By Raquel Stecher
The 44th annual Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) kicked off on September 5th. This ten-day festival is chock-full of international delights from gala presentations, special events, international premieres, red carpet openings, lectures, award ceremonies, and more. It’s at TIFF that many of the big Oscar nominees and winners have their world premieres.
What can you expect at TIFF? Everything from big blockbuster feature films, to international dramas and comedies, documentaries, shorts, experimental films, and a series called Midnight Madness which launches future cult classics and quirky horror movies.
Let’s take a look at the numbers for this year’s festival. Out of the 333 titles to be screened this year, 245 are feature length films, 82 are shorts, and six are episodic series. This list was whittled down from 6,866 submissions!
Out of the 333 films, 229 are premiering at TIFF for their world, international, or North American debut. The films come from 84 countries and 87 languages/dialects are represented. The shortest film is 2 minutes long and the longest is over 14 hours! Something new this year is a series of inaugural awards including the Tribute Actor Awards for Meryl Streep and Joaquin Phoenix, the Roger Ebert Director Award for Taikia Waititi, the Variety Artisan Award for Roger Deakins, and the Mary Pickford Award for Mati Diop.
I’ll be reporting again from TIFF this year for DVD Netflix. Some of the big films announced this year include the Mister Rogers biopic A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (directed by Marielle Heller and starring Tom Hanks), the new Joker movie (directed by Todd Phillips and starring Joaquin Phoenix), Lorene Scafaria’s Hustlers (starring Constance Wu and Jennifer Lopez), the highly anticipated film adaptation of Donna Tartt’s novel The Goldfinch (starring Ansel Elgort and Nicole Kidman), and much more.
Not going to TIFF this year? Host your own at-home version! Last year, I encouraged DVD Netflix members to host their own armchair TIFF with some selections from a variety of people’s choice award winners from the past five years. This year, I’m taking a different approach! Here is a selection of films that premiered at the 2018 festival. If you haven’t watched these yet, this is a great opportunity to catch up. Here are some of my favorite films from last year’s TIFF, as well as a list of other titles available to rent that are definitely worth watching.
My favorites from last year’s TIFF:
More viewing options:
Raquel Stecher has been writing about classic films for the past decade on her blog Out of the Past. She attends the TCM Classic Film Festival as well as other events where old movie fanatics get together to geek out. Raquel has been a devoted DVD Netflix member since 2002! Follow her on her blog Out of the Past, or find her on Twitter @RaquelStecher and @ClassicFilmRead, Facebook, and Instagram.