Toronto Film Festival

If Cannes is, still, the Queen of Festivals, then the Toronto Film Festival may have emerged, with the programming of this 11th year, as the feisty princess. It is an enormously popular, heavily attended public festival that has given its North American audiences an arresting cross section of the world's films.

It was September 2010 and anticipation for Dustin Lance Black's directorial debut at the Toronto International Film Festival was running high. A year earlier, the "Milk" screenwriter had made a splash at the Oscars with his moving acceptance speech touching on the difficulty of growing up gay, transforming him into a hero for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. Now, his Southern-set film, "What's Wrong With Virginia" - starring Jennifer Connelly and Ed Harris - was unspooling in Toronto's special presentation section alongside the works of Danny Boyle, John Sayles and Clint Eastwood.

For Jason Reitman and the Coen brothers, the Toronto International Film Festival is like coming home -- all found their footing here when their first movies were embraced by this audience, as well as the pictures that have come since. This year, they're examining men in suits and their troubled souls: Reitman in "Up in the Air" and Joel and Ethan Coen with "A Serious Man." George Clooney in Reitman's movie and Michael Stuhlbarg in the Coen brothers' film play characters cut from the same cloth: men who set courses for their lives who are now forced to dig deeper just when they thought they had things figured out. These are locked-down lives where suits and ties are really not optional and answers don't come easily, though, if truth be told, they'd much rather the questions had never been raised.

'Salmon Fishing' catches on "Salmon Fishing in the Yemen" reeled in a healthy number of moviegoers at the box office this last weekend. The drama about a scientist and a consultant on a mission to bring fly-fishing to the Middle East opened in 18 theaters and collected $240,000 domestically, according to an estimate from distributor CBS Films. That amounted to a respectable per-theater average of $13,333. The film, starring Emily Blunt and Ewan McGregor, attracted an older female audience— 71% of the crowd was over 50 and 61% were women.

Japanese filmmaker Takeshi Kitano's "Zatoichi," the story of a mythical blind swordsman, and Denys Arcand's "The Barbarian Invasions" took top awards at the Toronto International Film Festival. Based on one of the most popular characters in Japanese movies, "Zatoichi" won the festival's People's Choice award, voted on by regular moviegoers at the Sept. 4-13 event.

FILMMAKERS are suckers for a true story. It feels like most of the movies I've seen at the Toronto Film Festival this year are based on, inspired by or somehow fueled by a true story. Once you get directors talking, they're always boasting about how much research and reportage they've done on their true-life characters. And then there's Phillip Noyce, the veteran Australian director whose new film, "Catch a Fire," has been one of the marvels of the festival.

The Toronto International Film Festival kicked off Thursday and already, Canada's largest city is awash with celebrities, Oscar predictions and political controversy. The paparazzi are primed for the red carpet arrivals of A-list stars including Penelope Cruz, Brad Pitt and Russell Crowe. Several hyped films, including a remake of the classic "All the King's Men" and a Robert F. Kennedy biopic, are expected to begin their long push toward the Academy Awards.

Director Rob Reiner's latest film "The Princess Bride" was a lonely American honoree among mostly Canadian award-winners at the Toronto Film Festival. The festival's jury, announcing the prizes Sunday, gave "Princess Bride" the Labatt's Award for the most popular film as voted by the audiences. The Toronto-CITY-TV Award, worth $25,000 (Canadian), went to Atom Egoyan for his "Family Viewing," while Kay Armitage won the Canadian Award for her film "Artist on Fire."

Times critic Sheila Benson has every right to say that the movie "The Outside Chance of Maximilian Glick" may not live up to whatever standards she sets, but she is wrong in saying that it has vanished from sight since winning the Best Canadian Film Award over "Dead Ringers" at the 1988 Toronto Film Festival. "Max Glick" went on to win the most popular film award at the Vancouver Film Festival and the Innovation in Feature Filmmaking Award at the Montreal Film Festival and to considerable audience response at the Jerusalem Film Festival.

A British cable network plans to broadcast a controversial new film that depicts the fictional assassination of President George W. Bush. The head of More4 says it will air "Death of a President," by British filmmaker Gabriel Range, on Oct. 9. The film makes its premiere at the prestigious Toronto Film Festival on Sept. 10. So far, no one has picked up the rights to show the 90-minute movie in the U.S.

