Oscar hopefuls, political dramas head to Toronto
By Jeffrey Hodgson
TORONTO (Reuters) – The Toronto International Film Festival kicked off
its 30th edition on Thursday with movies about violence, sex,
religious persecution and the stress of a post-9/11 world — all set
to share a stage with some of Hollywood’s biggest stars.
The 10-day event, which film critic Roger Ebert calls the start of
Hollywood’s “Oscar season,” will screen more than 250 features on
subjects as diverse as female miners, gay cowboys, a transvestite
Irish revolutionary, would-be suicide bombers, a mistreated child
bride and Japan’s emperor Hirohito.
Johnny Depp, Charlize Theron, Steve Martin, Gwyneth Paltrow, Anthony
Hopkins, Cameron Diaz, Viggo Mortensen and Jackie Chan are just a few
of the stars expected at the festival, which ranks with Cannes,
Venice, Berlin and Sundance as one of the world’s most influential.
The festival began on Thursday evening with the world premiere of
“Water” — a movie that sparked riots in India when the first attempt
was made to film it five years ago.
The emotionally charged film about an eight-year-old Hindu child widow
was eventually made last year in Sri Lanka, where director Deepa Mehta
said she could work without distractions.
“It was fabulous… I didn’t have to go to a single political
meeting. I just directed the film,” she said.
Closing the festival on September 17 will be crime drama “Edison,”
which pairs Oscar winners Kevin Spacey and Morgan Freeman with pop
star Justin Timberlake and rapper LL Cool J.
The movies shown in between will come from more than 50 countries,
with more than 100 being shown for the first time.
Last year’s festival offerings — including “Ray,” “Hotel Rwanda,”
“Being Julia,” “Sideways” and “The Sea Inside” — became major
contenders in the Oscar race and critics will be on the lookout for
next year’s award winners.
Philip Seymour Hoffman’s starring role in the biography “Capote” and
director Ang Lee’s revisionist Western “Brokeback Mountain” are
already being spoken of as likely nominees.
But festival organizers said lower-profile films, many dealing with
anxiety that followed the terror attacks in New York, Washington and
Madrid, would offer equally worthy viewing.
TERROR ATTACKS, WAR
“Sorry, Haters” tells the story of an Arab immigrant cab driver whose
brother has been caught up in America’s security net after the
attacks.
“Paradise Now” follows two young Palestinians in the days before they
are called up to become suicide bombers, a theme also taken up in a
U.S. setting in “The War Within.”
The festival’s director of communications, Gabrielle Free, said the
selection of several films with similar themes was not deliberate,
given that they were picked by different variety of programmers.
“September 11 is now four years behind us, and I think that’s about
the amount of time you would expect for some thought-provoking films
(to emerge),” she said.
Equally provoking will be the latest films from Canada’s two most
famous directors, both of which debuted in competition at Cannes.
David Cronenberg’s “A History of Violence” tells the story of the
manager of a small town diner whose life is thrown into chaos after
thwarting an attempted robbery.
And Atom Egoyan’s “Where the Truth Lies” revolves around a scandal
that d rives apart a pair of entertainers played by Kevin Bacon and
Colin Firth. The movie has already been slapped with a NC-17 rating
for its explicit sexuality.
(With additional reporting by Arthur Spiegelman in Toronto)
Reuters/VNU
09/09/05 13:49 ET