29 Aug 06

Toronto International Film Festival '06

It's that time of year again! Another onslaught of blogging before I go back in to hibernation. :) Today is Schedule and Guide Pickup Day. That means once again scouring through hundreds of films and culling until there are the same number left as tickets in my hand. This year that number is a surprisingly low 20! I'm actually taking a real vacation this year (shock-awe) , which means no vacation days left for the Festival. It alsom means my selections will in part be further weeded down by what I'm able to see in the time I have. Luckily this includes the 3 main days (Sat/Sun/Sat) , which could account for up to 15 of the 20 tickets depending on where the movies are in the schedule.

For something new I've posted my short-list this year. This is a list of all the movies that jumped-out at me durning my initial and subsequent pass through the Guide. 34 movies made it past this initial test. Included are some I am going to see no matter what: Manufactured Landscapes, Renaissance, The Last Kiss, and Rescue Dawn. Some others may get cut because of the schedule, or because I think they'll come out in wide release later.

Surprisingly, the TIFF Website actually seems to have some use this year! "My FIlm List" is I can only assume a new feature that does a crapload of the work for you. Bravo!

That said, the full list is after the link:

Galas

Babel — Alejandro González Iñárritu
All the King's Men — Steven Zaillian
Yeyan (The Banquet) — Feng Xiaogang

Masters

Ich bin die Andere (I Am the Other Woman) — Margarethe von Trotte
Rescue Dawn — Werner Herzog
Le Voyage en Arménie (Armenia) — Robert Guédiguian

Visions

The Book of Revelation — Ana Kokkinos
D.O.A.P. — Gabriel Range
Shi gan (Time) — Kim Ki-duk
Ostrov (The Island) — Pavel Lounguine
Ten Canoes — Rolf de Heer
Invisible Waves — Pen-ek Ratanaruang

Vanguard

Macbeth — Geoffrey Wright
Jade Sutori (Jade Warrior) — Antti-Jussi Annila
Renaissance — Christian Volckman
Election/Election 2 — Johnnie To
Suburban Mayhem — Paul Goldman

Special Presentation

This Is England — Shane Meadows
The Last Kiss — Tony Goldwyn
Exhiled — Johnnie To
Paris je t'aime — Various
Manufactured Landscapes — Jennifer Baichwal

Contemporary World Cinema

Monkey Warfare — Reg Harkema
The Last Winter — Larry Fessenden
Crónica de una Fuga (Chronicle of an Escape) — Isreal Adrián Caetano
Candy — Neil Armfield

Reel to Reel

Kurt Cobain About A Son — AJ Schnack

Discovery

London to Brighton — Paul Andrew Williams
True North — Steve Hudson
Cashback — Sean Ellis
7 ans (7 Years) — Jean-Pascal Hattu

Dialogues: Talking with Pictures

La Haine (Hate) — Mathieu Kassovitz

Midnight Madness

Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan — Larry Charles
Gue-mool (The Host) — Bong Joon-ho

Posted at 09:25 PM to Film By: John Fairley