{"id":3058,"date":"2012-09-05T14:22:04","date_gmt":"2012-09-05T14:22:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=3058"},"modified":"2015-03-31T12:23:08","modified_gmt":"2015-03-31T12:23:08","slug":"toronto-international-film-festival-kicks-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/?p=3058","title":{"rendered":"Toronto International Film Festival kicks off"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Ray Bennett<\/p>\n

The 37th annual Toronto International Film Festival gets under way on Sept. 6 with the world premiere of \u201cLooper\u201d and a slate that will include several new British movies including an animated tribute to Monty Python’s Graham Chapman titled “A Liar’s Autobiography”.<\/p>\n

With 150 films due for release in Q4, the major film festivals in Toronto and London set the scene for the awards season and the home entertainment slate for months to come.<\/p>\n

TIFF\u2019s opening film \u201cLooper\u201d is a time-travel action thriller directed by Rian Johnson and starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt (\u201cThe Dark Knight Rises\u201d), Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt, Jeff Daniels and Piper Perabo (pictured above). Entertainment One will release it in the UK on Sept. 28.<\/p>\n

TIFF Artistic Director Cameron Bailey says he saw Johnson\u2019s debut feature \u201cBrick\u201d at the Sundance festival and was able to premiere his second, \u201cThe Brothers Bloom\u201d, in Toronto. \u201cI was impressed by his ability to engage both the mind and the heart. Now, with \u201cLooper\u201d, Rian has taken his filmmaking to a new level. This is a new kind of Opening Night: an exciting, thinking-person\u2019s action film from a director who really understands the genre.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walt Disney\u2019s \u201cFrankenweenie 3D\u201d will open the 56th BFI London Film Festival on Oct. 10 with a gala screening at the Odeon Leicester Square in London that will go live to BFI Imax and 30 screens across the UK.<\/p>\n

The Tim Burton animated film about a boy and a very strange dog named Sparky was made in the UK and has a voice cast that includes Catherin O\u2019Hara, Martin Short, Martin Landau, and Winona Ryder.<\/p>\n

BFI Exhibition Head Clare Stewart called the film from \u201cone of cinema\u2019s great visionaries\u201d a \u201cgloriously crafted stop-motion 3D animation that revels in the magic of movies\u201d. She said, \u201cTim Burton has chosen London as his home city and hundreds of talented British craftspeople have contributed to this production.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manchester-based puppet designers and fabricators Mackinnon & Saunders contributed to the film and their work along with props, sets and Burton\u2019s original sketches will be on display at \u201cThe Art of Frankenweenie Exhibition\u201d that will run Oct. 17-21 at BFI Southbank Centre\u2019s Festival Village.<\/p>\n

Sponsored by American Express, the BFI London Film Festival runs from Oct. 10-21. The full programme will be announced on Sept. 5.<\/p>\n

Before that, however, comes TIFF, which has established itself as the driving force for Hollywood, independent and world cinema and as an event more attractive to producers and distributors than the Venice International Film Festival, which began Aug. 29 and runs through Sept. 8.<\/p>\n

Festival de Cannes has honoured many films in its history but \u201cThe Artist\u201d last year was only the second Palm d\u2019Or winner to go on to win the Academy Award for best picture and Oscar-winning director Michel Hazanavicius says the buzz really kicked off when it screened at TIFF.<\/p>\n

The festival announced 20 galas and more than 60 special presentations with around 50 world premieres across its various strands that include Masters, Mavericks, Rising Stars, Contemporary World Cinema and Midnight Madness.<\/p>\n

TIFF CEO and Director Piers Handling says it will have the most diverse gala programme to date: \u201cThis year\u2019s festival is looking particularly strong with bold, adventuresome work coming from established and emerging filmmakers.\u201d<\/p>\n

World Premieres from the UK will include Mike Newell\u2019s \u201cGreat Expectations\u201d with Holiday Granger, Ralph Fiennes, Helena Bonham Carter and Jeremy Irvine (\u201cWar Horse\u201d); Roger Michel\u2019s \u201cHyde Park On the Hudson\u201d with Bill Murray and Olivia Williams as Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Samuel West and Olivia Colman as King George VI and Queen Elizabeth; Deepa Mehta\u2019s \u201cMidnight\u2019s Children\u201d; Dustin Hoffman\u2019s \u201cQuartet\u201d with Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay, Billy Connolly and Pauline Collins as squabbling retired opera singers; Paul Andrew Williams\u2019s \u201cSong For Marion\u201d with Gemma Arterton as a choir director plus Terence Stamp and Vanessa Redgrave; and \u201cA Liar\u2019s Autobiography \u2013 The Untrue Story of Monty Python\u2019s Graham Chapman\u201d, an animated 3D depiction of the late comedian\u2019s rich life.<\/p>\n

Ben Timlett, one of the producers and directors of \u201cA Liar\u2019s Autobiography\u201d, says that TIFF is \u201cabsolutely the best place to introduce this film\u201d, which he says reflects Chapman\u2019s writing, which was the most anarchic of Monty Python\u2019s comedy. He says, \u201cThe Toronto cinemagoing audience is steeped in Python, as really the first to discover it in that part of the world coupled with their link to the British colonial past. It means that Python has very much become part of their DNA.\u201d<\/p>\n

Timlett says he\u2019s excited but \u201cif I\u2019m honest a little apprehensive to see if the Toronto audience will recognise and enjoy his return to the screen: \u201cAfter Michael Palin saw the film a couple of weeks ago, he said Graham has been given a second chance to shock and disturb everyone, I can’t see a better place to start this off but Toronto.\u201d<\/p>\n

As producer, Timlett also has a film called \u201cTheatre of Dreams\u201d screening to buyers at Toronto. It\u2019s a fictional football story about how legendary Manchester United manager Matt Busby\u00a0helps a wayward lad find his dream. He says, \u201cToronto is very much made up of a diverse audience led, filmgoers market. This film is funny and touching but also quirky and I think Toronto audiences will respond to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

He\u2019s not alone among producers who praise the Toronto audience. Informant Producer Judy Cairo\u2019s film \u201cWriters\u201d, directed by Josh Boone and starring Liana Liberato (\u201cTruth\u201d), Jennifer Connolly, Greg Kinnear, Lily Collins and Kristen Bell, will have its world premiere there. There was a gala screening of Informant\u2019s film \u201cHysteria\u201d last year and Cairo says, \u201cThe TIFF audiences are famously warm and accepting. They didn\u2019t just applaud at the end, they roared and we had multiple offers for the film. Sony Pictures Classics bought it after SPC President Michael Barker heard our second public audience\u2019s laughter. It\u2019s a combination of amazing venues in convenient proximity to each other, the smart, vocal Toronto audience and the TIFF team\u2019s expertise that makes it all work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Producer David Miller (\u201cAmal\u201d) whose film \u201cBlackbird\u201d, directed by Jason Buxton, will have its world premiere at TIFF this year, says: \u201cToronto is one of those benchmarks, one of those amazing opportunities that we all hope for, one of those seals of approval that we all strive to achieve.\u201d<\/p>\n

Toronto-based producer Lewin Webb, whose film \u201cI Declare War\u201d, directed by Jason Lapeyre and Rob Wilson, will have its debut, says: \u201cTIFF understands mainstream cinema, commercial cinema, as well as the vibrant indie. \u00a0It isn\u2019t just a sophisticated festival, it is a smart festival and attracts amazing audiences. \u00a0It knows how to present films and how to support the films it presents.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story appeared in Cue Entertainment.<\/p>\n

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By Ray Bennett The 37th annual Toronto International Film Festival gets under way on Sept. 6 with the world premiere of \u201cLooper\u201d and a slate that will include several new British movies including an animated tribute to Monty Python’s Graham … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,9,1770],"tags":[1725,1724,798,1192],"class_list":["post-3058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film","category-news","category-tiff-toronto-international-film-festival","tag-a-liars-autobiography","tag-looper","tag-london-film-festival","tag-toronto-international-film-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3058"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6751,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3058\/revisions\/6751"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thecliffedge.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}