Typically, film fans are privy to the behind-the-scenes drama that goes into the selection process at film festivals. But as we see every year that events such as Cannes, TIFF, Venice, and others announce their official lineups, there are hundreds of applicants that don’t make the cut. But the decision about why a film isn’t chosen is rarely made public. Well, recently, in the case of the 2015 film, “Bone Tomahawk,” the reasons why it wasn’t selected to take part in the Midnight Madness section of the Toronto International Film Festival were made public after the film’s producer spoke out about it.
During a recent interview with Spin, producer Dallas Sonnier talked about trying to find an event that would premiere S. Craig Zahler’s “Bone Tomahawk.” He tells a rather damning story about the Toronto International Film Festival and how the event flippantly dismissed the film.
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“I thought I was done. I thought I was gonna lose my house. We went 21 hours on the last day of shooting and, let me just say, most of the cast wasn’t happy. But we had to finish the movie,” explained Sonnier. “We then sent the film to the Toronto Film Festival and we’ve had many films play there in the past. The programmer called and said, ‘I hate this movie. Why did you send this to me?’ I was stunned. Thankfully we had an invitation to Fantastic Fest in our back pocket. They went crazy for it.”
Well, apparently the then-programmer of the Midnight Madness section of TIFF, Colin Geddes, read the interview and had some strong words for Sonnier. It would appear that the producer didn’t tell the full story.
In a series of tweets, Geddes responds to the comments and said, “Fuck You Dallas Sonnier. I NEVER said that. NEVER. Keep in mind I only picked TEN films a year for Midnight Madness. Yours didn’t make the cut. And refresh me, tell me the ‘many’ films you had play at TIFF in the past. I seem to have forgotten….”
He added, “If you have been present for the land acknowledge at any TIFF screening you might be clued into why the film was not a fit for the Festival at that time. That was just one issue I had with it.”
One of the tweets from Geddes actually includes a screenshot of an email where Sonnier replied to him about TIFF passing on the film. And in the email, Sonnier thanked the organizers and explained how much he “adores” the festival.
Geddes tweeted, “We screened the film. We discussed it internally and it was not a fit. We reached out. I am not privy to share the email but it was polite and professional. Dallas Sonnier’s reply.”
Of course, you can’t mention controversy and Dallas Sonnier without talking about the filmmaker’s recent track record. Back in June of last year, Sonnier was positioned in the middle of a scandal where he was accused of protecting an employee that was accused of sexual assault and misconduct. Sonnier has also positioned himself as somewhat of a “renegade” producer that doesn’t play by the rules, as his films have started to cater to more right-leaning, anti-PC culture people. This led to his recent film, “Run Hide Fight,” an action film that is set during a horrific school shooting incident, being acquired by the conservative news organization, The Daily Wire, for distribution.
So, clearly, Sonnier is someone that likes to promote himself as an outsider, bad boy film producer. And with that knowledge, it would make sense why he would want to perhaps pump up a story about “Bone Tomahawk” not getting selected for TIFF because it was somehow too edgy, when in fact, it clearly just was one of many films that got passed on by the event.