One of the joys of my life is the 10 days in September I spend at the Toronto International Film Festival, bringing the film world to our city, the world press, and enough stars to take over Hollywood. The little festival that could, as it was known in the 1970s and early-1980s, The Festival of Festivals has become a world cultural event, perhaps the most important film festival in the world, and certainly rivaling Cannes for prestige.
Created by William Marshall, Dusty Cohl and Henk den Henk in the mid-1970s, the festival struggled in its early days to get product, finally landing a major film with “Midnight Express” in 1978. A few years later “Chariots of Fire” would leave the fest on its march toward the Academy Award, while “The Big Chill” would make a huge impression when premiered here in 1983.
More importantly, the actors and directors were turning their attentions to Toronto. In the early days, the organizers hosted tributes: Warren Beatty and Robert Duvall were there with many friends, further putting the festival on the map. Through the 1980s the festival continued to grow in prestige, expanding its Canadian program to showcase homegrown cinema, but never losing touch with Hollywood and world product.
In the 1990s, Piers Handling took over as Director of the festival and changed the name to the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and took the proceedings into the international realm. Handling, one of the greatest cinematic minds I have ever encountered, has been an extraordinary leader for TIFF, taking it into the next level of success worldwide while maintaining the roots that make it a people’s festival.
I love it, and I maintain it is the finest festival on the planet. Having covered it for the better part of a decade, close to 15 years, I think, here are my top ten memories of the festival, the films, the performances, the events, the goings-on.