This year’s TIFF wasn’t dominated by awards contenders, but its heart was in smaller films from underrepresented voices who deserve to be heard
What if they threw a fall film festival and it didn’t really have anything to do with Hollywood’s awards season?
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The Toronto International Film Festival has been doing something like that over the past week. The splashiest part of its annual festival is usually devoted to Hollywood studios showing off their biggest awards contenders in front of industry and press from around the world, but this year’s COVID-19 edition has stripped out virtually all of the press and industry and most of the Hollywood studio movies.
What did that leave? Well, it actually left TIFF 2020 as a vehicle for a rich collection of smaller films that in many cases showcased the voices of directors from underrepresented groups, and told stories of communities that are often overlooked. In other words, the festival produced exactly what its organizers wanted.
Also Read: Fall Film Festivals Struggle for Relevance in the Year of Coronavirus
It wasn’t the usual TIFF, or anything like that, but if you adjusted your expectations it was a satisfying collection of films and a way to turn a massive, crowded annual event into a smaller, mostly virtual one that worked on its own terms.
I missed the usual TIFF, and I want it be there to see it return next year — but after seeing more than 30 of the features that were programmed this year, I feel as if I’ve gotten some dispatches from some interesting new voices and from corners of the cinema world that might have been overlooked in the usual lineup of half a dozen gala premieres each night.
And, by the way, it did produce one bona fide Best Picture contender that will be in this year’s awards race for the long haul, Chloe Zhao’s luminous “Nomadland,” starring the essential Frances McDormand. It also delivered an animated film that could be a real contender, Apple’s “Wolfwalkers,” a handful of international films that will likely end up in the Oscar race and more than a dozen strong documentaries, including “MLK/FBI,” “Notturno,” “Enemies of the State,” “The Truffle Hunters” and the moving Chinese film “76 Days,” an astounding chronicle of the early days of the COVID pandemic in Wuhan.
Also Read: 'Nomadland' Film Review: Frances McDormand Hits the Road in Quiet, Lyrical Drama
You can also throw in the low-key romance “Ammonite,” with beautiful performances by Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan; the heartbreaking “The Father,” with Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman; Regina King’s feature directing debut “One Night in Miami,” with Eli Goree, Aldis Hodge, Leslie Odom Jr. and Kingsley Ben-Adir playing Cassius Clay, Jim Brown, Sam Cooke and Malcolm X; and Kornel Mundcruczo’s “Pieces of a Woman,” a showcase for Venice acting winner Vanessa Kirby.
While that’s a decent start for any awards season, it’s not the overflowing abundance of riches that Toronto normally provides. But the pandemic and the timing forced a different kind of festival.
The media and industry was asked not to come to Toronto, but instead to watch the films in a digital screening room that made a handful of films available each morning, usually for 48 hours. The lineup, which typically consists of more than 200 features, was trimmed to 50 films in the main selection, another 10 in special screenings and an additional 30 in a “TIFF Industry Selects” section for buyers. While some screenings did take place in Toronto, those were for local audiences and were held in drive-ins or socially-distanced theaters.
And with the Academy Awards delayed for a full two months to April 25, 2021, and the eligibility deadline to qualify for the Oscars extended all the way to Feb. 28, few studios felt compelled to showcase their top contenders a full seven months before the ceremony. Netflix, for instance, declined to send any of the movies from its robust slate of awards contenders, although Aaron Sorkin’s “Trial of the Chicago 7” did get a special Q&A panel presentation.
Netflix is also finalizing a big-money deal for the TIFF title that had the stealthiest and most curious premiere, Halle Berry’s directorial debut, “Bruised.” Not only was the MMA-themed film not made available on the press and industry screening site, reviewers were not given access to the film via outside links, the way they were for the handful of other films unavailable on the media site. The only way for the media to see it was to be in Canada for a festival screening, which wasn’t feasible since the festival told journalists to stay home — so although the film had a gala presentation on Saturday, reviews are conspicuously missing.
(Then again, who needs reviews when you’ve got a Netflix deal in the works?)
Also Read: 'One Night in Miami': Regina King Opens Up About Directing 4 Men Portraying Real-Life Icons (Video)
With the new approach, the heart of the festival in some ways became the films that often seem to exist in the shadows cast by the major-studio releases. The highlights included smaller indies like Tracey Deer’s “Beans” (the coming-of-age story of an indigenous girl in a time of social turmoil), Ben Sharrock’s “Limbo” (a touching and wry piece about a Syrian refugee held in limbo on a remote Scottish island), Michel Franco’s “New Order” (a brutal and timely drama about class tensions in Mexico), Ricky Staub’s “Concrete Cowboy” (the tale of a community that formed around stables in North Philadelphia) and Charles Officer’s “Akilla’s Escape” (cycles of violence stretching from Jamaica to New York, with a wrenching performance from Saul Williams).
All of those brought to cultures and communities not often represented onscreen, and showcased the kind of voices that festivals like TIFF exist to find and support. If this was a smaller, odder, more frustrating Toronto, it was also an unexpectedly rich one — and one that shows why it makes sense for festivals to keep going in whatever way they can.
The festival will end on Saturday, Sept. 19.
