Toronto – A year ago, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) was affected by the strike of actors and directors (SAG-AFTRA). The 2024 edition, which has just ended, showed a different panorama, with numerous figures seen at the show, including Cate Blanchett. There is no doubt that, with the presence of the aforementioned actress, TIFF wanted in a certain way to emulate Cannes, where the one who gave a master class was Meryl Streep.
Toronto closes the trio of the world’s biggest festivals each year, just a week after Venice and four months after Cannes. The advantage of this Festival is that, being the third in chronological order, it can offer the best of the other two, and in fact “Anora”the Cannes winner, was in the programme. This was also the case for the main winners of Venice.
We were able to see “The Room Next Door” of Pedro Almodovarthe first English production by the La Mancha native, with a wonderful duo of actresses (Julianne Moore, Tilda Swinton) which will surely compete for the Oscar, although perhaps in different categories (Moore on the main one).
Another of the American films awarded in Venice (best director) was “The Brutalist”from the little known Brady Corbetwhere again Adrian Brody plays a Jew from Eastern Europe (remember “The Pianist”), in this case from Hungary. He is László Todt, an architect who emigrates to the United States in the 1940s and meets a tycoon named Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce), who ends up using it. The curiosity is that there was a Lazlo Todt (perhaps the same one?), who gained fame when, hammer in hand, he dealt fifteen blows to the famous Pietà of Michelangelo in the Vatican in 1972.
But in Toronto there were also other films that won awards in Venice, such as “Vermiglio”from the director Laura Delperowho despite being born in Italy usually spends several months a year in our country. Vermiglio is the name of a town in the north of the country of origin of its director. It is set near the end of the Second World War and what dazzles is the photography, as well as the presence of many non-actors, inhabitants of a remote place not far from Turin.
What is incomprehensible is the Venice award for best actress that went to Nicole Kidmanfor her role as Romy, an executive who for nineteen years is married to a theater director (Antonio Banderas) and only after almost two decades he finds out that he has never satisfied her intimately. In reality, the film poses a triangle whose third side is formed by the young Samuel (Harris Dickinson), a new employee at Romy’s company. He is an abusive and impertinent manipulator, who subjects her to various humiliations and even allows himself the luxury of going to her house, to the surprise of her husband and daughters.
But it wasn’t all Venice in Toronto, since, unlike the Italian festival, The Canadian has a significant market (they call it Industry). And here the presence of platforms such as Netflix, Amazon and others was noted, which are increasingly leaving less space for independent distributors. In fact, This year, the absence of buyers from Argentina was very noticeable.
There is more than one reason that explains this phenomenon. On the one hand, Cannes is the one that concentrates the largest number of distributors in our country. But also In 2024, the American Film Market (AFM) changed its traditional headquarters in Los Angeles (the traditional Santa Monica Hotel had already closed in 2022) and moved to Las Vegas, hoping to attract distributors with the undoubted appeal that the city of casinos offers..
What TIFF brought were some films that had their world premiere in Toronto. Such was the case of “The Life of Chuck” of Mike Flanaganan emotional film that won the very important audience award. It is worth remembering that, as it is not competitive, it is not a class A festival, like Cannes and Venice, but also San Sebastian and even Mar del Plata.
Where Toronto can also contribute titles for the Oscar race is in the category of best international film and among them a very sensitive film from Somalia (“Mother Mother”), of intense emotional power. Another film worth mentioning is “William Tell” of Nick Hamm which is set in the early 14th century and sheds much light on the famous “apple” at a time when the Swiss were dominated by neighbouring Austria.
And in order to add another of the world premiere films at the festival, we should refer to “Hard Truths” of Mike Leigh. The disappointment caused by the reunion of the director of “Secrets and Lies” with his actress Marianne Jean-Baptistein the character of a woman who seems to hate everyone.
Closing the list of world premiere films was “Conclave”of Edward Berger (“All Quiet on the Western Front”), whose title alludes to a fictitious historical fact, an election of a new Pope. The one who stands out the most is Ralph Fiennes like Cardinal Lawrence, a logical candidate to be the new pontiff, even though he does not want to be one. The emphasis of “Conclave” It is the fight between conservative cardinals (like the Italian one who stars in it) Sergio Castellitto), others more progressive like that of Stanley Tucciand a Latin American one, who, although in no way resembles Francis, can be a reference.
The Vatican scenery is very good and the way the cardinals change their preferences is fascinating. It will take more than five votes until the white smoke finally appears. Among the candidates there will be several who do not hide their ambition, such as an English speaker (played by John Lithgow) who reveals a shady past of an African competitor. His attempt will, however, be frustrated thanks to the assistance of a religious sister (Isabella Rossellini), a sign (perhaps feminist) that something is changing in the Vatican.
Source: Ambito
