Toronto Film Festival

By now you will all have read the list of films playing at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival. By now you will also know which films you want to get some positive buzz and which you want to sink without trace. You may even be a bit of an oscar watcher and will be waiting for those first reviews to change your predictions.

Because, as sad as this is to admit, Toronto is the unofficial start of the awards season - of the 249 features showing at the festival at least 30-40 will have hopes of getting some traction going for the all important golden man.

Some of them will succeed - last year Michael Clayton, Atonement, No Country for Old Men and Juno played there - that is not to say that without Toronto a film can't succeed merely that it can help. Toronto is unlikely to make or break a campaign but it can be a major positive or negative step.

I won't bore you will my predictions of which films will be in those final ballots but I would like to draw attention to two films premiering at Toronto that are unlikely to get much further but may still be worth a peek. I have selected these films because they were oringinally on my radar for 2009 but have moved up to 2008, it's a brave move and I wish them well.

Who do you Love is the story of Leonard Chess who's record company popularised Blues in the 50's and 60's with a roster of acts that include the great Muddy Waters. New York, I Love You is the US answer to Paris, je t'aime comprising of 13 shorts celebrating the different aspects of life in the Big Apple, with a collection of actors to make your brain pop.

These two films probably couldn't be more tonally apart but it's thanks to TIFF that someone be able to watch them both within 5 days of each other. How fantastic is that.