TIFF 51: Latin American Gems, Part I – Actress-y Delights

by Cláudio Alves

Fair warning, the fall festival coverage isn’t over yet – it will never be over!

I kid, I kid. We’ll conclude the TIFF odyssey next Tuesday, exactly one month after the 51st Toronto International Film Festival screened its last picture with a very silly convo between myself and Brian Rector (aka Eurocheese). Until then, I still have more reviews to drop, mostly capsules that will hopefully spark your interest in smaller films likely to be released in limited form this year or the next. So take these as friendly recommendations, reminders to pay attention when you hear that these films might be playing near you. In that spirit of sharing cinematic joys and celebrating the Davids to Hollywood’s Goliaths, I decided to give some special space to Latin American cinema, which had an incredible showing at this year’s fest, spanning fiction to non-fiction, shorts to five-and-a-half-hour epics.

For this first batch of texts, I’m shining a light on films held together, in one way or another, by sublime lead actress turns. After all, there’s nothing that The Film Experience readership loves more than great actress-ing. They are Diego Luna’s Ashes, Fernando Eimbcke’s Flies, Neto Villalobos’ Love is the Monster, and Gabriel Martins’ On Behalf of My Son…

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TIFF 51: Who were the best lead actresses at the fest?

Cláudio Alves and Eurocheese pause the current onslaught of TIFF reviews to discuss a topic near and dear to their hearts – actressing! 

Julianne Moore might just fake-smoke her way to a second Oscar with THE DEBUT.

CLÁUDIO: For years, I dreamed of attending TIFF, always following coverage of the festival by my favorite critics and pundits. The Film Experience was my favorite haunt in that regard, and I can still recall how much I yearned to be part of the conversation when Nathaniel, Nick Davis, Joe Reid and Katey Rich would congregate for a very special podcast episode. And yet, coming to my fourth year of actually attending and covering the festival, that youthful excitement started to fade into a half-forgotten memory. Well, the feeling blossomed again when I finally got to meet you in person, dear Eurocheese, and read your perspective on the event, still full of the old excitement I suddenly felt coming back to life within my jaded, withered heart. For that, you have my eternal gratitude.

But we're not here to be sentimental - though that's often my role around these parts - so we might as well get to it. Let's talk Best Actress at TIFF...

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