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I do love a good film festival: the days of sitting in the dark with strangers, watching all kinds of exciting films. Since becoming a mom, I haven’t had many opportunities to spend days on end in a theater. But just as the pandemic led to more online streaming options for your new weekly releases, it’s done the same for film festivals. So I had the opportunity to attend this year’s Toronto International Film Festival from my office this year. And while it definitely doesn’t have the same hum of excitement—or crowded public transit—it’s still loaded with new films.
The Toronto Film Festival is one of the key weeks of the film year. It’s one of the handful of festivals that introduce the movies that will be playing in theaters and getting award season attention over the next few months. This year, it all looked a bit different, but one thing was the same: there was still so much to see.
Some of this year’s festival films worked within COVID challenges to create simple but tense films. Antoine Fuqua’s anxious thriller The Guilty stars Jake Gyllenhaal as a 911 dispatcher who’s trying to rescue a kidnapped woman—mostly over the phone. And every parent’s nightmare, Lakewood follows Naomi Watt’s widowed mom Amy who’s out for a run in the woods, miles away from home, when she finds out that her kid’s school in on lockdown. And, again, most of the story plays out over the phone, away from extensive casts and crews. Even movies like the twisting sci-fi thriller The Encounter—about a man and his two adorable sons on a cross-country road trip to find safety from alien invasion—boast a smaller cast.
Of course, no festival is complete without some best-seller adaptations—like All My Puny Sorrows, the rather sleepy story of two sisters dealing with their own hardships. Or films with a message—like the animated drama Where Is Anne Frank? And there are always a few quirky options, too—films like The Starling, starring Melissa McCarthy in a surprisingly toned-down role as a woman dealing with the loss of a child. And the unexpected biopic The Electrical Life of Louis Wain, starring Benedict Cumberbatch as the eccentric British artist who became famous for his whimsical cat paintings. You might even find an unexpected dramedy like The Good House, starring Sigourney Weaver as a woman struggling to hold it together in her quaint (but pricey) New England town.
Though I’ve been squeezing in screenings for days, my wish list is still very long. There are so many that I look forward to seeing as they make their way to theaters and digital platforms. But while you’re working on your own wish list, be sure to include Violet, Justine Bateman’s story of a professional woman’s battle with fear and anxiety.
But where can you see the films of TIFF? While some smaller films will obviously have smaller releases (or none at all), I tried to keep an eye out for films that have a better chance of a more publicized release. Many will be released throughout award season, and I’ll be sure to watch for those release dates—so be sure to check back for the reviews.
Listen to the recap on Reel Discovery:
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