What if I Missed the Advanced Ordering This Year?

If you missed participating in the advanced ordering process this year by buying a pass or coupons, you can still get tickets to films at the festival.

As of August 26, you can purchase tickets to gala showings online, by phone, at the year-round box office, or at the festival box office. If galas are listed as being "off sale", check back at a later date to see if additional tickets have been released.

As of September 6, you can buy tickets to all films at the festival, subject to availability, online, by phone, at the year-round box office, or at the festival box office. Tickets can be purchased by these methods up until 7:00 PM the day before the showing.

If a movie has not been sold out by the day of the showing, then remaining tickets will go on sale that day online, by phone, at the year-round box office, at the festival box office, and at the theatre showing the film.

If the film is sold out, you can still join the rush line outside the theatre the day of the screening. If ticket holders don't show up on time the festival releases the tickets for sale to people in the rush line. Also, sometimes people who already have tickets or extra tickets may come by the rush line to sell them. I've done this before when I've screwed up in scheduling movies and I can't make the showing, or some people may just be too tired to see another film and want to get rid of their tickets, or some people may have friends who can't show up and they need to get rid of their extras.

Consult the official festival web site for details on locations and times where you can purchase tickets. Once again, note that except for galas, you can't purchase tickets until September 6. And since Visa is the exclusive credit card of the festival, if you're not paying by cash, you'll need a Visa card.

Ticket purchase info:

http://www.e.bell.ca/filmfest/2006/boxoffice_info/tickets.asp

Box office locations and hours:

http://www.e.bell.ca/filmfest/2006/boxoffice_info/location_hours.asp

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Additional Gala Tickets?

As of 11:47 PM, August 26, it appears that gala tickets are still available for:

• The White Planet
• Never Say Goodbye
• Bonneville
• Mon Meilleur Ami
• Black Book
• The Banquet
• After the Wedding

For the remaining gala presentations, the online ordering site has notes saying the performances are sold out, but to "continue to check back as new inventory may become available". That would seem to imply they may release additional blocks of tickets at a later date, although they don't specify when that might occur. That could be days later, or even after the festival actually starts.

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Torontoist: Stalking the Stars in Yorkville

Torontoist has an article on places in Yorkville where you're likely to see the stars during the festival:

http://www.torontoist.com/archives/2006/08/stalking_the_st.php

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Remaining Gala Tickets

As of 1:54 PM, August 26, it appears that gala tickets are still available for:

• The White Planet
• Never Say Goodbye
• Bonneville
• Mon Meilleur Ami
• Black Book
• The Banquet
• After the Wedding

Tickets are sold out for:

• A Good Year
• Babel
• For Your Consideration
• All The King's Men
• Bobby
• Penelope
• Volver
• Away From Her
• Dixie Chicks: Shut Up & Sing
• Breaking and Entering
• Infamous

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Single Gala Tickets on Sale

As of 10:18 AM, August 26, it appears the online box office is selling single gala tickets. Tickets are still available for:

• Penelope
• Volver
• The White Planet
• Never Say Goodbye
• Away From Her
• Bonneville
• Dixie Chicks: Shut Up & Sing
• Mon Meilleur Ami
• Breaking and Entering
• Black Book
• Infamous
• The Banquet
• After the Wedding

Tickets are sold out for:

• A Good Year
• Babel
• For Your Consideration
• All The King's Men
• Bobby

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Last Day for Passes

A reminder that tomorrow (Friday, August 25) is the last day on which you can buy passes and coupons for this year's festival. Passes generally allow you to see pre-selected films, while coupons allow you to participate in the advanced ticket lottery, so you can choose films before the festival starts.

If you've never been to the festival before, the Festival Experience pass or the Globetrotter pass is a good way to see some films. You get three films with the Festival Experience pass, or six films with the Globetrotter pass, that the festival staff have pre-selected. If you work during the day, both passes have versions where all the films selected for you start after 6:00 PM on weekdays, or anytime on the weekends.

