Everything You'd Ever Want to Know About Toronto 2012

The 2012 Toronto International Film Festival ended on Sunday, September 16 with David O. Russell's dark comedy "Silver Linings Playbook" winning the Blackberry People's Choice Award. Indiewire was on the scene for the 36th edition to report on the latest acquisitions, review the anticipated titles, and interview many of the artists. Below find all of Indiewire's coverage.

NEWS

'Silver Linings' and 'Laurence Anyways' Top Toronto Film Festival Winners
David O. Russell's "Silver Linings Playbook" won the Blackberry People's Choice Award at this year's Toronto International Film Festival. Xavier Dolan's "Laurence Anyways" won the festival's top juried prize for Best Canadian Feature. This comes four years after Dolan's debut feature, "I Killed My Mother," somewhat shockingly lost the prize for Best Canadian First Feature at the festival.

Updated Toronto 2012 Round-Up: Full List of Acquisitions, Plus Sales Agents From CAA, UTA, WME Weigh In
With the Toronto International Film Festival entering its last few days, the acquisitions market continues at a pretty steady clip. By mid-week, distributors had had a chance to check out most of what was on display, including all of the world premieres, and had made their plays to pocket what they could. Those negotiations are paying off now.

Toronto 2012: Just What's Going on With Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions? Here Are Some Answers.
The biggest surprise of the Toronto film festival thus far has been the vacuum-like acquisitions fervor of the Lionsgate-Roadside Attractions team.

Toronto 2012: What Eli Roth's Midnight Madness Vehicle 'Aftershock' Could Do for a Moribund Dimension
Dimension Films has been pretty quiet this year, releasing just a single movie – the colossally stupid “Piranha 3DD” – in theaters over the summer to box office that wouldn’t fill an A cup.
 

REVIEWS 

Criticwire at Toronto: 'The Master' Tops Best Films/Performances Poll
Continuing its reign as the festival juggernaught of the second half of 2012, Paul Thomas Anderson's "The Master" headlined nearly every category in Indiewire's Criticwire Network poll of the best films and performances of this year's edition of the Toronto International Film Festival.

99 Reviews from the Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival continues through next weekend, but Indiewire has already reviewed a significant portion of the program at various other festivals over the past year. Bookmark this page to keep running tabs on all of our latest reviews from the festival, from capsules to longer reviews, as we update the list throughout each day.

Critic's Notebook: Does Toronto Need a Shrinking Pill? Highlights From the 2012 Edition
With so many movies scheduled against each other, a number of titles will always slip through the cracks. But since TIFF has not only too many movies but too many sections for anyone to recap them all, the onus is on individual TIFF attendees to break down the movies they see into their own subjective categories.

American Auteurs in Canada: How 'The Master,' 'Spring Breakers' and 'Silver Linings Playbook' Define the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival
Film festivals are often studies in contrast and there may have been no greater example than last Friday at the Toronto International Film Festival -- otherwise known as TIFF -- when Harmony Korine's "Spring Breakers" played immediately before Paul Thomas Anderson's "The Master."
 

FEATURES 

10 Up-and-Coming Actors to Watch in Toronto
While the Toronto International Film Festival is mostly known for its star wattage and Oscar-bait fare, the event also serves as a springboard for up-and-coming actors to make their marks. Freida Pinto, Ellen Page, Shailene Woodley, Dev Patel, Kodi Smit-McPhee and Oscar-nominee Keisha Castle-Hughes all came to Toronto as relative unknowns and emerged as highly sought-after talents.

Six in the Mix: Key Advice for Young Filmmakers on How to Make the Most of the Toronto Film Festival
Whether they believe it or not, just about everyone in the film industry will tell you that relationships are the glue that keep the business functional and creative.

Eating, Drinking, and Shopping in Toronto: An Indiewire Insider's Guide
Tens of thousands of people are about to converge on Canada's largest city for one of the world's largest film events, socializing and networking all over town. And while many of them have probably been around the Toronto block a few times in the past, you never know what's new to discover in the area.

Wavelenghts at Toronto 2012: The Big Experimental Tent
Efficiency was one force behind the amalgamation of the Visions and Wavelengths sections of the Toronto International Film Festival into one Wavelengths section this year.
 

INTERVIEWS

Keira Knightley 'Anna Karenina'
Back when Keira Knightley became a household name thanks to her feisty turn in the summer smash "Pirates of the Caribbean," few probably predicted she'd end up where she is today as one of the most acclaimed and risk taking actresses of her generation.

Rian Johnson 'Looper'
Rian Johnson burned a quick mark into the indie-film landscape when his writing-directing debut, the high school noir “Brick,” had its premiere at Sundance in 2005. After fielding a special jury prize for his “originality of vision” and then several Independent Spirit nominations, Johnson took his follow-up, “The Brothers Bloom,” to Toronto in 2008. Upon release the following year, “Bloom” disappeared without much of an audience, primarily because, despite their visual flair, Johnson’s works thus far have been hard to classify.

Jospeh Gordon-Levitt 'Looper'
Unless you've been living under a rock this past year, you're well aware that Joseph Gordon-Levitt's stock in Hollywood has risen.

Helen Hunt 'The Sessions'
At Sundance this January, Academy Award-winner Helen Hunt courted the most attention she's received in over a decade for her brave and baring turn as a sex surrogate in "The Sessions" (then titled "The Surrogate").

