Opening weekend gave us the cash for ash scandal over the distribution of Thank You For Smoking but the smoke rings had cleared by the time the curtain came down in Toronto at the weekend.
More than 300 movies were shown and the esteemed People’s Choice Award went to South African film Tsotsi. Directed by Gavin Hood, it’s a tale of love and sin in the world of a tsotsi (a thug/ hoodlum/gangster).
Among the other films honoured, Jean-Marc Vallée’s C.R.A.Z.Y. won Best Canadian Feature for its “standout acting and extraordinary visual inventiveness.” Familia from Louise Archambault and tongue-in-cheek rockumentary The Life And Hard Times Of Guy Terrifico, lensed by Michael Mabbott, shared the plaudits for Best Canadian First Feature.
The festival press gave their thumbs up to Australian Sarah Watts' Look Both Ways, which took away the Discovery Award and the neatly named FIPRESCI Prize (the International Federation of Film Critics) went to South Korean Kang Yi-kwan for Sa-kwa, the delicate tale of a woman searching for love.
Keep your peepers open for more juice on this year’s festival in Total Film magazine.
