The 2008 Toronto International Film Festival, (TIFF) was held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. This 33rd annual festival was from September 4 to September 13, 2008. The opening night gala was the World War I romantic epic Passchendaele from Canadian director Paul Gross.
Festival is heavy on Canadian fare as well as featuring prominent indie films and worldwide and/or North American debuts including: Adoration directed by Canada's own Atom Egoyan, Appaloosa the second film from Ed Harris (who directed Pollock), Blindness from screenwriter-director, Fernando Meirelles, Iraq war thriller The Hurt Locker directed by Kathryn Bigelow, and veteran filmmaker Barbet Schroeder's Inju, la bête dans l'ombre. Scheduled is The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond (directed by Jodie Markell), based on a "rediscovered" Tennessee Williams screenplay. TIFF screened 312 films from 64 countries. These include 249 features, most of which were North American and/or world premieres.
Neil Burger (director of The Illusionist) world premiered The Lucky Ones a character study of U.S. soldiers on an unplanned road trip, starring Tim Robbins.
Also featured was Me and Orson Welles helmed by American "slacker" Richard Linklater, the Spike Lee-directed World War II film, Miracle at St. Anna as well as the Jonathan Demme directed film Rachel Getting Married. Other festival highlights are screenwriter Charlie Kaufman's first film, Synecdoche, New York, a slice of experimental filmmaker James Benning's Americana RR was featured in the "Wavelengths" avant-garde showcase, the four-hour-long Steven Soderbergh epic Che (playing in two parts), as well as The Wrestler lensed by Darren Aronofsky. The Brits are also well represented with Happy-Go-Lucky directed by Mike Leigh and Slumdog Millionaire directed by Danny Boyle.
Despite showing fewer films than last year, among the 249 features, 116 are premieres and 61 are first features. Films from as many as 64 countries were screened, with more than 340,000 admissions expected.
"Canadian Open Vault", which always highlights a restored Canadian film, focused on Quebec filmmaker François Girard's 32 Short Films About Glenn Gould made in 1993.
Actors Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Benicio del Toro, Ethan Hawke, Laura Linney and film directors Julian Schnabel, Kathryn Bigelow and Steven Soderbergh are among the celebs the festival has invited on its 500-plus guest list, thus completing its lineup.
The festival closed on September 13, 2008 with the North American premiere of Stone of Destiny written and directed by Charles Martin Smith, the true story of four Glasgow university students who try to restore the 300-pound Stone of Scone to its rightful Scottish home.
With the film Fifty Dead Men Walking, Rose McGowan expressed support for the cause of the Irish Republican Army (IRA), with the reports of her comments being released into the media on September 11, 2008. After starring in Fifty Dead Men Walking, she was quoted as saying "I imagine had I grown up in Belfast, I would 100% have been in the IRA. My heart just broke for the cause. Violence is not to be played out daily and provide an answer to problems, but I understand it." Her comments were attacked by the original author Martin McCartlend. McCartland had general objections against the film, but approved of an out of court settlement, believed to be in the region of £20.000 (35.000 USD in summer 2008).
Aide-toi et le ciel t'aidera by François Dupeyron
Adoration by Atom Egoyan
Appaloosa by Ed Harris
Un Barrage center le pacifique by Rithy Panh
Blindness by Fernando Meirelles
The Brothers Bloom by Rian Johnson
Un conte de Noël by Arnaud Desplechin
Disgrace by Steve Jacobs
Il Divo by Paolo Sorrentino
The Duchess by Saul Dibb
Easy Virtue by Stephen Elliott
Fifty Dead Men Walking by Kari Skogland
Food, Inc. by Robert Kenner
Genova by Michael Winterbottom
Gomorrah by Matteo Garrone
Good by Vincente Amorim
The Good, the Bad, the Weird by Kim Jee-woon
Heaven on Earth by Deepa Mehta
The Hurt Locker by Kathryn Bigelow
Is There Anybody There? by John Crowley
It's Not Me by Philippe Falardeau
The Loss of a Teardrop Diamond by Jodie Markell
The Lucky Ones by Neil Burger
Management by Stephen Belber
Me and Orson Welles by Richard Linklater
Miracle at St. Anna by Spike Lee
Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist by Peter Sollett
O' Horten by Bent Hamer
One Week by Michael McGowan
The Other Man by Richard Eyre
Pedro by Nicholas Oceano
Pride and Glory by Gavin O'Connor
Rachel Getting Married by Jonathan Demme
The Secret Life of Bees by Gina Prince-Bythewood
Stone of Destiny by Charles Martin Smith
Synecdoche, New York by Charlie Kaufman
The Wrestler by Darren Aronofsky
Zack and Miri Make a Porno by Kevin Smith
Ashes of Time Redux by Wong Kar-wai
Empty Nest by Daniel Burman
Every Little Step by James Stern and Adam Del Deo
La Fille de Monaco by Anne Fontaine
Kanchivaram by Priyadarshan
Ghost Town by David Koepp
Happy-Go-Lucky by Mike Leigh
I've Loved You So Long by Philippe Claudel
New York, I Love You
Religulous by Larry Charles
RocknRolla by Guy Ritchie
Unspoken by Fien Troch
Waltz with Bashir by Ari Folman
$9.99 by Tatia Rosenthal
Before Tomorrow by Marie-Hélène Cousineau and Madeline Ivalu
Burn After Reading by Coen brothers
Che by Steven Soderbergh
The Class by Laurent Cantet
Cooper's Camera by Warren Sonada
Daytime Drinking by Young-seok Noh
Dean Spanley by Toa Fraser
Edison and Leo by Neil Burns
Gigantic by Matt Aselton
Hunger by Steve McQueen
Inju, la bête dans l'ombre by Barbet Schroeder
Last Stop 174 by Bruno Barreto
Lovely, Still by Nik Fackler
Lymelife by Derick Martini and Steve Martini
Nothing But the Truth by Rod Lurie
Public Enemy No. One by Jean-François Richet
Real Time by Randall Cole
Singh Is Kinng by Anees Bazmee
Slumdog Millionaire by Danny Boyle
Snow by Aida Begić
The Stoning of Soraya M. by Cyrus Nowrasteh
Tulpan by Sergey Dvortsevoy
Who Do You Love? by Jerry Zaks
What Doesn't Kill You by Brian Goodman
Anonyma – Eine Frau in Berlin by Max Färberböck
A Year in Winter by Caroline Link
24 City by Jia Zhangke
Adam Resurrected by Paul Schrader
Everlasting Moments by Jan Troell
Four Nights With Anna by Jerzy Skolimowski
Of Time and the City by Terence Davies
Lorna's Silence by Dardenne brothers
Three Monkeys by Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Tokyo Sonata by Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Vanguard and visions
Afterwards by Gilles Bourdos
Uncertainty by Scott McGehee and David Siegel
Universalove by Thomas Woschitz
Tears For Sale by Uroš Stojanović
Vinyan by Fabrice du Welz
Acolytes by Jon Hewitt
The Burrowers by J. T. Petty
Chocolate by Prachya Pinkaew
Deadgirl by Marcel Sarmiento and Gadi Harel
Detroit Metal City by Toshio Lee
Eden Log by Franck Vestiel
JCVD by Mabrouk El Mechri
Martyrs by Pascal Laugier
Not Quite Hollywood by Mark Hartley
Sexykiller by Miguel Marti
Bridge to Terabithia by Gábor Csupó
Krabat by Marco Kreuzpaintner
Mia et le Migou by Remy Girerd
The Secret of Moonacre by Gábor Csupó
Sunshine Barry & the Disco Worms by Thomas Borch Nielsen
Derrière moi by Rafael Ouellet
Le Genou d'Artemide by Jean-Marie Straub
Pontypool by Bruce McDonald
RR by James Benning
The Secret History of the Dividing Line by David Gatten
When It Was Blue by Jennifer Reeves
Winter by Nathaniel Dorsky
Sarabande by Nathaniel Dorsky
Horizontal Boundaries by Pat O' Neill
Dig by Robert Todd
Garden/ing by Eriko Sonoda
Black and White Trypps Number Three by Ben Russell
Public Domain by Jim Jennings
Optra Field III-VI by T. Marie
Refraction Series by Chris Gehman
Suspension by Vanessa O' Neill
33 Scenes From Life by Małgorzata Szumowska
Five Dollars a Day by Nigel Cole
Acné by Federico Veiroj
The Country Teacher by Bohdan Sláma
Delta by Kornél Mundruczó
Un ete sans point ni coup sur by Francis Leclerc
Fear Me Not by Kristian Levring
Flame & Citron by Ole Christian Madsen
El Greco by Yannis Smaragdis
L'Heure d'été by Olivier Assayas
Knitting by Yin Lichuan
Linha de Passe by Walter Salles and Daniela Thomas
Lion's Den by Pablo Trapero
Lost Song by Rodrigue Jean
Mommy Is at the Hairdresser's (Maman est chez le coiffeur) by Léa Pool
Middle of Nowhere by John Stockwell
Mothers & Daughters by Carl Bessai
My Mother, My Bride and I by Hans Steinbichler
The Narrows by François Velle
Patrik, Age 1.5 by Ella Lemhagen
Pandora's Box by Yeşim Ustaoğlu
Restless by Amos Kollek
Revanche by Götz Spielmann
Skin by Anthony Fabian
Teza by Haile Gerima
Three Wise Men by Mika Kaurismäki
Toronto Stories by David Weaver, Sudz Sutherland, Aaron Woodley and Sook-Yin Lee
Two-Legged Horse by Samira Makhmalbaf
White Night Wedding by Baltasar Kormákur
Borderline by Lyne Charlebois
Blind Loves by Juraj Lehotsky
Examined Life by Astra Taylor
La memoire des anges by Luc Bourdon
Paris, Not France by Adria Petty
The Real Shaolin by Alexander Sebastien Lee
Under Rich Earth by Malcolm Rogge
7915 KM by Nikolaus Geyrhalter
