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Now that we're done salivating over the unveiling of the Gala and Special Presentation screenings for 2011 Toronto Int. Film Festival, we now put our attention on the official selection of the Venice Film Festival sidebar know as Venice Days. Director Giorgio Gosetti has mounted an edition that includes some gem auteurs and newbie filmmakers we've been keeping tabs on for the better half of 2010/2011.

Along with this comprehensive coverage we have the pleasure of hosting what we already anticipate will become an annual tradition on the site: a twice daily critical snapshot of the Main Competition selected films and their bid at claiming the grand-daddy prize of them all, the Palme d'Or.

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.

I think it was in 1988 when I first started getting into Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert who took great pleasure in ripping into films and each another. If tonight's announcement tells us anything, it's that, when everyone is chummy, and agreeing to agree or disagree, it makes for boring television and what I imagine was a ratings falloff for several post-Ebert years now.

Korea’s Mother won the top honor at the 4th Asian Film Awards, picking up Best Picture, while Chinese and Hong Kong films sweeped the other major award categories. After the grand opening of HKIFF on Sunday night, the ceremony has been held on the following day, adding an extra kick to the film festival. Bong Joon-ho’s murder mystery predictably won in a category that has previously been dominated by Korean films.