TIFF '08: More days, more contenders, please

While some of criticism is unfair, a discernable amount of energy was missing this year

Peter Howell

Maybe it was all the fault of Che Guevara.

The T-shirt icon is the subject of Steven Soderbergh's interminable Che, which screened at the 33rd Toronto International Film Festival, and some of Guevara's revolutionary fire must have scorched grumpy TIFF attendees.

Toronto Sun headlines damned the fest for being "elitist" and "a farce," accusations that are both wrong and contradictory.

New York critic Rex Reed wrote that TIFF's love of fine film "has been replaced by gridlock and greed." He would know, coming from Manhattan.

Hollywood Elsewhere's Jeffrey Wells blogged about numerous Toronto turn-offs, even getting steamed over the "please flush" sign he saw in a restaurant washroom.

Chicago critic Roger Ebert seemed as high on TIFF as ever. But his sunny disposition was rewarded with a whack to the head from another scribe, Lou Lumenick of the New York Post, after Ebert asked Lumenick to stop blocking his view at a screening.

If critics can't control themselves at the movies, what hope is there for improving decorum amongst regular stiffs?

It did seem like a difficult year at TIFF '08, with the damp weather and the poor economy also serving to reduce enthusiasm and trim parties. Regular moviegoers I spoke with made similar complaints.

Some of the carping is unfair. TIFF organizers this year released thousands more tickets to the general public and they turned Dundas Square into a free outdoor theatre and music club.

But a discernable amount of energy was missing from the fest this year. Many of the films that drew attention and praise – The Wrestler, The Hurt Locker and Slumdog Millionaire among them – arrived with laurels already bestowed at the Venice and Telluride festivals. I can't think of a single world premiere that really mattered at TIFF this year. The fest seemed like a giant second-run theatre.

Urban sprawl spread TIFF far, wide and thin. As the fest heads south towards its new Bell Lightbox facility (planned to open in 2010), it sadly feels like the lights of Yorkville are being slowly turned off.

Favoured festival hangouts seemed far less bustling, the ROM is no longer being used for screenings and critics expended much shoe leather sprinting to the new AMC Yonge and Dundas for screenings and to the Fairmont Royal York hotel for interviews.

TIFF is still a superb event, but it's clearly a festival in transition.

When organizers meet for their annual post mortem, I hope they spend some serious time discussing how to embrace change without abandoning tradition.

I'd like to offer a few suggestions:

• Stop letting other festivals steal Toronto's thunder. Venice is bumping into TIFF's time next year. New York is getting Clint Eastwood's Changeling and the Palme d'Or winner The Class. London has locked in Olive Stone's W., Frost/Nixon and the new James Bond film. We have to cease being so Canadian and demand more world preems and Oscar contenders;
• Consider reinstating the Perspective Canada program. There were many fine Canuck films this year, especially the Quebec entries Lost Song, La Mémoire des anges and C'est pas moi, je le jure!, but they were lost in the general hubbub. Canada needs a solid TIFF showcase, and I realize I'm reversing an earlier opinion to the contrary;
• Make TIFF a true 10-day festival instead of a five-day one. Push the stars and studios to move beyond the opening weekend. The front-loading of TIFF, always a problem, seemed all the more unwieldy this year for some reason.

Here's to a good TIFF '08!

And here's to a great TIFF '09!

As Che would say: "Viva la Revolución!"