TIFF is often lauded as the first place to look for Oscar worthy-films—the festival has previously premiered Precious, No Country for Old Men, The Hurt Locker, Chariots of Fire, and, of course, last year’s King’s Speech, to name a few. Naturally, distributors are always in town for the festival and eager to snatch up the next hot-ticket item. Already Variety is reporting that the first two films to get deals at this year’s festival are Steve McQueen‘s sexual thriller Shame and Christophe Honore’s romantic drama Beloved (Les biens-aimes).
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Films picked up at TIFF: Steve McQueen’s Shame and Christophe Honore’s Beloved (Les biens-aimes)
The King’s Speech takes TIFF’s top honour (and becomes Oscar bait)
TIFF co-director Cameron Bailey prepared to hand out the People's Choice awards (Image: Karon Liu)
And that’s a wrap.
The official closing ceremony for the 35th Toronto International Film Festival took place at the Intercontinental on Front Street yesterday. The King’s Speech took the Cadillac People’s Choice Award, joining previous winners (read: Oscar bait) Precious, American Beauty and Slumdog Millionaire. The People’s Choice Award for best documentary went to Force of Nature: The David Suzuki Movie, and the People’s Choice Award for the best midnight madness film went to Stake Land, with Fubar II getting the runner-up prize.
Full list of winners here.
The top-secret formula for decoding Toronto Star movie reviews, revealed
Everyone’s a critic, right? Well, at the Toronto Star, even its film critics don’t seem to be too, well, critical these days. Every other week, there’s a three- or four-star (out of four) review popping up. And unless it’s been an especially good year for movies (editor’s note: it has not), then there’s only one answer to why the reviews are so darn positive: math.
Through some crack investigative work—and one very-soon-to-be-sorry radio room intern—The Hype has managed to get a hold of the entertainment department’s top-secret “ridiculously absurd virtues for entertainment” equation, or RAVE for short. This classified formula reveals just how critics manage to award stellar reviews to such universally acknowledged dreck as Alice in Wonderland (3 1/2 stars, but 53 per cent on metacritic.com), the remake of Death at a Funeral (three stars, but 51 per cent on metacritic) and, shudder, The Twilight Saga: New Moon (three stars, but a pitiful 44 per cent on metacritic).
Herewith, the math behind a Toronto Star movie review.
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The formula breakdown, after the jump.
Precious wins People’s Choice Award, screens free tonight
Oprah Winfrey at the premiere of Precious (Photo by Karon Liu)
You get a free screening of my movie! You get a free screening of my movie! And YOU get a free screening of my movie!
Yep, the Oprah-produced, clunkily titled Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire won the Cadillac People’s Choice Award this afternoon during a ceremony at the InterContinental Hotel Ballroom. That means that anyone can turn up for a free screening of the film tonight at 9 p.m. at the Visa Screening Room, right after the closing gala, The Young Victoria.
Lessons learned while photographing celebrities
One of our favourite shots from the festival (Photo by Karon Liu)
We consider ourselves to be experts in taking red carpet photos, having attended quite a few of the galas and special presentations since TIFF began. With every premiere, we learned something new in mastering the art of getting the perfect shot.
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Elevated Oprah takes no chances with security (except sometimes)
Destination unknown: elevator numbers were switched off at the Hazelton when Oprah was changing floors (Photo by Karon Liu)
Going up? O, no you’re not.
When Oprah Winfrey rides the elevator, the numbers go black, or so claims a Yorkville insider we met at the InStyle party. The insider told us that although Oprah fans had swarmed the Four Seasons in hopes of catching their 4 p.m. saviour, the Precious producer was, in fact, staying at The Hazelton. We also learned that when Oprah wanted to go up or down the elevator, FBI tactics were in play: all the elevators went dark so no one could know which floor she was on. To further ensure her safeguard, security would block off the foyer to prevent other guests—A-listers or not—from getting to their room.
