TIFF Brings Out the Stars in Toronto
Running from September 8 to 18, 2011 at the festival’s new location in Bell Lighthouse on King West, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is underway. The event attracts celebrities, enthusiastic film fans and media from around the world for 11 days of parties, premiers and schmoozing. This year’s event will screen 336 movies including 268 Features and 68 Shorts chosen from 3,461 submissions from around the world. Theatrical works from 65 countries are represented in the 28,526 minutes of film that will be shown on 33 screens during the festival.
Some of this year’s big premiers include George Clooney and Ryan Gosling in the political thriller The Ides of March, Seth Rogen’s story of a friend’s cancer in 50/50 and the featured career of controversial Oakland A’s baseball coach Billy Beane (played by Brad Pitt) in Moneyball.
While not all TIFF premiers make it big, past audiences have had a sneak peek at some productions that became very successful. The 2008 movie Slumdog Millionaire won the People’s Choice Award and gathered up eight Oscars including Best Picture. Set in the 1920s, the 1981 movie Chariots of Fire also won the People’s Choice Award and Best Picture Oscar. The war tale The Hurt Locker premiered at TIFF in 2008. The film went on to win six Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director for Kathryn Bigelow, the first woman to earn the honor. The 2004 biopic Ray featured Jamie Foxx as the talented blind musician Ray Charles—a role for which Foxx garnered a Best Actor Oscar. In 2010 Colin Firth celebrated his 50th birthday at the TIFF festival screening of his movie The King’s Speech. Along with winning the People’s Choice Award, the historical drama triumphed at the Academy Awards ceremony winning Oscars for Best Picture, Best Actor (for Firth), Best Original Screenplay and Best Achievement in Directing. Some other past People’s Choice Award winners at TIFF include Precious (2009), Hotel Rwanda (2004), Whale Rider (2002) and The Princess Bride (1987).
