What a crazy eleven days it has been. 30 movies later! The TIFF Gods were kind to us. The weather was stellar. I think it tried to rain once over the entire week and failed. The elevators at Scotiabank held up under the strain. I am very proud of my city being able to pull off such an enormous festival fairly flawlessly. People genuinely seemed to enjoy being in Toronto for the festival. Idris said it best this week when he said TIFF stands for “Toronto is fucking fantastic!”, especially in September.
Here is the ranking of my 30 Films in the order in which they impressed me. While I didn’t see any terrible films, I do have an excellent top 6 this year. The next 16 were great. And the last 8 were alright.
- Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri
- Call Me By Your Name
- The Shape of Water
- First They Killed My Father
- Darkest Hour
- mother!
- Who We Are Now
- C’est La Vie
- Custody
- Angels Wear White
- Lady Bird
- Beast
- Unicorn Store
- Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami
- Death of Stalin
- The Rider
- Tulipani, Love, Honour and a Bicycle
- Woman Walks Ahead
- In The Fade
- Mary Shelley
- Kissing Candice
- Marrowbone
- Three Christs
- Mademoiselle Paradis
- Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool
- Good Favour
- The Lodgers
- A Season in France
- Kings
- On Chesil Beach
What didn’t I see that I have added to my list based on what others loved?
- Molly’s Game
- I, Tonya
- Battle of the Sexes
- Foxtrot
- Faces Places
- The Florida Project
- Sweet Country
- 55 Steps
- The Wife
- The Leisure Seeker
- The Disaster Artist
- Killing of a Sacred Deer
- Professor Marston & The Wonder Women
- Loveless
- The Current War
- First Reformed
- Les Affames
- Bodied
- Just Andre
I spoke to Thom Powers on the street after my last film and commended him and the other programmers for an amazing selection of films. It was quality over quantity this year and this was a good thing. There is an audience for every film, and never is this more apparent than at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Congratulations to the winners of this year’s awards!
IWC Short Cuts Award for Best Canadian Short Film: Pre-Drink, directed by Marc-Antoine Lemire
IWC Short Cuts Award for Best International Short Film: Min Börda (The Burden), directed by Niki Lindroth von Bahr
City of Toronto Award for Best Canadian First Feature Film: Luk’ Luk’l, directed by Wayne Wapeemukwa
Canada Goose Award for Best Canadian Feature Film: Les Affamés, directed by Robin Aubert
The International Federation of Film Critics — Discovery prize: Ava, directed by Sadaf Foroughi
The International Federation of Film Critics — Special Presentations: The Motive (El Autor), directed by Manuel Martín Cuenca
NETPAC Award for World or International Asian Film Premiere: The Great Buddha+, directed by Huang Hsin-Yao
Toronto Platform Prize: Sweet Country, directed by Warwick Thornton
Grolsch People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award: Bodied, directed by Joseph Kahn
Grolsch People’s Choice Documentary Award: Faces Places, directed by Agnès Varda
Grolsch People’s Choice Award: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, directed by Martin McDonagh (Runner’s up Call Me By Your Name and I, Tonya)
Will be posting brief reviews over the next few days. Might take some time but I will get them all done.
Film Fixations 