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The fun dozen stop: our top 12 TIFF tales
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This Saturday night, TIFF volunteers will roll up the red carpet for the last time in 2009. With the festival’s imminent end, we’ve compiled a list of the our most-read stories since the beginning of festivities on September 10. Here, the top dozen:
Whip It good: Drew Barrymore and Ellen Page at Tattoo Rock Parlour
Rock ’n’ roller derby: performers prepare for the Whip It after-party (Photo by Jen McNeely)
Roller derby chicks whirled around a TTC streetcar outside Tattoo Rock Parlour on Queen West on Sunday, giving the red carpet crowd a terrific tease for the arrival of director Drew Barrymore and homegrown sweetheart Ellen Page to the Whip It after-party. Blaring classic rock tunes and serving up mac and cheese, this was a Hollywood party with a dirty, down-home feel. We stood in line to get a Whip It tattoo branded on our arm and chatted up some of the real-deal derby girls before sneaking into the VIP section to hang with—well, adjacent to—Drew, Ellen, Jason Reitman and Justin Long.
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The Oprah effect: The press conference-turned-talk show taping
Oprah ropes in her fans at the press conference for Precious
“It’s like the president is coming,” said one photographer looking back at the burly security guards at the entrance of the room.
“It’s bigger than that,” replied another. “It’s Oprah.”
With our cameras slung over our shoulders, painfully weighed down by the giant lenses and flashes attached to them, 15 or so photographers negotiated spots and angles with each other so we all would have a clear shot at the mighty O behind the table she’d be sitting at for the morning press conference of the movie she co-produced: Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire. (To see all photos from the Precious press conference, click here.)
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PHOTO GALLERY: Chloe premiere with Amanda Seyfried, Julianne Moore, Atom Egoyan and Jason Reitman
Full disclosure: we arrived at Roy Thomson Hall yesterday around 4 p.m. to secure a spot behind the barricades for the Precious premiere that night and completely forgot about the gala for Atom Egoyan’s Chloe earlier in the evening.
However, things worked out for the best as we had the best view to catch a glimpse of stars Julianne Moore and Amanda Seyfried (Liam Neeson pulled out of TIFF after the death of his wife) as well as Egoyan and Jason Reitman (his dad Ivan also made an appearance). Mayor David Miller, apparently suffering from a George Hamilton-level faux tan, walked to the red carpet instead of arriving in a car, but his thunder was quickly stolen when Seyfried arrived seconds later.
We’d like to thank Oprah for this bountiful gift.
The day TIFF stood still: the Oprah, er, Precious premiere
Precious moments: Oprah Winfrey clasps her hand to heart at the world premiere of Precious (Photo by Karon Liu)
First the Beatles performed on The Ed Sullivan Show. Then Tim Hortons opened in New York. And now, Oprah Winfrey comes to Toronto.
We stood at the exact same spot for seven hours last night at Roy Thomson Hall to capture our red carpet photos of Oprah Winfrey, Mariah Carey, Tyler Perry, Sherri Shepherd, Gayle King, Mary J. Blige and others. Still, we were latecomers; the girl beside us arrived at 8 a.m., and others started rolling in at 10 a.m. By six we could see a current copy of O Magazine in every direction (what else would Oprah sign?), which probably produced a spike in magazine sales and a possible solution to save the print industry.
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PHOTO GALLERY: Oprah Winfrey, Mariah Carey, Tyler Perry, Sherri Shepherd, Gayle King and Mary J. Blige arrive for the world premiere of Precious
Likely the biggest event of TIFF 2009, the premiere of Precious: Based on the novel “Push” by Sapphire took place last night at Roy Thomson Hall. We were there to capture these 20 photos of Oprah Winfrey, Mariah Carey, Tyler Perry, Sherri Shepherd, Gayle King, Mary J. Blige and others.
Want more Oprah? Check out our full report of the event here>>
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- Sherri Shepherd poses exuberantly (Photo by Karon Liu)
PHOTO GALLERY: Precious press conference with Oprah Winfrey and Mariah Carey
We attended the press conference for Oprah Winfrey’s much anticipated film, Precious, and brought our camera along. Check out the photos below.
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