Toronto International Film Fest Unleashes Cinema Onslaught

Details

Parent Category: Film Festivals

Category: Previews

Published on Tuesday, 04 September 2012 05:00

Written by Renzo Adler

These days to have a film festival, you need an angle. Press (Tribeca), Prestige (Cannes), general wackiness (Alamo Drafthouse). The Toronto International Film Fest (September 6 – 16, 2012) at the TIFF Bell Lightbox Theater (350 King Street West  Toronto, ON M5V 3X5, Canada) and various other venues,  emphasizes something for everyone. TIFF has more than 300 films from over 60 countries every September.

The scope of this festival is really staggering. Forgeign dramas, animation, family films, horror, genre films, and more fill out TIFF. Trying to find a common element in all these films, other than enthusiastic innovation, is difficult. Films are grouped into categories like Short Cuts Canada, TIFF Kids, TIFF Docs, Masters, Gala Presentations, Vanguard, and Contemporary World Cinema.

Eagerly anticipated is Nick Cassevetes’ (The Notebook) bizarre incest/road-trip movie, Yellow in which a young substitute teacher escapes from her drudging everyday life by fantasizing bizarre parallel realities. Other TIFF films include:

• Fly With Crane
  The second from Chinese director Li Ruijun, is a touching testament to our need to die with dignity.
   
• The Gatekeepers
  In an unprecedented and candid series of interviews, six former heads of the Shin Bet — Israel's intelligence and security agency — speak about their role in Israel's decades-long counterterrorism campaign, discussing their controversial methods and whether the ends ultimately justify the means.
   
• Gangs of Wasseypur: Part One & Two
  Anurag Kashyap's decade-spanning gangster epic chronicles the bloody turf war between two competing criminal families during the tumultuous era of Indian independence and industrialization.
   
• The Last Supper
  Though born a commoner, Liu Bang (Liu Ye) — later to be known as the Son of the Dragon — is destined to become the first emperor of the Han Dynasty. 
   
• The Last Time I Saw Macao
  Part memoir, part city symphony, part noir-ish B-movie adventure, the new feature from critically acclaimed filmmaking duo João Pedro Rodrigues and João Rui Guerra da Mata (To Die Like a Man) is a sensual, shape-shifting ode to one of the world's most mythic, alluring and exoticized cities.

For years Canada has been building up a reputation as a sort of haven for cinema. The TIFF represents that ideal with a focus on bringing new and interesting forms of cinema from as many walks of life, styles, and directors as possible.

To learn more, go to: http://tiff.net

Toronto International Film Festival
September 6 – 16, 2012

TIFF Bell Lightbox Theater
350 King Street West  T
oronto, ON M5V 3X5, Canada

• < Prev
• Next >