Toronto International Film Festival opens

Last Updated: Thursday, September 10, 2009 | 10:04 PM ET

CBC News

A crew member makes last minute adjustments to the red carpet outside Roy Thomson Hall, home of the Toronto International Film Festival's gala screenings. (Chris Young/Canadian Press)Toronto returns to the cinema world spotlight Thursday as the Toronto International Film Festival gets underway for 10 days of movie screenings, deal-making and celebrity-watching.

More than 330 titles from around the globe will unspool as part of the 34th edition of the annual movie-fest, known for being one of the most public film festivals on the international circuit and also as a successful launch pad and testing ground for films aspiring to the Academy Awards and other prominent year-end film honours.

"The No. 1 thing about the Toronto film fest — and it's become a cliché, but it actually is true — is it's just the best audiences in the world," Quentin Tarantino said in an interview while in Toronto in August.

"If you're looking at the Midnight Madness movies, they're here for it. If you're seeing the new Eric Rohmer [film], they're there for it. Whatever the proper audience for the movie is, the Toronto audience brings it."

This year's festival arrives at an odd crossroads, in that it is showcasing films largely made and financed before the global economic collapse, but a significant segment of which are still searching for distribution deals — possibly because of a still-anxious industry.

Industry representatives, on the other hand, are on the lookout for gems like Slumdog Millionaire, which grew from award-winning audience favourite at TIFF in 2008 to widespread critical acclaim and Oscar domination.

The festival's nearly 100 world premieres this year include anticipated Hollywood titles such as A Serious Man from Joel and Ethan Coen, Drew Barrymore's directorial debut Whip It! (featuring Canadian Ellen Page) and Jason Reitman's Up in the Air, one of two TIFF offerings starring George Clooney.

In addition to Clooney, Barrymore and Page, celebrities slated to make a red carpet appearance include Penelope Cruz (Broken Embraces), Julianne Moore (Chloe), Michael Caine (Harry Brown) and Oprah Winfrey, executive producer of another of the films with buzz this year, Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire.

"I think everyone can find something here that’s going to speak to them," festival co-director Cameron Bailey told CBC in a recent interview.

TIFF gets underway Thursday evening with the gala world premiere of the Charles Darwin drama Creation, which scored a last-minute, pre-festival distribution deal earlier this week. The festival continues through Sept. 19, closing with Quebec director Jean-Marc Vallée's royal costume drama The Young Victoria.