After this Friday, your options for attending the festival are single gala tickets, which go on sale Saturday, August 26, or buying tickets during the festival itself, starting on Wednesday, September 6 until the end of the festival.

Because of the popularity of the galas, expect most of the single gala tickets to get bought up on Friday, especially for the more popular films.

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Festival Volunteers

The festival released some interesting statistics about the volunteers who keep everything running from start to finish. Some of the more interesting stats:

• There are 12,855 volunteers registered this year.
• They will work 69,959.5 hours among them.
• They speak a collective 44 languages, from Afrikaans and Arabic to Urdu and Yiddish, and everything in between.
• Jennifer is the most common name among volunteers, and has been for the last six years running.

All the stats can be found here:

http://www.e.bell.ca/filmfest/2006/media_centre/news_releaseItem.asp?id=257

Don't forget to show your appreciation by giving a round of applause before each film when they run the trailer thanking the volunteers for their hard work.

If you want some insight on what it's like to be a volunteer, Sean Kelly is documenting his experience this year at his blog at:

http://skmovies.blogspot.com/

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Actors and Filmmakers Scheduled to Attend

The festival issued a press release listing the actors, filmmakers, industry people, and other guests slated to attend this year's festival. A selection is listed below. For the complete list, visit:

http://www.e.bell.ca/filmfest/2006/media_centre/news_releaseItem.asp?id=243

• Alan Rickman
• Alberta Watson
• Alexander Payne
• Sir Anthony Hopkins
• Anthony Minghella
• Bob Balaban
• Bob Goldthwait
• Bobby Cannavale
• Brad Pitt
• Brittany Murphy
• Carrie-Anne Moss
• Cate Blanchett
• Catherine O'Hara
• Charlotte Gainsbourg
• Christian Bale
• Christian Slater
• Christina Ricci
• Christopher Guest
• Cillian Murphy
• Costa-Gavras
• Daniel Auteuil
• Danny Glover
• Darren Aronofsky
• Diane Kruger
• the Dixie Chicks (Natalie Maines, Martie Maguire, Emily Robison)
• Don McKellar
• Dustin Hoffman
• Ed Begley Jr.
• Ed Harris
• Edward Burtynsky
• Emilio Estevez
• Emma Thompson
• Emmaneulle Béart
• Ethan Hawke
• Eugene Levy
• Forest Whitaker
• Fred Willard
• Gabriel Byrne
• Gordon Pinsent
• Greta Scacchi
• Guillermo del Toro
• Guy Maddin
• Hal Hartley
• Hanif Kureishi
• Harry Shearer
• Heath Ledger
• Ioan Gruffudd
• Isla Fisher
• Jacinda Barrett
• James Carville
• Jane Lynch
• Jason Biggs
• Jeff Goldblum
• Jennifer Coolidge
• Jennifer Lopez
• Jessica Lange
• Joan Allen
• John Cameron Mitchell
• John Waters
• Johnnie To
• Joshua Jackson
• Jude Law
• Julie Christie
• Juliette Binoche
• Kate Winslet
• Kathy Bates
• Larry Miller
• Laura Linney
• Liam Neeson
• Maggie Gyllenhaal
• Marc Anthony
• Mark Ruffalo
• Michael Apted
• Michael Glawogger
• Michael McKean
• Michael Moore
• Mike Medavoy
• Mira Nair
• Morgan Freeman
• Olympia Dukakis
• Parker Posey
• Patricia Clarkson
• Paul Rudd
• Paul Verhoeven
• Paz Vega
• Pedro Almodovar
• Penélope Cruz
• Peter Dinklage
• Peter O'Toole
• Pierce Brosnan
• Rachel Weisz
• Rachel Bilson
• Reese Witherspoon
• Ridley Scott
• Robert Lepage
• Robin Wright Penn
• Ron Mann
• Ron Perlman
• Russell Crowe
• Sacha Baron Cohen
• Saffron Burrows
• Sandra Bullock
• Sarah Polley
• Scott Caan
• Sean Penn
• Sharon Stone
• Sydney Pollack
• Sigourney Weaver
• Spike Lee
• Tim Robbins
• Tom Hanks
• Tom Skerritt
• Viggo Mortensen
• Vince Vaughn
• Vincent Cassel
• Wendy Crewson
• Werner Herzog
• Will Ferrell
• William H. Macy
• Wyclef Jean,
• Yoko Ono
• Zach Braff
• Ziyi Zhang
  

