TIFF 2024: The best (Tragically Hip!), weirdest (Roz & Mocha), and most awkward (Shingrix?) film festival moments

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The Globe and Mail’s film festival writers present the highs, lows and all the moments in between from this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, which wraps up this Sunday.

Best Accidental Trends

Every year, there are a number of TIFF films that just so happen to line up with one another, whether by theme, cast, or shared affection for shock. By my cursory tally, there were at least two films about couples in the near-future undergoing tests to determine facets of their personal lives (The Assessment and All of You); three films in which the genre of body-horror is used to explore the extremes of contemporary beauty standards (The Substance, Nightbitch, Shell); two films in which marquee actors playing feral island-dwellers go full frontal (Jude Law in Eden and Ralph Fiennes in The Return); and two animated films in which their heroes navigate worlds either abandoned by or bereft of humans (Flow and The Wild Robot). Apparently there were two more films that both pivoted on the the hallucinogenic powers of toads. Or perhaps that is just the naturally trippy sensation you experience after 11 straight days of movie-marathoning. Barry Hertz

Weirdest Missed Opportunity

In its inaugural outing as the presenting sponsor of the festival, Rogers had every opportunity to showcase what a creative and innovative media powerhouse it was via the one piece of marketing that every single festival-goer would see: the preshow ad. Yet perhaps not realizing the opportunity the company had, Rogers ran the single worst piece of marketing material in recent TIFF memory: a magnificently boring spot in which Roz and Mocha, hosts of the morning show on Toronto radio station KiSS 92.5 (owned by Rogers Radio) exchanged dead-eyed banter about voting for the fest’s People’s Choice Award. The material is delivered with all the wit and verve of two pylons, evoking nostalgia for the extremely silly (but enjoyably campy) Zendaya and Anne Hathaway Bulgari ads from the past two years. Perhaps there were more than the two distressingly blah Roz and Mocha spots circulating than the ones I saw, but one thing was for sure: neither elicited a single charitable chuckle from the TIFF crowd, who are notoriously generous in their enthusiasm. B.H.

Best Cinematic Papa

Alfonso Cuarón is one of my favourite directors, but his 1995 film A Little Princess holds a special place in my family – we watched it a lot during a tough period, and the scene where Sara reunites with her papa never failed to make me cry. On Saturday at the AppleTV+ cocktail party, I got to thank him. He lit up, and said it was the one he loved best, too. Then I yelled, “Sara!” and he yelled, “Papa!” and we grinned at each other like kids. Skull emoji. Johanna Schneller

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Best Anniversary

My wedding anniversary is Sept. 9, but since I began covering TIFF in 1998, my husband and I have rarely spent it together. This year, however, we both got tickets to Short Cuts 2024 Programme 4, and for nine shimmering minutes, we watched a short that our daughter produced, the beautiful On a Sunday at Eleven, directed by Alicia K. Harris. Happy 35th, honey. J.S.

Worst Reunion

My first official press and industry screening, 9:30 Thursday morning, was Oh, Canada, director Paul Schrader’s reunion with actor Richard Gere, 44 years after the film that made them both famous, American Gigolo. Oh Paul, oh Richard. Oh dear. I rarely walk out of films, but an hour in this morass was enough. J.S.

Worst, But Also Best, Access

For the past few years (pandemic, actor and writer strikes), interviews at film festivals were thin on the ground. Journalists at the just-concluded Venice Film Festival posted an open letter decrying their lack of access to talent, and at TIFF, many of my interviews this year were what we call two-on-ones (me asking questions of a director and star, or two stars), rather than the successive one-on-ones we used to get. That said, many people rallied to give me some pretty transcendent moments: I talked to Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh about grief, and Barry Keoghan about fatherhood; spent half an hour gazing into Juliette Binoche’s face; was entranced by the Irish director Sinead O’Shea and the Dutch director Halina Reijn; and got a Rome restaurant recommendation from Isabella Rossellini. To the publicists from Elevation and VVS who performed backflips to get me both Sean Baker and Hugh Grant – drinks are on me. J.S.

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Weirdest SponCon

I know TIFF needs sponsors; every arts organization needs sponsors desperately these days. But I snorted with laughter every time I walked past the corral on King Street where people gather to watch red-carpet arrivals, under the banner reading “Fan Zone Presented by Shingrix.” I am sure that associating movie fans with a painful, blistering rash was purely accidental. J.S.

Most Sobering Moment

Exiting the Scotiabank cinema, I walked though the Russian-invasion protest that lined Richmond Street, at least 200 people holding blue-and-yellow Ukraine flags, chanting, “Peace, peace, peace.” I’d never felt a lump actually rise in my throat before, but I did then. How lucky we are, to indulge in art this way, when so many people around the world are fighting for their lives. Let’s not forget about them after the red carpets are rolled up. J.S.

Most Ironic Revenge

In Quisling – The Final Days, actor Gard B. Eidsvold plays the notorious wartime collaborator Vidkun Quisling, who ruled Norway as a Nazi puppet. Under his regime, resistance fighters were shot and Jews were sent to Auschwitz. At the international premiere of the film, Eidsvold revealed his personal connection to this history: In 1944, his father was arrested and tortured by the Norwegian police and the Nazis. Yet he relished the opportunity to play the puzzling Quisling in a film dedicated to uncovering the man’s psychology. “As an actor it was fantastic: You have to go 100 per cent into the character,” he said. Kate Taylor

Best Under-Recognized Set Designer

The Farsi-language film Seven Days, about a human-rights activist escaping Iran, is set in Tehran and in the mountains on the Iranian-Turkish border. But it was actually filmed in Georgia by Iranian exiles based in Europe: Thanks to tweaks from the set designer, Tbilisi stood in for Tehran and the mountainous region Kazbegi played the border. Along the way, the smugglers’ gritty villages and run-down farm houses are particularly convincing. Who accomplished this cinematic sleight of hand? Anonymous – presumably a person who is still working in Iran. K.T.

Best Waterworks

If you are a star and you weren’t bawling your eyes out (or at least misting up) at your film’s premiere, do I even want to go see your movie? Whether on the red carpet or during a postscreening onstage appearance, emotional moments were displayed by Elton John (Never Too Late), Jennifer Lopez (Unstoppable), Florence Pugh (We Live in Time), Robbie Williams (Better Man), Jamie Lee Curtis (The Last Showgirl), and Amy Adams (Nightbitch). If one ain’t crying, one ain’t trying. Brad Wheeler

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Best Ahead-By-a-Century Moment

After the afternoon premiere of The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal docuseries, the four surviving members of the legendary Canadian rock band walked out of the Royal Alexandra Theatre and into a street full of fans assembled by local vocal troupe Choir! Choir! Choir! for a singalong of band songs including Bobcaygeon, Ahead by a Century and Grace, Too. Lyric sheets were handed out, but many sang from memory, with the line, “No dress rehearsal, this is our life” ringing particularly true. B.W.

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