Body Count"
"PSA Project: 10 Occupation"
"PSA Project: 14 Target"
"Roads of Kiarostami"
"Schuss!"
"Seascape #1 Night, China Shenzhen 05"
"Silk Ties"
"Song and Solitude"
"Swivel"
"Tsuioku"
"v-r"
"Zone of Total Eclipse"
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Mister Tee
- Tenured Laureate
- Posts: 8648
- Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 2:57 pm
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And now, the part of the festival Eric will most enjoy.
Toronto bows 'Borat'
Fest sidebar goes for gore
By TAMSEN TILLSON
TORONTO -- "Da Ali G Show" creator Sacha Baron Cohen's bigscreen debut will unspool in the Toronto Film Festival's offbeat Midnight Madness lineup, unveiled Tuesday.
"Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," directed by Larry Charles, will world preem at the fest, which runs Sept. 7-16.
Baron Cohen stars as Kazakh journalist Borat Sagdiyev, who travels to the U.S. to document the contrasts between his homeland and the land of the free.
But most of the 10 films in the lineup are up to their elbows in blood and gore, starting with the world preem of Kiwi helmer Jonathan King's comedy horror "Black Sheep," about genetically engineered killer sheep.
Directors Ken Russell ("Tommy"), Sean Cunningham ("Friday the 13th"), Monte Hellman ("Two-Lane Blacktop") and John Gaeta (visual effects supervisor of "The Matrix") come together in the world premiere of "Trapped Ashes," a U.S./Japan/Canada co-production anthology in which four people trapped in a horror film set in a Hollywood studio each tell a creepy story. Helmer Joe Dante ("Gremlins") oversees the wraparound sequences.
In the world preem of "All the Boys Love Mandy Lane," directed by Jonathan Levine, peers of teen diva Mandy (Amber Heard) are killed off one by one; and "The Office" meets "Deliverance" with the North American preem of Christopher Smith's comedy horror "Severance," in which a corporate team-building retreat goes deadly wrong.
From Spain comes "The Abandoned," directed by Nacho Cerda, the tale of an adopted American woman who returns to her Russian homeland with terrifying results. In the North American debut of South Korean helmer Bong Joon-ho's creature feature "The Host," a family takes on a murderous fiend from Seoul's Han River.
In the Canadian premiere of Kim Chapiron's "Sheitan," partygoers at a country house fall under the spell of a freakish caretaker (Vincent Cassel).
And helmer J.T. Petty asks why we relish the horror genre in the documentary "S&Man," an international premiere.
Also on the slate: the North American preem of Danish helmer Anders Morgenthaler's "Princess," an animated feature set in the porn industry.
Toronto bows 'Borat'
Fest sidebar goes for gore
By TAMSEN TILLSON
TORONTO -- "Da Ali G Show" creator Sacha Baron Cohen's bigscreen debut will unspool in the Toronto Film Festival's offbeat Midnight Madness lineup, unveiled Tuesday.
"Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan," directed by Larry Charles, will world preem at the fest, which runs Sept. 7-16.
Baron Cohen stars as Kazakh journalist Borat Sagdiyev, who travels to the U.S. to document the contrasts between his homeland and the land of the free.
But most of the 10 films in the lineup are up to their elbows in blood and gore, starting with the world preem of Kiwi helmer Jonathan King's comedy horror "Black Sheep," about genetically engineered killer sheep.
Directors Ken Russell ("Tommy"), Sean Cunningham ("Friday the 13th"), Monte Hellman ("Two-Lane Blacktop") and John Gaeta (visual effects supervisor of "The Matrix") come together in the world premiere of "Trapped Ashes," a U.S./Japan/Canada co-production anthology in which four people trapped in a horror film set in a Hollywood studio each tell a creepy story. Helmer Joe Dante ("Gremlins") oversees the wraparound sequences.
In the world preem of "All the Boys Love Mandy Lane," directed by Jonathan Levine, peers of teen diva Mandy (Amber Heard) are killed off one by one; and "The Office" meets "Deliverance" with the North American preem of Christopher Smith's comedy horror "Severance," in which a corporate team-building retreat goes deadly wrong.
