TIFF 2009 Selections: First Wave includes Cannes’ Fish Tank, Air Doll and Police, Adjective

Traditionally among TIFF’s first wave of announcements are titles that premiered at Cannes and Berlin and are solid enough to merit a North American preem in Toronto. Of the first 26 titles announced, nineteen of them were first shown on the Croisette. TIFF’s busy Asian, South American and European curators selected Eyes Wide Open (Haim Tabakman), Huacho (Alejandro Fernandez Almendras), Like You Know It All (Hong Sang-Soo), Lourdes (Jessica Hausner), Men on the Bridge (Asli Özge), My Year without Sex (Sarah Watt), Police, Adjective (Corneliu Porumboiu), The Time that Remains (Elia Suleiman), and The Wind Journeys (Ciro Guerra) for the Contemporary World Cinema section, chose Face (Tsai Ming-Liang), Independencia (Raya Martin), Irène (Alain Cavalier), Karaoke (Chris Chong Chan Fui), Nymph (Pen-ek Ratanaruang) and To Die Like a Man (Joäo Pedro Rodrigues) to populate the Visions sidebar. 

The “Masters” section will see Air Doll (Hirokazu Kore-eda), Eccentricities of a Blonde-Haired Girl (Manoel de Oliveira) and Alain Resnais’ Les Herbes Folles, but out of all film announced today, my eyes are focused on the Discovery selections – the best of new filmmakers who for the most part weren’t featured in Cannes: Gigante (Adrian Biniez), The Happiest Girl in the World (Radu Jude), Kelin (Ermek Tursunov), La Pivellina (Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel), Samson & Delilah (Warwick Thornton) and Should I Really Do It (Ismail Necmi). 

Finally, one of top films from Cannes in my estimation and certainly worth seeing in TIFF a second time is Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank – which is the only title to fill in the Vanguard section.

The festival also announced a new sidebar called: “City to City”. A hallmark card to a specific city on the globe – this year we’ll have fair from Tel Aviv. So we can expect Cannes winner Ajami to be selected.

Keep your eyes peeled on our site – for all of IONCINEMA.com’s complete before, during and after TIFF coverage.