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Complete List of Films Released

The festival released the complete list of films for this year's event. According to the press release, there are a total of 352 films, from 61 different countries. 91% of these films are either international or North American premieres.

The total list of films can be found here:

http://www.e.bell.ca/filmfest/2006/films_schedules/filmlist.asp

Note this list does not include descriptions of the films. However, the TIFF Reviews.com site (http://www.tiffreviews.com/2006) has compiled a list of all the films with a brief description. Click the "Film List" link at the top of the page.

The complete press release can be found here:

http://www.e.bell.ca/filmfest/2006/media_centre/news_releaseItem.asp?id=239

Passes and coupon books are still available if you want to participate in advanced ticket selection, rather than buying tickets once the festival starts. As of this posting, you can still purchase:

• Family Gala pass ($50): You get two adult and two child tickets to one family gala film at Roy Thomson Hall.
• Family pass ($75): You get two adult and two child tickets to two out of the six family screenings.
• Daytime pass ($192, $157.50 for students and seniors): You get 25 tickets to redeem during the advanced ticket selection process or during the festival itself for any film that starts before 5:01 PM.
• Festival pass ($498, $431 for students and seniors): You get 50 tickets to redeem during the advanced ticket selection process or during the festival itself for any film.
• 10-ticket coupon book ($154.50): You get 10 tickets to redeem during the advanced ticket selection process or during the festival itself for any film.
• Festival Experience pass ($67): You get a ticket to three films selected by festival programmers, with each film on a weekend or after 6:00 PM on weekdays.
• Daytime Festival Experience pass ($62): Same as the Festival Experience pass, except each film is on a weekend or before 6:00 PM on weekdays.
• Globetrotter pass ($110): You get a ticket to six films from around the world selected by festival programmers, with each film on a weekend or after 6:00 PM on weekdays.
• Daytime Globtrotter pass ($97): Same as the Globetrotter pass, except each film is on a weekend or before 6:00 PM on weekdays.
• Midnight Madness pass ($153, $100 for students and seniors): You get one ticket to each Midnight Madness screening.
• Wavelengths pass ($65): You get one ticket to each Wavelengths screening.
• Ticket for the Elgin closing night gala/party ($296): You get a ticket to the final premiere at the Elgin theatre and a ticket to the "everything included" Closing Night party.
• Ticket for the Roy Thomson Hall closing night gala/party ($296): You get a ticket to the final premiere at Roy Thomson Hall and a ticket to the "everything included" Closing Night party.
• Out of town package ($100): If you live outside of Toronto, the festival has a service to allow you to mail in your advanced ticket selections (if you have also bought passes or coupons). I've never used this myself, but it seems that you pay $100 on top of any passes or coupons that must be bought separately.

To order passes or coupons, do one of the following:

1. Order online at http://www.e.bell.ca/filmfest/2006/orderonline.asp
2. Order by phone at (416) 968-FILM.
3. Visit the year-round box office at: Manulife Centre, 55 Bloor Street West (main floor, north entrance), Monday to Saturday, 10:00 AM to 6:00 PM.

You can only order passes and coupons until August 25, 2006. After that, you have to wait for single tickets to go on sale.

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Celebrity Spotting

While most people go to the festival to see the films, there's always a substantial number who turn out to see the celebrities. So how do you catch a glimpse of your favourite star?

