September 4 to September 15, Toronto, Canada - Venturing off to the Toronto International Film Festival is not for the faint of heart or spirit. Ten days and more than three hundred films to select from, as well as a who's who of the industry to schmooze with, and nearly every A-list celebrity in tow to promote their upcoming movie, make up the essence of the best fest of the year on the continent. While Sundance and its growing number of fringe festivals in January is a playground for "newbies" to the industry, Toronto is for grownups with serious projects in search of finance, distribution, and star-attachments.
An average day at the festival begins with a breakfast meeting at the Four Seasons, Park Hyatt or at festival headquarters, the Sutton. Meetings are scheduled at 30 minute and one hour intervals, until you have to run out to catch a film that you absolutely must see. Unlike Cannes, where most people blow off the movies except for the occasional red carpet event, because of Toronto's overall excellent programming, industry insiders actually want to go to films here. This year, I attended nineteen films; went to sixteen parties, conducted seventy-five meetings (averaging between 5 and 8 each day, and this does not include random "bathroom" meetings, wherein some of the best contacts are made). This article will explore the how-to's of Toronto, and what movies you should watch out for in the coming year.
IF YOU'RE NOT ON THE LIST: The festival traditionally starts on a Thursday night, with a gala opening party. You may buy entrance to these parties in advance for a hefty price, but they are huge and darkly lit, and not the best schmooze unless you're in the know.
A few highlights from notable parties sponsored outside the festival this year included a stellar birthday event for Film Finder's Peter Belsito at which David Carradine (KILL BILL, KUNG FU t.v. series) was in attendance and Michael Douglas (WONDER BOYS) and Catherine Zeta Jones (TRAFFIC) sat at the next table; the IFC cocktail party, with celebrity attendance by Dustin Hoffman and Olympia Dukakis; the Alliance Atlantis party attended with producer Andrea Mann and director Daniel Oron, held at the Royal Ontario Museum in style with red carpet, but unfortunately with superstar segregation in place; Martini Madness hosted by Women in Film Canada at which Boston composer Claire Harding schmoozed with the best of them; and finally a dinner party at the Sultan's Tent, hosted by yours truly, along with Valerie Weiss (DANCE BY DESIGN), this year's filmmaker in residence at Harvard University, and her producer/attorney husband Robert Johnson, and attended by more than a dozen directors, producers, composers and financiers from around the globe, including WGBY producer Megan Murphy. Other New Englanders which I encountered at Toronto this year included David Kleiler, finalizing plans for his upcoming Northampton Film Festival in November; actress Susan Johnston who headed immediately to a film shoot in Montana; and David Dinnerstein, B.U. graduate and Co-President of Paramount Classics.
PASS ON THE PASSES: Toronto provides a convoluted array of "passes" for its festival, and unless you are either (a) a buyer, distributor or festival programmer or (b) someone who only plans on seeing movies, and by that I mean at least 35 films over the ten days, there is no pass for just individual professionals or someone who plans to attend for only a few days time. Further, the "industry pass" only gets you into industry screenings ($400) or if you elect to attend a few of the panels a hefty $700. Industry screenings do not have filmmakers in attendance to talk about the films. Passes don't give you access to any of the parties, public screenings or galas, which must be purchased separately. You do have access to a tiny room at the Sutton with five computers (which were hooked up to landlines and slower than molasses, so that AOL users could not access internet) and mailboxes, none of which are particularly useful if you stay in a decent hotel and have a mobile phone anyway. Galas, which are like Red-Carpets events at Cannes without the paparazzi, are only for studio films about to be distributed (every single gala had a release date scheduled this year), and are nothing to get excited about, unless you absolutely have to see a film before everyone else in your neighborhood does.
There is also an array of non-industry passes limited to public screenings. This pass is designed for the film fanatic public, and unlike Cannes, which shuns the "public", Toronto welcomes them with open arms, selling out nearly every movie, even those screened at 8 a.m. Public screenings usually have director and celebrity Q&A and galas often have a quick introduction (but no follow up questions) by filmmakers and stars. My strategy is to head to the Eaton Center box office armed with a list of all the films I want to see, and buy what's available for the whole week at once, scheduling my meetings around those films. Single tickets are $15 at the box office, so my bottom line for films was roughly $285, well below the $400 pass offered by the festival.
