2024 TIFF

Hero Image

Rich Text

Caitlin's recap of the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF)

Generic Carousel

photos

Day 1 - 9/4 - Travel day

I set off this afternoon for Toronto. This is my fifth TIFF and I’ve learned a lot over the years about how to have the most successful (i.e. see as many films as I can without crashing or getting sick) festival. As soon as I got off the train from the airport, I walked 20 minutes to my Airbnb. (Timing it perfectly for the Blue Jays game letting out. All the glum looks told me they’d lost without even seeing the score. But as a former Philadelphia resident, I was happy to see the results later - 4-2 - Go, Phillies!) I felt like a salmon fighting my way up stream (with suitcase bumping behind me) in a sea of blue jerseys.

One of the main issues at a film festival like this (despite the glamorous shots you might see out of Venice or Cannes), is the semi-frantic running you’re doing all day between venues to see as many films as possible. (My goal is usually 4 a day). This means being really well prepared with food on hand, because there’s no time to stop between films. So, an Airbnb is a must. That way I can cook and pack food to have on hand throughout the day. I have a Press and Industry pass, which means I can get into a lot of screenings the general public cannot. But it also means these spots are first-come, first-serve. The best way to ensure you get a seat is to arrive early. For the big films, this means standing in line for an hour before the showtime. And that’s the time to eat a quick bite or send some emails while you wait.

So, I dropped my stuff, and walked to the nearest grocery store to load up on easy-to-make, easy-to-eat food. Then back to the Airbnb for dinner and unpacking. Then a quick walk to get my pass from the Industry Center. It’s been a long day - nearly 19,000 steps are more than enough for one day.

In the past I’ve been on the 20th or 30th floor of a highrise, with a gorgeous view of the city. This time…not so much. 5th floor, internal courtyard. Channeling my inner Jimmy Stewart, I’m embracing my Rear Window view, though keeping the curtains closed for now.

Tomorrow morning I’ll be up and out the door by 7:30 to stand in line for one of the most anticipated titles, The Shrouds, David Cronenberg’s new film, with a 9am start time. The CN Tower at night is one of my favorites. TIFF pass in hand, I’m ready to go!

Day 2

Which is really Day 1, because this is the first day of films. Managed to get in line at 8:10, and already there was quite a crowd. The first thing I did was to get someone to save my spot in line while I tried to get a same-day ticket for Jia Zhangke’s newest film, Caught By The Tides. My pass gives me 10 premium tickets, which get me into public screenings and premieres, but I had to choose all of those before I arrived and there were still films I couldn’t fit into my schedule. So the way to add more is to try to get a same-day ticket, but it’s always a risk. It’s the closest I’ll get to gambling. In years past, I’ve had to go back multiple times to see if someone has relinquished a ticket, it’s just luck of the draw. Things were going in my favor, I managed to get a ticket! This is a huge win, because it means I don’t have to rejuggle my schedule. I start with David Cronenberg’s The Shrouds, then the documentary Dahomey, then Bird, then Caught By The Tides. The first time I saw a Zia Zhangke film was also in Toronto, back in 2004 with his dilapidated amusement park film, The World. He was in attendance at that screening. It’s always great to hear the director speak about their work, so I was particularly happy to get a ticket to see his newest film as I’ve been a fan ever since then.

While waiting in line for The Shrouds, I met a film influencer, which was the first time I’d heard that it was a thing you could do. He’s not a critic, but because he was on Canadian Big Brother, he’s an internet personality and gets sent by various studios to see the films and tell people he went? It makes me feel quite old, but he was a nice guy and we wound up being in Bird at the same time as well.

The Shrouds was more weird than sad, which surprised me a little since it was billed as his most personal film yet, inspired by the death of his wife. Dahomey was a very moving and thought-provoking documentary about the repatriation process - focusing on artifacts acquired by France in the 19th century to present-day Benin. I think it would be a great film to bring to Greenbelt Cinema with a guest speaker to talk about all of the complicated questions surrounding repatriation and reparations.

Bird was an unflinching look at life in an English council flat, told through the eyes of a 12-year old girl, Bailey. Her father, Bug, (played by Barry Keoghan) is barely an adult himself. Franz Rogowski plays Bird, and brings some magical realism to the story. It’s one I’ll have to think about some more, to understand who or what Bird was to Bailey.

Caught by the Tides uses footage collected over more than 20 years, following Zia Zhangke’s filmmaking partner and wife (and star of many of his films) Zhao Tao. They were both in attendance for both introducing the film and a post-screening Q&A. A great way to end Day 2!

Day 3

I started off the day with Guy Maddin’s new film, Rumours.Rumours is a very funny satire of international diplomacy with a fake G7 summit that goes horribly wrong.

Then I went to Joshua Oppenheimer’s first fiction film, The End. It’s a dystopian post-apocalyptic musical. A sentence I never thought I’d say! And it’s about as odd as it sounds. I don’t know that I’ve seen anything quite like it before.

