Wrap-Ups: Toronto International Film Festival
TIFF Day 10: Trends & Faves [TheWrap]
Surveying the landscape, indieWIRE’s Peter Knegt spoke to Cameron Bailey about what the festival co-director felt was “a turnaround in the sales climate,” with 18 films selling as opposed to only 12 last year.
David Poland, of course, takes a contrary position and says that the media is getting it wrong about this year’s market being so much better than last year’s. He only counts 12 genuine sales, and says only two are significant: Lionsgate’s pickup of “Rabbit Hole,” which will probably lead to a Best Actress campaign for Nicole Kidman, and the Weinstein Company proclaiming that its still in business by submitting a preemptive bid for “Dirty Girl.” Otherwise, he’s not so impressed.
Toronto 2010: Sales Notes [LAT / 24 Frames]
The Toronto International Film Festival may be wrapping up this weekend, but it turns out that it won’t be the end of the road for many of the films that played here. An eye-popping number of movies have been sold in the last 10 days; roughly a dozen (give or take one or two, depending on how you date a couple of the acquisitions).
TIFF: Genre Films Sell in Toronto Buying Spree [IndieWire / Thompson on Hollywood]
What made the difference? Well, in a more deliberative and cautious climate, TIFF’s acquisitions titles were more commercial. And most of the sales were genre films skewed toward a younger audience. Barry Blaustein’s black comedy Peep World went to IFC, which also picked up another Rainn Wilson comedy, SUPER. Raunchy high school comedy Dirty Girl sold to Weinstein Co., along with coming-of-age teen flick Submarine. And Magnet Releasing grabbed Kim Jee-woon’s bloody serial killer movie I Saw The Devil.
Movies geared for grown-ups include Rabbit Hole, which Lionsgate acquired with an Oscar campaign for Nicole Kidman in mind, while Lionsgate/Roadside won’t release Robert Redford’s period drama The Conspirator starring James McAvoy and Robin Wright, until 2011. Also dealing with the loss of a child is Beautiful Boy, starring Michael Sheen and Maria Bello as parents whose high school son commits suicide, which was acquired by Anchor Bay. Sony Pictures Classics scooped up Barney’s Version and Denis Villeneuve’s Incendies. IFC also bought two docs, Werner Herzog’s 3-D Cave of Forgotten Dreams and Barry Avrich’s Unauthorized, the Harvey Weinstein Project, which did not play Toronto. And Oscilloscope acquired Kelly Reichardt’s arty western Meek’s Cutoff.
So it was either a hugely successful TIFF in terms of sales… or not. It marks a rebound for indie films… or not. Indie films for a younger audience on the rise… or… you get the picture.
Actually there are a lot of movies here I’d like to see. So we’ll be tracking them as they move toward release dates theatrically.
If you’ve spotted any other good TIFF wrap-ups, please post them in comments and I’ll add to the OP.
UPDATE: From IndieWire:
Tom Hooper’s “The King’s Speech” and Denis Villeneuve’s “Incendies” were among the big winners at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival’s awards ceremony. At a brunch at the Intercontinental Hotel on Front Street this afternoon, a variety of prizes were announced, with “Speech” taking the top audience prize and “Incendies” the top juried prize.
“I am absolutely thrilled,” “Speech” director Tom Hooper said in a statement that was read at the ceremony. “The fact that the award is voted exclusively by audiences makes this award especially special. Holding the world premiere here was such a privilege. On behalf of all the cast and crew, I want to thank TIFF and the festival audience.”
“Speech” won the festival’s overall audience award, with Justin Chadwick’s “The First Grader” the runner-up. Audience awards specific to documentary and genre subsection Midnight Madness went to Sturla Gunnarsson’s “Force of Nature: The David Suzuki Movie” and Jim Mickle’s “Stake Land,” respectively.
Every review I’ve read re The King’s Speech has been glowing. Early favorite for numerous Academy Awards.