From Spain comes "The Abandoned," directed by Nacho Cerda, the tale of an adopted American woman who returns to her Russian homeland with terrifying results. In the North American debut of South Korean helmer Bong Joon-ho's creature feature "The Host," a family takes on a murderous fiend from Seoul's Han River.
In the Canadian premiere of Kim Chapiron's "Sheitan," partygoers at a country house fall under the spell of a freakish caretaker (Vincent Cassel).
And helmer J.T. Petty asks why we relish the horror genre in the documentary "S&Man," an international premiere.
Also on the slate: the North American preem of Danish helmer Anders Morgenthaler's "Princess," an animated feature set in the porn industry.
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Mister Tee
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...and a few more titles.
Toronto fest falls for 'Men'
Canuck bow for 'Bernard'
By BRENDAN KELLY
MONTREAL -- "All the King's Men," the star-studded remake of the 1949 Oscar-winning pic, will world preem at the Toronto Film Festival.
Canuck fest, which runs Sept. 7-16, will also host the world preems of thesp-helmer Bob Balaban's "Bernard and Doris," Jason Biggs starrer "The Pleasure of Your Company" and helmer Agnieszka Holland's "Copying Beethoven."
Written and directed by Steven Zaillian, the adaptation of Robert Penn Warren novel "All the King's Men" stars Sean Penn as corrupt Southern politician Willie Stark. Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Patricia Clarkson, James Gandolfini, Mark Ruffalo and Anthony Hopkins also star.
Pic, produced by Mike Medavoy, Arnold W. Messer, Ken Lemberger and Zaillian, will be released by Sony Pictures. At Toronto, it will be presented in the fest's Gala premiere section.
"Bernard and Doris" is based on the life of billionaire tobacco baroness Doris Duke, with Susan Sarandon playing Duke and Ralph Fiennes portraying her gay Irish butler, Bernard. When she died in 1993, Duke left her entire estate to the butler, causing much controversy. Pic is a special presentation at Toronto.
Writer, thesp and founder of the Stella comedy troupe Michael Ian Black makes his feature directorial debut with "The Pleasure of Your Company," about a man (Biggs) whose life is changed when he meets a quirky waitress (Isla Fisher). Pic is also a special presentation screening.
Diane Kruger stars in "Copying Beethoven" as a music student who helps legendary composer Ludwig van Beethoven (Ed Harris) publish the score for his Ninth Symphony. This British-Hungarian co-production will screen as part of the Contemporary World Cinema sidebar.
Toronto fest falls for 'Men'
Canuck bow for 'Bernard'
By BRENDAN KELLY
MONTREAL -- "All the King's Men," the star-studded remake of the 1949 Oscar-winning pic, will world preem at the Toronto Film Festival.
Canuck fest, which runs Sept. 7-16, will also host the world preems of thesp-helmer Bob Balaban's "Bernard and Doris," Jason Biggs starrer "The Pleasure of Your Company" and helmer Agnieszka Holland's "Copying Beethoven."
Written and directed by Steven Zaillian, the adaptation of Robert Penn Warren novel "All the King's Men" stars Sean Penn as corrupt Southern politician Willie Stark. Jude Law, Kate Winslet, Patricia Clarkson, James Gandolfini, Mark Ruffalo and Anthony Hopkins also star.
Pic, produced by Mike Medavoy, Arnold W. Messer, Ken Lemberger and Zaillian, will be released by Sony Pictures. At Toronto, it will be presented in the fest's Gala premiere section.
"Bernard and Doris" is based on the life of billionaire tobacco baroness Doris Duke, with Susan Sarandon playing Duke and Ralph Fiennes portraying her gay Irish butler, Bernard. When she died in 1993, Duke left her entire estate to the butler, causing much controversy. Pic is a special presentation at Toronto.
Writer, thesp and founder of the Stella comedy troupe Michael Ian Black makes his feature directorial debut with "The Pleasure of Your Company," about a man (Biggs) whose life is changed when he meets a quirky waitress (Isla Fisher). Pic is also a special presentation screening.
Diane Kruger stars in "Copying Beethoven" as a music student who helps legendary composer Ludwig van Beethoven (Ed Harris) publish the score for his Ninth Symphony. This British-Hungarian co-production will screen as part of the Contemporary World Cinema sidebar.
