Eleven Films to Watch Out For At TIFF

Score: A Hockey Musical, Barney's Version, and Daydream Nation are among this year's top picks.

When one thinks of Toronto and film, what probably first comes to mind are the countless movies in which Toronto portrays an American city. The old joke is that when T.O. poses as Chicago or New York, the film crew often has to litter our streets to give it that “American” feel, but by the time the cameras roll, someone has come along to pick up the garbage. But for the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival, Canada’s largest city gets to be the star of its own show.

Considered one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world, and widely acknowledged as the most important business event on the film calendar, “TIFF” is perhaps Canada’s most significant annual cultural event. With millions of dollars trading hands between filmmakers and those who distribute the films, it’s a monumental event for the Canadian film business – an opportunity to play at a Hollywood level.

Here now, a look at the Canadian films insiders say best represent Canadian cinema at this year’s festival.

Barney’s Version, starring Paul Giamatti, Dustin Hoffman, Rosamund Pike, Minnie Driver, and Canucks Scott Speedman and Bruce Greenwood – the film is produced by Canada’s most acclaimed producer, Robert Lantos. This masterful adaptation of Mordecai Richler’s most popular novel has the industry buzzing about what may be the greatest Canadian movie of all time, or at least since The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1974).

Daydream Nation, directed by Mike Goldback is opening the Canada First section of the festival, and, according to TIFF programmer Magali Simard, is “surprising, edgy and daring for a director’s first feature.” Score: A Hockey Musical is the opening film of the festival – a meaningful sign of TIFF’s support of the film and Canadian content. “The film feels especially appropriate for 2010 since the Vancouver Olympics were such a success and offered big patriotic moments,” says Simard.

There are two great Canadian feature documentaries, Force of Nature about David Suzuki and How To Start Your Own Country by Jody Shapiro, in which you meet people who have actually started their own country and think differently about what it means to govern.

With 28 Canadian feature-length films, Canadian cinema plays much more than just a supporting role at TIFF, perhaps no more so than in the short format. Forty of our countries best shorts have been selected from over 600 submissions, and the gang of insiders familiar with these films have tipped the ones to catch. They are are A Fine Young Man, Interregnum, The Old Ways, Above the Knee, Living History, Marius Borodine, Green Crayons, Mokhtar, The Camera and Christopher Merk.

While Toronto streets will never really look like New York, for the coming festival this is a city unto itself, a place where, in a wonderful picturesque twist, people from Hollywood will watch Canadian films more than the other way around.