A gorgeous animated Celtic fantasy and Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan in a smouldering Victorian romance are among the top attractions in a radically pared-down 45th Tiff
I must confess I’ve previously been a little cynical about
Toronto international film festival (Tiff) audiences, with their boundless enthusiasm, their jack-in-the-box standing ovations, their need to haul bucket-sized cups of coffee with them everywhere. But gosh, how I miss them this year.
The festival in its much reduced Covid-compliant form is a very different beast. The programme is considerably smaller (50 feature films compared with 333 last year) and less starry: the
Hollywood studios, which habitually swoop in to test the mettle of their potential awards-contenders, are largely absent. There are no visitors from overseas and just a few physical screenings – in drive-ins, at outdoor screens and socially distanced cinemas in the festival hub. Most of the festival, for most delegates, myself included, has been an entirely digital experience. But while necessary, this mixing up of the formula has served to highlight just what makes Toronto such a vibrant, vital event in more normal times.