TIFF Releases Lineup Of Canadian Films For ’08 Fest
Posted July 15, 2008 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Fernando Meirelles’s Blindness and Deepa Mehta’s Heaven on Earth are two of the films included in the Canadian lineup at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival.
“I remember having coffee with (TIFF director) Piers (Handling) and practically collapsing with joy when he invited the film to the festival,” recalled Toronto-based Mehta, talking about her first festival experience with the 1991 film Sam and Me. “I’ll never forget Atom Egoyan, who very kindly had dinner with me … and told me how to navigate Cannes. Things have changed a lot in the last 10, 15 years since ‘Sam and Me’ was shown here, and look at TIFF now — wow! Look at the Canadian filmmakers, so many and so talented.”
Blindness, directed by The Constant Gardener’s Meirelles and written by Toronto’s Don McKellar, stars Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo and centers on a plague that robs people of their vision. Director Bruce McDonald also has a film at the festival – Pontypool is part of the Vanguard lineup and is inspired by Tony Burgess’s 1998 novel about a virus that takes over an Ontario town.
Festival organizers also announced two new gala films at the press conference – Michael McGowan’s One Week, with Joshua Jackson and Kari Skogland’s Fifty Dead Men Walking, starring Jim Sturgess and Ben Kingsley.
Previously announced was Paul Gross’s Passchendaele, which will open up the 10-day event.
The festival runs from September 4-13. For a rundown of the films announced so far, click here.
Image: Scene from the film Blindness, starring Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo
