TIFF 2006

• TIFF 2006 - 31st Toronto International Film Festival
  Sept 7-16 2006 - Official website

Programmes range from Canadian cinema, Documentary, Contemporary World Cinema (partly from Sundance, Berlin, Cannes and Venice), Short films, Avant Garde and a series of lectures with projected films by other filmmakers. Tallying up to 352 films from 61 countries.

I've already seen 23 films (updated) in Paris from this long list. And my recommendations go as follow, roughly by preference order (check numbered links for external reviews, and the hyperlinked titles are my reviews) :

• MUST-SEE : Lights in the Dusk (Kaurismäki) [vdo 1 2 3 4 5]; Fantasma (Alonso) [1 2 3 4]; Climates (Ceylan) [www vdo 1 2 3 4 5 6 7]; 12:08 East of Bucharest (Porumboiu) [1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10]; Ten Canoes (Rolf de Heer) [www 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10]; Flandres (Bruno Dumont) [www 1 2 3 4 5]
• WORTHWHILE : The Way I Spent the End of the World (Catalin Mitulescu) [1 2 3 4 5 6 7]; 2:37 (Thalluri) [www 1 2 3 4 5 6 7]; Summer '04 (Krohmer) [1 2 3 4]; Invisible Waves (Ratanaruang); Volver (Almodóvar) [www vdo 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9]; La Tourneuse de Pages (Dercourt); Drama/Mex (Naranjo) [1 2 3 4]; Taxidermia (Pálfi) [www vdoFR vdo 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11]; Bamako (Sissako) [www 1 2 3]; Renaissance (Volckman) [1 2 3]; The Caiman (Moretti) [www vdo 1 2 3 4 5]; Grbavica (Jasmila Zbanic); The Wind That Shakes the Barley (Ken Loach) [vdo 1 2 3 4 5]
• DON'T BOTHER : Paris, Je t'Aime (omnibus) [www vdo 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9]; Retrieval (Fabicki) [1 2 3 4 5]; Trance (Villaverde) [www 1 2]; Congorama (Falardeau) [1 2]

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But there are much more titles I wish I could watch if I was down there in Toronto. This is the top10 I'm really looking forward to (whenever they get distribution in Paris) :

1. Colossal Youth / Juventude Em Marcha (Pedro Costa) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
2. Hana (Hirokazu Kore-eda) 1
3. I Don't Want to Sleep Alone (Tsai Ming-liang) www 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
4. Syndromes and a Century (Apichatpong Weerasethakul) www 1 2 3
5. Nachtstück (Peter Tscherkassky)
6. Woman on the Beach (Hong Sang-soo)
7. Dong (Jia Zhangke) DOC 1 2 3
8. Roads of Kiarostami / Farsh-e Irani (Abbas Kiarostami)
9. Red Road (Andrea Arnold) vdo 1 2 3 4
10. Chronicle of an Escape / Buenos Aires 1977 (Israel Adrián Caetano) www
11. Still Life (Jia Zhang-ke) 1 2 3 4 5

Then

• Summer Palace (Lou Ye) vdo 1 2
• Golden Door (Emanuele Crialese)
• Manufactured Landscapes (Baichwal) DOC
• Offside / Hors Jeu (Jafar Panahi) 1 2 3 4
• The Postmodern Life of My Aunt (Ann Hui)
• Hamaca Paraguaya (Paz Encina) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
• Remembering Arthur (Martin Lavut) DOC
• Very Nice, Very Nice (Arthur Lipsett)
• The Fountain (Darren Aronofsky)
• Babel (Alejandro González Iñárritu) vdo 1 2 3
• Rescue Dawn (Werner Herzog) 1 2 3
• Time (Kim Ki-duk)
• Black Book / Zwartboek (Paul Verhoeven) www 1 2 3 4 5 6
• Cœurs (Alain Resnais) www 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
• Belle toujours (Manoel de Oliveira) 1 2 3
• Day Night Day Night (Julia Loktev) 1 2
• Jindabyne (Ray Lawrence) 1 2 3 4 5
• The Violin / El Violin (Francisco Vargas Quevedo) 1 2 3 4 5 6
• The Bothersome Man / Den Brysomme Mannen (Jens Lien) 1 2 3
• To Get to Heaven First You Have to Die (Djamshed Usmonov) 1
• These Girls / El Banate dol (Tahani Rached) DOC 1
• When The Levees Broke: A Requiem In Four Acts (Spike Lee) DOC
• Brand Upon the Brain! (Guy Maddin)
• Iran: Une Révolution cinématographique (Nader Takmil Homayoun) DOC
• Psychiatry in Russia (Albert Maysles)
• Mon Colonel (Herbiet)
• The Pervert's Guide to Cinema (Sophie Fiennes) DOC 1 2
• Requiem (Hans Christian Schmidt) 1 2
• Times and Winds (Reha Erdem) 1 2 3
• Half Moon (Bahman Ghobadi) www 1 2
• Pan's Labyrinth (Guillermo del Torro) 1 2
  

Great pre-festival discussion at Girish in the comments section (155 comments so far!)
Also my 3 top choices get mentionned on the Toronto Star in Peter Howell's article 49 buzzed-about movies (Sept. 2 2006), thanks to Ray at tiffreviews. And the Toronto Star critics selection from 80 films previewed : Fest Quest: What to see

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Online cinephile reports from TIFF :

• Girish (Girish Shambu) 0 1 2
• Film Journey (Doug Cummings) 0 1 2 3
• The Evening Class (Michael Guillen) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
• Long Pauses (Darren Hughes) 0 1 2 3
• Framing Device (J. Robert) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
• Like Anna Karina's Sweater (Filmbrain) 1
• Culture Space (Michael S. Smith) 1 2 3
• Paste Magazine (Robert Davis)
• GreenCineDaily Dispatch (David d'Arcy) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
• Scanners (Jim Emerson) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
• davekehr (Dave Kehr) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
• Not Coming To A Theatre Near You 1 2 3 4
• The A.V. Club at TIFF

And hopefully some podcast or YouTube videos from the festival by the inside bloggers...

Resources :

• GreenCineDaily Reviews 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
• tiffreviews blogs / forum / YouTube clips from TIFF Q&A's
• Official TIFF website blogroll
• Twitch's One Stop TIFF Trailer Shop