After a brief break for lunch, I got a ticket to see The Last Showgirl starring Pamela Anderson. I really hope this one gets a distributor soon because it was great! Directed by Gia Coppola, it follows Anderson as the title character, the star of a show that’s about to end its decades-long run in Vegas. Jamie Lee Curtis, Kiernan Shipka, Billie Lourd, Brenda Song and Dave Bautista. Bautista was a real surprise - he’s wonderful in this more serious role as the stage manager. Because it was a premiere, they were all there talking about the process and although I’m not a big celebrity watcher, it is remarkable to see them on screen and then moments later they walk out on stage. They’re people, just like us! Except they’re movie stars…

The last film of the day was On Becoming a Guinea Fowl, the powerful new film from Zambian Welsh writer-director Rungano Nyoni about the secrets that have been hidden by the family about her uncle’s past behavior. The film opens with his death, and the unraveling of the past begins. It’s one of the top films I’ve seen so far.

------------------ Day 4

Saturday started with Sean Baker’s new film, Anora. I loved his film Florida Project, and had high hopes for this film after it won the Palme d’Or at Cannes. I really loved it and he made this world of exotic dancers and the Russian oligrach boyfriend feel fresh and new. It’s heartbreaking to watch this young girl see a way out of her world, only to have it all crashing down.

After that it was Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths. This was such a different vibe from the Baker film - two sisters dealing with the death of their mother, and the one sister’s struggles with her phobias and unhappiness. It was a challenging watch, but Leigh doesn’t shy away from showing the challenges some people face and their inability to escape their own self-made unhappiness.

I had hoped to get a ticket to see a fourth film, but it wasn’t to be, so I settled for the premiere of All of You, which was a delightful surprise. Brett Goldstein, Ted Lasso’s Roy Kent, co-wrote this script and stars, with Imogen Poots starring opposite him. --------------- Day 5 This was maybe my best day of the festival. Four fantastic, very different films. I think Nightbitch might be my favorite film of the festival. Amy Adams does an amazing job of capturing the challenges of having a young child while trying to maintain autonomy and your pre-kid identity.

My second film of the day, Conclave, was a pleasant surprise. I assumed this would be a slow, maybe even boring film about the pope selection process. But it was riveting and the acting was all fantastic. I truly was on the edge of my seat - who knew? Just goes to show the power of good filmmaking that you can turn a room full of old men casting vote after vote into a gripping movie.

The Last of the Sea Womenis a moving documentary about South Korean deep diving fisherwomen who are finding themselves struggling to get younger women interested in carrying on their legacy. They’ve been fishing in this way for hundreds of years, but are now mostly 60+. Their camaraderie and community is delightful and the screening I attended had not only the director, but the producer Malala Yousafzai (!!) and two of the women featured in the film. The last film of the day was Bring Them Down, an Irish film starring Christopher Abbott (Poor Things) and Barry Keoghan. A bleak family drama focused on rural sheep farmers, it was both gripping and devastating.

Day 6

Today wound up being a three-movie day. I was unable to get same-day tickets for two of the films I’d hoped for. But the day started strong with We Live in Time, starring Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield. This one is following what seems to be a trend of films jumping around in their timelines, moving fluidly between flashbacks and present day. It’s a heartbreaking love story that doesn’t shy away from their challenges in finding a future together, not the least of which is Pugh’s cancer diagnosis. Well worth the watch, despite the tears. Heretic was a gamble on my part - I’m not a huge horror fan, but Hugh Grant being in the lead role convinced me to check it out. The first two-thirds were very thought provoking, and then the last third it got a bit more violent and bloody. Not my favorite, but Hugh Grant was clearly having the best time. After thinking my day was toast, I managed to rush for a ticket for The Wild Robot - which was a very sweet animated film about a robot learning from the animals inhabiting the island where she crashed about the meaning of family and community.

-------------------- Day 7

One of the challenges of TIFF is not only trying to see 30 movies in 9 days, but the emotional wallop that most of these films deliver. These aren’t light, fluffy throwaways. This means running from one screening to another, drying tears and trying to pull yourself together, only to plunge into another emotional rollercoaster. This was maybe the most intense day of that kind of viewing. Another four-movie day. I started with Emilia Perez, a Spanish-language musical about a drug kingpin going through gender reassignment surgery and beginning again under a new identity. It was really good, and it was great to see a mainstream musical almost entirely in Spanish. Queer is Luca Guadagnino’s latest film, based on William S Burrough’s autobiographical writing. Daniel Craig is excellent, and the film is visually beautiful.

I took a chance on Piece by Piece, the new Morgan Neville documentary telling Pharrell Williams’s life story, in LEGO. It was the last bit that gave me pause, but hearing both the director and Pharrell speak about the reasoning behind it - that it made his story more universal, gave them a way to visualize the music and be generally more creative, I was willing to give it a go. I’m so glad I did! It was beautifully done and I learned a lot about Pharrell’s deep involvement in some of the most popular songs of the last 20 years.

