International Oscars: Mexico's finalists and more submission titles

by Nathaniel R

THE HOLE IN THE FENCE

Mexico has chosen their Oscar submission finalist list. We'd do a whole huge post on it but we suspect by the time we did they'd have named their winner and despite divisive reviews thus far we suspect they won't be able to resist sending Iñarritu again. As it stands now they're looking at three films we've already reviewed here at TFE: Alejandro G Iñarritu's Bardo (False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths), Lorenz Vigas' very dark father/son drama The Box, and Joaquin del Paso's allegorical summer camp drama The Hole in the Fence. The other two they're looking at are the sexual drama Nudo Mixteco by Angeles Cruz and the thriller Presencias by Luis Mandoki. Among those filmmakers Inarritu (Biutiful, Amores Perros) and Mandoki (Innocent Voices) have represented Mexico before while Vigas's debut film, the gay drama From Afar, was sent to represent Venezuela in its year.

But that's not all. We now know which films Costa Rica, Czech Republic, Turkey,and Uganda  are submitting. Details after the jump...  

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TIFF: Noémie Merlant in ‘Baby Ruby’

By Abe Friedtanzer

 

It’s only been a few years since Portrait of a Lady on Fire, that visually stunning and deeply engaging French romance starring Adèle Haenel and Noémie Merlant. The latter had a starring role in a low-key film that showed at AFI Fest in 2020, Jumbo, and she’s sure to become even more well-known with Tár which next shows at the New York Film Festival ahead of its October release. But Merlant is in Toronto this week to debut another film, which marks her second English-language role, the parental horror film Baby Ruby… 

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TIFF: "Women Talking"

by Matt St Clair

After the masterful Stories We Tell (2012), the wait for Sarah Polley’s follow-up directorial picture has been agonizing. She’s long since proven herself a gifted actress, but watching her expertly blur the line between fact and fiction in that acclaimed docudrama begged the question of when, and how, she would wow us againwith her directorial skills. Thankfully, she not only has finally made a follow-up project, but one that is more than worth the wait...

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Baby Clyde's TIFF Diary #1: "Bros" First!

Editor's Note: We will have some reviews at TIFF from Abe and Matt. Meanwhile Baby Clyde will be offering daily diaries. Hope you enjoy!

En route to TIFF!It’s a long-accepted fact in my office that for the first two weeks of September I will be away. No phone calls. No emails. No invoices. I’ll be travelling to Canada to spend 10 days in dark theatres watching the newest Oscar Bait all by myself and doing my very best to avoid speaking to anyone else whilst I’m there. Only this time I'm skipping the last bit as I'll be taking directly to you beloved readers. Nathanial has persuaded me to keep a TIFF diary to keep you abreast of all my festival adventures; He may regret it. 

So here I am back for the first time since 2019. It was of course Covid-19 that kept me away for the last couple of years, but it was only on planning this trip that I remembered the Coronavirus was nothing compared to the travails of the TIFF ticketing system...

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Tweetweek

Curated for you so you don't have to spend time on Twitter. We begin with a perfect tweet timed to daily film festival nonsense (before moving on to more festival nonsense)...

BREAKING: Martin Scorsese's THE AGE OF INNOCENCE just received a 20-minute standing ovation from me in my living room after viewing it for the 100th time

— La Pfeiffer (@La_Pfeiffer) September 9, 2022

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