We’ve been cooking up a Toronto International Film Festival predix piece and lo and behold, some of the initial line-up has been announced. It’s mostly an international affair so far.
Twenty six films in total, As per usual, many films from Cannes 2009 have been announced: Alain Resnais’ romantic folly, “Les Herbes Folles,” Hirokazu Kore-eda’s cooly received “Air Doll,” Un Certain Regard section award winner Corneliu Porumboiu’s “Police, Adjective,” Tsai Ming-Liang’s uber-arty “Face,” Pen-Ek Ratanaruang’s “Nymph” (one of our greatly anticipated Cannes films we missed), Joao Pedro Rodrigues’ “To Die Like a Man,” Andrea Arnold’s Jury Prize winner, “Fish Tank,” and Camera D’or winner Warwick Thornton’s “Samson and Delilah.” Here’s a whole wack of Cannes-related trailers for these films including, “Air Doll,” “Face,” and the aforementioned Thornton, Australian outback film, ‘S&D.’ Here’s the list of the rest from Variety.
We’ve been scheming and dreaming up our own list. If there’s certain films that you’re like, “huh, that’s missing? It’s cause we did predix for Telluride, Venice, and the New York Film Festival, and feel that maybe certain picks will land there. Though, to be fair, TIFF is a gargantuan and generally gets first dibs on anything in the fall film schedule they want. So some of these are predictions, but some are just suggestions and films we think might work better elsewhere. So for example, Werner Herzog’s “The Bad Lieutenant” has its best shot at being sold at Toronto, but it looks like shit, so we think possibly, so other festival might be better suited. But again, TIFF gets anything. So when you check out our other festival picks, don’t be entirely surprised if Toronto snatches up first. Here’s some ideas…(and we haven’t touched it from when the picks were written last week).
TIFF – Toronto International Film Festival
Runs: September 10-19
TIFF loves its important films and international cinema, but first and foremost, above all other film festivals (except maybe Cannes), it loves its international prestige, which means bringing in stars and A-list names to keep its allure as the most important film festival in North America. So if it looks like an average or unimpressive film, but it has one or two big name actors in its cast list (a la the vile “Battle in Seattle” a couple years ago) and comes out relatively close to TIFF’s release date — expect it to be there. Considering this, don’t be surprised if stuff like “Couples Retreat” and “Extract” find their way onto the TIFF line-up. Actually, scratch that; “Extract” comes out September 4, but if it happens to get pushed a week or two later, TIFF would be all over it simply for the star voltage.
Almost Guaranteed:
“Jennifer’s Body” – It hits September 18 and it has Megan Fox and Amanda Seyfried, plus TIFF-alum Diablo Cody — seems like a safe bet.
“The Invention of Lying” – The Ricky Gervais comedy once titled “This Side Of The Truth.” Like “Extract” this also has Jason Bateman and hits September 25, so it seems to fit.
“Bright Star” – The new distribs have had TIFF in mind publicly since day one. September 18 is also when the distributors would like this film to hit, plus it went over pretty well at Cannes (despite winning no awards), so it’s basically a lock.
“Untitled Michael Moore Documentary” – Michael Moore loves Canada, Canada loves Michael Moore. A match made in heaven, no? Though we have a gut feeling Telluride would love this, but Moore would love Toronto’s international appeal, uh, more, so it’s a crap shoot, but TIFF has the muscle advantage as always.
“White Material” – Claire Denis had “35 Rhums” (which has a Tindersticks score) at TIFF last year. Working at a fast clip she already has “White Material,” starring Isabelle Huppert and Issach de Bankole, ready for ’09. Plus, we really want to see this, so we’re gonna say it’ll be there.
“Up In The Air” – The film doesn’t hit until December, but it’s small even with George Clooney and Paramount behind it, and Jason Reitman has already said he’s cutting it with an eye towards TIFF (plus his dad is on the board, so c’mon!).
“Shutter Island” – Scorsese’s “B-movie” thriller with lots of stars (Leo DiCaprio, Michelle Williams, Emily Watson, Mark Ruffalo, Ben Kingsley, etc.) and it hits October 2. It’s Marty slumming, but not so low enough as to not get into TIFF. He’s Marty S., of course he’s in (if he wants to be).
“A Serious Man” – The Coen Brothers kicked off TIFF last year with the well-timed “Burn After Reading,” this one’s date is October 2 so it seems almost like deja vu.
Maybe/Good Shot:
“Whip It” – Canada’s Ellen Page, plus Drew Barrymore’s directorial debut. Unless it totally sucks it should be able to find a slot (and even if it does it probably will anyway).
