The Toronto International Film Festival celebrates its 30th birthday this year. In its three decades, TIFF has risen to the top class of world film fests, stirring up an annual fervor among moviegoers who have been more than happy to queue up for hours to ensure advance seats for films selected from a far-reaching menu of international fare. That experience proved so overwhelming to all that cinéastes are now asked to drop off a form with their selections days in advance, and customers are served in order based on a random draw.

In addition to this fandemonium, the fest has become a focal point for the international industry. Canadian productions base their shooting and post schedules around TIFF’s application deadline, as there is no time of year when media attention on local cinema is so concentrated. For 10 days at least – this year spanning Sept. 8-17 – Canuck filmmakers are local heroes, and they welcome the attention, as they are often desperate to secure distribution for their films, locally and abroad.

TIFF 2005 will screen a total of 26 new Canadian features (out of 220 submitted) and 44 new Canadian shorts (out of 513 submissions), along with 16 films by Don Owen in the Canadian Retrospective series and a replay of Michel Brault’s Entre la mer et l’eau douce from the Canadian Open Vault.

For some, auteur status is launched at TIFF. The international attention heaped on the likes of Atom Egoyan and Deepa Mehta in large part can be attributed to their past Toronto premieres. David Cronenberg’s stature as a film artist was boosted tremendously at TIFF with his earliest Canadian career retrospective and the bold programming choice of opening the 1988 fest with his edgy Dead Ringers.

So it is most apt that the 2005 festival would feature gala presentations of the latest works by this trio of heavyweight English-Canadian filmmakers. And none of them has grown complacent over the years; in fact, they each return to TIFF with films that have already garnered their fair share of controversy.

Mehta set out to make Water – the third in her ‘elemental trilogy,’ following Fire (1996) and Earth (1998) – four years ago, but heavy protesting, death threats and an attempted suicide in the Ganges River stymied her first attempt. Despite the gentle, meditative quality of some of her films, Mehta has not shied away from social issues that strike a nerve among conservative elements in her native India. The latest film, about how widows in 1930s India were cast out by society and forced to live in poverty, was filmed in Sri Lanka under a fake name to try to deflect media scrutiny (see story, p. 19).

TIFF has not grown complacent, either. While most onlookers expected opening-night gala-privileges to go to either Cronenberg or Egoyan, as they often have – fest programmers instead decided to start their 30th anniversary party with Water.

Cronenberg and Egoyan, meanwhile, forge ahead as the pack-leading purveyors of Canada noir, with hard-hitting new thrillers marked by graphic sex and violence. The new films, which both premiered at Cannes, mark a move towards the mainstream for their creators, equipped with their biggest budgets to date: US$32 million for Cronenberg’s A History of Violence and $30 million for Egoyan’s Where the Truth Lies.

Violence, loosely based on a graphic novel, is a modern western starring Viggo Mortensen, Maria Bello, William Hurt and Ed Harris in the story of a man who must defend his family from mysterious thugs who descend upon his small town (see story, p. 22). Truth, adapted from the novel by Rupert Holmes, stars Kevin Bacon and Colin Firth as a comedy duo à la Martin and Lewis who broke up the act years ago amidst a suspicious murder. Years later, a young female journalist (played by Matchstick Men’s Alison Lohman) is determined to uncover the skeleton in the pair’s closet. The film created a stir in Cannes for its sex scenes, which consist of a variety of twosomes and an already notorious threesome (see story, p. 20).

Violence dodged a bullet when, despite the fears of U.S. distributor New Line Cinema over that film’s sex scenes, it apparently got through the Motion Picture Association of America unscathed with an R-rating. Truth, meanwhile, is faced with a potential box-office-threatening NC-17 label for the aforementioned ménage-à-trois sequence.

Beyond the Canadian scene, international filmmakers see a TIFF screening as a crucial entrée into the North American market. (TIFF 2005’s 335 features and shorts hail from 52 countries.) This year’s extensive global menu has a particular spotlight on black cinema. Among the selections is the U.S. thriller Slow Burn, directed by first-timer Wayne Beach, and Les Saignantes, a Cameroon/France copro that imagines Cameroon circa 2025.

TIFF has also become an important launching pad for Hollywood fare soon to spring into North American release. And as fall is ‘serious’ movie season, the Oscar buzz starts here. Some of the more anticipated films premiering this year include gala presentations of James Mangold’s Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line starring Joaquin Pheonix; John Madden’s family drama Proof with Gwyneth Paltrow; and the more light-hearted British feature Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit by stop-motion animation whizzes Nick Park and Steve Box, featuring the voice of Ralph Fiennes.

Complete scheduling information is available on the TIFF website.

www.e.bell.ca/filmfest