Craig at the Toronto International Film Festival

September 15, 2003

Filmfest 2003 - Summary

It’s over, and my 13th year at the festival was a pretty good one.

After 2 years of decreased attendance for me, 2003 was a return to form where the number 42 figures prominently: over the 10 days at 42 screenings, plus at one advance screening, I saw 42 features and 3 shorts. Meanwhile, despite being behind on reviews, it makes sense for me to do a festival summary for you before getting to back some films in depth. Here goes:

With the immediacy of 9/11/2001 retreating a bit more, the joy of overloading on films and kibitzing with strangers was back, while some of the films themselves were now asking “can’t we all just get along?” And despite a start to the year where Toronto was beset by SARS, a record number of stars dropped into town and helped to de-spell the last lingering feelings of civic gloom. If you like to see the surprisingly long list of who came by town check out
www.e.bell.ca/filmfest/2003/mediacentre/release.asp?id=212.

Festival screenings this year started with 3 shorts: the first being a stylish series of cuts of a woman in a black dress holding up a huge frame of celluloid that allowed us to see through her to the minimalist landscape beyond, tying into the festival’s poster campaign; the second showing a volunteer being treated to a red-carpet theatre entrance with cheering onlookers, and being a thank-you to the army of 600 or so volunteers without whom the festival can’t run; and the third being 1 of 3 brilliant segments from mutual fund company
AGF, a major sponsor of the festival, each featuring characters with a flair for the dramatic going above and beyond the call of their day jobs, all underscoring
AGF’s
tag-line “what are you doing after work?” Audiences were often laughing at these even on the last day of the festival, and they all made for classy and amusing intros to each film that left the crowd in a good mood and anticipating another masterpiece of cinematic art.

I’m not sure I saw this year’s audience award winner, and ‘the buzz’ was that there wasn’t a groundswell rising for one particular film that stood out above all others, one that made audience laugh and which tugged at their heartstrings in equal measure. Meanwhile that award is being given out as I write this, but I’ll the avoid checking it until I’m done.

My one walkout this year was a forced one: I had to leave a late starting
LES INVASIONS BARBARES
to get to
DISTANT
which I would likely not get to see again. If I had had no friends at it, my one chosen walkout would have been
A PROBLEM WITH FEAR,
which was my biggest disappointment at the fest.

So, lists:

Chronologically:

Advance screening on Monday, August 18th

CASA DE LOS BABYS

Thursday Sept 4th

LES INVASIONS BARBARES

DISTANT

Friday Sept 5th

THE APPRENTICESHIP OF DUDDY KRAVITZ
(restored print)

A PROBLEM WITH FEAR

THE EVENT

Saturday Sept 6th