TIFF 2023: a deep dive into the Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), which ran this year from September 7th to 17th, is always a well-attended event, featuring not only gala premieres and celebrity appearances but presentations of lesser-known independent and experimental films, short films, and the best of world cinema. In addition, the festival hosts conferences dealing with not only the art of filmmaking but more serious issues such as funding, representation, and inclusion.
The conclusion of TIFF also involves the presentation of film awards of several kinds and in several categories, which sometimes draw attention to potential Oscar winners and sometimes merely point out minor or lesser-known productions and filmmakers which deserve attention.
The People’s Choice Awards, as the name suggests, are chosen entirely by audience vote over the course of the ten-day festival. This year’s People’s Choice for ‘Best Feature Film’ went to American Fiction, directed by Cord Jefferson (Watchmen, TV series The Good Place). The plot of American Fiction was based on the experimental novel-within-a-novel Erasure by Percival Everett and has some parallels to Spike Lee’s Bamboozled in that it deals ironically with racial stereotypes in media and failed attempts to subvert them through satire. The basic storyline: writer and professor Thelonius Ellison (Jeffrey Wright), angry with the ongoing public preference for material by Black authors that enforces racial stereotypes, produces a novel intended to mock and satirise these popular works. Instead, his ‘fake’ book becomes a huge success.
Runner-up for the award was Alexander Payne’s latest comedy/drama, The Holdovers, starring Paul Giamatti as a much-disliked schoolteacher overseeing the handful of people left at the school over the Christmas holidays.
The ‘People’s Choice Award for Documentary’ was sentimental favourite Mr Dressup: The Magic of Make Believe. Robert McCallum’s documentary examines the children’s programme Mr Dressup, which was a popular staple on Canadian television for 39 years, suggesting that a predominance of voters may have been Canadian. The show’s star, the late Ernie Coombs, might be described as the Canadian version of the US children’s entertainer known as Mister Rogers. Coombs, who once worked with Rogers as a puppeteer and was influenced by him, was beloved for his sprightly but sensitive approach to his young viewers.
The ‘People’s Choice in the Midnight Madness’ category, which showcases the edgy and peculiar, was the unusual, campy musical comedy Dicks: The Musical, adapted from an earlier off-Broadway play. Director Larry Charles, best known as a writer and producer on 1990s comedy Seinfeld, has put together a story that seems to be based on the Disney classic The Parent Trap. Adult identical twins, separated at birth, find each other and invent a plan to reunite their estranged parents. Elaborate musical numbers follow their progress as new revelations about their mother and father complicate their efforts considerably. The film stars the two scriptwriters, Aaron Jackson and Josh Sharp, as the twins, whose lack of similarity is simply ignored as a comically overextended suspension of disbelief. It features vocal performances from Megan Thee Stallion, appearances from Nathan Lane and Megan Mulally as the twins’ parents, and comedian Bowen Yang in an unlikely role as the singing Godhead.
Runner up in the ‘Midnight Madness’ category, which often includes horror and suspense films, was Nikhil Nagesh Bhat’s latest thriller, Kill. The Bollywood-influenced action plot involves a gang of bandits attempting to take over a passenger train occupied by two military men who must try and repel the attack.
TIFF’s ‘Platform Award’, chosen by a panel of filmmakers, is meant to draw attention to films of notable quality, particularly those which demonstrate “strong directorial vision.” The prize was named in honour of the 2000 historical drama Platform (‘Zhantai’) by director Zhangke Jia. This year’s ‘Platform Prize’ went to the romantic drama Dear Jassi, an India/Canada/US collaboration by award-winning international director Tarsem Singh. The film, which made its world premiere at TIFF, is an intense tale of star-crossed lovers whose relationship is threatened by family prejudices and other obstacles.
The ‘FIPRESCI Prize’ at TIFF, awarded by a panel of professional film critics, went to the intense family drama Seagrass, a first feature by director Meredith Hama-Brown.
Finally, the ‘Tribute Awards’, which are presented at a public event that also serves as a fundraiser, recognise film artists in many capacities. The proceeds from this year’s awards gala went to the festival’s Viola Desmond Campaign, which is intended to increase racial diversity in many branches of the film industry.
The TIFF 2023 Tribute Awards honourees:
• directors Spike Lee and Pedro Almodóvar
• actor Colman Domingo, whose recent drama Sing Sing premiered at this year’s TIFF
• actor Vicky Krieps, whose latest film, The Dead Don’t Hurt, premiered at TIFF 2023
• Carolina Marcowicz, whose two feature films Charcoal (2022) and Toll (2023) are making waves in the ‘Emerging Talent’ category
• Actor/producer Andy Lau for the ‘Special Tribute’ award
