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2014 Toronto International Film Festival Wrap Up: Part 2 – The Warm List

By PAUL ZIMMERMAN 09/22/2014
Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones in THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING | ©2014 Focus Features

Killer cubs, hipsters, physicists and more constitute the good movies that fell short of great at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival. PART 2: THE WARM WHILE WE’RE YOUNG Film festival favorite Noah Baumbach is admittedly an acquired taste (think Waspy Woody Allen), but there is no denying he gets some of the best work out of Ben Stiller. Four years ago they worked well in GREENBERG, this time it’s a tale of aging hipsters (Stiller and Naomi Watts) getting a young couple (Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried) to show them how to be relevant again. Funny, poignant and somewhat […]Read On »


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2014 Toronto International Film Festival Wrap Up: Part 1 – The Hot List

By PAUL ZIMMERMAN 09/19/2014
TIFF 2014 logo

The 2014 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival will go down in history as the year of the actor. With the absence of breakout films like last years mighty duo, GRAVITY and 12 YEARS A SLAVE, critics and audiences dug deeper and ended up focusing on the actors. And I mean the actors, much more so than the usual festival stars, the directors. Several mainstream actors in search of a makeover of sorts, including Richard Gere, Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Aniston, Chris Evans and Bill Murray appeared in smaller, grittier, character driven fare. The results were decidedly mixed. As in […]Read On »


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Recap of the LA FILM FESTIVAL 2014

By PAUL ZIMMERMAN 06/21/2014

It’s come to this: either the LA Kings have to stop winning hockey championships or the LA Film Festival has to change it’s dates or location. Held at the massive and massively impressive LA Live Center it includes the Regal Cinema complex that boasts one screen so large it’s “the biggest movie experience in Los Angeles.” It also is adjacent to the Staples Center where the Kings play (and insist on keep on winning). The Kings and the LA Film Festival are both part of the rebirth of the downtown area but it may be becoming too much of a […]Read On »


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Film Festival Report: Best Bits from the 2013 AFI FEST

By PAUL ZIMMERMAN 11/17/2013

With a deft blend of Hollywood A-list films (Tom Hanks in SAVING MR BANKS, Ben Stiller’s THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY) and odd, out of the way fare (the acclaimed documentary JODOROWSKY’S DUNE, the slapstick comedy AWFUL NICE), the recent AFI FEST 2013 didn’t not disappoint. Held over the course of eight days once again in the heart of Hollywood, AFI took over the Chinese Theater complex on Hollywood Blvd and for the fifth straight year gave away tickets to all the screenings. Headquarters was in the historic Roosevelt Hotel with several floors roped off into an assortment of […]Read On »


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Toronto International Film Festival Postscript: Found Footage

By PAUL ZIMMERMAN 09/25/2013

With more than 300 films to choose from during the Toronto Film Festival a great deal of planning and luck figure equally into the mix. The best is when you give up on one film and just randomly drop into another screening. Here’s my four happy accidents of 2013 after I ran (nearly) screaming from several films that will remain nameless including a 3-D mountain climbing Australian documentary and a dreary drugs-are-bad drama set in the early 1980s.


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Toronto International Film Festival Travel Tips

By PAUL ZIMMERMAN 09/24/2013

When you hit a film festival like Sundance it’s all about the films and the snow. Park City is first and foremost a resort town and if you aren’t resorting you’re just chasing films. Toronto’s film festival is different. It’s Canada’s NYC, Chicago and LA all rolled into one. And this time of the year the weather is fine (it only rained for half a day), the attractions plentiful and the denizens super friendly (it’s the only festival I know of where people seem to enjoy waiting in line). So before you plan next year’s visit consider the following…


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Toronto International Film Festival Wrap Up: Part 3 – The Cold

By PAUL ZIMMERMAN 09/22/2013
THE UNKNOWN KNOWN | ©2013 Weinstein Company

It’s time to conclude what happened at the Toronto International Film Festival by dividing up the films into three categories. So here are the winners, losers and something in-between so just for fun I’ve broken them down into buzz terms, HOT, WARM and COLD. Part 3: THE COLD (BUZZ+CRITICAL REACTION+AUDIENCE COMMENTS) YOU ARE HERE Road trip comedy drama with Owen Wilson and Zach Galifianakis CONSENSUS: Writer/director Matthew Weiner’s surprising limp big screen debut. The leads are irritating, the plot so-so, the overall effect dull. Maybe Weiner just too tired after obsessing over every MAD MAN detail. Would make a good […]Read On »


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Toronto International Film Festival Wrap Up: Part 2 – The Warm

By PAUL ZIMMERMAN 09/21/2013
Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Bruhl in RUSH | ©2013 Imagine Entertainment

It’s time to re-evaluate what happened at the Toronto International Film Festival by dividing up the films into three categories. So here are the winners, losers and something in-between so just for fun I’ve broken them down into buzz terms, HOT, WARM and COLD. Part 2: THE WARM (BUZZ+CRITICAL REACTION+AUDIENCE COMMENTS) THE FIFTH ESTATE Warts and all Julian Assange / WikiLeaks story starring Benedict Cumberbatch. CONSENSUS: While it’s nice to see Bill Condon (GODS AND MONSTERS) not directing another TWILIGHT movie this was a mixed bag. Most applauded that he asked more question than he answered and praised Cumberbatch’s layered […]Read On »


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Toronto International Film Festival Wrap Up: Part 1 – The Hot

By PAUL ZIMMERMAN 09/20/2013
12 Years Slave | ©2013 Fox Searchlight

Going into the Toronto International Film Festival armed with the buzz they received at the Telluride Film Festival the two big films were GRAVITY and 12 YEARS A SLAVE. Four days later is was still just GRAVITY and 12 YEARS A SLAVE. By festival’s end? You guessed it. This was in part because they’re both excellent films and because Toronto has very much become a ‘front loaded’ festival with the first weekend being all important. How front loaded was the festival? So much so that it was nearly a ghost town by mid week. So much so that Entertainment Weekly […]Read On »


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News: 2013 Toronto International Film Festival Award Winners

By PAUL ZIMMERMAN 09/18/2013
Toronto International Film Festival logo (TIFF)

After 11 days, more than 300 films, 4,743 industry delegates, 180 guest speakers, 57 panels and countless fans the 38th Toronto International Film Festival ended on September 15th. Below are a select number of awards that were given out. BLACKBERRY® PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARDS This year marked the 36th year that Toronto audiences were able to cast a ballot for their favourite Festival film, with the BlackBerry® People’s Choice Award. This year’s award goes to Steve McQueen for 12 YEARS A SLAVE. First runner up: Stephen Frears’ PHILOMENA. Second runner up: Denis Villeneuve’s PRISONERS.


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