One of the very special treats at the Toronto International Film Festival is the midnight programme. Here, with 1000+ energetic movie goers, the chance is offered to take in the latest of wild and crazy genre fare from around the world. Horror, Martial Arts, Rockumentaries, and usually a zany asian bit of full on weirdness. Programmed by Colin Geddes for the past decade or more, the diversity and quality of the line-up (somehow!) improves year over year, and this one looks fun.
BITCH SLAP (The riff on Faster Pussycat Kill! Kill!)
A TOWN CALLED PANIC (animated French stop motion animation)
ONG BAK 2: THE BEGINNING (Title says it all, bone crunching mayhem from Thailand’s Tony Jaa)
SYMBOL (Where the director/star Hitoshi Matsumoto of DIANIPPONJIN tries to one-up himself for strangeness)
THE LOVED ONES (Aussie Horror from the guy who directed ‘self help mumbojumbo, The Secret)
SOLOMON KANE (A 17th century Puritan, Solomon Kane is a somber-looking man who wanders the world with no apparent goal other than to vanquish evil in all its forms.)
[REC]2 (Just like the first one, but with more guns and military types)
SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD (New Romero film. Local filmmaker alert!)
DAYBREAKERS (Bigger budget, star laden (Willem Dafoe, Sam Neill, Ethan Hawke) followup by the Spierig Brothers to Undead)
and…
Opening Midnight Gala: JENNIFER’S BODY (Diablo Cody + Megan Fox + Karyn Kusama = buyer beware!)
(Oh and in the non-midnight programs, several media outlets have let titles ‘slip’ prior to press release, MidnightMoviesBlog has the goods on the ‘unofficial at this time’ titles, here)
Movie laboratories are one of my favorite things ever. Metropolis,...
DAYBREAKERS. Bloody TIFF!
Duuuude. This is gonna be so much fun. While I really love TAD, I feel like I’m getting my high profile TAD right here all condensed within TIFF. How do we go pubbing afterwards though? Don’t all the bars close up shop before these things roll the credits?
I guess I’ll drink in the alley way with Jonathan.
You pub before and during TIFF when you get the chance. After Midnight Madness you head back to hostel pass out for 4-7 hours and then head back out. Drinking just happens on and off throughout the entire fest.
Oh and I am so bitter this year. I love my new job but damn I want to go to TIFF… stupid not enough holidays built up.
There’s always the Minneapolis Film Fest in April John.
PS – funny I had to approve your comments.
I was too lazy to log in but still wanted to comment. I was originally thinking of Sundance in January or Fantasia next summer but right now I think I’ll just save up the cash and then TIFF next year.
Although if I could get a press pass for the Minneapolis one and if I could crash at someone’s place then I might actually consider that one also.
I am too lazy for midnight madness, although the times I have gone have been fun. The Machinist and Saw
I am far more excited about the announced doc line-up at TIFF, as reported by The Documentary Blog: http://www.thedocumentaryblog.com/index.php/2009/07/21/2009-toronto-international-film-festival-documentary-line-up-announced/
The Clouzot footage and American Movie director Chris Smith has a film, and even Andrew James got into the mix.
Andrew, believe me, when the rest of the TAD line-up is announced, you will be very disappointed not to be attending. Next year, just book off 5 weeks and hang out in TO.
I’m quite impressed with the line-up of TAD this year, Shelagh, it is as strong as the TIFF one, above (perhaps stronger?) That said, I know a few of the un-announced titles and they intrigue me a lot. Should be a good time in AUGUST (a better time frame for TAD in my book) and SEPTEMBER. See you there.
TAD is always a bit rougher around the edges, but that is a good thing. You need both MM and TAD to cover all the bases. The complete line-up is pretty damn impressive, and I’m looking forward to actually being able to watch TAD movies this year.
No question I’m going to really miss the intimacy of TAD this year. I’m just saying that the midnight madness portion of TIFF will at least sort of quench my thirst a little, if you will, on the genre front.
Nice. I’ looking forward to my local filmfest and it’s (even there are not all titles announced yet) a pretty decent line up. http://www.fantasyfilmfest.com/fantasy/pages/filmeA-Z.html