No Film Friday again today, as we’re still too busy with the festival A few of the films that played at the festival are out already, with Neil Jordan’s The Brave One, David Cronenberg’s Eastern Promises and Julie Taymor's Across the Universe all on general release. Not even new release Mr. Woodcock escapes a connection—it’s directed by Craig Gillespie, director of festival film Lars and the Real Girl. Today’s Reviews: The Tracey Fragments Though......

Today’s Contest: For your chance to win one pair of tickets to Saturday’s screening of Just Like Home, directed by Lone Scherfig (Wilbur Wants To Kill Himself) at 11:00 p.m. at the Cumberland 3, email us your name at contests@torontoist.com. Winners will be randomly selected and notified by tomorrow morning with ticket pick-up information. This is our last contest and it’s one of the last films of the festival, so if you haven’t taken......

Today’s Contest: For your chance to win one of three pairs of tickets to tomorrow’s screening of Reclaim Your Brain, starring Run Lola Run’s Moritz Bleibtreu (at 12:30 p.m. at the Scotiabank 2) email us your name at contests@torontoist.com. Winners will be randomly selected and notified by the morning of the screening with ticket pick-up information. Today’s Reviews: No Country For Old Men BY DANU MANDLSOHN The villain is Javier Bardem, looking like a......

We’re pleased to announce that we’ve teamed up with the Toronto International Film Festival Group to run a contest each day until the end of the festival for tickets to next-day screenings. Today’s Contest: For your chance to win one of five pairs of tickets to tomorrow’s Doc Talks panel discussion Covering War (at 4:00 p.m. at the ROM Theatre), featuring directors Michael Tucker, Phil Donahue and Ellen Spiro debating filmmaking in war-torn nations,......

Today’s Reviews: Juno BY MATHEW KUMAR It sounds unfair to hold directors who are the children of directors to a higher standard than other new filmmakers—but is it really? There is such a wealth of connections and expertise within a phone’s reach that it’s utterly disappointing when someone like Jason Reitman just poops out the latest in Hollywood’s line of safe, fake “indie” films that have absolutely nothing indie about them. Juno MacGuff, a......

Today's Review: The Orphanage BY DANU MANDLSOHN With Guillermo del Toro’s name attached to a film about undead children at a haunted Spanish orphanage, you might think it would it be scary. Muy bien. Although the Pan’s Labyrinth auteur is merely the producer on this one, debut director Juan Antonio Bayona strikes gold, cherry-picking from modern gothic classics like The Sixth Sense and The Others. He knows that true horror comes from the unseen,......

No Film Friday today as we’re too busy with the festival, but we can let you know that this week sees releases of some pretty decent-sounding films: 3:10 to Yuma, Shoot ‘Em Up and Hatchet. Er, and also The Brothers Solomon, starring Will Arnett and directed by Bob Odenkirk but apparently dire. Let's Go To Prison wasn't great either. Sob. Today’s Reviews: Captain Mike Across America Captain Mike Across America is an interesting proposition:......

Well, this is it. The Toronto International Film Festival begins tomorrow, and this is the last of our previews, with coverage of Vanguard films Boy A (pictured above) and Help Me Eros from Jonathan Goldsbie and Mathew Kumar, and reviews of a selection of Short Cuts Canada shorts from Mathew Kumar (in which he has the audacity to hand out a 0/5). Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to preview the Wavelengths or Midnight Madness......

The Toronto International Film Festival madness began today with this year’s Canadian press conference—whereas last year we were unprepared for the experience, this year we were ready. We didn’t eat lunch, instead eating our fill of the finger food on offer. Result! No one was prepared for the appearance of Viggo Mortensen on stage however, discussing perhaps the biggest announcement of the day: Eastern Promises. It makes sense, of course. Last year they had......

Well, the festival is basically over so the award recipients have been announced. We can’t say we agree with many of them (perhaps just because we haven’t managed to see all of the films that have won awards) but we do at least agree with a couple of them. Better than nothing! Swarovski Cultural Innovation Award: selected by “an international industry jury of major visual artists” from the Visions programme, the award went to Takva......

Contemporary World Cinema 9:00pm - Red Road (Varsity 8) Short Cuts Canada 9:30am - Programme 3 (ROM Theatre) - See our review. Featuring The Saddest Boy in the World! Special Presentations 9:30am - Exiled (Ryerson Theatre) - See our Day 7 coverage. Midnight Madness 12:15pm - Princess (Cumberland 2) - See our Day 9 coverage. 3:30pm - Severance (Paramount 3) Gala 12:00pm - The Banquet (Visa Screening Room (Elgin)) 3:00pm - After The Wedding (Visa......

Special Presentations 3:00pm - The Fountain (Ryerson Theatre) 9:00pm - Exiled (Visa Screening Room (Elgin)) - see our Day 7 coverage. Real to Reel 5:00pm - Sharkwater (Varsity 8) 6:00pm - Kurt Cobain About A Son (Varsity 7) 9:00pm - This Filthy World (Ryerson Theatre) - See our review. Discovery 6:00pm - King and the Clown (Varsity 4) - See our review. Visions 6:00pm - Invisible Waves (Paramount 1) Gala 6:30pm - Bobby (Roy Thompson......

Gala 11:30am - Babel (Visa Screening Room (Elgin)) 1:30pm - Never Say Goodbye (Roy Thompson Hall) 6:30pm - For Your Consideration (Roy Thompson Hall) Short Cuts Canada 11:45am – Programme 4 (Cumberland 3) – See our Short Cuts coverage. 5:45pm – Programme 1 (Cumberland 3) – See our Short Cuts coverage. Featuring Ninth Street Chronicles and Patterns 2&3! Special Presentations 3:00pm - Pan’s Labrynth (Visa Screening Room (Elgin)) 9:00pm - The Last King of Scotland......

This year’s Short Cuts Canada selection was given a rather short shrift by Now magazine, but having seen a selection of the shorts, we consider their opinion rather short-sighted (“cut that short right now”– Ed.). A word to the wise: Much like the Wavelengths programme, we've seen several of the films but not all of them, so there may be many gems still hidden. After all, part of the fun of a programme like Short......

So… The festival has been on for a full day, and Torontoist has very little to actually report, having stayed in for the night. Well, it did see the star of Short Cuts Canada film ‘Patterns’ (by Jamie Travis) wearing a stylish lime green dress and looking a bit confused, so there is that, if anything. That film is in Programme 5: Genre Redux, if you like the sound of her. Visions -- “The......