35th Toronto Film Festival The global world of film and Oscar-hunting American flicks converge in Hollywood North

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By Lori Hoffman

Matt Damon at the 2009 TIFF.

Photo by Lori Hoffman

When you are passionate about film as an art form and a vibrant, visceral form of expression, this summer’s weak collection of bad comedies, disappointing tent pole films and assorted other by-the-numbers flicks provided about as much nourishment as day old table scraps. Inception was a full meal for the movie lover’s soul, but little else made my fellow movie fanatics perk up and say, “That was memorable.”

This is exactly why I spend my working vacation every year at the Toronto International Film Festival. The 35th TIFF takes place this year from Sept. 9-19. This will be my 23rd trip to cover the global cinematic feast. The festival has grown from an understated, unpretentious celebration of emerging filmmakers, to a film festival that officially launches the Oscar buzz season with an obscene number of major film stars abandoning the Hollywood hills for Hollywood North.

At this 35th edition of TIFF, my game plan will be the same as previous years — striking a balance between American made pictures trolling for Oscar buzz, exploring the vast world of international cinema for hidden gems and checking out the latest films from established directors and major stars.

And, by the way you subtitle haters, if you think TIFF is only about prestige pictures, think again. Beyond the big name American films and the highbrow European films, Toronto presents lots of alternative cinema in their Midnight Madness, Discovery and Vanguard programs including horror and martial arts flicks.

As much as I disliked Will Ferrell’s summer comedy The Others, I’m looking forward to his dramedy Everything Must Go, about a man who turns a yard sale into a new career direction. I really liked Ben Affleck’s directorial debut Gone Baby Gone, so I’ll be seeing his latest, in which he also stars, The Town, about a crew of bank robbers in Boston. The film opens locally right after its debut in Toronto.

Other films with big name stars in Toronto include The Debt (Helen Mirren, Sam Worthington); Conviction (Hilary Swank, Sam Rockwell); Never Let Me Go (Keira Knightley, Carey Mulligan); Hereafter (directed by Clint Eastwood starring Matt Damon); Henry’s Crime (Keanu Reeves, James Caan, Vera Farmiga) and Woody Allen’s You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger (Anthony Hopkins, Antonio Banderas, Josh Brolin, Gemma Jones, Naomi Watts).

Asian cinema always provides a major chunk of my TIFF schedule, which so far includes the martial arts flicks, The Butcher, The Chef and The Swordsman and 13 Assassins; a 10th century detective flick, Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame, and two dramas, one about a true life disaster, Aftershock, and Confessions, about a teacher who knows two of her students murdered her child.

Check in at acweekly.com beginning Sept. 10 for my reports from the festival.

TIFF Guest List

As a Jersey girl I’m thrilled that Bruce Springsteen will be in town to promote the documentary The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town. Clint Eastwood is back with his film Hereafter, his first trip to the fest since 1990. Bill Gates will also be in town, and the list of Academy Award winners scheduled includes Nicole Kidman, Matt Damon, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Helen Mirren, Hilary Swank, Robert De Niro, Jennifer Connelly and Javier Bardem.