TIFF Lineup...So Far

Nina Hoss in Barbara

The way I approach my ticket selection at TIFF every year is not to jump to films that I most want to see, but to first go for titles that I suspect will be sold out quicker. More often that not, there are some overlaps between these two sets of films, but just as often, my wish list includes films that go unnoticed for the first few days of ticket sales, allowing me to get to them once I've got the loftier titles out of the way. Although, as I've mentioned several times before here and on The Film Experience, the festival's biggest attractions usually aren't close to the top of my list. I came this close to being tempted by seeing The Master at the fest - for many people the experience of watching Boogie Nights is their best TIFF memory, though I think that's partly because Paul Thomas Anderson was more of a surprise package back then - but eventually I decided against it because of its pre-determined October 12th release in Toronto. I can always wait longer when there are other options at hand with no release date.

Ryan Gosling in The Place Beyond the Pines

Anyway, for now, there are ten films that I will watch for sure as I just finalized my ticket package. I'll be adding maybe another ten or so in the coming days and I'm hoping that my hunch that films like Ernest & Celestine, Like Someone in Love, The Central Park Five, Mea Maxima Culpa, The Suicide Shop, The Hunt, etc. will not sold out by Monday proves to be correct. I'd hate to miss out on any of those. We'll see. But you can look forward to my coverage of all of this at The Film Experience, where since last year, Nathaniel has been nice enough to invite me as his Toronto correspondent.

Christian Mungiu's Beyond the Hills

In the order of their screening dates:
The Place beyond the Pines,  At Any Price, Berberian Sound Studio, Foxfire: Confessions of a Girl Gang, Lore, Beyond the Hills, Barbara, Dormant Beauty, What Maisie Knew, To the Wonder