What’s the world saying about TIFF? A roundup of reading from near and far

What’s the world saying about TIFF? A roundup of reading from near and far

Local media types are gleefully running around the city today, shouting the greatness of the Toronto International Film Festival from the rooftops—well, rooftop patios. But it’s not just the local media that has its eyes trained on Hogtown. Journalists from around the world—particularly from Britain, a country with a number of flicks at TIFF—are watching the festival, judging it and giving their recommendations. Here, a short roundup of interesting TIFF-related reading from near and far.

• TIFF marks the end of frothy “summer popcorn” movies for Moira Macdonald of the Seattle Times, who pays homage to our festival as the kick-start of autumn’s prestige movie season.

• Reuters is claiming that 2010 is going to be TIFF’s year to grab an “even bigger share of the spotlight” than it usually does because most of the movies released this year have been garbage.

• The Vancouver Sun opts for a Postmedia reprint that lists facts in point form. Most of the entries barely qualify as sentences: “There are lots of films.” “They’re showing 339 movies from 59 countries.” “Seventy-two of them are Canadian.” “The Oscar race starts here.”

• George Prentice’s giddy excitement over TIFF is adorably represented in Boise Weekly (of all places). It reads like a child’s thoughts as he tries to sleep on Christmas Eve.

• An interview with Cameron Bailey over at IndieWire outlines nine things the TIFF co-director would like people to know about the festival.

• The U.K.’s Financial Times, in a surprisingly plucky look at autumn film festivals, decides that TIFF’s offerings are decent, but mostly because they are more British than usual.

• The London Evening Standard points out TIFF’s star is rising on the festival circuit but remains decidedly condescending in noting that Toronto is barely glamorous enough to host its uptight British films.

• Ontario’s London Free Press, keeping up the nasty tone its municipal British namesake,  reveals that the Telluride Film Festival has scooped Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours from TIFF.

• In local newspaper the Town Crier, Carolyn Bennett writes a short essay about the importance of supporting TIFF.

Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Werner Herzog’s documentary about ancient cave paintings, is on Eric Kohn’s must-see list, as is Essential Killing, Stake Land, Erotic Man and Red Nights. He also spells the Star’s Peter Howell’s name wrong.