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Movies & TV News & Features

TIFF Tally

WINNERS

Peter Stebbings and Rob Stefaniuk In a slow year for acquisitions, Stebbings and Stefaniuk saw their films picked up during TIFF. Sony snapped up the international rights to Stebbing’s Defendor, while Stefaniuk’s Suck was grabbed by Alliance for Canadian distribution, with Universal taking the international rights a few days later.

George Clooney Just for showing up, really.

Tyler Perry Perry scored some serious do-gooder cred in Toronto by co-presenting Lee Daniels’s Precious: Based On The Novel “Push” By Sapphire with Oprah Winfrey – and now he’s sharing the glory of that film’s People’s Choice Award.

Toronto Those archival clips of Hogtown as seen through the ages on film and newsreels made us burst with pride each time they showed up amidst the endless previews. Let’s hope they inspire local filmmakers to continue the tradition.

Ruba Nadda whose drama Cairo Time took the prize for best Canadian feature, guaranteeing that people will still be talking about it when it opens theatrically next month.

Jason Reitman Two years after Juno’s TIFF triumph, Reitman returned with his new film, the George Clooney drama Up In The Air, which immediately emerged as the front-runner in TIFF’s ongoing Oscar conversation.

LOSERS

Diablo Cody Though Jennifer’s Body had a great reception when it opened Midnight Madness, the horror comedy was all but forgotten by the end of TIFF’s first weekend. Then it tanked at the box office. Not exactly the best way to follow up your Oscar-winning breakout.

Michael Cera Youth In Revolt was shoved down the schedule to the dead zone of mid-January from its original late-October release just hours after its TIFF premiere.

UNDECIDED

Cameron Bailey The fest co-director’s political cred took a serious hit thanks to his decision to launch his City To City series by focusing on Tel Aviv. In the aftermath of Israel’s disproportionate response in Gaza to Hamas’s rocket attacks on Israel, John Greyson pulled his short from the fest. Other activist artists called Bailey everything from naive and manipulable to an outright sellout. Then again, every time he introduced a film at the fest, audiences gave him a standing ovation.

movies@nowtoronto.com

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