TIFF's Canadian choices are Chloe, Young Victoria
Canadian lineup offers variety of film genres
Chloe, Atom Egoyan's latest drama,Terry Gilliam's The Imaginariam of Dr. Parnassus andRobert Stefaniuk's star-studded rock 'n' roll vampire comedy Suckexemplifythe wide assortment of Canadian contentunspooling at this year's Toronto International Film Festival.
| Short Cuts Canada program |
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| "You cant go see[short films]in a theatre normally, so they don't get as much attention as they actually deserve. Canada really shines when it comes to short film," said Short Cuts Canada programmer Agata Smoluch Del Sorbo. "It was actually a really strong year for short documentaries," she said, pointing out John Greyson's experimental Covered andMin-Sook Lee's My Toxic Baby. She also mentioned Tungijuq,an experimentalInuit exploration of the seal hunt that is a "really striking, visually beautiful, very musical piece." Aside from being an entry format for newer directors, "it's really telling that our established filmmakers come back to the short form to experiment with the medium," she added, citing new works from the likes of Guy Maddin (Night Mayor), Cordell Barker (Runaway), Chris Landreth (The Spine), Chelsea McMullin (Deadman)and Jamie Travis (The Armoire ). |
Organizers announced theCanadian lineup, which includes29 features and 41 shorts, in Toronto on Tuesday afternoon.
This year's offerings have"a lot of films that break the mould. They're not what you considerstereotypically Canadian, whatever the stereotypes people have about Canadian film," Steve Gravestock, TIFF'sassociate director of Canadian programming, told CBC News.
"Some of these are genre-busting films, so it's hard to classify them," he said, citing Peter Stebbings' superhero filmDefendor (starring Woody Harrelson), Stefaniuk's Suck, Corey Adams and Alex Craig's skateboarding world debutcomedy Machotaildrop and Blaine Thurier's "domestic film noir," A Gun to the Head.
The boundary-pushing,hard-to-definenature of some of the Canadian selections, along with the mixed subject matter was "great" for programmers, Gravestock said. "It certainly made viewing the films easier. You're never seeing the same thing over and over again."
High profile slots
Egoyan's Chloe, which Gravestock dubbed "one of his best films, easily,"starsJulianne Moore as awife who hires a young woman (Amanda Seyfried) to testthe fidelity of her husband, portrayed by Liam Neeson.
It will be featured as a gala along with Gilliam's Doctor Parnassus, Heath Ledger's final film and also showcasing Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell, who stepped in after the young actor's sudden death.
Canadian Dilip Mehta's Cooking with Stella, a New Delhi-set social satire starring Don McKellar, Lisa Ray and Seema Biswas,also won a coveted gala spot, while award-winning Quebec filmmaker Jean-Marc Valle's The Young Victoria, a fresh look at the iconic British queen's youth, snagged this year's closing-night slot.
Other notable Canadian films to screen at TIFF include:
- J'ai tu ma mre (I Killed My Mother ) Quebec wunderkindXavier Dolan's filmthat wowed Cannes inMay.
- Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel Brigitte Berman's surprising documentary featuring insider access and rare archival footage.
- Leslie, My Name is Evil Reg Harkema's film about a sheltered juror who falls for a former homecoming queen embroiled in a hippie, death-cult murder trial.
- Glenn Gould: The Inner Life Peter Raymont and Michele Hozer's documentary casting new light on the iconic Canadian pianist and his private andromanticlife.
- Petropolis: Aerial Perspectives on the Alberta Tar Sands filmmaker and visual artist Peter Mettler's documentary exploration of the controversial site.
- Reel Injun a documentary by filmmaker Neil Diamond exploring Hollywood's inaccurate portrayals of native peoples.
- Excited a quirkyBruce Sweeney romantic comedy about a man whose mother gets in the way of his love life.
- High Life Gary Yates'scrime comedy about two brothers attempting one last score.
- Year of the Carnivore a romantic comedybySook-Yin Lee in her directorial debut.
- The Trotsky Jacob Tierney's comedy about a Montreal high schooler who believes himself the reincarnation of Leon Trotsky.
The festival will also help celebrate several anniversaries: the centenary of Toronto-born, Hollywood pioneer Mary Pickford's film debut (with an Open Vault program screening of her movie Sparrows ) and several eventsto help honour the city of Toronto's 175th birthday, including screeningarchival film footage of Toronto and releasing the book anthology Toronto on Film.
The Toronto International Film Festival takes place Sept. 10-19.
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