2008 Toronto International Film Festival

The 2008 Toronto International Film Festival, (TIFF) will be held in Toronto, Canada. This 33rd annual festival will run from September 4 to September 13, 2008. The film festival has announced that the opening night gala will be the WWI romantic epic "Passchendaele" from Canadian director Paul Gross. [http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=story&id=2652&articleid=VR1117988985 "Toronto unveils Canadian selection" Variety, By Brendan Kelly July 15, 2008] ]

About the 2008 Festival

Festival is heavy on Canadian fare as well as featuring prominent indie films and worldwide and/or North American debuts including: "Adoration" directed by Canada's own Atom Egoyan, "Appaloosa" the second film from Ed Harris (who directed "Pollock"), "Blindness" from screenwriter-director, Fernando Meirelles, Iraq war thriller "The Hurt Locker" directed by Kathryn Bigelow, and veteran filmmaker Barbet Schroeder's "Inju, la bete dans l'ombre". [http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=story&id=2652&articleid=VR1117988411 "Toronto believes in Lee's 'Miracle'" Variety, by Jennie Punter, Jul. 2, 2008] ] [http://www.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUSN1450600220080814 "Toronto film festival finds its Destiny" Aug 14, 2008 Reuters/Hollywood Reporter] ] [http://www.cinematical.com/2008/08/13/toronto-adds-premieres-for-che-porno-bloom-synecdoche/ "Toronto Adds Premieres for 'Che', 'Porno', 'Bloom', 'Synecdoche', Others" Cinematical, by William Goss, Aug 13th 2008] ] Scheduled is "The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond" (directed by Jodie Markell), based on a "rediscovered" Tennessee Williams screenplay. TIFF will screen 312 films from 64 countries. These include 249 features, most of which are North American and/or world premieres. [http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/world/news/e3i11533547aab0683e3b14f1a93a107cc9 "Toronto's dance card complete Sept. 4-13 festival includes 249 features" By Etan Vlessing, Hollywood Reporter, Aug 19, 2008] ]

Neil Burger (director of "The Illusionist") will world premiere "The Lucky Ones" a character study of U.S. soldiers on an unplanned road trip, starring Tim Robbins. [http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/world/news/e3i11533547aab0683e3b14f1a93a107cc9 "Toronto's dance card complete Sept. 4-13 festival includes 249 features" By Etan Vlessing, Hollywood Reporter, Aug 19, 2008] ] [http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117990766.html?categoryId=19&cs=1 Variety "Toronto Film Festival unveils lineup Event boasts 500-plus guest list", by Jennie Punter, Aug. 19, 2008] ]

Also featured will be "Me and Orson Welles" helmed by American "slacker" Richard Linklater, the Spike Lee-directed WWII film, "Miracle at St. Anna" as well as the Jonathan Demme directed film "Rachel Getting Married". Other festival highlights are screenwriter Charlie Kaufman's first film, "Synecdoche, New York", a slice of experimental filmmaker James Benning's Americana "RR" will be featured in the "Wavelengths" avant-garde showcase, the four-hour-long Stephen Soderbergh epic "Che" (playing in two parts), as well as "The Wrestler" lensed by Darren Aronofsky. The Brits are also well represented with "Happy-Go-Lucky" directed by Mike Leigh and "Slumdog Millionaire" directed by Danny Boyle. [http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=story&id=2652&articleid=VR1117988411 "Toronto believes in Lee's 'Miracle'" Variety, by Jennie Punter, Jul. 2, 2008] ] [http://www.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUSN1450600220080814 "Toronto film festival finds its Destiny" Aug 14, 2008 Reuters/Hollywood Reporter] ] [http://www.cinematical.com/2008/08/13/toronto-adds-premieres-for-che-porno-bloom-synecdoche/ "Toronto Adds Premieres for 'Che', 'Porno', 'Bloom', 'Synecdoche', Others" Cinematical, by William Goss, Aug 13th 2008] ]

Despite showing fewer films than last year, among the 249 features, 116 are premieres and 61 are first features. [http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/world/news/e3i11533547aab0683e3b14f1a93a107cc9 "Toronto's dance card complete Sept. 4-13 festival includes 249 features" By Etan Vlessing, Hollywood Reporter, Aug 19, 2008] ] [http://www.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUSN1928499520080819 "Toronto film festival promises lighter touch" Reuters, Aug 19, 2008] ] Films from as many as 64 countries will be screened, with more than 340,000 admissions expected. [http://www.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUSN1928499520080819 "Toronto film festival promises lighter touch" Reuters, Aug 19, 2008] ]