• Most of the big commercial films with big stars have their festival premiere at a gala performance at Roy Thomson Hall. If you can get a ticket, great, but the galas are usually popular, so you may not be able to. But you can always line up outside by the red carpet and watch the stars arrive.
  
• Each movie at the festival shows twice. Cast and crew will sometimes attend the first screening (and more rarely the second), and may do a Q&A after the movie. Once again, if you can't get a ticket, you can try waiting outside the theatre to see them arrive. Note that stars don't always attend, and if they do they usually arrive just before the movie starts, so they won't be lingering on the red carpet.
  
• Stars are also more likely to show up for movies which they have a substantial attachment to, i.e. films they have directed, produced, or written, or those which were more a labour-of-love.
  
• Many stars stay at hotels close to the festival. Inevitably word spreads if a star is spotted at one of them. Pretty much any upscale hotel in downtown Toronto will have someone of note staying there.
  
• MuchMusic (at Queen and John Streets) sometimes has events during the festival. Last year Kirsten Dunst and Orlando Bloom showed up for an event promoting Cameron Crowe's Elizabethtown, and Queen Street was blocked off to accommodate the crowds.

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Upcoming Dates

Some important upcoming dates for the 2006 festival:

• Tuesday, August 22: The complete list of films for this year's festival will be available at the official site (http://www.e.bell.ca/filmfest/) after 1:00 PM. Note that this list may not contain descriptions of the films; often descriptions are not published until after the official programme guide is released (this year that will occur on August 29).
  
• Saturday, August 26: Gala single tickets go on sale online (http://www.e.bell.ca/filmfest), by phone ((416) 968-FILM), and at the year-round Box Office (Manulife Centre, 55 Bloor Street West, main floor, north entrance, 10:00 AM - 6:00 PM). Because of the popularity of the galas, expect that all three options will be extremely busy that day.
  
• Tuesday, August 29: For those who pre-purchased a programme book, coupons, or passes, they can be picked up from the Festival Box Office (College Park, 444 Yonge Street, Market Level, south entrance). Note this location is different from last year. Order forms for those with coupons may be dropped off starting from this date; forms must be dropped off at the Festival Box Office.
  
• Friday, September 1: All coupon order forms must be submitted by 1:00 PM at the Festival Box Office in order to be eligible for the advanced draw. After the deadline, the festival will randomly draw a box number and starting processing orders.
  
• Monday, September 4: All advanced ticket orders can be picked up from the Festival Box Office.
  
• Wednesday, September 6: Advanced tickets go on sale for the general public at the year-round Box Office. If you didn't purchase a pass or coupons, this is the first day you will be able to buy tickets for the festival (excepting Gala tickets which went on sale August 26, but which are most likely sold out by this date).
  
• Thursday, September 7: The festival begins.
  

The important thing to note with these dates is that certain events occur only at certain box offices. There are two box offices for the festival; the year-round Box Office at the Manulife Centre on Bloor Street, and the Festival Box Office at College Park on Yonge at College. Make sure you know which box office you need to go to before heading out, especially if you are lining up to purchase tickets.

When purchasing tickets, expect everything to be busy, especially when things initially go on-sale. The festival website usually crashes or times out under the heavy load. The phone lines may also prove to be busy, so you may have to dial repeatedly until you get through. Also expect long line-ups at the box offices. Last year there were complaints by people in line at the box office that a lot of tickets were snapped up by people purchasing on the internet, but given the usual problems on the website, that isn't always a sure bet. Visit the festival website to keep up-to-date on any changes or additional options for purchasing.

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Canadian Films Announced

The festival announced a number of the Canadian films that will be screening at this year's festival. One of the films showing is Sarah Polley's (The Sweet Hereafter, My Life Without Me), feature directorial debut, Away From Her, which stars Julie Christie, Michael Murphy, Gordon Pinsent, Olympia Dukakis, Wendy Crewson, Alberta Watson, and more.