“Couples Retreat” – Stars: Jon Favreau, Vince Vaughn, Kristen Bell, Jason Bateman, etc. etc. Oct 9 release date matches.
“Shanghai” – Again (again), TWC are in major trouble and this film has been bumped more times than a line in a bathroom in Williamsburg, but it won’t cost them a ton of dough to premiere it one would think. Though word is not good. And John Cusak isn’t exactly a big star these days.
“Zombieland” – A horror comedy (TIFF loves it some midnight madness), so maybe there’s a good chance for this one. Again, it’s the star power of Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg and Bill Murray that would be the draw here, not necessarily the film.
“Fame” – It’s scheduled to hit September 25. Like all of TWC’s upcoming releases, this is a film an entire studio (United Artists) is banking on to do well, so they might be cautious about its release, but it could happen.
“All The Good Things” – Andrew Jarecki’s mystery romance drama has been pushed to the fall (date TBA) and with Canadian Ryan Gosling and Kirsten Dunst, it should be able to secure a slot here unless TWC’s problems have become so bad that they can’t afford to fly a print over the border. Apparently there are reshoots happening on it this summer.
“The Green Zone” – We suppose it’s possible, but Greengrass isn’t much of a festival person. Still, war films are such a tough sell these days that a little pre-release buzz can’t hurt this Matt Damon vehicle. Consider another Iraq-set war flick, “The Hurt Locker,” which premiered at TIFF last year and has been steadily building buzz since.
“Amelia” – Fox Searchlight would probably love to see this become their ‘little-movie-that-could.’ To us, that seems unlikely, but growing the buzz for Hilary Swank’s performance in the lead seems a very good strategy. So this will probably be at TIFF if the studio thinks Swank is good enough.
“The Box” – Cameron Diaz and James Marsden in a “Twilight Zone”-ish thriller from director Richard Kelly. This is another one of those “big name, mediocre movie”looking productions, perfect for TIFF bait — not so much NYFF, Venice or Telluride, unless it’s much better than we think it will be.
“Youth In Revolt” – TWC financial problems smell like this one could get pushed from its October release date, but Canadian audiences are generally easy on light comedies like this (though note, it has an R-Rating). Maybe with Michael Cera on home turf it could have “Juno”-like small buzz build and appeal? Man, wouldn’t that just make the Weinsteins’ year.
“Brothers” – Could Jim Sheridan’s film be the “Atonement” of this year? Meaning it Premieres at Toronto to build buzz for its December release. It’s a small picture and could probably use the help.
“Micmacs à tire-larigot” – There’s really no sign of Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s (“Amelie”) latest in North America yet (that we’ve noticed), but maybe an appearance at TIFF will bring him back into the non-French spotlight?
Certain Cannes Knock-Offs:
“The White Ribbon” – Michael Haneke’s austere finger-wagger won the Palme d’Or and already has a stateside release set for December. It’ll be at TIFF, almost guaranteed.
“Un Prophete” – The writing is on the wall, it must be there.
“Antichrist” – IFC haven’t set a date for the U.S. release to this controversial Lars Von Trier film. They probably want Toronto to be scandalized and victimized first to create more buzz.
“Mother” – an eclectic Kafka-esque thriller, plus “The Host” had its North American premiere at TIFF. The arthouse organizers there like them some Bong Joon-Ho, and who can blame them?
“Vengeance” – Johnny To’s revenge crime drama isn’t his best, but the International appeal, plus French icon Johnny Hallyday should be too much to not pass up.
“Samson & Delilah” – Camera d’Or winner, we think so.
“Kinatay” — Zzzz, but they love Brillante Mendoza and he won the best director prize at Cannes. Basically, you win an award at Cannes, you’re at TIFF. That simple (9 out of 10 times).
Maybe not/Feels Unlikely:
“The Fantastic Mr.Fox” – “The Darjeeling Limited” went to Venice instead of TIFF in 2007, but that’s probably because ‘Limited’ was artsier than Anderson’s usual fare. But ‘Fantastic Fox’ feels populist plus all those stars? It feels a bit more of a TIFF film, if anything. More so, it feels like a film that might not hit the Fall film festival at all. If it’s not at TIFF, it’s probably nowhere.
Spike Jonze’s “Where The Wild Things Are” – Feels like WB will keep it for October and not reveal early.
Werner Herzog’s “Bad Lieutenant” – Maybe a Telluride film instead?
If it’s not mentioned, it’s probably being mentioned for reasons we’ll explain later. Alejandro González Iñárritu’s “Biutiful” feels like a late season film and anything major and Oscar-baity (“Nine,” “Lovely Bones,” etc.) won’t appear that early.