Harmony Korine 'Spring Breakers'
Harmony Korine's "Spring Breakers" marks a significant shift in exposure for the 39-year-old filmmaker, but nobody can accuse him of selling out. The movie, which premiered in Venice and made its North American premiere in Toronto last week, stars Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Benson as a trio of young woman who rob a diner to fund their trip down south. After a series of depraved party experiences, they eventually encounter the absurdly self-involved gangster Alien (James Franco), who manages to seduce most of the girls with his materialistic obsessions.

Snoop Lion 'Reincarnated'
An unlikely presence at this year's Toronto International Film Festival was the man formerly known as Snoop Dogg (and Snoop Doggy Dogg before that), Snoop Lion. Snoop was at the festival with a film that explains the rather epic story behind that name change, "Reincarnated."

Colin Firth 'Arthur Newman'
In "Arthur Newman," a dark indie comedy that premiered Monday in Toronto, Colin Firth plays a depressed divorcee who fakes his own death and adopts a new identity to forge a new and better life. The role marks Firth's first lead one since his Academy Award-winning turn as King George VI in "The King's Speech," yet despite their obvious differences (the titular Arthur Newman is a modern day Yank), the film finds Firth once again getting inside the mind of a guy at odds with himself.

Ezra Miller 'The Perks of Being a Wallflower'
A year after terrifying us with his chilling performance in Lynne Ramsay's "We Need To Talk About Kevin," Ezra Miller makes his range very clear with his work in Stephen Chbosky's "The Perks of Being a Wallfower." The film -- which debuted in Toronto Saturday night ahead of its theatrical release September 21st -- is an adaptation of Chbosky's own 1999 novel, which quickly became a modern classic for a generation of misfits, including Miller himself.

Olga Kurylenko 'To the Wonder'
Actors who worked on Terrence Malick's latest film, "To the Wonder," fall into two camps: those who made it into the final cut, and those who didn't. Luckily for Ukrainian-born actress Olga Kurylenko (best known for playing a Bond girl in 007's 2008 outing "Quantum of Solace"), she falls into the former, unlike Rachel Weisz, Jessica Chastain, Michael Sheen, Amanda Peet and Barry Pepper -- all of whom fall into the latter.

Olga Kurylenko and Ben Affleck in "To the Wonder" TIFF

Sally Potter 'Ginger and Rosa'
British director Sally Potter ("Orlando") was back to both Telluride and Toronto with her new film "Ginger & Rosa," which stars Elle Fanning as Ginger, a girl who is coming of age in 1962, steeped in the era of nuclear proliferation. Things are ready to combust in the world around her but also amongst her family and friends, including her pal Rosa (Alice Englert).

Joss Whedon 'Much Ado About Nothing'
After wrapping principal production on "The Avengers," you'd think the tireless Joss Whedon would take a much deserved break. Instead (with a push from his wife, Kai Cole), the writer-director-producer invited a group of friends over to his sprawling home to make a modern day film adaptation of William Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing."

Winona Ryder 'Iceman'
"I’ve loved making movies," Winona Ryder said in Toronto earlier this week when reflecting back on her 26-year career. "I feel like I’ve been so lucky because I’ve gotten to be in movies that are some of my favorites, regardless of my being in them -- like 'Heathers.'"

Rob Zombie 'The Lords of Salem'
Rob Zombie impressed many (ourselves included) with his grisly and demented sophomore effort, "The Devil's Rejects," only to betray many admirers of that film with his tepid stab at the "Halloween" franchise. After helming the 2009 sequel to that reboot, new film "The Lords of Salem" (which world premiered in Toronto earlier this week in the Midnight Madness section) finds Zombie back in non-remake mode with a gonzo tale that proves the musician turned filmmaker has lost none of his mojo.

Javier Bardem 'To the Wonder'
"When you work with Terrence Malick, you don't expect anything because you don't know what you're doing," Javier Bardem told Indiewire. "You just go there, show up and let yourself be guided by him to the wonder of things that may happen or not happen -- and you may not even make it to the final cut."

Oliver Assayas 'Something in the Air'
While replicating a tumultuous period in French history, "Something in the Air" also maintains an intimate feel that stays close to Gilles' evolving worldview. At Toronto, Assayas spoke to Indiewire about his decision to take on this personal tale post-"Carlos," why the early seventies stand out in his memories, and what he hopes to do next.

Xavier Dolan 'Laurence Anyways'
"This new century and new millennium was full of promises and possibilites," Xavier Dolan told Indiewire. "And we probably are walking toward concrete progress. But some of the most sophisticated people still have issues with transgendered people. And this is the debate that the movie fleetingly suggests. The question is, how much have things changed?"

Mira Nair 'The Reluctant Fundamentalist'
The Toronto International Film Festival has been a launching pad for many of acclaimed director Mira Nair's films.  Her debut feature "Salaam Bombay" debuted at the 1988 TIFF, and more recently, the festival screened her Jhumpa Lahiri adaptation "The Namesake."  At the North American premiere of the film at the Toronto Inernational Film Festival, festival Executive Director Piers Handling brought up the premiere of another of Nair's films at TIFF, a premiere that never came to be.

Go to page 2 for FUTURES profiles of up-and-coming talent.