• Source: 2009 Toronto International Film Festival

      • The 34th annual Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) was held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 10 and September 19, 2009. The opening night gala presented the Charles Darwin biography Creation. The Young Victoria, based on the early years of Queen Victoria, closed the festival on September 19.


      About the 2009 Festival


      TIFF is a non-profit organization whose goal is to change the way people look at the world through film. The festival is Canada's largest film festival, receiving 4,209 submissions in 2008. Of this total, 312 films were screened coming from 64 different countries. TIFF creates an annual economic impact of $135 million CAD. Aided by over 2,000 volunteers, 100 full-time staff members and 500 seasonal or part-time staff are responsible for organizing the festival. Two screenings of each of the invited films are presented to the public and at least one screening is provided for press and industry. The 2009 festival contained 19 different Programmes, or categories of films. After the ten days of film, the Awards reception was held at Intercontinental Hotel on Front Street in Toronto.
      Perhaps the most prestigious of the awards was bestowed to Lee Daniels's Precious: based on the novel Push by Sapphire. This award was the 2009 Cadillac People's Choice Award and is based solely on votes by Festival audiences. This award carries a $15,000 cash prize and also comes with a custom made award from Cadillac. It is widely considered to be the most prestigious because it has had the greatest impact on audiences and inspires film distributors to sign the winning film for larger international releases. Last year's winner Slumdog Millionaire directed by Danny Boyle, went on to reap huge international spotlight which culminated at the 2009 Academy Awards where it won Best Picture. Lee Daniel's Precious was also a big Oscar contender as it was nominated for Best Picture and Best Director, however it lost to The Hurt Locker and its helmer Katheryn Bigelow. The First runner-up was Bruce Beresford's Mao's Last Dancer and the second runner-up was Jean-Pierre Jeunet's Micmacs.
      The City of Toronto and Astral Media's The Movie Network Award for Best Canadian Feature Film went to Cairo Time directed by Ruba Nadda. Sponsored by Astral Media's the Movie Network and the City of Toronto, this award came with a cash prize of $30,000.
      Future endeavors by the TIFF will be aided by the ongoing construction of TIFF Bell Lightbox, a 1,750,000-square-foot (163,000 m2) facility with an estimated annual economic impact of over $200 million. Complete with 5 cinemas, learning studios, galleries and a rooftop lounge, this will become the hub of TIFF in 2010 when construction is scheduled to be completed.


      = Controversy over Tel Aviv spotlight

      =
      More than 1,500 people, including prominent filmmakers, academics, and writers signed a letter of protest directed at the Toronto International Film Festival regarding its decision to spotlight Tel Aviv and the work of 10 Israeli filmmakers. The protest leaders emphasized that it is not a call for a boycott. The original protest letter in part reads:
      "As members of the Canadian and international film, culture and media arts communities, we are deeply disturbed by [TIFF's] decision to host a celebratory spotlight on Tel Aviv. We protest that TIFF, whether intentionally or not, has become complicit in the Israeli propaganda machine. We do not protest the individual Israeli filmmakers included in City to City, nor do we in any way suggest that Israeli films should be unwelcome at TIFF. However, especially in the wake of this year's brutal assault on Gaza, we object to the use of such an important international festival in staging a propaganda campaign on behalf of what South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former US President Jimmy Carter, and UN General Assembly President Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann have all characterized as an apartheid regime."
      The signatories and supporters include Ken Loach, David Byrne, Naomi Klein, Alice Walker, Jane Fonda, Wallace Shawn, Danny Glover, John Greyson, Viggo Mortensen and the American Jewish group Jewish Voice for Peace.
      John Greyson's letter of protest highlighted an interview "Israeli Consul General Amir Gissin gave to Canadian Jewish News in which he described the TIFF spotlight as a culmination of his year-long Brand Israel campaign, which included ads on buses, radio and television." Greyson claims that "This isn't the right year to celebrate Brand Israel, or to demonstrate an ostrich-like indifference to the realities (cinematic and otherwise) of the region, or to pointedly ignore the international economic boycott campaign against Israel."
      The protest letter was met with condemnation by some, such as Simcha Jacobovici, "a Toronto filmmaker who recently moved with his family to Israel, noted in a statement that the Palestinian government in Gaza had recently called a U.N. proposal to teach the Holocaust in Palestinian schools a war crime." Jacobovici asked "Why does [protest supporter John Greyson] want to align himself with Holocaust deniers?" Others accused those who signed the protest letter as engaging in a boycott of Israel films.
      Rabbi Marvin Hier, the founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, has stated that "it is clear that the script [the protesters] are reading from might as well have been written by Hamas."
      Patrick Goldstein, writing in the Los Angeles Times, wrote against the protest and made an analogy to actions by musician Paul Simon:

