Fan Fare

Entertainment behind the scenes

Toronto festival stays grounded with pancakes and bacon

By Solarina Ho
September 19, 2010
Deborah Chow | Denis Villeneuve | TIFF | Toronto | Toronto International Film Festival
Forget about best actor awards or controversies about favoritism, the Toronto Film Festival closing ceremony has a refreshingly ego-free feel to it.
Unlike the glitzy, red carpet theater affairs of the Cannes or Venice film festivals, TIFF is non-competitive, so the stars usually just go home after their film as screened, as opposed to waiting around for awards to be handed out.
Rather than declare a festival “winner”, Toronto organizers hand awards voted on by audience members critic, as well as a clutch of smaller prices to
Much of the last day is all about supporting the Canadian up-and-comers over a brunch of scrambled eggs, bacon and pancakes at the conclusion of the 11-day film extravaganza.
There are no egos here, where the winners are ecstatic by the honor and joke about how the cash awards can finally help pay off some overdue back taxes (Denis Villeneuve’s “Incendies” for best Canadian feature film) and keep them from having to work at Starbucks (Deborah Chow for directorial debut “The High Cost of Living”).
Here is where the public gets to shine and Toronto audiences have been apparently have good taste, having often picked films that have gone on to much success during the awards season.
The public voted “The King’s Speech”, directed by Tom Hooper, to the People’s Choice Award, a story of the man who would rather not be king. It stole Oscar buzz at the festival, with Colin Firth as the monarch who overcame a debilitating stammer to do the job and Geoffrey Rush as the the speech therapist who helps him do it.
Has Toronto extended its win streak ofOscar winners?

FILM-TORONTO/

Forget about best actor awards or controversies about favoritism.

The Toronto International Film Festival closing ceremony has a refreshingly ego-free feel to it.

Unlike the glitzy, red carpet theater affairs of the Cannes or Venice film festivals, TIFF is non-competitive, so the stars don’t stick around after a gala world premiere screening of their film for splashy awards to be handed out.

Rather than declare a festival “winner”, much of the last day is all about supporting the Canadian up-and-comers over a friendly Sunday brunch of, yes, scrambled eggs, bacon and pancakes.

The winners are ecstatic at the honor and joke about how the cash awards can finally help pay off some overdue back taxes (Denis Villeneuve’s “Incendies” for best Canadian feature film) and keep them from having to work at Starbucks (Deborah Chow for her directorial debut in “The High Cost of Living”).

Organizers also give recognition for festival favorites, as voted by the public. Toronto audiences apparently have pretty good taste, if past winners of the People’s Choice Award are anything to go by: “Slumdog Millionaire”, Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire”,  “American Beauty”, just to name a few.

This year’s public darling is “The King’s Speech”, directed by Tom Hooper, a story of the man who did not want to be king. Colin Firth’s turn as the monarch who overcame a debilitating stammer to do the job and Geoffrey Rush as the the speech therapist who helps him do it, stole Oscar buzz at the festival.

Has Toronto extended its streak of picking an award season contender?

(Caption: Actor Colin Firth attends a news conference to promote the film “The King’s Speech” during the 35th Toronto International Film Festival September 11, 2010.  REUTERS/Fred Thornhill)

«
»

Post Your Comment

We welcome comments that advance the story through relevant opinion, anecdotes, links and data. If you see a comment that you believe is irrelevant or inappropriate, you can flag it to our editors by using the report abuse links. Views expressed in the comments do not represent those of Reuters. For more information on our comment policy, see http://blogs.reuters.com/fulldisclosure/2010/09/27/toward-a-more-thoughtful-conversation-on-stories/
  •