Oscar hopefuls, future cult classics, festival circuit favorites, and even prestige television all got their red carpet moments at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival.
The feeling on Festival Street — the popular pedestrian thoroughfare that passes in front of key venues TIFF Lightbox and Princess of Wales Theatre — bubbled at full energy as the public craned their necks to star gaze and join in the convivial and vibrant spirit. As for moviegoers, there was plenty to discover well beyond the glitz and glamor.
EFP (European Film Promotion) arrived in Canada to proudly shine a light on a dozen titles, spread across the range of TIFF’s programming categories from TIFF Docs to the competitive Platform section. Many of the pictures were impressive feature debuts from directors who marked themselves as names to watch including: Radu Jude disciple Sarra Tsorakidis with her tough look at relationships under capitalism in Ink Wash; Jasmin Gordon’s flinty and tender portrait of motherhood in The Courageous; a nearly Shakespearean tragedy in Dimitris Nakos’ Meat; and Anastasiia Bortuali’s unique documentary Temporary Shelter, capturing the lives of Ukrainian refugees in Iceland.
Seasoned filmmakers returning to the circuit also shined in a variety of genres. Frida Kempff offered a distinct take on the period-set sports biopic with her story about swimmer Sally Bauer in The Swedish Torpedo. Frederik Louis Hviid’s flexed serious muscle in his gritty heist flick The Quiet Ones, while the coming-of-age dramedy got a lovely spin in My Fathers’ Daughter from Egil Pedersen. Meanwhile, Guillaume Senez traveled to Tokyo with Romain Duris for his winning tale of fractured fatherhood, A Missing Part.
As press and industry bounced between titles big and small, as usual there were some films proving so popular that lineups stretched down city blocks. Brady Corbet’s Venice Best Director-winning epic The Brutalist was easily the hottest ticket in town. The sole press screening had industry folks lining up two hours early to try and snag a seat, and many wound up shut out. Luca Guadagnino’s sprawling, Daniel Craig-starring, Beat adaptation Queer created a similar traffic jam. And everyone wanted to get their eyeballs on Carolie Fargeat’s eye-popping, Cannes Best Screenplay barnburner The Substance.
Academy Awards season came into view as several titles rose into contention. After taking home Best International Feature two years ago with All Quiet On The Western Front, director Edward Berger spurred more Oscar talk with his starry, well-received papal thriller Conclave led by Ralph Fiennes. Amy Adams and Nicole Kidman staked their ground in the Best Actress race with go-for-broke performances in Nightbitch and Babygirl, respectively. Legendary director Mike Leigh not only delivered a late career stunner with Hard Truths — which was rejected by Cannes, Venice, and Telluride — but another potential Oscar-contending performance by Marianne Jean-Baptiste. Canadian Jason Reitman tossed his hat into the ring with his buzzy, crowd-pleasing ensemble piece Saturday Night. Meanwhile, Pedro Almodovar’s Golden Lion-winning The Room Next Door got a victory lap as it gears up for its Oscar run.
Controversy also called at TIFF this year. The Canada-France co-production of Anastasia Trofimova’s documentary Russians At War prompted a large protest outside the Scotiabank Cinema on the afternoon of its first press screening. The film joins Russian soldiers on the frontline of their invasion of Ukraine, purporting to give a unique perspective to the conflict. While Trofimova — who previously worked at Russia’s state-backed media outlet RT (which is banned from broadcast in Canada) — has vehemently declared her film as “anti-war” and says it was created without the knowledge of the Russian government, she has faced significant pushback. Organizations have criticized the film for ignoring or whitewashing Russian war crimes, while calls for inquiry are being made about how the documentary received support from provincial broadcasters TVO in Ontario and Knowledge Network in British Columbia, along with funding support from the Canada Media Fund. Following the protests, TVO has since withdrawn their backing, while TIFF kept Russians At War in their lineup, but paused screenings claiming “significant threats to festival operations and public safety.”
As TIFF looks ahead to growing even bigger in the next few years, with plans for a formal market launching in 2026, organizers don’t just want to be another stop on the fall festival run. They want to be the premiere destination where big films can make an awards season splash, and the next generation of auteurs can be discovered by a cinephile hungry crowd. And certainly, as the 2024 festival unfolded, it looks like TIFF has pieces in place to do just that.