      "At the height of apartheid in South Africa, Paul Simon made "Graceland", an album of glorious music with South African musicians. He was criticized at the time for breaking a worldwide cultural boycott, but Simon believed that exposing the musicians' gifts to the world far outweighed any tacit endorsement his use of South African musicians would have provided for the country's repressive regime. History long ago proved him right. The same openness should apply to a film festival."
      In response to the protest, a number of Hollywood stars circulated a counter-protest letter on September 15, 2009. This letter, which appeared simultaneously in the Los Angeles Times and the Toronto Star, included signatories Jerry Seinfeld, Sacha Baron Cohen, Natalie Portman, Jason Alexander, Lisa Kudrow, Lenny Kravitz, Patricia Heaton, Jacob Richler, Noah Richler, George F. Walker and Moses Znaimer. The letter said:Anyone who has actually seen recent Israeli cinema, movies that are political and personal, comic and tragic, often critical, knows they are in no way a propaganda arm for any government policy. Blacklisting them only stifles the exchange of cultural knowledge that artists should be the first to defend and protect.
      Jane Fonda, in a posting on Huffington Post, says that she now regrets some of the language used in the original protest letter and how it "was perhaps too easily misunderstood. It certainly has been wildly distorted. Contrary to the lies that have been circulated, the protest letter was not demonizing Israeli films and filmmakers." She continued writing "the greatest 're-branding' of Israel would be to celebrate that country's long standing, courageous and robust peace movement by helping to end the blockade of Gaza through negotiations with all parties to the conflict, and by stopping the expansion of West Bank settlements. That's the way to show Israel's commitment to peace, not a PR campaign. There will be no two-state solution unless this happens."


      Awards




      Programmes




      = Special presentations

      =
      Baaria by Giuseppe Tornatore
      Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans by Werner Herzog
      The Boys are Back by Scott Hicks
      Bright Star by Jane Campion
      Broken Embraces by Pedro Almodóvar
      Cairo Time by Ruba Nadda
      Capitalism: A Love Story by Michael Moore
      City of Life and Death by Lu Chuan
      Cracks by Jordan Scott
      Defendor by Peter Stebbings
      An Education by Lone Scherfig
      The Front Line by Renato De Maria
      Glorious 39 by Stephen Poliakoff
      Good Hair by Jeff Stilson
      The Good Heart by Dagur Kari
      Hadewijch by Bruno Dumont
      Harry Brown by Daniel Barber
      The Hole by Joe Dante
      Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel by Brigitte Berman
      I Killed My Mother by Xavier Dolan
      The Informant! by Steven Soderbergh
      The Invention of Lying by Ricky Gervais and Matthew Robinson
      The Joneses by Derrick Borte
      Kamui by Yoichi Sai
      L'affaire Farewell by Christian Carion
      Leaves of Grass by Tim Blake Nelson
      Les derniers jours du monde by Arnaud Larrieu and Jean-Marie Larrieu
      Life During Wartime by Todd Solondz
      London River by Rachid Bouchareb
      Mao's Last Dancer by Bruce Beresford
      Moloch Tropical by Raoul Peck
      Mother by Bong Joon-ho
      My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done by Werner Herzog
      Mr. Nobody by Jaco Van Dormael
      Ondine by Neil Jordan
      Partir by Catherine Corsini
      Perrier's Bounty by Ian Fitzgibbon
      A Prophet by Jacques Audiard
      The Road by John Hillcoat
      Road, Movie by Dev Benegal
      Scheherazade Tell Me a Story by Yousry Nasrallah
      The Secret in Their Eyes by Juan José Campanella
      A Serious Man by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
      A Single Man by Tom Ford
      Solitary Man by Brian Koppelman and David Levien
      Soul Kitchen by Fatih Akın
      The Traveller by Ahmed Maher
      Triage by Danis Tanovic
      The Trotsky by Jacob Tierney
      Up in the Air by Jason Reitman
      Valhalla Rising by Nicolas Winding Refn
      Vengeance by Johnnie To
      The Vintner's Luck by Niki Caro
      The Waiting City by Claire McCarthy
      Wheat by He Ping
      Whip It! by Drew Barrymore
      Women Without Men by Shirin Neshat
      Youth in Revolt by Miguel Arteta


