Toronto Film Festival announces first films in 2008 lineup

The Toronto Film Festival, arguably the most important festival in North America, unveiled much of its film line-up yesterday evening. Without further adieu, the announced features:

Gala Presentation
The Good, The Bad, The Weird Kim Jee-woon, South Korea

Special Presentations
Adoration Atom Egoyan, Canada
Un conte de Noël Arnaud Desplechin, France
Entre les murs Laurent Cantet, France
Gomorrah Matteo Garrone, Italy

Masters
24 City Jia Zhang-ke, China
Four Nights with Anna Jerzy Skolimowski, Poland/France
Of Time and the City Terence Davies, United Kingdom
Le Silence de Lorna Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne, Belgium/France/Italy
Three Monkeys Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Turkey/France/Italy

Real to Reel
Blind Loves Juraj Lehotský, Slovakia

Visions
Liverpool Lisandro Alonso, Argentina/France/Netherlands/Spain/Germany
Service Brillante Mendoza, Philippines/France

Vanguard
Waltz with Bashir Ari Folman, Israel/France/Germany

Discovery
Hunger Steve McQueen, United Kingdom
Medicine for Melancholy Barry Jenkins, USA
The Paranoids Gabriel Medina, Argentina
Salamandra Pablo Agüero, Argentina/France/Germany
Three Blind Mice Matthew Newton, Australia
Tony Manero Pablo Larraín, Chile/Brazil
Tulpan Sergey Dvortsevoy, Germany/Switzerland/Kazakstan/Russia/Poland

Contemporary World Cinema
Acne Federico Veiroj, Uruguay/Argentina/Spain/Mexico
Linha de Passe Walter Salles and Daniela Thomas, Brazil
O’Horten Bent Hamer, Norway/Germany/France
Lion’s Den Pablo Trapero, Argentina/South Korea/Brazil
Restless Amos Kollek, Israel/Germany/Canada/France/Belgium
Revanche Götz Spielmann, Austria

We're not the first, nor will we be the last, to note how Cannes selections dominate the festival this year. This isn't to out of the ordinary, though, as Toronto often picks a few of the most high-profile (read: in English) Cannes films as part of its line-up. Oddly, though, films like Che and Synechdoche, were left out in favor of more arts-y fare. While choices like Cannes' Palm d'Or winner Entre les murs are certainly interesting, overall, things seem far less appealing to a mainstream audience.

The good news is that this is only a small portion of the film's total selection. While these are some of the more high-profile features, it's still only 27 films in total. Last year, Toronto chose to screen nearly 300 feature-length films, with relatively few revivals. An inauspicious beginning, but expect things to only get more interesting from here.

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