-
Mister Tee
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- Joined: Wed Jan 01, 2003 2:57 pm
- Location: NYC
- Contact:
Don't get excited: this is mostly the Cannes repeaters. The most significant Festival entries -- i.e., those (mostly English-language) films getting their first reviews in Toronto -- are still to come.
TORONTO (Hollywood Reporter) - The Toronto International Film Festival unveiled 25 North American premieres Tuesday, nearly all of which first bowed in Festival de Cannes, among them Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's "Babel."
Toronto programmers said they booked the Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt starrer "Babel" for a special presentation after the Paramount Pictures title earned Inarritu ("21 Grams") a best director award in Festival de Cannes.
The 31st Toronto festival runs September 7-16.
The festival's Masters sidebar -- which features work by established directors -- will screen Ken Loach's Palme d'Or winner, "The Wind That Shakes the Barley," a drama about Ireland's fight for independence in the 1920s, along with Italian director Nanni Moretti's Festival de Cannes Competition entry "The Caiman," a biting portrait of Silvio Berlusconi's Italy.
Another Festival de Cannes Competition entrant coming to Toronto is Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki's "Lights in the Dusk," the finale to a trilogy that portrays a lonely night watchman facing dire consequences after witnessing a robbery.
Toronto co-director Noah Cowan said that these and other films announced Tuesday will get a "second unveiling" in Toronto, while he and his team of programmers prepare to announce their own slate of world premieres in the coming weeks.
Toronto also booked a documentary from Cannes for its Real to Reel section, Egyptian filmmaker Tahani Rached's "These Girls," a film about young girls defying social mores in Cairo.
DISCOVERY AND VISIONS
The Discovery sidebar, featuring films by new and emerging filmmakers, will feature Chinese director Sheng Zhimin's "Bliss," after its bow at the Locarno festival, as well as Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier's debut feature, "Reprise," a comedy about two young aspiring male writers that premiered at the Karlovy Vary festival in the Czech Republic.
The first bookings for the Visions section, a showcase for innovative filmmaking, include French director Bruno Dumont's Festival de Cannes Grand Prix winner, "Flandres"; Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike's "Big Bang Love: Juvenile A," which bowed in Helsinki; and Rolf de Heer's "Ten Canoes," an Australian film based on Aboriginal myths that premiered in Cannes.
Also in the Discovery program is "Taxidermia," the sophomore feature from Hungarian director Gyorgy Palfi; Abderrahmane Sissako's "Bamako," a French/Mali/USA co-production that unspooled in Cannes; and Korean director Kim Ki-duk's "Time," a study of cosmetic surgery from the perspective of a young woman ready to go under the knife for the man she loves.
In the Contemporary World Cinema sidebar, Toronto programmers booked 11 North American premieres, including Festival de Cannes Jury Prize winner "Red Road," British Andrea Arnold's debut feature about a woman who stalks the man who destroyed her family.
Also unspooling in the CWC section is Romanian filmmaker Corneliu Porumboiu's Camera d'Or-winning "12:08 East of Bucharest," Australian director Ray Lawrence's "Jindabyne," Thai helmer Pen-ek Ratanaruang's noir thriller "Invisible Waves," Russian director Djamshed Usmonov's "To Get to Heaven First You Have to Die" and Hungarian director Szabolcs Hajdu's "White Palms."
CWC programmers also booked the Chinese/French co-production "Summer Palace," from Chinese director Lou Ye; "Summer '04," from German helmer Stefan Krohmer; and Norwegian filmmaker Jens Lien's "The Bothersome Man," which unspooled previously in Cannes and Karlovy Vary.
Other Cannes films booked for Toronto include Polish director Slawomir Fabicki's first feature, "Retrieval"; Argentine director Israel Adrian Caetano's "Cronica De Una Fuga"; and U.S. director John Cameron Mitchell's sexually explicit "Shortbus," a drama starring Justin Bond, Lindsay Beamish, Paul Dawson and PJ Deboy.