"Canadian Open Vault", which always highlights a restored Canadian film, will focus on Quebec filmmaker Francois Girard's "32 Short Films About Glenn Gould" made in 1993. [http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=story&id=2652&articleid=VR1117988985 "Toronto unveils Canadian selection" Variety, By Brendan Kelly July 15, 2008] ]

Actors Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Benicio Del Toro, Ethan Hawke, Laura Linney and film directors Julian Schnabel, Kathryn Bigelow and Steven Soderbergh are among the celebs the festival has invited on its 500-plus guest list, thus completing its lineup. [http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117990766.html?categoryId=19&cs=1 Variety "Toronto Film Festival unveils lineup Event boasts 500-plus guest list", by Jennie Punter, Aug. 19, 2008] ]

The festival will close on September 13, 2008 with the North American premiere of "Stone of Destiny" written and directed by Charles Martin Smith, the true story of four Glasgow university students who try to restore the 300-pound Stone of Destiny to its rightful Scotish home. [http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=story&id=2652&articleid=VR1117990479 "Toronto fest adds 20 films to lineup" Variety, by Anne Thompson, Aug. 13, 2008] ]

Festival themes and concepts

When asked if this year's festival has a theme, new festival co-director Cameron Bailey said, "With 312 films showing its impossible to name one theme. I think its interesting to note though that in the American cinema, particularly within the last few years, you've seen filmmakers who take on the Iraq war with the kind of freshness that would with anything that is brand new and is such a huge event and so cataclysmic. Now what we are seeing is that filmmakers are dealing with that conflict in a different way. Take Kathryn Bigelow, for instance, with "The Hurt Locker". This a movie that's set in Iraq but it is not about the Iraq War as a kind of shocking political event. It's about the Iraq War as a dramatic circumstance... It's not so much a political film or a film about how we should feel about the Iraq War. It's more about these characters in that context. It's the same way with "The Lucky Ones". This is a movie about coming home, not about fighting a war. It's about how soldiers try to reintergrate into the country... I'm finding (that filmmakers) are dealing a bit more with the second or third stages of this war, rather than the first stage and it's initial shock... I think the environment is big this year with films like "Food, Inc.", "At The Edge of the World", "Upstream Battle". These are some of the documentaries that Thom Powers has programmed and not out of any design on his part. He just found that some of the strongest docs this year were dealing with the environment... " [http://www.indiewire.com/people/2008/08/indiewire_inter_182.html "Toronto Co-Director Cameron Bailey" Indiewire Interview, by Peter Knegt, Aug 19, 2008] ]

North American premieres

* "Aide-toi et le ciel t'aidera" directed by Francois Dupeyron (France)
* "Adoration" directed by Atom Egoyan (Canada)
* "Appaloosa" directed by Ed Harris (U.S.)
* "Un Barrage center le pacifique" directed by Rithy Panh
* "Blindness" directed by Fernando Meirelles (Brazil/Japan/Canada coprod.)
* "The Brothers Bloom" directed by Rian Johnson
* "Un conte de Noël" directed by Arnaud Desplechin
* "Disgrace" directed by Steve Jacobs
* "Il Divo" directed by Paolo Sorrentino
* "The Duchess" directed by Saul Dibb
* "Easy Virtue" directed by Stephen Elliot (U.S./U.K.)
* "Fifty Dead Men Walking" directed by Kari Skogland (Canada)
* "Genova" directed by Michael Winterbottom
* "Gomorrah" directed by Matteo Garrone
* "Good" directed by Vincente Amorim
* "The Good, the Bad, the Weird" directed by Kim Jee-woon (South Korea)
* "Heaven on Earth" directed by Deepa Mehta (Canada)
* "The Hurt Locker" directed by Kathryn Bigelow (U.S.)
* "Is There Anybody There?" directed by John Crowley
* "It's Not Me" directed by Philippe Falardeau (Canada)
* "The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond" directed by Jodie Markell
* "The Lucky Ones" directed by Neil Burger
* "Management" directed by Stephen Belber
* "Me and Orson Welles" directed by Richard Linklater (U.S.)
* "Miracle at St. Anna" directed by Spike Lee (U.S.)
* "Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist" directed by Peter Sollet
* "O' Horten" directed by Bent Hamer (Norway)
* "One Week" directed by Michael McGowan (Canada)
* "The Other Man" directed by Richard Eyre
* "Pedro" directed by Nicholas Oceano
* "Pride and Glory" directed by Gavin O'Connor
* "Rachel Getting Married" directed by Jonathan Demme (U.S.)
* "The Secret Life of Bees" directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood
* "Stone of Destiny" directed by Charles Martin Smith
* "Synecdoche, New York" directed by Charlie Kaufman (U.S.)
* "The Wrestler" directed by Darren Aronofsky (U.S.)
* "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" directed by Kevin Smith (U.S.)

