Initial Thoughts About TIFF Selections

After perusing the new TIFF announcements yesterday, I have an initial list of candidates for my 10 selections (yep only 10...I may try for more next year). This will obviously change as I only very briefly scanned the list and decided this in about 15 minutes...Those in blue are the frontrunners.



A Gentle Breeze In The Village (Nobuhiro Yamashita) - This could be one of those charming coming of age stories that avoids being maudlin or juvenile. "Linda Linda Linda" was a previously well received film by the director (focusing on 4 young girls in a band), so I have high hopes.

Chacun Son Cinema (Various directors) - 30 different filmmakers create short tributes to watching film in a theatre. There's a terrific list of directors involved and if you don't like one film, just wait 5 minutes...

Chaotic Ana (Julio Medem) - I really liked Medem's "Lovers Of The Arctic Circle" (whose lead character was also called Ana) and this film apparently also deals with predetermined fates and repeated occurrences (young women who have all died tragically at the age 0f 22 continue to live on in Ana).

Dans La Ville De Sylvia (Jose Luis Guerin) - A young man searches for a girl he once knew in Strasbourg armed with only a few pieces of information.

Encounters At The End Of The World (Werner Herzog) - Because it's Herzog! It promises incredible visuals of Antarctica.

The Exodus (Pang Ho-cheung) - "Beat cop Jim (Simon Yam) uncovers a secret worldwide network of women conspiring to exterminate men. His investigation is soon thwarted with the organization’s infiltration into the police force and soon Jim can no longer trust anyone, including his family." This could be great or simply terrible.

Glory To The Filmmaker! (Takeshi Kitano) - Because it's Kitano! This sounds like another of his meta movies and could be a lot of fun.

Jar City (Baltasar Kormakur) - I've only seen a few Icelandic films, but I've enjoyed them all. Well, except for this director's "101 Reykjavik" (which was populated with characters I couldn't stand). But the trailer looks great. Trailer link shamelessly stolen from Toronto Screen Shots. Thanks James!

Operation Filmmaker (Nina Davenport) - How can this not be a great documentary - "When the dreams of a young Iraqi film student are crushed following the bombing of Baghdad's film school, actor Liev Schreiber invites him to intern on the production of EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED. But in a comedic turn of events, Schreiber's good intentions quickly backfire as the eager student proves to have intentions of his own."

You, The Living (Roy Andersson) - The follow-up (6 years later) to the amazing "Songs From The Second Floor". This is my top pick.


Others that sound interesting and could certainly crack the list:

Chrysalis (Julien Leclercq)
Dai Nipponjin (Hitoshi Matsumoto)
Flashpoint (Wilson Yip)
Hollywood Chinese (Arthur Dong)
Just Like Home (Lone Scherfig)
M (Lee Myung-se)
The Mother Of Tears (Dario Argento)
Please Vote For Me (Weijun Chen)
Ploy (Pen-Ek Ratanaruang)
Reclaim Your Brian (Hans Weingartner)
Silent Resident (Christian Frosch)
Son Of Rambow (Garth Jennings)
Stuck (Stuart Gordon)
Sukiyaki Western Django (Takashi Miike)
Vexille (Fumihiko Sori)
White Lies, Black Sheep (James Spooner)