The movie is based on the short story "The Bear Came Over the Mountain", by Alice Munro, which dealswith a man (Pinset) who watches his Alzheimer's-afflicted wife (Christie) slowly forget him and turn to another resident in her nursing home. Movie City Indie has a synopsis of the film: http://www.mcnblogs.com/mcindie/archives/2006/02/everything_is_p_1.html. Sarah Polley was at last year's festival in Beowulf and Grendel.

Also showing is Allan King's documentary EMPz 4 LIFE, about 4 teenagers in the suburbs. King has previously been at the festival with powerful documentaries such as "Memory for Max, Claire, Ida and Company", and "Dying at Grace".

Andrew Currie's Fido, about a boy and his best friend, a zombie named Fido, is another premiere. It stars Carrie-Anne Moss (The Matrix), Billy Connolly (The Last Samurai, Mrs. Brown), and Henry Czerny (The Boys of St. Vincent, Mission Impossible).

Paul Fox's Everything's Gone Green, which was written by Douglas Coupland, stars Paulo Costanzo (Joey) as a man who, according to IMDB, enters into a money laundering scheme while working for a lottery magazine. Douglas Coupland was at last year's festival with his documentary of sorts, Souvenir of Canada. Interestingly, the film also stars two actors from the Canadian TV series Godiva's.

Guy Maddin returns to the festival with his silent film Brand Upon the Brain! Maddin has been at the festival previously with such films as My Dad is 100 Years Old, and The Saddest Music in the World, both with Isabella Rossellini.

For more information on the Canadian films showing at the festival this year, check out the Globe and Mail:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060719.TIFF19/TPStory/TPEntertainment/Movies/
or the official TIFF press release:
http://www.e.bell.ca/filmfest/2006/media_centre/news_releaseItem.asp?id=202

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Box Office Open

Ticket sales are underway for the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival. At this point, you can only buy books of coupons or different types of festival passes. You can't select any films yet; that process occurs at the end of August.

You can buy passes and coupons at the box office at the Manulife Centre, or you can phone the festival, or you can order online at the festival website (http://www.e.bell.ca/filmfest).

Because advanced ordering has already occurred, the Roy Thomson Hall gala pass and the Visa Screening Room pass are already sold out. However, you can still by coupon books, the Globetrotter pass (6 pre-selected films), the Festival Experience pass (3 pre-selected films), the Midnight Madness pass (a ticket for each Midnight Madness film), and Family passes.

If you buy a pass, you don't have to do much else other than pick up your tickets around when the festival starts. If you buy coupon books, you'll have to pick films at the end of August. For more information on that, you can consult my posts from last year's festival (I'll be updating and reposting this information later on).

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Banlieue 13 / District B13

Banlieue 13 has been released in theatres in Canada this weekend as District B13. It's gotten a surprisingly wide release, with showings in most provinces. If you're into action films, this is one worth checking out. My review from the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival can be found here:

http://tifftalk.blogspot.com/2005_09_01_tifftalk_archive.html

Note that the film is shown in the original French with English subtitles.

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2005 Festival Wrap-Up

Well, another festival done for the year.

Things that were done well:

• The e-mail confirmations for advanced ticketing selection.
  
• The volunteers did their usual excellent job of putting up with all the festival-goers, press, and industry.
  
• I was surprised by the number of films in the last two days of the festival that had their director present for a Q&A. Granted, some of them are still looking for distribution, but it's nice when people don't immediately jet off right away after the first showing.
  
• The new seats in the Ryerson theatre were nice, even if they didn't give much legroom.
  
• The digital projection system used in a number of theatres looked really good. I thought Souvenir of Canada in the ROM looked incredibly vivid.
  

Things that could be improved:

• The online ordering system and the festival web site cannot handle the amount of traffic generated on opening day of ticket sales. They either need to beef up their infrastructure or contract it out.
  
• The festival should put a volunteer at the *end* of the lines during ticketing and more often at screenings to tell people what line they are in or should be in.
  