      = City to City

      =
      Bena by Niv Klainer
      Big Dig by Efraim Kishon
      Big Eyes by Uri Zohar
      The Bubble by Eytan Fox
      A History of Israeli Cinema - Part 1 by Raphael Nadjari
      A History of Israeli Cinema - Part 2 by Raphael Nadjari
      Jaffa by Keren Yedaya
      Kirot by Danny Lerner
      Life According to Agfa by Assi Dayan
      Phobidilia by Yoav Paz and Doron Paz


      = Contemporary World Cinema

      =
      25 Carat by Patxi Amezcua
      Adrift by Bùi Thạc Chuyên
      Ajami by Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani
      At the End of Daybreak by Ho Yuhang
      Backyard by Carlos Carrera
      Balibo by Robert Connolly
      Beyond the Circle by Golam Rabbany
      Blessed by Ana Kokkinos
      Bran Nue Dae by Rachel Perkins
      Castaway on the Moon by Lee Hae-jun
      Cell 211 by Daniel Monzón
      Cole by Carl Bessai
      Deliver Us from Evil by Ole Bornedal
      Dogtooth by Yorgos Lanthimos
      Down for Life by Alan Jacobs
      The Double Hour by Giuseppe Capotondi
      Excited by Bruce Sweeney
      Eyes Wide Open by Haim Tabakman
      Giulia Doesn't Date at Night by Giuseppe Piccioni
      A Gun to the Head by Blaine Thurier
      Heiran by Shalizeh Arefpour
      Help Gone Mad by Boris Khlebnikov
      High Life by Gary Yates
      The House of Branching Love by Mika Kaurismäki
      Huacho by Alejandro Fernández Alemendras
      I Am Not Your Friend by György Pálfi
      If I Knew What You Said by Mike Sandejas
      Jean Charles by Henrique Goldman
      The Last Days of Emma Blank by Alex van Warmerdam
      Like You Know It All by Hong Sangsoo
      Lourdes by Jessica Hausner
      Men on the Bridge by Asli Özge
      My Year Without Sex by Sarah Watt
      Passenger Side by Matt Bissonnette
      Le Père de mes enfants by Mia Hansen-Løve
      Police, Adjective by Corneliu Porumboiu
      Prince of Tears by Yonfan
      Rabia by Sebastián Cordero
      Same Same But Different by Detlev Buck
      Sawasdee Bangkok by Wisit Sasanatieng
      The Search by Wan Ma Cai Dan
      Shameless by Jan Hřebejk
      Slovenian Girl by Damjan Kozole
      Suck by Robert Stefaniuk
      Tales from the Golden Age by Hanno Höfer, Cristian Mungiu, Constantin Popescu, Ioana Uricaru, Răzvan Mărculescu
      Tanner Hall by Francesca Gregorini and Tatiana von Fürstenberg
      The Time That Remains by Elia Suleiman
      V.O.S by Cesc Gay
      The Wind Journeys by Ciro Guerra


      = Discovery

      =
      Angel by Margreth Olin
      Applause by Martin Zandvliet
      Bare Essence of Life by Satoko Yokohama
      Beautiful Kate by Rachel Ward
      A Brand New Life by Ounie Lecomte
      The Day Will Come by Susanne Schneider
      The Disappearance of Alice Creed by J Blakeson
      Eamon by Margaret Corkery
      Everyday is a Holiday by Dima El-Horr
      Five Hours from Paris by Leon Pruddovsky
      Gigante by Adrián Biniez
      The Happiest Girl in the World by Radu Jude
      Heliopolis by Ahmad Abdalla
      Le Jour Ou Dieu Est Parti en Voyage by Philippe van Leeuw
      Kelin by Ermek Tursunov
      Last Ride by Glendyn Ivin
      The Man Beyond the Bridge by Laxmikant Shetgaonkar
      My Dog Tulip by Paul Fierlinger and Sandra Fierlinger
      My Tehran for Sale by Granaz Moussavi
      Northless by Rigoberto Perezcano
      La Pivellina by Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel
      Samson and Delilah by Warwick Thornton
      Shirley Adams by Oliver Hermanus
      Should I Really Do It? by Ismail Necmi
      La Soga by Josh Crook
      Toad's Oil by Kōji Yakusho
      Together by Matias Armand Jordal
      The Unloved by Samantha Morton


