Could it only have been 10 days? Because it aged us 10 years. The 33rd annual Toronto International Film Festival wrapped on Saturday with a final round of screenings and the awards announcements at a reception at the Intercontinental Hotel. Co-directors Piers Handling and Cameron Bailey put a brave face on the situation, barely conceding the criticism that TIFF took from so many quarters this year. (The furthest Handling would go was note the “slight gloom and depression” emanating from the underwhelmed industry attendees.)
Taking their cue to accentuate the positive, we would also like to give out a few citations.
Most Predictable Award: The festival’s only clear-cut hit, Slumdog Millionaire, bagged the audience prize. That Danny Boyle’s feel-good and fleet-footed Bombay tale barely survived the collapse of the movie’s original distributor — Warner Independent Pictures, who nearly sent it straight to DVD before handing it off to Fox Searchlight — added to its miraculous air. The Hurt Locker, The Wrestler and Rachel Getting Married were the only other big-league entries that attracted much in the way of general enthusiasm.
Awards Most Likely to Upset English Canadian Filmmakers: The slate of prizes for homegrown efforts reflected the inferiority of Anglo product versus movies not just from Quebec but Iglooik, too. The latest from the Atanarjuat team, Marie-Helene Cousineau and Madeline Piujuq Ivalu’s Before Tomorrow was named best Canadian first feature. A quality effort that nonetheless drew little attention before the announcement, Rodrigue Jean’s stark drama Lost Song won for best feature. Further piquing the anger of Upper Canadians, the best short — Block B, a stunning effort by Chris Chong Chan Fui included in Wavelengths — was actually made in Malaysia.
AWARDS WE HAVE YET TO DESIGN STATUETTES FOR
Best movie fight scene involving barbed wire, a chair and a staple gun: The Wrestler
Best display of James Brown’s moustache: Soul Power
Outstanding achievements in Colin Firth-iness by Colin Firth: a tie between Easy Virtue and Genova
Most inexplicable cameo by a musician in a major motion picture: a tie between Robyn Hitchcock in Rachel Getting Married, Gord Downie in One Week and Devendra Banhart in Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist
And, last but not least, most sensitive TIFF attendee: the unfortunate woman who vomited during Martyrs, a perfectly reasonable response to the Midnight Madness torture-fest and, indeed, most of the Gala selections.
Watch Jason Anderson discuss the TIFF that was in a video roundtable discussion with EYE WEEKLY's Adam Nayman, Variety's Robert Koehler, The Village Voice's Scott Foundas, and Cinema Scope's Mark Peranson and Andrew Tracy.