By Anthony Kaufman
The Toronto International Film Festival—which kicks off today—is the place where award-season campaigns begin, or end. From “American Beauty” in 1999 to more recent Academy-Award-winning independent-film breakouts such as “Juno” and “Slumdog Millionaire,” the winding path to Oscar’s Kodak Theater often starts up North. But just as buzz can boost a film, buzz can also kill (see last year’s “Miracle at St. Anna,” directed by Spike Lee).
多倫多影展對許多影片而言，是整個奧斯卡大戰的起點，或是終點。從1999年的「美國心玫瑰情」，到近年幾部獲得奧斯卡最佳影片的獨立製片，像是「鴻孕當頭」、「貧窮百萬富翁」等，都是從這裡開始發跡，而後直攻柯達戲院之顛。但水能載舟亦能覆舟，去年Spike Lee的「聖安娜的奇蹟」也是在這裡被毀滅的。This year’s contenders are far more promising than last year’s, when only Mickey Rourke’s performance as “The Wrestler” stirred up much talk, helping to launch Rourke’s career comeback and the film’s healthy $45 million in global ticket sales.
Most notably, directors Jason Reitman and the Coen Brothers are back in Toronto this year, following their 2006 festival successes “Juno” and “No Country for Old Men,” respectively, with “Up in the Air,” an adaptation of Walter Kirn’s bestseller starring George Clooney, and “A Serious Man,” a dark madcap comedy set in 1967 suburban Minneapolis (far from “Fargo”). Both films are already generating the type of positive word-of-mouth that can build to a frenzy in Toronto, where much of the North American media press and critics annually coalesce.
The so-called “specialized” film industry could use some excitement. After corporate consolidation and economic doldrums led to the closing of numerous companies, including Time Warner subsidiaries Picturehouse and Warner Independent Pictures, and smaller concerns such as ThinkFilm and New Yorker Films, the business is in need of some renewed faith.
A new generation of film companies will be heading to the Canadian festival with hopes of rebuilding the momentum: Liberty Media Corp’s Overture Films, which shrewdly acquired the modest hit “The Visitor” at the festival in 2007, will hold two high-profile premieres, the North American debut of “Men Who Stare at Goats,” a war satire again starring Clooney, and Michael Moore’s latest documentary “Capitalism: A Love Story.” Newly created Apparition, backed by Twin Cities entrepreneur Bill Pohlad, will make its festival debut with Jane Campion’s “Bright Star.”
Film companies will also be looking to acquire available films for a reasonable price. Prior to the festival, fledgling player National Geographic World Films made one preemptive buy: the acquisition of “City of Life and Death,” a Chinese drama about the 1937 Japanese occupation of Nanking.
Source: http://blogs.wsj.com/speakeasy/2009/09/10/toronto-film-festival-2009-a-primer/
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