• When picking up the film schedule and order forms, festival personnel should ask people how many coupon books they have so they can be given the proper number of forms.
  
• The festival trailer; I think I heard and read more negative comments and jokes about this year's trailer than in any of the last 5 or so years of going to the festival. When even festival staff are shouting out "pull my finger", when journalists are actually *giving* the finger, and when there's even a photo of Jackie Chan looking like he's making fun of it, you know the trailer has been less than successful. I can understand that the festival would want an artistic trailer to fit their stature, but when you have to watch the same thing 26 times, it gets on your nerves.
  
• Other trailers: not sure why AGF wasn't back as a sponsor this year, but their humorous ads before the movies are sure missed. The Visa ad was funny, but too bad it was only shown at the Elgin.
  
• If you know who Stephen J. Mavilla is, you've watched too many movies at the festival. His short was funny, but couldn't they have picked a few people and do multiple shorts for the cell phone/piracy warning?
  
• My friend commented that he liked the trailer thanking the volunteers better in previous years, when they didn't explicitly ask you to show your appreciation; it was better when the applause was a spontaneous reaction from the audience.
  
• More transparency in the People's Choice Award voting. I've been reading a lot of comments on this year's winner of the award. Not that the film isn't deserving, but a lot of people seem to be saying they hadn't heard anything about it at the festival this year, so they are wondering why it ended up getting more votes than anything else. No one is quite sure how they tally up the votes and take into account the number of screenings, the size of the audience, the number of ballots collected for the movie, etc.
  

Interesting buzz/surprises:

• The film that I heard mentioned most in line was Adam's Apples, from Denmark.
  
• Surprised to hear that Cameron Crowe's Elizabethtown has gotten some negative feedback. The two links below discuss some of the problems that people have talked about:
  http://laweekly.blogs.com/foundas_on_film/2005/09/day_5.html
  http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2005/09/toronto_film_fe_4.html
  

Of the 26 films I watched this year:

• Film I liked the best: Toss up between Winter Passing, La Vie avec mon pere, and Runaway.
  
• Best Japanese Film: Linda, Linda, Linda. Takeshis' was just too impenetrable for me.
  
• Best Canadian Film: La vie avec mon pere. Saint-Martyrs-des-Damnes and Lucid were a close second.
  
• Biggest Guilty Pleasure: Banlieue 13. The chase scenes alone are worth the price of admission.
  
• Best Romantic Movie: Opa! I thought the relationships and the characters in that film were better than those in Mistress of Spices.
  
• Best Documentary: We Feed the World. But Sketches of Frank Gehry and Souvenir of Canada were also very good.
  
• "WTF?!" Award: Tideland. But Takeshis' was right up there, along with A travers la foret.
  
• Best Looking Film: Tie between Beowulf and Saints-Martyrs-des-Damnes.
  
• Funniest Film: Festival. Although the Mavericks session with Nick Price was pretty funny too.
  

Thanks:

• Thanks to my friend Gabriel for helping out with notes for the Q&A in the films.
  
• Thanks to the sites which linked to me this year including:
  
  GreenCine Daily:
  http://daily.greencine.com/archives/001208.html
  
  Archinect:
  http://archinect.com/news/article.php?id=24837_0_24_0_C
  
  Mathew’s film festival journal: http://www.livejournal.com/users/mathew5000/1362.html
  
  Chris Nolan's festival blog:
  http://chrisnolan.ca/archive/ID/00000586
  

Note: most of my 2005 reviews (and some of the 2004 ones) are also available on the Internet Movie Database (http://www.imdb.com/) in the entry for each movie. Hope to be back next year with more festival stuff!

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Gentille (Good Girl)

Gentille is the second feature film from Sophie Fillières, who both wrote and directed. Fontaine Leglou (played by Emmanuelle Devos) is an anesthesiologist in a private clinic. She has a scientist boyfriend (Bruno Todeschini) who is constantly trying to figure out how to get her to accept his proposal of marriage. But Fontaine is a bit adrift in her life, moving through a series of slightly absurd situations. She finds herself drawn to a patient in the clinic, a doctor (Lambert Wilson) who has to be induced into narcosis, and he may help her to define what she actually wants out of life.

