TIFF MAKES CAUTIOUS RETURN
With COVID-19 protocols in place, a smaller Toronto film festival welcomes movie lovers
The Greek letter Delta signifies change. That is certainly true of this year's Toronto International Film Festival, which begins Thursday beneath a cloud of slowly rising COVID cases driven by the Delta variant and a stubbornly unvaccinated minority.
But despite mask mandates, vaccine requirements, theatre capacity limits and continued social distancing — not to mention no popcorn sales in TIFF venues — this year's festival is also trading in something the movies have taught us is always there if you look for it: Hope.
Consider that last year's event barely happened. TIFF 2020 pivoted mightily, delivering a bare-bones 50-film lineup (most years pre-pandemic had more than five times that many features) and showing most of those through a new digital streaming platform, in addition to a handful of outdoor, drive-in and Lightbox screenings.
TIFF this year remains a far cry from the good old days, but there are more than twice as many features as in 2020.
“I think if this year has taught us anything it's that nobody can predict normal,” says festival artistic director and co-head Cameron Bailey. “We started this year not being sure what the festival would be looking like by September, but thinking that we might still be under lockdown and we might have to prepare for that. We had success with our digital platform last year. We know we can do drive-ins now. That was a brand new thing for us last year.
“But as the year was progressing we realized ... things will be more open, and Canadians were getting vaccinated and especially here in Toronto ... At least some of what people are used to as a normal TIFF was going to be possible.”
This year's Toronto festival opens on a high note, literally. Ben Platt reprises his starring role in the film version of the hit Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen, alongside Kaitlyn Dever, Amandla Stenberg, Julianne Moore and Amy Adams, in the story of a high schooler who concocts a lie about a fellow student who just died by suicide. The film's digital debut is also on Thursday.
“We believe that digital is a great tool to be more accessible to audiences across Canada, to people who cannot make it to festival,” says Joana Vicente, the festival's executive director and co-head. “We hope that it doesn't replace the in-person experience, but it allows us to reach more people.”
Adds Bailey: “I don't think we will have to or should have to choose” between digital and physical screenings. “Ideally we are inviting people ... to come in great numbers as soon as that's possible. We're excited about bringing people back to the theatres.”
Some of this year's offerings are tailor-made for the big screen, in some cases the biggest screen possible. Canadian director Denis Villeneuve, who has been vocal in his disappointment over the decision by Warner Bros. to release its 2021 slate on the HBO Max streaming service as well as in theatres, will bring his new movie Dune to the festival.
And the festival's closing-night film, Yimou Zhang 's One Second, is described as a love letter to the cinema, with Wei Fan as a famous projectionist who recruits a village to restore a reel of film that has been damaged by mud.
Bailey is used to journalists asking him to pick his festival favourites, and quickly rattles off a bunch of TIFF titles that include Jane Campion's The Power of the Dog, starring Benedict Cumberbatch; Night Raiders, from Cree-Métis filmmaker Danis Goulet; and Charlotte, an animated documentary about German-Jewish artist Charlotte Salomon.
But then he slows down a little. “I'm just looking forward to filmmakers coming to town and presenting their films,” he says simply.
He says he was on the phone last week with French director Laurent Cantet, whose new film, Arthur Rambo, will have its world debut at TIFF on Saturday. “He's kind of a regular,” Bailey says with a touch of pride.
And then: “For a filmmaker who's won the Palme d'Or and is celebrated all over the world to accept our invitation to première here and to make the effort to come to Toronto ... We're excited by that. And I think our audiences are looking forward to not just the experience of seeing movies in theatres again but actually getting to be in the room with the artist ... and hear from them. It's been a while.” It has indeed.
TIFF runs until Sept. 18. Visit tiff.net.
TIFF this year remains a far cry from the good old days, but there are more than twice as many features as in 2020.