And it was memorable for what happened after the film too. PETA protesters had been present for the first half of the week with signs saying Pharrell killed animals for their fur, and one of the protesters showed up at the end of the screening to yell at him. She kept repeating her screaming despite his efforts to talk to her, then security carried her out. That was the first protest I’ve witnessed at TIFF. After the Q&A, a Canadian high school marching band performed the new song “Piece by Piece” written by Pharrell for the film. It was beautiful. I ended the day with the new film adaptation of August Wilson’s play, The Piano Lesson.Unlike most filmed theater, this didn’t feel static or stilted. The star-studded cast is extraordinary. Denzel Washington’s son Malcolm Washington directed the film, while his other son, John David Washington, plays Boy Willie, the role originally played by Samuel L. Jackson, who also stars in the film. I wouldn’t be surprised if Danielle Deadwyler is nominated for Best Actress. --------------------
Day 8

If yesterday morning was an unintentional LGBTQ+ double feature, today’s first two films were about infidelity. Nicole Kidman’s latest film, Babygirl, was highly anticipated for her “brave” and “risky” role as a high-powered executive who has an affair with her intern. Although sex was at the heart of this film, it wasn’t particularly sexy. The impetus for the affair is her unfulfilling sex life with her husband (played by Antonio Banderas). It was an enjoyable watch, but honestly the biggest takeaway I had was just don’t fake orgasms with your husband. It won’t end well.

Millers in Marriage is Edward Burns’ new film, and was one of my least favorites. It follows three siblings all having slightly different mid-life crises and cheating on their spouses or being cheated on.

But the last two films of the day made up for the less-than-stellar start. All We Imagine As Light was a beautiful meditation on two women longing for a different life in crowded Mumbai. These women’s situations and problems felt far more real than those of the previous two films and the setting - from bustling city to beachfront village - were beautiful in their own way.

The last film was the documentary Will and Harper, the “Will” in question being Will Farrell, and Harper Steele, his longtime friend and SNL alum who has recently transitioned to living life as a woman. They embark on a coast-to-coast road trip to reconnect and navigate this new phase of their friendship, while stopping at all the small town, Route 66 roadside attractions that Harper used to love to visit in her travels but wonders if she will be accepted in the same way she was when living as a man. Being two highly skilled comedians, it is very funny, but it’s also tender and thought provoking as these old friends get to know each other anew. They were both there for the screening and, having heard Harper talk about how she struggles to accept herself and feel accepted, it was incredibly moving to be in the roaring standing ovation when she came out on stage.

Day 9

My plan had been for this to be another four-movie day, but again, the same-day tickets just didn’t go in my favor. I only have 10 premium tickets with my pass, so once those are selected, I have to go for same-day tickets when I run out of options in the Press and Industry screenings. I started with On Swift Horses with Daisy Edgar-Jones and Jacob Elordi. I don’t want to give too much away, but this was a really interesting story of two brothers and the girl who orbits around them, or them around her. Both Edgar-Jones and Elordi don’t quite fit into the cookie-cutter post-war mold of American domesticity and it was a stark reminder of how hard that was in the 1950s.

Since it didn’t work out to see Ben Stiller’s new film Nutcrackers and Hong Sangsoo’s By The Stream, I had time in my schedule for William Tell. I went in knowing very little about William Tell (outside of the “shooting the apple off his son’s head with an arrow” bit) and this film was fantastic. It is a real old-school epic of the underdogs fighting against the powerful invader (here the feisty Swiss battling the entire Austrian empire in the 14th century). Lots of swords, armor, burlap clothing and rugged men. Claes Bang of The Northman fame plays the titular role and is the reluctant folk hero I was happy to spend two hours watching.

Since this was my penultimate night, I broke my rule of no late-night starts to see the highly anticipated The Seed of the Sacred Fig. The director has been in exile since the film’s release because the Iranian government had handed down a sentence of public beating and imprisonment for the film’s critique of the women’s movement in the wake of the death of Mahsa Amini. There was a moment (around 11pm with 45 minutes left to go) that I thought this might be the first film I fall asleep in, but I have the audience member in front of me - who kept slamming his rocker recliner seat into my shins - to thank for keeping me awake. It was well worth the lost sleep.

------------------- Day 10

My 4pm flight gave me just enough time to watch one final film on Friday morning. The only film I saw at TIFF in black and white, The Girl with the Needle tells the true story of Dagmar Overby, well known in Denmark for her mistreatment of babies in post-WWI Copenhagen. Told from the perspective of one of the mothers she promises to help, this stark, bleak film was the perfect end to a great 2024 run at TIFF. Director Magnus von Horn was in attendance for a post-screening Q&A and drew attention to the plight of these single mothers with infants they cannot care for as an unfortunate situation that continues today in countries around the world with repressive reproductive care laws.

Many thanks to everyone who read these posts. This is a first for me - sharing my thoughts of the 30 films I saw and the overall strange experience of the film festival world. It feels both like a blur and an eternity, and I’ll do it all over again next year! Until then, see at the movies in Greenbelt - Caitlin

Generic Carousel

Marketing Signup

Footer