By Anna Mehler Paperny
TORONTO (Reuters) -A half-century after its inception, the Toronto International Film Festival seeks to act as a bridge between the film industry and the broader world, the Festival’s Director of Programming Robyn Citizen said.
The festival returns on Thursday with 292 films – not as big as in pre-pandemic days, Citizen said, but still delivering a star-studded lineup with both familiar faces and new names.
“Particularly in this moment, stories are how we make sense of the world and make sense of our place in it,” she said. “And it’s very important to have something like TIFF and other film festivals to provide a platform to filmmakers who want to tell these important stories that generate empathy for how others live.”
Stars expected on the red carpet include Daniel Craig, who stars in the latest feature in the Knives Out franchise, as well as Scarlett Johansson, Russell Crowe, Jodie Foster, Dwayne Johnson, Rami Malek, Ralph Fiennes and Ryan Reynolds.
Film can be both a mirror of society and an escape hatch, Citizen said.
“I think the best films can provide this alternate world, which you can immerse yourself into and escape. And other really great films also challenge you to really question what you think you know about the world.”
Some of the films deal with the most painful stories in the news today. But including films wrestling with ecological concerns from the ocean’s depths to a dandelion’s-eye view, or authoritarianism in settings from Brazil to Serbia to Iraq, was not a deliberate choice, Citizen said; rather, it reflected something that emerged organically in submissions.
“Palestine 36,” which will have its world premiere at TIFF, transports the viewer to 1930s Palestine – a roiling time of change in the midst of the British Mandate.
“The Voice of Hind Rajab,” which combines actual recordings with scripted sequences to recreate the desperate 911 call of a six-year-old Palestinian girl trapped in a car under Israeli fire in Gaza, will have its North American premiere.
OCTOBER 7 FILM REVERSAL
And in the face of criticism the festival reversed a decision to exclude “The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue,” a documentary about one man’s quest to save his family from the Hamas attack on October 7, 2023.
In an August 13 statement responding to reports of the film’s exclusion TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey said the film was not “rejected due to censorship” and said TIFF was working with filmmaker Barry Avrich “to meet TIFF’s screening requirements.”
The following day, a statement from Bailey and Avrich said: “We have worked together to satisfy important safety, legal and programming concerns. We are pleased to share that ‘The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue’ will be an official TIFF selection at the festival this year.” Avrich was not available for an interview and his representative did not respond to questions about the film’s brief exclusion.
“There’s a number of factors that go into how we invite films and what happens with those negotiations, but I can’t speak to that directly,” Citizen said.
The 11-day festival runs from September 4 to September 14 and opens with the world premiere of “John Candy: I Like Me,” a documentary by director Colin Hanks that pays homage to the legendary Canadian comedian. The festival closes with Anne Émond’s Canadian romantic comedy “Peak Everything,” which features climate catastrophe and the tech support line for a therapeutic desk lamp.
Citizen said she wants people to come away from the festival feeling excited about the future of the medium.
“I want them to feel like the films they see at TIFF are really pushing the boundaries of what cinema can accomplish.”
(Reporting by Anna Mehler Paperny in Toronto; Editing by Caroline Stauffer and Stephen Coates)
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