Toronto also booked a Canadian premiere for "Slumming," Austrian director Michael Glawogger's drama about a wealthy slacker and the characters he meets while pulling pranks and manipulating women.
Programmers of the festival will make additional film announcements in the coming months.
TORONTO (Hollywood Reporter) - The Toronto International Film Festival unveiled 25 North American premieres Tuesday, nearly all of which first bowed in Festival de Cannes, among them Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's "Babel."
Toronto programmers said they booked the Cate Blanchett and Brad Pitt starrer "Babel" for a special presentation after the Paramount Pictures title earned Inarritu ("21 Grams") a best director award in Festival de Cannes.
The 31st Toronto festival runs September 7-16.
The festival's Masters sidebar -- which features work by established directors -- will screen Ken Loach's Palme d'Or winner, "The Wind That Shakes the Barley," a drama about Ireland's fight for independence in the 1920s, along with Italian director Nanni Moretti's Festival de Cannes Competition entry "The Caiman," a biting portrait of Silvio Berlusconi's Italy.
Another Festival de Cannes Competition entrant coming to Toronto is Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki's "Lights in the Dusk," the finale to a trilogy that portrays a lonely night watchman facing dire consequences after witnessing a robbery.
Toronto co-director Noah Cowan said that these and other films announced Tuesday will get a "second unveiling" in Toronto, while he and his team of programmers prepare to announce their own slate of world premieres in the coming weeks.
Toronto also booked a documentary from Cannes for its Real to Reel section, Egyptian filmmaker Tahani Rached's "These Girls," a film about young girls defying social mores in Cairo.
DISCOVERY AND VISIONS
The Discovery sidebar, featuring films by new and emerging filmmakers, will feature Chinese director Sheng Zhimin's "Bliss," after its bow at the Locarno festival, as well as Norwegian filmmaker Joachim Trier's debut feature, "Reprise," a comedy about two young aspiring male writers that premiered at the Karlovy Vary festival in the Czech Republic.
The first bookings for the Visions section, a showcase for innovative filmmaking, include French director Bruno Dumont's Festival de Cannes Grand Prix winner, "Flandres"; Japanese filmmaker Takashi Miike's "Big Bang Love: Juvenile A," which bowed in Helsinki; and Rolf de Heer's "Ten Canoes," an Australian film based on Aboriginal myths that premiered in Cannes.
Also in the Discovery program is "Taxidermia," the sophomore feature from Hungarian director Gyorgy Palfi; Abderrahmane Sissako's "Bamako," a French/Mali/USA co-production that unspooled in Cannes; and Korean director Kim Ki-duk's "Time," a study of cosmetic surgery from the perspective of a young woman ready to go under the knife for the man she loves.
In the Contemporary World Cinema sidebar, Toronto programmers booked 11 North American premieres, including Festival de Cannes Jury Prize winner "Red Road," British Andrea Arnold's debut feature about a woman who stalks the man who destroyed her family.
Also unspooling in the CWC section is Romanian filmmaker Corneliu Porumboiu's Camera d'Or-winning "12:08 East of Bucharest," Australian director Ray Lawrence's "Jindabyne," Thai helmer Pen-ek Ratanaruang's noir thriller "Invisible Waves," Russian director Djamshed Usmonov's "To Get to Heaven First You Have to Die" and Hungarian director Szabolcs Hajdu's "White Palms."
CWC programmers also booked the Chinese/French co-production "Summer Palace," from Chinese director Lou Ye; "Summer '04," from German helmer Stefan Krohmer; and Norwegian filmmaker Jens Lien's "The Bothersome Man," which unspooled previously in Cannes and Karlovy Vary.
Other Cannes films booked for Toronto include Polish director Slawomir Fabicki's first feature, "Retrieval"; Argentine director Israel Adrian Caetano's "Cronica De Una Fuga"; and U.S. director John Cameron Mitchell's sexually explicit "Shortbus," a drama starring Justin Bond, Lindsay Beamish, Paul Dawson and PJ Deboy.
Toronto also booked a Canadian premiere for "Slumming," Austrian director Michael Glawogger's drama about a wealthy slacker and the characters he meets while pulling pranks and manipulating women.
Programmers of the festival will make additional film announcements in the coming months.