TIFF

Best of the fest

Our highlights of the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival

Last Updated: Saturday, September 19, 2009 | 2:47 PM ET

CBC News

The life of university professor Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg, right) falls apart in the Coen Brothers' black comedy A Serious Man. (Focus Features/TIFF)

Best film

A Serious Man. The Coens warm and fuzzy? Well, not quite, but this dark comedy about a family man in crisis does paint a fond, funny portrait of the Jewish community in 1960s Minneapolis, where the Coens grew up. It’s one of the brothers’ most lovable films and also one of their best. Seriously.

Best Canadian feature

The Trotsky. Jay Baruchel is delightfully deadpan as a teen who thinks he’s a Russian revolutionary in this high-spirited satire of radical youth. The sophomore effort of writer-director Jacob Tierney, the film has its soft spots, but its wit and originality won us over.

Best film you didn’t see

Applause. They don’t make movies like they did in the 1970s anymore, but this Danish gem comes awfully close. A bracingly intimate character study of an alcoholic actress struggling to get her life back on track, there’s nary a false note in Applause, least of all in Paprika Steen’s fearless, lived-in lead performance.

Best Toronto travelogue

Chloe. Yorkville, the ROM, the AGO, The Rivoli… Atom Egoyan’s erotic thriller is also a classy valentine to his home city. After watching it, you’ll never look at whispering couples in the Café Diplomatico the same way again.

Breakout star

Carey Mulligan shines in An Education as a gifted 16-year-old student whose planned path to Oxford gets derailed by a mysterious older man. She should expect Oscar to come calling.

Busiest talents

It seemed as if more actors than ever were in multiple films this year: George Clooney, Colin Firth and Danish brooder Mads Mikkelsen appeared in two each, as did Austin Powers vet Verne Troyer, who was spotted in films by Werner Herzog and Terry Gilliam. The combative Colin Farrell was in three flicks, but this year’s champ is Willem Dafoe, who arrived to shill an astounding four films: Antichrist, Daybreakers, L’Affaire Farewell and My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done?

Biggest scandal

TIFF’s decision to make Tel Aviv the first entry in its new City to City programme. Two films were withdrawn in protest. Two letter campaigns began, endorsed by myriad celebrities. Innumerable opinion columns were published. The result: much confusion and debate.

Second-biggest scandal

In a tame year for TIFF gossip, Jennifer Connelly found herself on the receiving end of some harsh words courtesy of John Riley, president of AstralTelevision Networks. After accusing Connelly of ditching Astral Media’s swanky Creation party, Riley proceeded to rip up a photo of the Oscar-winning starlet. But as Connelly tearfully explained at a later press conference, she was at the shindig but left early because it was the one-year anniversary of her father’s death. It made Riley look downright tacky.

Most charming performance at a press conference

George Clooney. There is something to be said for his courteous manner in facing the phalanx of reporters and cameras that greet him at every turn. He possesses an enviable ability to juggle questions that bounce from the economic reality of filmmaking today to Darfur to Obama’s heath care plan – and he gives each query its appropriate weight. When is this guy running for office?

Least charming performance at a press conference

Jason Reitman. When the producer of Jennifer’s Body snarkily scolded a TIFF moderator for a blunder right off the bat, it set the whole press conference on edge. Was Reitman’s glowering due to lack of sleep or does he hate the media?

Most ubiquitous Reitman

Ivan Reitman could have been an honourary TIFF employee this year with all of his appearances at the festival. Aside from supporting the films he produced (Atom Egoyan’s Chloe, son Jason’s Up in the Air), the movie mogul also shared his time at other events, including helping judge the annual Pitch This! contest and, reportedly, unveiling a new slate of condo suites being built in TIFF’s new, soon-to-be-completed HQ, Lightbox.

Quickest getaway

Tie. Megan Fox smouldered on the red-carpet for the late-night screening of Jennifer’s Body and delivered a few sparks at the morning-after press conference, but burned right out of the T-dot for the MTV Video Music Awards stage in Manhattan. Precious executive producer Oprah Winfrey tackled Toronto by offering an expedient promotional blitz for Lee Daniel’s raw, urban drama — press conference, interviews, red carpet and gala screening, all in a day.

Best Sean Penn moment

This honour goes to Colin Farrell, who grabbed a photographer by the neck at the Triage premiere after the shutterbug yelled at Farrell’s sister on the red carpet. While we don’t always love Farrell’s bad-boy antics, this time, we secretly cheered him on. With all of the flashbulb-popping vultures circling over the stars at TIFF, somebody was bound to do it.

Best post-Juno encores

Jason Reitman and Ellen Page. Reitman (who directed the 2007 TIFF hit Juno), Diablo Cody (who wrote it) and Page and Michael Cera (who starred), were all back at the festival this year with separate projects. Reitman scored with his new corporate comedy Up in the Air, starring George Clooney, while Page impressed us yet again as a roller-derby dame in Drew Barrymore’s Whip It. As for the efforts of Cody (Jennifer’s Body) and Cera (Youth in Revolt), the less said the better.

Biggest gaffe

The mix-up about Neil Young’s appearance at Yonge-Dundas Square is still mystifying. TIFF actually said he’d be there on Sept. 14 to help promote Jonathan Demme’s Neil Young Trunk Show, but Neil said he’d never been invited. We’ll probably never know what happened.