Reporting from Toronto — The blood was boiling at the Toronto International Film Festival this week, where the movies were dark and brooding, with filmmakers churning up a world of turmoil out of our discontent. I say our discontent because more often than not, the movies reflect the collective ethos, rather than stir it up. If the filmmakers are reading us right, we have moved beyond merely being worn down by war, politics, the economy and institutions (including marriage); we're of a mind to go rogue.

A roundup of entertainment headlines for Friday: Bono kicks off the Toronto International Film Festival. ( Los Angeles Times ) Mel Gibson is developing a movie about a Jewish hero. ( Los Angeles Times ) Michael J. Fox's "Back to the Future Part II" Nike sneakers are coming to EBay to help fight Parkinson's disease. ( Los Angeles Times ) Movie review: "Contagion" makes the spread of a global pandemic seem more than plausible. ( Los Angeles Times )

Reporting from Toronto In 2008, directors Danny Boyle and Darren Aronofsky came to the Toronto International Film Festival with two unknown commodities and emerged with awards-season favorites. It looks like history is repeating itself. The filmmakers, who previously wooed awards voters with "Slumdog Millionaire" and "The Wrestler," respectively, are back this season with new films. And, as happened two years ago, both of them won goodwill and frontrunner status at Toronto, the preeminent North American film showcase that wrapped Sunday.

The Toronto International Film Festival is famous for its star-studded, Oscar-caliber lineup, but it showcases films featuring stellar turns from lesser - known performers too. Before the festival's conclusion Sunday, The Times' film staff caught up with some of the players poised to break out of this year's pack. As many stars have found, it can take a small film to finally move an actor from the side to center stage. "The First Grader," which rests heavily on Naomie Harris' slim shoulders, may be that film for her. The role of Teacher Jane — a headmistress in a rural Kenyan school who puts her job, her marriage and indeed her life on the line to fight for an 84-year-old's right to an education — captivated the 34-year-old actress when she read the script, based on a true story.

There was no comfort zone at the Toronto International Film Festival this year: The films were edgy, and the filmmakers were even edgier — but in a completely different way. Actors took dark turns as well. There was everyday dark, like Will Ferrell as a newly unemployed alcoholic in "Everything Must Go. " Nightmare dark, like Javier Bardem as a dying father in "Biutiful," Nicole Kidman as a grieving mother in "Rabbit Hole" and Robin Wright as a suspected traitor in "The Conspirator.

Kevin Spacey thought he understood Jack Abramoff — until he began visiting the disgraced lobbyist in prison. "I read what everyone read about him, and then I started reaching out to him, and it was two different people," Spacey recalled. "On the one hand he's funny, almost comedian-like funny, and you can see how he owned a room. And then you look at what they said about him and he's the devil incarnate. And then there's the facts. " Spacey plays the colorful, morally compromised lobbyist in "Casino Jack," a film about the K Street scandal that will have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on Thursday, and is emerging as one of the festival's hotter entries.

World premieres of movies featuring Academy Award winners Kevin Spacey and Helen Hunt were among the titles announced Tuesday for next month's Toronto Film Festival.

Asger Leth doesn't especially look crazy or suicidal. But after I saw his new documentary, "Ghosts of Cite Soleil," which debuted at the Toronto Film Festival before a packed house Saturday night, I had my doubts.

John Carpenter needed a break. It was 2001, and his latest film, the outer space thriller "Ghosts of Mars," had just flopped — at the box office and with critics. Creatively stymied and just plain exhausted by Hollywood and the moviemaking process, the director decided it was time to step away from the camera. "I'd always sworn to myself when it stopped being fun I'd stop, and it stopped," Carpenter said over a recent lunch of pasta and Winstons in Beverly Hills. "I was really burned out. And it doesn't help when your movie tanks.

Four years ago, a controversial British film called "Death of a President" stormed into the Toronto International Film Festival. The media was abuzz about its premise, which imagined that George W. Bush had been assassinated and Dick Cheney had ascended to the presidency. It became the hottest ticket of the festival that year and inspired intense debate about the limits of artistic and political expression — before fizzling in commercial release. Toronto, the preeminent North American gathering for top-tier filmmakers that starts Thursday and runs through next weekend, generates more heat and contention than almost any other festival.