Less than 24 hours until the first films are announced for TIFF ’12 and I’ve got nothing else on my mind! The news comes out tomorrow, July 24th at 10am EST and you can catch it live at http://live.tiff.net/ Until then we can only speculate what’s going to make the cut and what we might be seeing between Sept 6-16 this year. There are some predictions and speculations floating around on the interwebs, largely safe predictions in my opinion, but that doesn’t make me any less excited.
It comes as no surprise that Ben Affleck’s Argo will be screening at TIFF, after his success with The Town at TIFF 10 (which is where I first saw it), it only made sense for him to come back -- especially given the story’s Canadian ties. I enjoy Affleck as a director, having seen both Gone Baby Gone and The Town multiple times. I question his decision to star in everything he’s directed, but blatant narcissism aside, I look to some other heroes of mine such as Woody Allen, who directed himself in countless films and it’s never taken away from his credentials as a filmmaker.
When my good friend Jae first told me (sometime last year) that our favourite director, Quentin Tarantino, would be releasing his new film on Christmas day 2012, the first thought in my head and out of my mouth was “Do you think he’ll take it to TIFF???” Now it seems like I’m not the only one who has high hopes for Django, Unchained coming to our beloved fest. QT has favoured Cannes for his last few films, but I think he’s due to come back. Remember the Reservoir Dogs screening? Remember Pulp Fiction? Remember the Asian girl with the Tarantino figurine that you took pictures with at the Inglourious Basterds premiere (…the girl that you might want to collaborate with or marry? HER NAME IS ADA!) It’s time to bring the love back to Toronto QT!
Frankenweenie at TIFF 12 would certainly make my day, there are high hopes we might see Tim Burton latest. Some even hope for Midnight Madness, I don’t know about that, but I’d be there to see it whatever the program/venue. Hopefully the well-received long-running Tim Burton exhibition that was at Lightbox helped foster some bonds between the director and the Festival.
Theartsscene.ca has predicted two films that I would be ecstatic to see at TIFF 12: The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Looper. The former is based on a book I enjoyed very much in my early 20’s (by that I mean last year and not 10 years ago of course), I’ve been hearing tidbits about its adaptation to the big screen for some time now and excited to see what it’s become in the hands of RENT screenwriter Stephen Chbosky. The latter is the latest film by Rian Johnson, director of Brick (which blows my mind every time I see it) & The Brothers Bloom, staring two of my favourite actors Joseph Gordon Levitt and Emily Blunt. And who was the other guy in the film again, you might have heard of him…? Oh yeah, Bruce Willis! Last I checked (and I check a lot) the release date for Looper was slated for September 28, so TIFF is the perfect time & place to premiere it.
My love for Ang Lee waxes and wanes like the moon, I’m not sold on Life of Pi, but it’s always a treat to have him at the festival. I think the likelihood is high. Which leads me to other Asian directors I’d like to see at the fest… Johnnie To is a hardworking man, churning out at least a film a year, and still he manages to find time to come to TIFF almost as often! Looks like he’s got a couple films under his belt since last year’s Life Without Principle, so here’s hoping he makes the 15 hour flight again. I’m all for the Asians representing, but if I could only have one Asian director at TIFF 12, it would have to be Wong Kar Wai. (Though I’m not getting my hopes up) I wait year after year for news of his latest projects, and hope against hope that he’ll give us a sneak peek of what’s to come. He’s been working on The Grandmasters for a long while now, released a couple of teaser trailers last year, and is said to be in post-production now (I’d heard the film was still in production as late as May, not sure if my sources were correct). Please Mr. Wong, even if it’s just a unfinished print, won’t you please bring The Grandmasters to TIFF?
Other heavily speculated films include: Andrew Dominik’s Killing Them Softly (if Brad Pitt wants to come back to TIFF, I’m more than ok with that!), Tom Hooper’s Les Miserables, and P.T. Anderson’s The Master. All of these directors have had their films well-received at previous TIFF festivals. Anna Karenina fits the bill as TIFF always needs a high profile period drama of some sort at Roy Thomson hall or how about the new James Bond film to coincide with the James Bond exhibit? And finally, like Argo, I think Canadian ties pretty much guarantee we’ll see Deepa Mehta’s Midnight’s Children getting the gala treatment.
Can’t wait to see what else the programmers at TIFF have up their sleeves!
