39th Toronto International Film Festival

The 39th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) once again established itself as the gateway to the North-Americas with 284 feature length films and 139 world premieres. A new policy prevented films that had already been presented at the festivals of Venice and Telluride to be screened in the first five days of the festival. But there was still enough action going on with world premieres of big Hollywood titles such asA Theory of Everything, Pawn Sacrifice, The Imitation Game, St. Vincent and While We Were Young. The red carpets were filled with stars, the fans had their cameras ready and the international press ran from one venue to another to play their part in the junket circus. But TIFF is a Chinese box. It contains many festivals within the festival, and allows for border crossersandcinephile explorations, from the once again superbly curated Wavelengths program to the Midnight Madness and beyond.

A six member FIPRESCI jury focussed on non-Hollywood world premieres without North-American distributionfrom the Special Presentations section and the Discovery program. Since TIFF is a non-competitive festival, the selection was made by the festival, to ensure diversity and range. In the Discovery section the jury focussed on first and second films. (Dana Linssen)

Toronto International Film Festival: www.tiff.net