      = Future Projections

      =
      The Butcher's Shop by Philip Haas
      Cathedral by Marco Brambilla
      The Death of Tom by Glenn Ligon
      I'm Feeling Lucky by Samuel Chow
      Teenager Hamlet 2006 by Margaux Williamson
      Utopia Suite by Clive Holden
      When the Gods Came Down to Earth by Srinivas Krishna


      = Gala Presentations

      =
      Agora by Alejandro Amenabar
      Chloe by Atom Egoyan
      Coco Chanel and Igor Stravinsky by Jan Kounen
      Cooking with Stella by Dilip Mehta
      Creation by Jon Amiel
      The Damned United by Tom Hooper
      Dil Bole Hadippa by Anurag Singh
      Dorian Gray by Oliver Parker
      Get Low by Aaron Schneider
      I, Don Giovanni by Carlos Saura
      The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus by Terry Gilliam
      Max Manus by Espen Sandberg and Joachim Roenning
      The Men Who Stare at Goats by Grant Heslov
      Micmacs by Jean-Pierre Jeunet
      Mother and Child by Rodrigo García
      The Other Woman by Don Roos
      Phantom Pain by Matthias Emcke
      Precious by Lee Daniels
      The Private Lives of Pippa Lee by Rebecca Miller
      What's Your Raashee? by Ashutosh Gowariker
      The Young Victoria by Jean-Marc Vallée


      = Masters

      =
      Air Doll by Hirokazu Kore-eda
      Antichrist by Lars von Trier
      Eccentricities of a Blonde-haired Girl by Manoel de Oliveira
      Hotel Atlantico by Suzana Amaral
      Janala by Buddhadeb Dasgupta
      The Legacy by Bernard Émond
      Wild Grass by Alain Resnais


      = Midnight Madness

      =
      Bitch Slap by Rick Jacobson
      Daybreakers by Michael Spierig and Peter Spierig
      Survival of the Dead by George A. Romero
      Jennifer's Body by Karyn Kusama
      The Loved Ones by Sean Byrne
      Ong Bak 2 by Tony Jaa and Panna Rittikrai
      [REC 2] by Jaume Balagueró and Paco Plaza
      Solomon Kane by Michael J. Bassett
      Symbol by Hitoshi Matsumoto
      A Town Called Panic by Stéphane Aubier and Vincent Patar


      = Reel to Reel

      =
      The Art of the Steal by Don Argott
      Bassidji by Mehran Tamadon
      Cleanflix by Andrew James and Joshua Ligairi
      Collapse by Chris Smith
      Colony by Carter Gunn and Ross McDonnell
      Genius Within: The Inner Life of Glenn Gould by Peter Raymont and Michele Hozer
      Google Baby by Zippi Brand Frank
      How to Fold a Flag by Michael Tucker and Petra Epperlein
      L' Enfer de Henri-Georges Clouzot by Serge Bromberg and Ruxandra Medrea
      The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers by Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith
      Petropolis: Aerial Perspectives on the Alberta Tar Sands by Peter Mettler
      Presumed Guilty by Roberto Hernández and Geoffrey Smith
      Reel Injun by Neil Diamond
      Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags by Marc Levin
      Snowblind by Vikram Jayanti
      Stolen by Violeta Ayala and Dan Fallshaw
      The Topp Twins by Leanne Pooley
      Videocracy by Erik Gandini


