The 33rd edition of the annual Toronto International Film Festival has announced it’s line-up and like Variety notes, the schedule looks a lot like the crop of films that was at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year in May.
The first film that comes to mind is Steven Soderberg’s polarizing “Che,” but unfortunately that won’t be appearing at TIFF. Ok, how about the second-most anticipated film from the Croisette, Charlie Kaufman’s “Synecdoche, New York”? Nope, not that either.
Instead we get all the arty cinema from Cannes. Wtf? C’mon! The festival – which runs September 4-13 – will feature Canadian (naturally) Atom Egoyan’s Cannes’ Ecumenical Jury Prize-winner “Adoration,” Arnaud Desplechin’s Special Prize-winner “Un conte de Noël” (with Catherine Deneuve), Matteo Garrone’s Grand Prix-winner “Gomorrah,” and Laurent Cantet‘s Palme d’Or-winning “The Class.” Cannes, Cannes, Cannes!
What, no original programming this year?
There’s not a lot that sounds super enticing to us so far, though Brazilian filmmaker Walter Salles’ “Linha de Passe,” (also a Palme nominee) will appear (he did the very-excellent “The Motorcycle Diaries,” and “Central Station”).
Surely, there’s more to be announced, yes? How about some bigger, umm, American films! (fucking Canadians). In other words, where’s all the Oscar bait?
Spike Lee’s “Miracle At St. Anna,” Clint Eastwood’s “Changeling” or “The Road” with Viggo Mortensen or even getting international for a second, Baz Lurhmann’s “Australia”? C’mon, this is supposed to be the biggest Film Festival in North America. What about all those Oscar-baity films coming out in the fall that are basically the equivalent of your grandfather’s musty old sweater? We’re sure this can’t be the entire line up. The rest of the schedule, or what’s been announced so far can be seen here.
From the Holllywood Reporter.
Other Cannes entries making their Canadian splash include the Dardennes brothers’ “Lorna’s Silence,” best screenplay winner in Cannes; Jerzy Skolimowksi’s “Four Nights With Anna”; Terence Davies’ “Of Time and the City”; Jia Zhang-ke’s “24 City”; and “Three Monkeys,” which earned director Nuri Bilge Ceylan the best director trophy.
Even more Cannes cast offs include Ari Folman’s “Waltz With Bashir,” Steve McQueen’s “Hunger,” which scored the Camera d’Or, Argentinean director Gabriel Medina’s “The Paranoids” and Kim Jee-woon’s Sergio Leone-like Western “The Good the Bad the Weird.” More announcements are expected throughout August, but man, so far, zzzzzzzzz…….. and not really worth the drive to Toronto (Acton).
Update: We forgot to mention our own reporting. We’d already noted that we had heard from good sources that Spike Lee’s “Miracle At St. Anna,” and Michel Gondry’s “Tokyo!” (with Leos Carax and Bong Joon-Ho) would appear at TIFF and now we’re hearing that Guy Ritchie’s “RocknRolla” will be there as well.
