It's official. The cruelest bunch on the film festival circuit are the programmers from TIFF. Once again they make choosing what films to cover during a film festival a painstaking process. A sizeable chunk of films among the just announced Gala and Special Presentations reflect ongoing trends, heavy on world premieres of Brit offerings, red carpet bling items that will be receiving a theatrical release with weeks of the T.O premiere, and a satisfying mix of Cannes items that are definitely worth re-watching and Venice items that have been circled as must see coverage items for the IONCINEMA.com team.
World preems (Mother and Child, L’Affaire Farewell, Love and Other Impossible Pursuits, I, Don Giovanni), Venice titles (The Road, A Single Man, The Men Who Stare at Goats, Baaria) and a Telluride pic in Werner Herzog's My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done are part of the Gala and Special Presentations and among the last batch of titles announced for the 2009 edition of the Toronto Film Festival.