TIFF announces rest of line-up

Aug 24, 2004 by Ian Evans

The Toronto International Film Festival held their final pre-fest press conference at Nathan Phillips Square today. Though Mother Nature didn’t cooperate — it was windy, cool and overcast — Torontonians will soon be warmed by the glow of projector bulbs. Festival Co-director Noah Cowan announced more details for the Festival which will unspool 328 films from 61 countries, including 253 features, of which 82 per cent are world, international, or North American premieres. Almost sixty per cent of the features screen in a language other than English, and 68 features are directorial debuts.

Ten more titles were announced for the Gala section of TIFF. They are Mike Barker’s A Good Woman with Helen Hunt and Scarlett Johansson; Kevin Spacey’s Beyond the Sea; Oliver Hirschbiegel’s Downfall; John Stephenson’s Five Children and It, with Kenneth Branagh; Jean-Paul Salomé’s Arsone Lupin, which stars Romain Duris and Kristin Scott Thomas; Carlo Mazzacurati’s An Italian Romance; Mick Davis’ Modigliani, which stars Andy Garcia; Bille August’s Return to Sender, a world premiere with Kelly Preston and Aidan Quinn; Walter Salles’ The Motorcycle Diaries; and a look at the theatre during the height of the English Restoration, Sir Richard Eyre’s Stage Beauty.

The complete Masters lineup boasts 21 films from 19 countries, including Buddhadeb Dasgupta’s Chased by Dreams; brides from Pantelis Voulgaris; Goran Paskaljevic’s Midwinter Night’s Dream; Wong Kar Wai, Steven Soderbergh, and Michelangelo Antonioni’s Eros; Low Life from Im Kwon-Taek; Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s Café Lumière; Bad Education from Pedro Almodóvar; Land of Plenty from Wim Wenders; The Ninth Day from Volker Schlöndorff; Human Touch from Paul Cox; and Theo Angelopoulos’ Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow.

The Festival’s Planet Africa programme, now in its 10th year, includes Ousmane Sembene’s Moolaadé and Spike Lee’s Sucker Free City.

Special Presentations has 31 films from 14 countries, 29 of which make their world, international, or North American premieres. They include Florian Gallenberger’s Shadows of Time; Danny Boyle’s Millions; Sally Potter’s Yes with Joan Allen and Simon Abkarian; Laurence Dunmore’s The Libertine, with Johnny Depp and John Malkovich; John Waters’ A Dirty Shame, starring Tracey Ullman and Johnny Knoxville; and Jim Brown’s Isn’t This a Time! A Tribute Concert for Harold Leventhal, the first screening of which will be followed by a rare, live performance by The Weavers with Pete Seeger.

Contemporary World Cinema highlights include Carlos Sorin’s Bombón — El Perro; Frédéric Fonteyne’s La Femme de Gilles; Robert Guédiguian’s Mon Pore Est Ingénieur; Pawel Pawlikowski’s My Summer of Love; Christophe Honoré’s Ma More; Gregg Araki’s Mysterious Skin; Bahman Ghobadi’s Turtles Can Fly; Alex de la Iglesia’s Ferpect Crime; and Liu Bingjian’s Plastic Flowers.

The 2004 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 9th to the 18th. We have the complete film list and we’ll be there with complete coverage.