This film is definitely odd, from the characters to the situations they encounter. Fontaine is a little bit scatterbrained and eccentric, challenging a man in the street who she thinks is following her then inviting him for coffee, or her reaction to an engagement ring hidden in her yogurt. The characters were a little too offbeat and odd, rather than quirky, for me to be completely engaged, and the interaction between Fontaine and her patient seemed rather peripheral. Emmanuelle Devos was kind of interesting to watch, and it was nice seeing Lambert Wilson in a dramatic role rather than in a Hollywood blockbuster, but overall the film never really clicked with me.

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Obaba

Obaba is loosely based on Bernardo Axtaga's collection of short stories "Obabakoak", which won Spain's National Prize for Literature. Set in a fictional Basque town, Obaba follows Lourdes (Bárbara Lennie), a film student who has come to tape the town for a school project. She is soon drawn to some of the stories of the residents, all of which are told in flashbacks. These stories help Lourdes to understand the town, its people, and its secrets.

Montxo Armendáriz, who wrote the screenplay and also directed, has put together a fine film that blends the past and the present. Rather than use Lourdes simply as a device for prompting the villagers to tell their stories, she is an integral part of the movie. Lourdes is intrigued by the tales and the town's superstitions, and she soon begins to wonder if she has been caught up in and affected by it all. However, the film takes only a few of the stories from Axtaga's collection, and any political overtones don't seem to be present. The movie takes a more realistic tone and lacks any fantastical elements other than the mysterious blue-green lizards that seem to be indigineous to the area.

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Festival

Directed and written by Annie Griffin, Festival follows a menagerie of characters at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Included are a young actress staging a one-woman show about Wordsworth's sister; a priest with a one-man play about abuse in the church; a veteran Irish comic who takes to sleeping with a radio critic to secure a long-overdue award; a trio of Canadians who seem to constantly be on a high; a famous and stuck-up comedian who is at the festival to judge a comedy award with his long-suffering assistant in tow. The movie follows each as they prepare and perform and succeed and fail.

Some of the stories and characters interact while others do not, but they all capture the comedy and drama and frenetic backstage energy of a festival so huge in scope it encompasses everything from stand-up to experimental performance art. Some of the stories are played for laughs, others have a more serious tone, but each is engaging in its own way. The story with the priest might have a bit too much pathos, though. The cast is uniformly good and overall the movie was very entertaining.

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Runaway

Runaway follows two brothers, Michael (played by Aaron Stanford from Tadpole and X2) and his younger brother Dylan (Zach Savage) who have moved to a small town. Michael has taken a job in a roadside gas station, while Dylan spends his time playing alone in their motel room. In flashbacks and letters to his psychotherapist, it soon becomes apparent that Michael has taken Dylan to escape from their parents, played by Melissa Leo and Michael Gaston, for reasons that are soon revealed. While Michael is trying to lay low, his growing attraction to his co-worker Carly (Robin Tunney) and his own ever-present demons seem to be jeopardizing his attempt to start a new life for him and his brother and leading the film to an explosive conclusion.

Runaway is a surprisingly good film, that features great performances from Stanford and Tunney. They and the script from screenwriter Bill True help to elevate what could have been a conventional film into something more substantial and emotional. The film does not yet have distribution, but hopefully someone will pick it up so that a wider audience can enjoy and appreciate it.

Director Tim McCann, screenwriter Bill True, and producer David Viola were in attendance at the screening and did a Q&A after the film:

• The film was made a year ago in Catskill, NY, and took about six months to complete.
  
• The script ran around about 95 pages, which is relatively short. They workshopped the script with the actors, and developed the material as they went along. They ended up cutting about 15 minutes or so to arrive at the final cut.
  