10 Buzziest Movies for Sale in Toronto, From Idris Elba's 'Concrete Cowboy' to Mark Wahlberg's 'Good Joe Bell' (Photos)
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What the Cannes virtual marketplace proved earlier this year is that even without the in-person meetings, the red carpet galas and all the press hype, there's still room for a lucrative sales market surrounding these virtual events. While that's true of this year's Toronto International Film Festival, the hybrid physical and virtual fest is operating on a slimmed-down lineup of movies. And with Oscar eligibility requirements pushed back to 2021, there isn't the same need for all of these movies to make a splash. That said, we are looking forward to quite a bit at this year's TIFF, and so are buyers.
Also Read: How the Pandemic Will Shake Up Toronto Film Festival’s (Virtual) Sales Market
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Romulus Entertainment/Thunder Road Pictures
"Bruised"
Halle Berry takes a beating as a washed-up MMA fighter looking to make her redemption fight in "Bruised," which is also Berry's directorial debut. The film is set in New Jersey and explores her fight to get back into shape and win back her child. It also stars Adan Canto and Sheila Atim.
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Lee Daniels Entertainment/Tucker Tooley Entertainment
"Concrete Cowboy"
Idris Elba and "Stranger Things'" Caleb McLaughlin play father and son in this family drama from Ricky Staub that draws on the history of Black cowboys in its adaptation of a novel by Greg Neri. McLaughlin is a troubled teen who is sent to live with his quiet, absentee father and is taught to work at his father's stables. Jharrel Jerome, Byron Bowers, Lorraine Toussaint and Clifford "Method Man" Smith also co-star.
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Endeavor Content
"Good Joe Bell"
Mark Wahlberg is getting early hype for his performance based on a true story of a father who takes a cross-country trip to honor his son and educate people about the dangers of bullying. The movie flashes back to show Wahlberg's conflicted and grudging relationship with his son's homosexuality and how he grows, even as it becomes too late. "Monsters and Men" director Reinaldo Marcus Green directs the film from the writers of "Brokeback Mountain."
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Black Bear Pictures
"I Care a Lot"
Rosamund Pike, Eiza González, Dianne West and Peter Dinklage star in this thriller about two women who use loopholes in the legal system to defraud elderly retirees of their family fortunes, only for them to end up angering a crime lord with their latest mark. J Blakeson wrote and directed the film.
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Field of Vision
"MLK/FBI"
This documentary from Oscar nominee Sam Pollard is based on recently unclassified FBI documents and examines the surveillance and harassment the FBI used against Martin Luther King Jr. over years, including how J. Edgar Hoover hoped to discredit him and break his spirit. The film includes a discussion of how filmmaking and historians should use official materials from the FBI and other sources and how those sources color history.
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The Match Factory
"New Order"
Mexican filmmaker Michel Franco's film first played Venice and is a drama set amid a violent protest in Mexico City. The film draws on sociopolitical themes and the class divide to show how the wealthy unwittingly empower an encroaching military rule in their attempt to keep power.
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Getty Images
"Penguin Bloom"
Naomi Watts is said to give a stellar performance in this true story based on the life of Sam Bloom, a woman who suffered a traumatic accident who finds an inspiring road to recovery after befriending a magpie bird as her companion. Glendyn Ivin directs the film that also stars Andrew Lincoln, Jacki Weaver and Rachel House.
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BRON Studios
"Pieces of a Woman"
Hungarian filmmaker Kornél Mundruczó directs Shia LaBeouf and Vanessa Kirby in this film inspired by '70s character dramas about a couple expecting a child who winds up grieving over a tragedy in two different ways. Kirby steals the show, but the film also includes a stand-out moment from Ellen Burstyn as Kirby's mother.
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Four Knights Films
"Shadow in the Cloud"
As part of the Midnight Madness section, Chloe Grace Moretz in "Shadow in the Cloud" is like "Alien" on a WWII bomber. Moretz is a fighter pilot on a mission to carry a piece of classified information and is sequestered from her sexist male counterparts but soon discovers a mysterious presence that threatens the safety of everyone aboard. Roseanne Liang directs the film.
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Photo Credit Karen Ballard
"The Water Man"
Another actor making their directorial debut, David Oyelowo's "The Water Man" is a mythical family film with an homage to the family movies of the 1980s. It's the story of a man who looks for a mystical creature with the secret to everlasting life in an effort to rescue his ailing mother. Oprah Winfrey executive produces the film that stars Oyelowo alongside Rosario Dawson, Lonnie Chavis, Amiah Miller, Alfred Molina and Maria Bello.
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Neon
There are still some other movies playing as part of the festival that already have homes, including Chloé Zhao's "Nomadland" at Searchlight, Regina King's "One Night in Miami" at Amazon, the Kate Winslet-Saoirse Ronan drama "Ammonite" (pictured) at Neon, and Dawn Porter's documentary "The Way I See It" at Focus Features. Amazon Studios also recently acquired director Matthew Heineman's "The Boy From Medellín" about musician J Balvin.
TIFF 2020: “Pieces of a Woman,” “The Water Man,” “I Care A Lot” and more are getting attention from buyers
What the Cannes virtual marketplace proved earlier this year is that even without the in-person meetings, the red carpet galas and all the press hype, there's still room for a lucrative sales market surrounding these virtual events. While that's true of this year's Toronto International Film Festival, the hybrid physical and virtual fest is operating on a slimmed-down lineup of movies. And with Oscar eligibility requirements pushed back to 2021, there isn't the same need for all of these movies to make a splash. That said, we are looking forward to quite a bit at this year's TIFF, and so are buyers.
Also Read: How the Pandemic Will Shake Up Toronto Film Festival’s (Virtual) Sales Market
Steve Pond
Awards Editor • steve@thewrap.com • Twitter: @stevepond