SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 11 2011


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Sokurov with his Golden Lion


Sokurov epic Faust boosted by Venice win


Alexander Sokurov’s Faust has won the Golden Lion at the 68th edition of the Venice Film Festival. The film, the final chapter in the Russian director’s four-part series, screens here as part of Masters. The Coppa Volpi for best actor


— as widely expected — went to Michael Fassbender for his role in Steve McQueen’s Shame. Fassbender, who has that movie as well as A Dangerous Method here at TIFF, was in Venice to accept the prize. “It’s really nice when you take


a chance and it’s relevant and you hope it’s relevant and people respond as they did — thanks to Steve McQueen, he’s my hero.” The jury gave the Silver Lion to


People Mountain People Sea, this year’s surprise entry from Beijing- based director Cai Shangjun. The best actress prize went to


Deanie Yip for her role in Hong Kong director Ann Hui’s A Simple Life. The Osella for best


cinematography went to Robbie Ryan for his naturalistic take on Andrea Arnold’s Wuthering Heights, and the best screenplay prize went to Yorgos Lanthimos and Efthimis Filippou for Alps. All the major award winners are also screening at TIFF.


Digital issues cause delays at Scotiabank screenings


BY WENDY MITCHELL Two important press & industry screenings were disrupted at TIFF yesterday due to digital cinema problems at the Scotiabank. After the 9:00am screening of Alexan- der Payne’s The Descendants started 66 minutes late, the subse- quent Scotiabank 1 P&I screening of Fernando Meirelles’ 360 started 70 minutes late. “It was a delay in ingesting the


DCP [digital cinema package], and that is caused partly because we have so many DCPs,” Cameron Bailey, TIFF co-director, explained to Screen. “This year, we did increase capacity a significant amount compared to last year, but also the number of DCPs being used has increased signifi cantly.” For Fox Searchlight, The


Descendants snafu must have seemed like déja vu — a similar problem arose last year with 127 Hours (another high-profi le awards title being unspooled for the first


London’s PFM strikes Toronto pact


BY WENDY MITCHELL Film London’s Production Finance Market (PFM) has struck a strategic partnership with Toronto’s Interna- tional Financing Forum (IFF). Under the new deal, the forum


» TIFF has added Silver Lion winner People Mountain People Sea to the Contemporary World Cinema programme. It will screen here September 15, 16 and 17. Sheri Jennings


People Mountain People Sea


will select a Canadian producer to present a project at the PFM, which has also selected a UK pro- ducer to present at this year’s IFF. Sam Taylor of Film & Music


Entertainment (F&ME) is present- ing her project Cassy And Jude thanks to the exchange. Dominic Murphy (who directed F&ME’s White Lightnin’) will direct the drama-comedy (formerly titled Cassandra At The Wedding). Set to attend the PFM in London


(October 19-20) are Canadian pro- ducers Scott Garvie and Patrick Cassavetti from Shaftesbury Films with the Prisoner Of Tehran.


time), which started 70 minutes late at Scotiabank on the fi rst Sat- urday of TIFF. That was due to a shuffl ing of screenings after a sub- titles failure at another cinema. Of yesterday’s delays, Bailey


said: “Of course we never want this to happen, not just for the attend- ees but also for the companies that trust us with their fi lms. Any time a screening is unduly delayed, we talk to them about adding an addi- tional screening. Those discussions are still happening now.” Wild Bunch, which is handling


international sales on 360, had no comment on the delay. TIFF also encountered some


sound problems during the world premiere of 360 on Friday, causing screenwriter Peter Morgan to leave the stage during the post-film Q&A. And another tech problem had also delayed Killer Elite’s press screening on Friday morning by about 30 minutes. In other sched- ule changes, Friday’s 2:15pm P&I


Hubert Boesl


screening of Markus Schleinzer’s Michael was cancelled and TIFF said a new screening would likely be added, but the schedule was unavailable at press time. Other logistical challenges at


TIFF 2011 have included a faulty escalator at Scotiabank, and the crowds and delays at the two eleva- tors in the packed Bell Lightbox. Taking the stairs is not always a viable option — Screen encoun- tered one sales agent who had been locked in a stairwell for 15 minutes on Saturday. “We had to react to the volume


of people going to the sixth floor for press conferences and also the event space,” Bailey said. “Once we saw issues, we responded to it. I think it’s running better now.” Bailey apologised for the issues


but did point out they were iso- lated incidents. “We have more than 300 screenings. The over- whelming majority of those are running quite smoothly.”


REVIEWS Globetrotters Fernando Meirelles journeys around the world in 360 » PAGE 6


Trouble in paradise George Clooney gives his best performance to date in Hawaii-set The Descendants » PAGE 8


SCREENINGS What to see today » START PAGE 21


PROFILE Talkin’ bout a revolution Tamer Ezzat discusses Tahrir 2011: The Good, The Bad And The Politician » PAGE 30


Canada’s Starbuck heads eOne slate


BY JEREMY KAY eOne Films International chief Charlotte Mickie anticipates a strong turnout for tomorrow’s screening of Canadian festival entry Starbuck. Ken Scott’s Quebecois hit comedy


stars Patrick Huard, Julie Le Breton and Antoine Bertrand in the story of a 42-year-old eternal teenager who learns he has fathered 533 children following a sperm-bank deposit years earlier. The fi lm, which eOne acquired for Canada through its Christal deal in Quebec, also screens on Wednesday and Thursday. eOne Films International’s pres-


tige slate includes Guy Maddin’s festival entry Keyhole starring Jason Patric as a gangster who returns home after a long absence. Isabella Rossellini and Udo Kier round out the cast. Mickie is also talking up The


Hunter, a thriller from Daniel Net- theim starring Willem Dafoe as a mercenary who accepts an assign- ment to hunt down a fabled beast in Tasmania and is sucked into a family mystery. Sam Neill and Frances O’Connor also star. Rounding out the slate are


George Clooney entertains journalists at a press conference yesterday for his second film here in Toronto, The Descendants, directed by Alexander Payne. The previous night he walked the red carpet for The Ides of March, which he directed and in which he also stars.


Susan Youssef ’s Palestinian film Habibi, a forbidden-love drama set in the West Bank starring Maisa Abdelhadi, Kais Nashef and Najwa Mubarki, and Julia Leigh’s Cannes entry Sleeping Beauty with Emily Browning.


ISSUE 3


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