• The story originally came from a short story that screenwriter Bill True wrote in 1998,
  
• They saw about 35 boys for the role of Dylan during casting. Zach Savage had a photographic memory of the script. Tim McCann's direction for him was basically "say this line, wait five seconds, say the next line." But as an audience member commented, the performance that came out seemed very natural.
  
• On casting: McCann knew Melissa Leo from directing an episode of Homicide: Life on the Street. Terry Kinney (who plays Michael's psychotherapist in the film) came on board at Robin Tunney's suggestion. McCann and Tunney are friends. Michael Gaston was the best out of the 5 or 6 actors who they looked at for the father.
  
• Producer David Viola suggested Aaron Stanford just after Tim McCann came on board as director. McCann thought he was a question mark after seeing Tadpole, but after sitting down with him, knew that he was right for the role.
  
• The characters of Michael and Dylan were originally younger, but they shifted the ages after casting the actors.
  
• A marquee the characters pass in the film actually features one of McCann's earlier films.
  
• This is the first produced screenplay of Bill True. Just last Monday (September 12, 2005) he turned in the draft of his next script, The Angel on the Horse, which they hope to start shooting in early 2006.
  
  

Potential major spoilers below. Stop reading if you do not want to know anything about the end of the film:

• True and McCann did a lot of research for the movie (True has a relative who is a paranoid schizophrenic). Michael suffers from disassociative disorder that comes on through extreme mental trauma, and people forget certain events in their lives. True talked to a few psychologists who have all said it is plausible.
  
• McCann talked to some psychologists because what interested him is whether or not our behaviour is determined by our experiences or by what genetically our character and personality is. Can we triumph over our experience or a disease/mental illness? He also wondered whether post-traumatic stress could be triggered by further trauma later on, that could induce a psychotic break.

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Frankie

Frankie is the feature film debut of Fabienne Berthaud, who both directed and wrote the screenplay. The film follows Frankie, a fashion model played by Diane Kruger (Troy, National Treasure). The movie jumps back and forth between Frankie's past in the high-flying world of fashion, and the present, when Frankie is in a private clinic after having a breakdown. What seems like a glamourous job is revealed to be moments of action in between long stretches of boredom and loneliness, filled with shallow characters who treat the models more as clothes hangers than people. Only the modeling agency's driver who shuttles Frankie around from job to job seems to have any real empathy for her. Frankie's time in the clinic gives her the opportunity to reflect back on her life and what she wants for the future.

The film has an intimate documentary-like feel, aided in part by Berthaud's use of a single digital camera. There is relatively little dialogue or story beyond documenting moments in Frankie's life. This style might not be for everyone, but it lends a feeling of realism to the images on screen. Diane Kruger gives a very good performance, light years away from her roles in bigger budget Hollywood pictures. She conveys a sense of weariness with the world and the meaninglessness of her life simply through her actions and posture.

Director/writer Fabienne Berthaud was in attendance and did a Q&A:

• The film was shot over a three-year period, in bits and pieces. At the start, Diane Kruger wasn't well known as an actress. The original producer did not want her in the film for that reason, but Berthaud persisted, even to the point of losing her financing. As a result, she bought a camera and decided to do the film on her own. Eventually Kruger started getting cast in Hollywood films, but she still came back between movies to shoot her scenes for Frankie.
  
• The film was shot for about 3,000 Euros.
  
• Berthaud had previously done a documentary on the fashion industry, and thought that it was an interesting subject to show what works in society and what doesn't.
  
• Berthaud has a background as a novelist, and that the relatively short screenplay is a skeleton on which to hang the performances and the film.
  
• There was a fair bit of working on the fly, as she had to work with a number of real people with mental issues at the clinic. This meant she had to use the camera as a pen, often going along with what unfolded on screen.
  
• Whether working on films, photography, or writing, it is simply changing tools for her.
  
• The film had just a crew of three; Berthaud did the camera and lighting, and she had an assistant and a sound engineer, and that was about it.

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