Abe’s ‘Jury of One’ from TIFF 2022

Brendan Fraser in The Whale

By Abe Friedtanzer 

I had always heard from other journalists at festivals like Sundance and SXSW that TIFF was the best one. I’m thrilled that I had the chance to attend my first in-person edition after covering remotely last year. I’m certainly exhausted – I saw 37 films at screenings and another six at home. Fortunately, almost all of what I saw was very good, and even better for you readers, the overwhelming majority is also slated for release. Of course, the crazy thing about these festivals is that, no matter how much you see, you’ll still somehow not get what others think was best (Baby Clyde’s top two films are among the six from his 25 that I didn’t see). But there’s plenty to celebrate, and without further ado, here are my ‘jury of one’ awards with release dates, if applicable, in parentheses, and some personal prizes…

The Swimmers 

Top Ten Films 

1. The Whale (Dec 9^th, theaters)
2. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (Dec 23^rd, Netflix)

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Baby Clyde's TIFF Diary Finale

by Baby Clyde

TIFF travelsIt’s over. I’m done. Managed 25 films in all. 3 down from 2019 but I did start a day later. The Fabelmans winning The Audience Award was as inevitable as me getting this final round up in 2 days late . Have to say that I did not think this was a vintage year. There were loads of big premiers and highly anticipated movies being shown but I was pretty underwhelmed by much of what I did see. Luckily, things perked up a bit towards the end.

Here’s a run down of my last 2 days which turned out to include some of the best in show.

Friday started with The Inspection the narrative feature debut from documentarian Elegance Bratton. For some reason I’d assumed this was a period piece so the opening 10 minutes of a homeless Jeremy Pope jumping the turnstile on the contemporary New York subway, meeting up with a gang of queer friends and visiting his estranged mother (An unrecognisable Gabrielle Union) took me by surprise. Both were a real thrill and suggested something less generic to come...

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TIFF: "The Swimmers"

by Matt St Clair

In an early sequence from The Swimmers, we see both sisters Yusra and Sara Mardini jamming to “Titanium” by Sia. As they’re happily move on the dance floor in slow motion, the camera pans over to the escalating warfare happening in the background. That one scene is perfectly emblematic of the movie’s overall point of view. We watch these two real-life sisters persevere and maintained hope no matter the crises surrounding them... 

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