Among some of the noteworthy items on the 2006 Black List that received the least number of votes (or wasn't read by enough prod co. insiders) we find Martin McDonagh's In Bruges which received 7 votes and picking up a pair of votes we have: Lewis Colick's The Fighter which I imagine is the same project as the one that is receiving it's Oscar bid release next week --- it has gone through many rewrites and writers. We also have the first screenplay version for Life of Pi which was penned by Jean-Pierre Jeunet & Guillame Laurent, Peter Morgan's Frost/Nixon which I imagine not many folks had the chance to read and Ron Harwood's Diving Bell & The Butterfly.
It received its world premiere back in Sundance, has a strong cast in Mark Ruffalo, Juliette Lewis, Orlando Bloom and Laura Linney and it received a Special Jury Prize for Directing for first time actor turned director - yet it took 10 months for Sympathy for Delicious to find a distributor. To be released next spring, the indie film has found an unlikely home with Maya Entertainment.
What we do know from the list below is that along with Black Swan, we have Barney's Version, The King's Speech, Potiche and The Town heading to Venice. The Debt is likely to debut there as well, joining Helen Mirren in The Tempest, but for some reason I'm seeing it more as a Telluride item. Among the world premieres that will service the Toronto public well, we have a pair of buyer titles in Little White Lies and The Conspirator and we have the shot in the streets of Toronto, Casino Jack (no longer being called Bagman). Among the off the radar selections, I'd say not many were expecting Emilio Estevez's The Way, Barry Blaustein's Peep World, David M. Rosenthal's Janie Jones.
Here's this morning's press conference where Toronto Int. Film Festival co-directors Cameron Bailey & Piers Handling introduced the majority of the titles that will make up this year's stellar Gala and Special Presentations section.
You'd think a festival with 300 + film title offerings would pretty much covers all bases, but I think there'll be more broken hearts than usual as a result of the unbalanced production year that was 2009. Like a vintage year for wine, Toronto International Film Festival co-directors Piers Handling and Cameron Bailey should see in 2010, a significantly higher number of World and North American premieres (loads from Cannes and Venice) than previous years for the 35th edition.