FILM TIPS: Highlights of films this year included the fabulous documentary STANDING IN THE SHADOWS OF MOTOWN directed by Paul Justman, about the forgotten back up musicians, the Funk Brothers, who made the music what it was. This flic may rival that of BUENA VISTA SOCIAL CLUB, and if marketed well, will outsell the c.d. with new recordings that include Joan Osborne and Shaka Khan. I also liked THE BARONESS AND THE PIG by theatre veteran turned filmmaker Michael MacKenzie, set in Nineteenth Century Paris about an American Heiress who adopts a child who was raised by pigs (no kidding), and discovers that her new husband is the biggest pig of all. Shot entirely in Hungary with an impressive score by Phillip Glass, MacKenzie has proven that he is a visionary with a future.
Southeast Asia had the greatest array of films in the festival from Thailand, Korea, and Vietnam, each with its own sensibility, showing another culture, but with human essence and understanding that defies boundaries. Highlights included the Hong Kong mystery thriller, THE EYE, by filmmakers Johnny To and Ka-Fai Wai, about a young girl who, blind since the age of three, has eye transplants which cause her to see "dead people". Reminiscent of SIX SENSE, this film has a softer twist and poignant lessons to be learned about humanity. From Thailand, A TRANSISTOR LOVE STORY by writer/director Pen-Ek Ratanaruang, tells the melodramatic love story of an ambitious country singer, and how the real world can destroy his dreams, but not the desire of his one true love. Akin to a musical comedy at first, this movie transforms itself into an opera with an almost tragic ending. Finally, CHIHWASEON, from Korean A-list director Kwon-taek Im (more than 90 directing credits since 1960), is an epic spanning sixty years about the life of painter Jang Seung-up, which joins the ranks of great artist films, and demonstrates what POLLOCK could have been, not just a portrait, but a statement about the lives of those that march to a different drum beat.
Finally, my personal favorite film of the festival, seen on the last day, is BEAR'S KISS by Russian filmmaker Sergei Bodrov (more than 25 credits) and shot impressively in Russia, Germany, Spain, Italy, France and Sweden. A fable about a little girl raised in the circus who adopts a baby bear and turns him into the man of her dreams, the simplicity of the story, added to the subtle sophistication of the acting and visuals, making it the kind of film, alas, that one rarely gets to see outside of festival.
The downside of films at Toronto this year was the selection of film shorts of which I walked out of two selections due to the programmer's obvious bent to the experimental, not in film, but as in museum installation. These sorts of shorts are fine, when viewed with purpose at an art exhibit for five or ten minutes, but to be forced to sit through two hours of them is pure hell. Also, beware films entirely made in Canada. While the international programming is stellar at Toronto, most of the Canadian films feel like television movies made for experimental art houses (or museums). This is not to say that there aren't terrific Canadian filmmakers, because there are, but the word on the street from my many Canadian filmmaker contacts, is that getting into Toronto is more political than the election for President, and this is exemplified by how rare it is to see any good Canadian films at this festival, unless the films are "co-pros".
FOLLOW UP: Once home, it's time to sort and file the nearly 200 business cards acquired while in Toronto, and to follow up with trips to New York (for the Gotham Awards and IFP) and LA to solidify relationships. If you decide to go to Toronto next year, and it's very high on the list of industry priorities, book your airfare (American this year was $168/r/t) and hotel at least a month in advance (there are deals to be had, and stay away from "film festival" sponsored hotels, but do stay downtown, as close to the festival as possible). The Canadian dollar goes a long way against our U.S. currency, making this a cheap week by comparison to Cannes or Sundance, and the schmooze and films are at the pinnacle of industry events.
Vinca Jarrett is an attorney of counsel to the firm of Shames & Litwin, a full service entertainment law firm. She is also the owner and principal of SKRIPTEASE Script Consulting, specializing in feature and television projects. You can reach her at JarrettBiz@aol.com and check out her web site at http://www.vincajarrett.com.