The Toronto International Film Festival held its second 2009 press conference Tuesday, announcing this year’s Closing Night Gala – The Young Victoria, a British period drama directed by the Canadian auteur Jean-Marc Vallée – and the rest of the Canadian lineup.
We’ll be seeing new work from Carl Bessai, Denis Cote, Bruce Sweeney, John Greyson, Reg Harkema, Vic Sarin, Peter Wellington, Peter Mettler, Guy Maddin, Gary Yates, Brigitte Berman and Ed Gass-Donnelly, as well as the feature directorial debut of Sook-Yin Lee, who contributed a segment to last year’s TIFF premiere Toronto Stories.
Terry Gilliam’s The Imaginarium Of Doctor Parnassus, a Canada-UK co-production that features the final screen performance of Heath Ledger, was announced as a Gala.
Another Gala slot went to Atom Egoyan’s Chloe, described by TIFF director Piers Handling as “a love letter to the city of Toronto”. Egoyan’s 1991 drama The Adjuster will also be presented as one of this year’s two Open Vault archival screenings the other, William Beaudine’s 1926 silent Sparrows, was picked to mark 100th anniversary of star Mary Pickford’s first appearance on movie screens in 1909.
Yeah, it’s kind of a stretch, but this year’s TIFF also features an opening night gala chosen to honour the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s birth, so maybe 2009 is going to be the year of looking backwards.[rssbreak]