      = Vanguard

      =
      Accident by Soi Cheang
      The Ape by Jesper Ganslandt
      Bunny and the Bull by Paul King
      Carcasses by Denis Côté
      The Dirty Saints by Luis Ortega
      Enter the Void by Gaspar Noé
      Fish Tank by Andrea Arnold
      Hipsters by Valery Todorovsky
      The Misfortunates by Felix Van Groeningen
      Leslie, My Name Is Evil by Reginald Harkema
      My Queen Karo by Dorothée van den Berghe
      Spring Fever by Lou Ye
      The White Stripes Under Great White Northern Lights by Emmett Malloy


      = Visions

      =
      Between Two Worlds by Vimukthi Jayasundara
      Face by Tsai Ming-liang
      Gaia by Jason Lehel
      Hiroshima by Pablo Stoll
      Independencia by Raya Martin
      I Am Love by Luca Guadagnino
      Irene by Alain Cavalier
      Karaoke by Chris Chong
      Lebanon by Samuel Maoz
      Nymph by Pen-Ek Ratanaruang
      To Die Like a Man by João Pedro Rodrigues
      To the Sea Pedro González-Rubio
      Trash Humpers by Harmony Korine


      = Short Cuts

      =
      5 Dysfunctional People in a Car, Pat Mills
      75 El Camino, Sami Khan
      The Armoire, Jamie Travis
      Big Head, Dylan Akio Smith
      La Chute, Ivan Grbovic
      Covered, John Greyson
      Danse Macabre, Pedro Pires
      De Mouvement, Richard Kerr
      Deadman, Chelsea McMullan
      Edge of the Desert, Lea Nakonechny
      Fish in Barrel, Randall Okita
      Found, Paramita Nath
      A Hindu's Indictment of Heaven, Dev Khanna
      Homeland Security, Isaac Cravit
      IKW, Caroline Monnet
      Interview with the Earth, Nicolás Pereda
      The Island, Trevor Anderson
      Léger problème, Hélène Florent
      Life Begins (La vie commence), Émile Proulx-Cloutier
      M, Félix Dufour-Laperrière
      Man v. Minivan, Spencer Maybee
      My Toxic Baby, Min Sook Lee
      Naissances, Anne Émond
      Night Mayor, Guy Maddin
      On a Lonely Drive, Igor Drljaca
      Out in That Deep Blue Sea, Kazik Radwanski
      Pointless Film, Peter Wellington
      Record, Dylan Reibling
      Runaway, Cordell Barker
      Sixty Seconds of Regret, Ed Gass-Donnelly
      Smoke, Nikos Theodosakis and Linda Theodosakis
      Snow Hides the Shade of Fig Trees, Samer Najari
      Soap, Dusty Mancinelli
      The Spine, Chris Landreth
      Swimming Lesson, Caitriona Cantillon
      The Translator, Sonya Di Rienzo
      Tungijuq, Félix Lajeunesse and Paul Raphaël
      Unlocked, Mio Adilman
      Vive la rose, Bruce Alcock
      Volta, Ryan Mullins
      Vs., Ben Bruhmuller


      Canada's Top Ten


      TIFF's annual Canada's Top Ten list, its national critics and festival programmers poll of the ten best feature and short films of the year, was released in December 2009.


      = Feature films

      =
      Cairo Time — Ruba Nadda
      Carcasses — Denis Côté
      Crackie — Sherry White
      Defendor — Peter Stebbings
      I Killed My Mother (J'ai tué ma mère) — Xavier Dolan
      The Legacy (La Donation) — Bernard Émond
      Passenger Side — Matt Bissonnette
      Polytechnique — Denis Villeneuve
      The Trotsky — Jacob Tierney
      The Wild Hunt — Alexandre Franchi


      = Short films

      =
      The Armoire — Jamie Travis
      The Cave — Helen Haig-Brown
      Danse Macabre — Pedro Pires
      Five Hole: Tales of Hockey Erotica — Cam Christiansen
      Life Begins (La Vie commence) — Émile Proulx-Cloutier
      Naissances — Anne Émond
      Out in That Deep Blue Sea — Kazik Radwanski
      Runaway — Cordell Barker
      The Spine — Chris Landreth
      Vive la rose — Bruce Alcock


      References




      External links


      Official site
      1,500 Artists and Writers Sign Letter Protesting Toronto Film Festival Decision to Spotlight Tel Aviv - video report by Democracy Now!
      IMDB page, showing award-winners.
      2009 Toronto International Film Festival at IMDb

    Kata Kunci Pencarian: