I posited earlier in the festival that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (the folks who hand out the Oscars) would “eat The King’s Speech up with a spoon.” Looks like Toronto’s audiences beat them to it.  Speech won the coveted Audience Award, the festival announced today (9/19/2010). The runner up for the prize was Justin Chadwick‘s First Grader. I actually thought the award would go to Danny Boyle‘s 127 Hours.

Here’s the rest of the winners from TIFF:

Darren Aronofsky‘s The Black Swan is relentless, aggressive, and disturbing and perhaps one of the most beautifully shot horror films ever made. It’s not for the squeamish or the easily unnerved but it is a remarkable film that begs for comparison to another remarkable film about ballet, obsession and fear of failure, Powell and Pressburger’s The Red Shoes. In the Red Shoes Moira Shearer is driven to dance by several factors, a dictatorial director, a hope of fame and her love of dance. In The Black Swan it’s mostly the opposite.

Natalie Portman will likely win Best Actress for her role as Nina Sayers, a ballerina who has all the outward appearances of wanting to dance but appears to be sabotaging herself right on the brink of stardom. There are some minor, though very real reasons, for her to be troubled. She is constantly nettled by her overbearing mother (Barbara Hershey) and treated like a child. She feels guilt for having displaced the former diva, Beth MacIntyre (Winona Ryder), as the star of the company. She feels jealously but also an attraction towards Lilly (Mila Kunis), the other dancer vying for the part of the Swan Queen in Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake. Most of all though, Nina is shaken to her foundation with doubt. If she gets the role she must not play just the pure White Swan but also the seductive, animalistic  Black Swan, a creature that neither she nor the opera’s director (Vincent Cassel), is sure she can perform.

Portman shows little skin but she is utterly naked throughout this film (and yes, there is a torrid lesbian scene with Mila Kunis).  Portman’s timid Nina is like the ballerina in her bedside music box. She is utterly contained and, when she does emerge to dance it is stiff, emotionless, and confined to a never-ending perfect pirouette. Instead of liberating her, as dancing does for most people, it has constrained her.

One of the other intriguing things about Black Swan is that one understands the motivations of nearly all the other characters. Nina’s mother, the Hersey character, gave up her dreams of being a dancer to have Nina. Vincent Cassel’s imperious, demanding ballet director is trying to goad the best possible performance out of Nina and we can see what he’s asking for and why she needs to listen. We understand Lilly, who is Nina’s understudy. She may be slightly conniving but for the most part she’s kind and thoughtful and trying to be Nina’s friend (and brings about some needed levity to the proceedings, a wise move on Aronofsky’s part).

Whom we don’t understand, and we’re not supposed to for the most part, is Nina. Perhaps the chief brilliance in this film is the conceit that we often don’t know what drives people crazy. It can’t be easily linked to parents, or work, or upbringing.  Yes, she has problems and a nag of a mother but Nina has made it. She  should be reveling in her glory, crowned as the new star of the season, but she almost immediately begins to see her double, a sleek sexual version of herself. This charismatic Nina wears her hair down while “real” Nina’s is up in a tight bun. The catalyst that pushes her towards a mental breakdown is success.

As Nina gets more and more unstable the film intensifies. Part of the assault on the senses is the wonderful score, dominated by Swan Lake music by Tchaikovsky. The special effects contribute too, a use of CGI that feels organic and artistic. A scene where Nina grows pin feathers through her skin and grows longs wings is a gorgeous as the scenes where the camera revels in the dancer’s bodies (both in the theater and in the rave club). The entire production is top notch.

Though it is deeply shocking in a few scenes it appears possible that, alongside with the rapturous reviews that are destined to come, that the film could break out and even make some modest box-office money.

127 Hours: James Franco locks a Best Actor nomination for his role as Aron Ralston, the explorer and adventurer whose arm got trapped under a rock way out in the wilds of Utah and who, after several days, had to hack his arm off to free himself. It may sound like an episode of “I Can’t Believe I’m Alive” but director Danny Boyle’s follow-up to Slumdog Millionaire is a humanistic ode to our relationships and to the individual. This is a moving and ennobling film which, oddly, makes you want to get in better shape, be a better person and call your mother.

Barney’s Version: Paul Giammati’s Barney is a dissolute reprobate and only he (and a handful of other actors out there) could play him without you hating him. Barney is a successful TV producer of a long-running Canadian Mountie show (“O’Malley of the North”) and he has a lifetime of regrets, ex-wives and enemies behind him. Dustin Hoffman plays his ex-beat-cop father who pulls no punches in a wonderful performance.

Monsters: Think of this as John Sayles’s District 9.  The “creatures,” the aliens that came back to earth on a deep space probe and are now multiplying like rabbits in Mexico, are rarely glimpsed. There’s little in the way of gunplay or even much action. Andrew Kaulder (Scoot McNairy), a photojournalist in the contaminated zone is given the assignment of getting his boss’s do-gooder daughter (Whitney Able, who is a dish) back to the States. Now that the border has been entirely walled off, with a concrete fence that dwarfs the Great Wall, getting back into America is much trickier. A series of complications force them to travel by unorthodox methods to get to their destination. The film, by Gareth Edwards, isn’t very successful along many parameters. A wise compatriot I was with mentioned the lack of chemistry between the leads. That’s true. Also true is a lack of narrative thrust. You really start to feel that Edwards is merely playing a cat-and-mouse game with you to save costs. Even the shark in Jaws did something every odd 15 or 20 minutes. There’s also an odd juxtaposition of Mayan ruins next to the American border…this particular application of artistic license is just too much of a stretch. The boss’s daughter, saddled with a fiance that her dad approves of but she does not, is also poorly executed. Monsters had a promising premise but it’s a little too wan to recommend.

Tabloid: I have watched some documentaries with unbelievable stories but none as unbelievable as Tabloid, the new film by Erroll Morris (Thin Blue Line). The story of Joyce McKinney, a Wyoming beauty queen is too strange to fully relate but suffice it to know that just a part of it is Joyce’s London abduction of a Mormon boy she loved while he was on mission. She tied him up and essentially made him make love to her for three days before he escaped. That’s just the start of it. Morris captures Joyce on tape (though the Mormon refused to be interviewed) and gives just a glimpse into her life and her extremely interesting personality.

Let Me In: You can relax. Matt Reeves’s version of Tomas Alfredson’s Let the Right One In is a solid adaptation of the original. I’d argue that, in some ways, it’s an improvement. It takes the best elements of the original, changes them very little, and dispenses with some of the lankier and odder sections; if you’ve seen the original there’s a scene with a bunch of cats, and a trip to a cabin that don’t make it in, and I didn’t miss them. It’s much bloodier and much more vicious film yet doesn’t back too far away from the deeply creepy notion of a 12-year-old girl arrested before puberty and how that affects those around her.

The Trip: The lightest, consistently funniest film I’ve seen at the festival so far. Director Michael Winterbottom moves about a far as he can to the other end of the spectrum from the sadistic noir film, The Killer Inside Me, with this refreshing work. “The Trip,” apparently originally a short BBC improvisational series, had Steve Coogan playing a food critic for the UK’s Observer who travels to northern England with Rob Brydon, his last minute accompaniment when Coogan’s girlfriend abandons him for America. It’s also a version on the Marion and Geoff series that Brydon did in 2000 where Brydon plays a hapless cabbie named Keith who directly addresses a camera trained on him as he drives.

What they’ve done with it now, however, seems entirely more ingenious as Coogan now plays a version of himself, as does Brydon, and they invent a whole other rationale for the trip and its meaning.

Coogan is an aging actor-personality who desperately wants A-List success but seems destined to be remembered for his TV work. Brydon is a comic whose routines of impressions and skits, fresh upon the first hearing, are mercilessly carted out at the drop of a hat. They compete with each other as to who does the best Michael Caine (it’s Coogan, by the way) and who has the best handle on their life. Involving, warm and quite humorous from start to finish.

Conviction: Tony Goldwyn’s drama, based upon a true story, had early reviews and attendees gushing about it but I found it hard to elevate it above the other great films that appear to be landing here like fall leaves. Hilary Swank plays Betty Ann Waters and her brother, Kenny, is wrongfully convicted of a vicious murder. Betty Ann devotes herself to his exoneration and puts herself through law school so she can represent him. Juliette Lewis may get a Best Supporting Actress nomination (the Holly Hunter kind of nod) for her role as a Kenny’s ex-girlfriend.

Buried: You will hear from Rodrigo Cortes, the director of Buried, again. Think you can’t film an entire movie—an entire successful movie–about a man buried alive in a casket? You can. Well, maybe you can’t and maybe most directors can’t. But Cortes can. Ryan Reynolds turns in a convincing and mature performance as the truck driver who finds himself in an unimaginable life-and-death situation.

Gorier, more violent and less successful as a film than Kick-Ass, Super, a comic-book farce by writer and director James Gunn, is a truly bizarre stew of comic idolatry, religious mockery and geek revelry. The first twenty minutes of Super are spectacularly inept and offensive. Rainn Wilson plays Frank Darbo, a short-order cook who has had only two perfect moments in his life. #1 is when he married Sarah (Liv Tyler), the recovering user who was a waitress where he worked and a time when he pointed out the path of a fleeing criminal to a policeman. When Sarah leaves him to take up with Jacques, a wealthy charismatic drug dealer (Kevin Bacon), Frank decides to become the Crimson Bolt, a super-hero. The Crimson Bolt mostly hangs out in alleys and behind dumpsters, waiting for someone to break the law, but he eventually starts to actually fight crime, becoming a cult hero.

That attracts the attention of a local comic-book employee, Libby, played by Ellen Page, and is when this wayward film finally finds its way enough to become a cult classic, of sorts, hauled there entirely by Page herself who so utterly throws herself into the role it leaves you marveling and a little unnerved.

An unnamed source calls 127 Hours, director Danny Boyle and star James Franco “nearly perfect.” Accolades were to be heard all around for this film.

Colin Firth

It’s likely that Academy voters will eat The King’s Speech up with a spoon. It stars Colin Firth as King George VI, the father of the current queen, Elizabeth II, and Geoffrey Rush as Lionel Logue, an Australian who treated the King’s terrible stammer during the 1930s.  It’s a safe bet that you can pretty much fill-in one slot on the nomination slate for Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Best Picture at next year’s Oscars.

The film, as directed by Tom Hooper (The Damned United), manages to question the idea of monarchy and hero-worship and yet be reverent at the same time. Firth is excellent as the afflicted George VI (known as “Bertie” by his family) as is Rush as Logue (he seems to have entirely dispensed with his up-in-his head eye-rolling in this film). Their sessions to cure Bertie of his stammer are so enjoyable you’re rather disappointed when they end.

The script is smart. Helena Bonham Carter (as Queen Elizabeth) blissfully reminds us she doesn’t have to act manic all the time and Guy Pearce gives just the appropriate combination of willfulness and simpering weakness in George’s older brother, Edward VIII.

Trust:  You want to simultaneously warn off and encourage fathers of young daughters to see Trust. Director David Schwimmer (yes, Ross from “Friends”) gets excellent performances out of all his leads including Clive Owen and Catherine Keener as Will and Lynn Cameron. The real find, however is relative newcomer Liana Liberato as Annie Cameron, the teenage daughter whose secret text affair with “Charlee” a boy she believes is 15, nearly destroys their family. The transformation of Will and Annie’s  father-daughter relationship is actually more painful to watch than the skin-crawling revelations that Charlee is a pedophile who preys on young girls. It’s hard to see this film attracting an audience though it certainly deserves to.

It’s Kind of a Funny Story: This coming-of-age story for the irony generation is much better at it than other recent attempts such as The Wackness or Charlie Bartlett. Lots of credit to Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (Half Nelson). Kier Gilchrist stars as Craig, a young man who, when he has suicidal tendencies brought on by stress, commits himself to a psychiatric hospital. Some imaginative patches, a very winning Emma Roberts and a very droll Zach Galifianakis make this entire film approachable and satisfying.

First off, the buzz about The Black Swan is off the charts. Everyone has been raving about it and I hope to catch it Monday.

Now, to films I have seen:

There’s an old Turkish proverb that says that “Life is like licking honey from a thorn.”  Biutiful, Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu‘s new film is like that. Except here Inarritu presses the back of our tongues against the thorn until he draws blood. The film cleanly divided critics at Cannes. During the fest I was happened out of the Palais de Festivals (where much of the Cannes activity occurs) just as a group of critics were leaving Biutiful. Outside of the theater were hopeful attendees for the next showing of the film. They held up cards asking for tickets. “Don’t go!” screamed a critic I know, “Everyone dies!”

That’s not a spoiler; everyone doesn’t die in this film though, because of that warning, I was fully expecting every major character to meet untimely ends. But the critic was wrong on another count (besides everyone dying); the film enriched me and haunts me already. Much like Inarritu’s last films, 21 Grams and Babel, I don’t relish the thought of ever watching it again, but it’s well-worth the pain he puts the viewer through.

Javier Bardem won Best Actor at Cannes for his performance as Uxbal, a street hustler who does anything for a buck after he discovers he has terminal cancer. It was a well-deserved award (better than anything I saw during the French festival).

Assured direction by Ben Affleck and a slew of fine performances, some of whom should be recalled around Oscar time, put the gangster genre flick The Town in league with Heat and The Departed.

Affleck gets the best out of Rebecca Hall (whose stellar work should finally get noticed) as Claire Keesey, an assistant manager who becomes a hostage to some bank robbers. Affleck, as Doug MacRay, is the brains of the group who, in trying to determine if their released hostage learned anything about them, falls in love with her. Meanwhile Jeremy Renner, as Doug’s childhood pal James Coughlin, is the muscle and fear factor for their band. Renner proves he’s no one-trick pony with passion, not posing, and showing, not shouting, as Coughlin. Jon Hamm, as the FBI agent on the trail of the criminals, also turns in a meaty, but not overwrought, performance.

Yet it’s not just the acting that shines here. The script is so tight and organic for most of this film you could bounce Blake Lively off of it.  The action is brisk and has an edge. As with Heat the tension from the heists, gun-play, and the pursuits derive from the fact that there are lives and relationships behind those automatic weapons. As with The Departed a sense of place is undeniably established.

Speaking of Lively she goes all Snooky in her role as Krista Coughlin (James’s sister and Doug’s former lover), a drugged-up girl with few options and a kid. The only gear that seems to slip is when she’s reintroduced late in the film but Affleck still pulls it together for the final heist and confrontation.

Affleck may quickly become known as an actor’s director or at least someone who can put good performances on screen. He knocked everyone back a bit with the well-regarded Gone, Baby Gone and helped garner a Best Supporting Oscar nom. for Amy Ryan. He’s certainly put several of his stars on that path with The Town.

– Keith Simanton

Natalie Portman in The Black Swan

The Toronto Film Festival, which runs from September 9-18th, is one of the best film festivals in the world. For the press it’s incredibly efficient. Up to eight films a day can be covered. For the studios it’s a cost-effective way to claim a prestigious “international” premiere for their film and all they have to do is send some people up from New York. It’s also a way for the studios to confirm their suspicions that they’ve got an “arthouse” hit on their hands and that it’s worth doubling down on and marketing aggressively. Toronto’s People’s Choice Award almost always have elevated films that subsequently gain traction with the public (and critics) at large. Past winners have included Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Whale Rider, Precious and Slumdog Millionaire.

Here’s the Top Ten to Watch at Toronto: The First Five

Black Swan: Director Darren Aronofsky‘s ballet-breakdown drama stars Natalie Portman, as a dancer struggling with competition, an over-bearing mother and the loss of her own sanity. Aronofsky came back in 2008 with The Wrestler (bringing Mickey Rourke with him) and Swan opened the Venice festival to rave reviews and a standing ovation. But, let’s face it, the money shot here is of Portman and co-star Mila Kunis in a Sapphic embrace and the promise of an erotic performance by Ms. Portman since the most sexual thing she’s done–not counting the short Hotel Chevalier, which I’ve not seen–has been her exposed mid-riff in Attack of the Clones.

Never Let Me Go: Director Mark Romanek (the guy who directed One Hour Photo and who didn’t direct The Wolfman; he walked off the set) has a dream cast in Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield (the next Spider-Man), and Keira Knightley and the reviews has vacillated between assured and cordially doubtful of its Oscar worthiness. Here’s the trailer.

Another Year: Director Mike Leigh‘s latest, starring Jim Broadbent and Leslie Manville, was the one title that was on every critic’s best list at Cannes. Leigh’s personal, improvisational style can truly soar in films like Life is Sweet and Naked and, reportedly, does so here.

It’s Kind of a Funny Story: The writing/directing team of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (Half Nelson) take on a coming-of-age story that takes place in a mental hospital. The smart cast includes  Zach Galifianakis, Lauren Graham, Viola Davis (Oscar-nominated for Doubt), and Jim Gaffigan supporting Emma Roberts and Kier Gilchrist.  Watch the trailer to see what I mean.

Passion Play: It’s not very charitable of me but I want to see this film just to see if it’s the car wreck I fear it may be. It has a lunar cast including Mickey Rourke, Megan Fox (I could probably just stop right here), Bill Murray, Ryhs Ifans and Kelly Lynch. It’s ostensibly about–and here I feel like I’m leaning forward on my barstool–”An angel under the thumb of a ruthless gangster is saved by a trumpet player down on his luck.” When I read this outline initially I clapped my hands together, palms up and in front of my face, like an octogenarian at a revival meeting saying “Praise God!” Who knows, perhaps it’s another similarly angel-themed Here Comes Mr. Jordan or Wings of Desire. I have an inkling, however, that it’s more like Sympathy for Delicious (the Mark Ruffalo-directed Sundance movie I’m still trying to get exorcised from my skull).

Davis Guggenheim will be in Toronto with Waiting for Superman.

We’re gearing up for our coverage for the Toronto International Film Festival, and nothing makes the festival feel more real than the arrival of the annual guest list from TIFF organizers.

The fest released their full list of attendees yesterday, and it appears that the city will be host to an especially broad range of entertainers this year: directors showcasing world premieres (including Danny Boyle, Clint Eastwood, Werner Herzog and Michael Winterbottom); a slew of Academy Award-winning actors (the likes of Robert Redford, Hilary Swank, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Javier Bardem are just a few); influential businessmen (Bill Gates will take part in a discussion concerning the American education system that will coincide with the screening of Davis Guggenheim‘s documentary Waiting for Superman); iconic musicians (Bruce Springsteen will be in attendance for a documentary on his work and will be interviewed by Edward Norton) and athletes (NBA star Steve Nash will debut his documentary for ESPN Films).

Here’s the full press release, with a complete list of attendees:

Toronto International Film Festival Announces Hundreds Of Guests For 2010 Event

Toronto – The guest list for the 35th Toronto International Film Festival includes many of the world’s most celebrated directors and actors. Among the filmmakers visiting Toronto to present their world premieres this year: Clint Eastwood, Danny Boyle, Robert Redford, Werner Herzog, Michael Winterbottom, Errol Morris, Guillaume Canet, Milcho Manchevski, Kiran Rao, David Schwimmer, Chris Kraus, Ondi Timoner, John Cameron Mitchell, Mike Mills, Matt Reeves, Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck.

Actors expected to attend include: Nicole Kidman, Colin Firth, Hilary Swank, Robert De Niro, Clive Owen, Helen Mirren, Natalie Portman, Edward Norton and Aamir Khan. We also expect Catherine Deneuve, Charlotte Rampling, Kristin Scott-Thomas, Rachel Weisz, Marion Cotillard, Carey Mulligan, Catherine Keener and Jeon Do-Yeon; Kevin Spacey, Matt Damon, Om Puri, Josh Hartnett, Michael Sheen, Ryan Reynolds, Mickey Rourke, Keanu Reeves, Vincent Cassel, Paul Giamatti, Bill Murray, Bob Hoskins, Steve Coogan, Woody Harrelson, Zach Galifianakis and Will Ferrell. Other guests include Jennifer Connelly, Megan Fox, Uma Thurman, Freida Pinto, Ellen Page, Emma Roberts, James Franco, Ryan Gosling, Jackson Rathbone, Javier Bardem, Jon Hamm and Olivia Newton-John.

Documentary and Mavericks participants attending this year include: David Suzuki, Michael Moore, Bill Gates and Bruce Springsteen.

The Festival also welcomes thousands of producers and other industry professionals bringing films to us.

The following filmmakers are expected to attend the Toronto International Film Festival:
Aamir Bashir, Aaron Phelan, Abe Sylvia, Achero Mañas, Adam Wingard, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Álex de la Iglesia, Alex Gibney, Amos Gitai, Andrew Lau, Andrucha Waddington, Andy De Emmony, Anna Boden, Anne Emond, Antoine Bourges, Anurag Kashyap, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Atom Egoyan, Avi Nesher, Barr Gilmore, Barry Blaustein, Belmin Soylemez, Ben Affleck, Ben C. Lucas, Ben Stassen, Benoit Jacquot, Boo Junfeng, Brad Anderson, Brandon Cronenberg, Brian D. Johnson, Bruce LaBruce, Bruce McDonald, Callum Cooper, Cam Woykin, Carl Bessai, Carla Susanto, Caroline Monnet, Catherine Breillat, Catherine Martin, Charles Ferguson, Charlotte Sachs Bostrup, Chris Chong Chan Fui & Yasuhiro Morinaga, Chris Kraus, Christophe Nick, Thomas Bornot, Clint Eastwood, Dan Popa, Dan Rush, Daniel Cockburn, Daniel Espinosa, Daniel Hendler, Danis Goulet, Danny Boyle, Darragh McDonald, Darren Aronofsky, David M. Rosenthal, David Schwimmer, Davis Guggenheim, Deborah Chow, Delfina Castagnino, Denis Côté, Denis Villeneuve, Derek Cianfrance, Djo Tunda Wa Munga, Dominic Angerame, Douglas Gordon, Dustin Lance Black, Ed Gass-Donnelly, Emilio Estevez, Emmanuel Shirinian & Russell Bennett, Emre Sahin, Eran Riklis, Eric Lartigau, Eriko Sonoda, Errol Morris, Ezra Holland, Federico Veiroj, Fernando Trueba, Javier Mariscal, Tono Errando, Firas Momani, François Ozon, Frederick Wiseman, Gabriel Range, Gareth Edwards, George Hickenlooper, Gilles Paquet Brenner, Greg Atkins, Guillaume Canet, Guillem Morales, Guy Maddin, Guy Moshe, Hans Olson, Helga Fanderl, Ian Sharp, Iciar Bollain, Im Sang-Soo, Ingrid Veninger, Isaac Cravit, Isabelle Stever, J. Clay Tweel, Jacob Tierney, James Andean & Francois Xavier Saint-Pierre, James Benning, James Gunn, James Wan, Janus Metz, Jeff Barnaby, Jem Cohen, Jerome Sable, Jim Mickle, Joe LoBianco, Jody Shapiro, John Bolton, John Cameron Mitchell, John Carpenter, John Curran, John Gray, John Madden, John Price, John Sayles, John Turturro, Jonathan Nossiter, Jonathan Sobol, José Luis Guerin, Juanita Wilson, Julian Schnabel, Julien Carbon, Julio Hernández Cordón, Justin Chadwick, Justin Lerner, Katrin Bowen, Kaveh Nabatian, Kazik Radwanski, Kelly Reichardt, Ken Loach, Kevan Funk, Kevin Jerome Everson, Khalo Matabane, Kim Longinotto, Kiran Rao, Kire Paputts, Koen Mortier, Ky Nam Le Duc, Larysa Kondracki, Laura Israel, Leon Ford, Linda Hoaglund, Liz Van Allen Cairns, Laurent Courtiaud, Louis Bélanger, Louise Alston, Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Madison Brookshire, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, Malcolm Venville, Manuel Martin Cuenca, Marie-Josee Saint-Pierre, Marion Hänsel, Mark Hartley, Mark Romanek, Martin Sokol, Matt Reeves, Max Winkler, Michael Dowse, Michael McGowan, Michael Nyman, Michael Rowe, Michael Snow, Michael Vass, Michelangelo Frammartino, Mike Goldbach, Mike Leigh, Mike Mills, Milcho Manchevski, Mitch Glazer, Nadia Litz, Nathaniel Dorsky, Nick Fox Gieg, Nicolás Pereda, Nigel Cole, Oliver Husain, Oliver Schmitz, Ondi Timoner, Özlem Sulak, Pablo Trapero, Pasquale Scimeca, Patricio Guzmán, Pelin Esmer, Perry Bard, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Pierre Thoretton, Rachid Bouchareb, Rebecca Meyers, Reha Erdem, Richard Ayoade, Richard Bowen, Richard J. Lewis, Risteard Ó Domhnaill, Robert Redford, Rodrigo Cortés, Romain Gavras, Rowan Joffe, Ryan Fleck, Ryan Redford, Sara St. Onge, Sarah Bouyain, Sarah McCarthy, Saverio Constanzo, Seren Yüce, Sergei Loznitsa, Shawn Ku, Sion Sono, Sophie Fiennes, Sophie Goyette, Stefano Incerti, Stefano Pasetto, Stephen Frears, Steve Nash, Steven Silver, Sturla Gunnarsson, Susanne Bier, Tao Gu, Tayfun Pirselimoğlu, Terry Miles, Theodore Ushev, Theron Patterson, Thom Andersen, Thom Zimny, Tom Hooper, Tom Tykwer, Tomonari Nishikawa, Tony Goldwyn, Trevor Anderson, Vincent Biron, Vincent Gallo, Vincent Grenier, Wang Bing, Werner Herzog, Will Gluck, William D. MacGillivray, Woody Allen, Wuershan, Xavier Dolan, Yoel Meranda.

The following guests are expected to attend the Toronto International Film Festival:
Aamir Khan, Aaron Eckhart, Aaron Poole, Abigail Breslin, Adelaide Clemens, Adrienne Ciuffo, AJ Bowen, Alessandro Nivola, Alex Russell, Alexander Gammal, Alexandra Chowaniec, Allie MacDonald, Amanda Plummer, Amber Heard, Amy Grey, Amy Madigan, Amy Ryan, Anamaria Marinca, Andrea Riseborough, Anna Hopkins, Anna Mae Routledge, Andy Sparacino, April Telek, Aqib Khan, Ari Cohen, Audrey Mars, Barry Pepper, Belén Rueda, Bill Gates, Bill Murray, Bill Pullman, Bjorn Lomborg, Blake Lively, Bob Hoskins, Bruce Greenwood, Bruce Springsteen, Carey Lovelace, Carey Mulligan, Carla Sacks, Carrie Ng, Catherine Deneuve, Catherine Keener, char davies, Charlotte Rampling, Christopher C.J. Wallace, Christopher Plummer, Cindy Nelson, Clive Owen, Colin Firth, Connor Paolo, Craig Roberts, Cyril Dugovic, Danielle Harris, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Dave Lawrence, David Suzuki, David Timoner, Dominic Cooper, Doro Bachrach, Dwight Yoakam, Edward Norton, Ellen Page, Emily Hampshire, Emma Roberts, Emma Stone, Emmanuel Bilodeau, Erwin Strauss, Evan Sneider, Fisher Stevens, Francesca Gasteen, Freida Pinto, Garrett Dillahunt, Gemma Arterton, Geoffrey Canada, Geoffrey Rush, George Rush, Georgina Haig, Glenn Howerton, Guerilla Girls, Hallie Switzer, Harvey Keitel, Helen Mirren, Hilary Swank, Irène Jacob, Isabelle Blais, Jackson Rathbone, Jake Johnson, James Caan, James Franco, Jason Jones, Javier Bardem, Jay Baruchel, Jennifer Connelly, Jeon Do-yeon, Jeremy Renner, Jill Hennessy, Jim Broadbent, Joe Swanberg, John Brolin, John Ortiz, Jon Hamm, Jon Lovitz, Jonathan Baldock, John Legend, Josh Hartnett, Josh Lucas, Juan Diego Botto, Julian Richings, Julie Bilson Ahlberg, Juno Temple, Kailey Swanson, Kat Dennings, Kat Germain, Keanu Reeves, Keir Gilchrist, Kelly Preston, Kevin Spacey, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Kristin Scott Thomas, L.J. Benet, Lambert Wilson, Laura Dern, Lee Jung-jae, Lee Pace, Lesley Chilcott, Lesley Manville, Liana Liberato, Liv Tyler, Ludivine Sagnier, Macha Grenon, Malin Akerman, Maria Bello, Marion Cotillard, Martha Wilson, Martin Sheen, Martina Gusman, Mary Steenburgen, Matt Damon, Maya Hawke, Megan Fox, Melanie Laurent, Michael Angarano, Michael C. Hall, Michael Moore, Michael Pena, Michael Sheen, Mickey Rourke, Milla Jovovich, Minnie Driver, Miranda Richardson, Molly Parker, Morgan Davidoff, Nadia Litz, Natalie Portman, Nicole Kidman, Noah Reid, Oliver Ackland, Olivia Newton-John, Olivier Barthelemy, Om Puri, Paolo Costanzo, Patrick Labbé, Paul Giamatti, Paul J. Spence, Penn Badgley, Philomène Bilodeau, Pierre Bergé, Rachel Weisz, Rachelle Lefevre, Rainn Wilson, Ray Winstone, Rebecca Hall, Rebecca Hill, Reece Thompson, Rick Miller, Robert De Niro, Robert James, Roberta Cairney, Romain Duris, Ron Hynes, Ron Perlman, Ronnie Fridthjof, Rosamund Pike, Ross Clark, Ruth Charney, Ruth Sheen, Ryan Gosling, Ryan Kwanten, Ryan Phillippe, Ryan Reynolds, Sally Hawkins, Sam Rockwell, Sara Stockman, Sarah Kolasky, Sarah Peter, Sarah Silverman, Scott Speedman, Seán Cullen, Shannon Woodward, Stephen Eric McIntyre, Stephen Root, Temuera Morrison, Terra Hazelton, Thomas Haden Church, TJ Power, Tracy Lawrence, Uma Thurman, Valentina Berisa, Vera Farmiga, Vincent Cassel, Will Ferrell, William B. Davis, William H. Macy, Woody Harrelson, Xiao Min, Yasmin Paige, Zach Braff, Zach Galifianakis, Zak Santiago.