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TIFF’s Top Ten
Holiday season is more than just eggnog lattés and snowflake donut-of-the-months. It’s also about top ten lists, year-end compilations of the good, the bad and the ugly. Torontoist thoroughly enjoyed contributor Frank Yang’s musical ten. But in the land of movies, we simply cannot condone any list that includes the treacly Sideways among the year’s top ten. Thankfully, there’s a tenner that Sideways does not qualify for – A Canadian ten, as curated by TIFF. And it looks pretty good. Torontoist wishes we had seen Don McKellar’s case against Hayley Joel Osment, Childstar, at TIFF, but we didn’t, and now we’re reminded that we should have. Also of interest on the list is Kristen Thompson’s I Claudia, Michael Dowse’s It’s All Gone Pete Tong, and Shake Hands With the Devil, Peter Raymont’s eponymous documentary of Romeo Dallaire’s Rwanda experiences. Was it a good year for film? Categorically, no. Was it a good year for Canadian film? Despite the economic ravages that a higher loonie has inflicted on the Canadian film industry, we’re inclined to say yes. That grand dame of morning perk, Sheilagh Rogers, sat down with Chris Landreth, director of the critically-lauded animated doc, Ryan, yesterday, and Torontoist was surprised to admit we agreed with her geekcalls of ‘Oscar, Oscar!’ Canada’s animated short, Nibbles, lost out last year, but this year, well, Ryan may avenge the Oscar loss of its namesake character lo those many years ago.