pecial presentations

* "Ashes of Time Redux" directed by Wong Kar Wai
* "Empty Nest" directed by Daniel Burman
* "Every Little Step" directed by James Stern and Adam Del Deo
* "La Fille de Monaco" directed by Anne Fontaine (France)
* "Kanchivaram" directed by Priyadarshan (India-Tamil)
* "Ghost Town" directed by David Koepp (U.S.)
* "Happy-Go-Lucky" directed by Mike Leigh
* "I've Loved You So Long" directed by Philippe Claudel (France)
* "New York, I Love You" (a compilation of short films from 12 directors) including Natalie Portman, Allen Hughes, and Mira Nair
* "Religulous" directed by Larry Charles (U.S.)
* "RocknRolla" directed by Guy Ritchie
* "Waltz with Bashir" directed by Ari Folman

Other films to be screened

* "$9.99" directed by Tatia Rosenthal
* "Before Tomorrow" directed by Marie-Hélène Cousineau and Madeline Ivalu (Canada)
* "Burn After Reading" directed by the Ethan Coen and Joel Coen
* "Che" (in two pieces) directed by Stephen Soderbergh (U.S.)
* "The Class" directed by Laurent Cantet
* "Cooper's Camera" directed by Warren Sonada (Canada)
* "Daytime Drinking" directed by Young-seok Noh (Korea)
* "Dean Spanley" directed by Toa Fraser
* "Edison and Leo" directed by Neil Burns (Canada)
* "Gigantic" directed by Matt Aselton
* "Hunger" directed by Steve McQueen
* "" directed by Barbet Schroeder
* "Last Stop 174" directed by Bruno Barreto (Brazil)
* "Lovely, Still" directed by Nik Fackler
* "Lymelife" directed by Derick Martini and Steve Martini
* "Nothing But the Truth" directed by Rod Lurie
* "Public Enemy No. One" directed by Jean-Francois Richet
* "Real Time" directed by Randall Cole (Canada)
* "Singh Is Kinng" directed by Anees Bazmee
* "Slumdog Millionaire" directed by Danny Boyle (U.K.)
* "Snow" directed by Aida Begić
* "The Stoning of Soraya M." directed by Cyrus Nowrasteh
* "Tulpan" directed by Sergey Dvortsevoy
* "Who Do You Love?" directed by Jerry Zaks
* "What Doesn't Kill You" directed by Brian Goodman
* "Anonyma - Eine Frau in Berlin (A Woman in Berlin)" directed by Max Färberböck (Germany)
* "A Year in Winter" directed by Caroline Link

Masters program

* "24 City" directed by Jia Zhangke
* "Adam Resurrected" directed by Paul Schrader
* "Everlasting Moments" directed by Jan Troell
* "Four Nights With Anna" directed by Jerzy Skolimowski
* "Of Time and the City" directed by Terence Davies (U.K.)
* "Le Silence de Lorna" directed by Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne (U.K.)
* "Three Monkeys" directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan (Turkey)
* "Tokyo Sonata" directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Vanguard and visions

* "Afterwards" directed by Gilles Bourdos
* "Uncertainty" directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel
* "Universalove" directed by Thomas Woschitz (Austria)
* "Tears For Sale" directed by Uros Stojanovic (Serbia)

Midnight Madness

* "Acolytes" directed by Jon Hewitt
* "The Burrowers" directed by J.T. Petty
* "Chocolate" directed by Prachya Pinkaew (Thailand)
* "Deadgirl" directed by Marcel Sarmiento and Gadi Harel (U.S.)
* "Detroit Metal City directed by Toshio Lee
* "Eden Log" directed by Franck Vestiel
* "JCVD" directed by Mabrouk El Mechri
* "Martyrs" directed by Pascal Laugier
* "Not Quite Hollywood" directed by Mark Hartley (Australia)
* "Sexykiller" directed by Miguel Marti

prockets (family fare)

* "Bridge to Terabithia" directed by Gábor Csupó (Germany)
* "Krabat" directed by Marco Kreuzpaintner
* "Mia et le Migou" directed by Remy Girerd
* "The Secret of Moonacre" directed by Gábor Csupó
* "Sunshine Barry & the Disco Worms" directed by Thomas Borch Nielsen

Wavelengths (avant-garde showcase)

* "Derriere moi" directed by Rafael Ouellet (Canada)
* "Le Genou d'Artemide" directed by Jean-Marie Straub
* "Pontypool" directed by Bruce McDonald
* "RR" directed by James Benning (U.S.)
* "The Secret History of the Dividing Line" (part of series) directed by David Gatten
* "When It Was Blue" directed by Jennifer Reeves

Contemporary world cinema

* "33 Scenes From Life" directed by Malgosia Szumowska
* "Five Dollars a Day" directed by Nigel Cole
* "Acne" directed by Frederica Veiroj
* "The Country Teacher" directed by Bohdan Sláma (Czech Republic/Germany/France)
* "Delta" directed by Kornel Mundruczo
* "Un ete sans point ni coup sur" directed by Francis Leclerc (Canada)
* "Fear Me Not" directed by Kristian Levring
* "Flame & Citron" directed by Ole Christian Madsen
* "El Greco" directed by Yannis Smaragdis
* "L'Heure d'été" directed by Olivier Assayas
* "Knitting" directed by Yin Lichuan
* "Linha de Passe" directed Walter Thomas and Daniela Thomas (Brazil)
* "Lion's Den" directed by Pablo Trapero
* "Lost Song" directed by Rodrigue Jean
* "Maman est chez le coiffeur" directed by Lea Pool (Canada)
* "Middle of Nowhere" directed by John Stockwell
* "Mothers & Daughters" directed by Carl Bessai
* "My Mother, My Bride and I" directed by Hans Steinbichler
* "The Narrows" directed by Francois Velle
* "Patrik, Age 1.5" directed by Ella Lemhagen
* "Pandora's Box" directed by Yeşim Ustaoğlu
* "Restless" directed by Amos Kollek
* "Revanche" directed by Götz Spielmann
* "Skin" directed by Anthony Fabian
* "Teza" directed by Haile Gerima
* "Three Wise Men" directed by Mika Kaurismaki
* "Toronto Stories" (four part anthology) directed by David Weaver, Sudz Sutherland, Aaron Woodley and Sook-Yin Lee (Canada)
* "Two-Legged Horse" directed by Samira Makhmalbaf
* "White Night Wedding" directed by Baltasar Kormakur

Canada first

*"Borderline" directed by Lyne Charlebois

The Real to Reel (docu program)

* "Blind Loves" directed by Juraj Lehotsky
* "Examined Life" directed by Astra Taylor
* "La memoire des anges" directed by Luc Bourdon
* "Paris, Not France" directed by Adria Petty
* "The Real Shaolin" directed by Alexander Sebastien Lee
* "Under Rich Earth" directed by Malcolm Rogge
* "7915 KM" directed by Nikolaus Geyrhalter

References

External links

* [http://www.tiff08.ca/filmsandschedules/default.aspx Full List of TIFF 08 Films & Schedules]
* [http://www.tiffreviews.com TIFFReviews.com] - coverage of TIFF '08 with news, reviews, blogs, photos and videos
* [http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=story&id=2652&articleid=VR1117989377 Variety, Jul. 23, 2008, "Van Damme's JCVD to hit Toronto", (wavelengths, midnight madness, family fare)]
* [http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=story&id=2652&articleid=VR1117989131 "TIFF slots 'Appaloosa,' 'Other Man'", Variety, By Michael Jones, July 17, 2008]
* [http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=story&id=2652&articleid=VR1117988985 "Toronto Unveils Canadian selection" Variety, By Brendan Kelly July 15, 2008]
* [http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=story&id=2652&articleid=VR1117988730 "Secret Life of Bees' stings Toronto" Variety, Jul. 10, 2008]
* [http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=festivals&jump=story&id=2652&articleid=VR1117988129 "Cannes winners trot to Toronto: Fest unveils first pics in slate" Variety, by Jennie Punter, Jun. 26, 2008]