The 35th Toronto International Film Festival is upon us once again. The browning of leaves and shortening of evenings heralds the start of the annual event which this year takes place between Thursday, September 9th and Friday the 19th. In the run up to the 2010 festival we spoke with the Irish filmmakers behind the five projects chosen to screen at the event including ‘As If I Am Not There’s’ director Juanita Wilson; ‘Sensation’s producer Katie Holly; ‘Essential Killing’s producer Andrew Lowe; ‘Lapland Odyssey’s producer Dominic Wright and ‘The Pipe’s director Risteard O’Domhnaill.
Following on from last year’s success there will be a strong Irish presence at Toronto again this year. Last year saw seven projects from Irish filmmakers screening at the event and this year Ireland will be represented by five features.
Juanita Wilson's As If I Am Not There |
As part of TIFF’s Contemporary World Cinema Programme, Tom Hall (Wide Open Spaces) will see his latest feature, ‘Sensation’ receive its international premiere. The film details the relationship between Tipperary farmer Donal Duggan, played by Domhnall Gleeson (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) and a veteran Kiwi escort, played by Luanne Gordon (King Kong). They begin as client and call girl, evolve into something like lovers, then business partners and finally co-defendants. ‘Lapland Odyssey’ will also receive its world premiere in the same strand. The Irish/Finnish/Swedish co-production is from Ireland’s Ripple World Pictures, Finland’s Helsinki Filmi Oy and Sweden’s Anagram Produktion company. The feature, directed by Dome Karukoski (Forbidden Fruit) is a comedic and romantic road movie.
Jerzy Skolimowski’s ‘Essential Killing’ will be shown as part of the event’s Masters group which aims to deliver to audiences the latest projects from the world’s greatest filmmakers. ‘Essential Killing’, co-produced by Irish outfit Element Pictures, is a provocative thriller that tells the story of an Afghan man, played by Vincent Gallo (Arizona Dream) who is captured by American forces in Kabul, who finds himself transported to a nameless European country.
Junaita Wilson's feature debut, 'As If I Am Not There' will screen in the Discovery section of the festival. The Bosnian war drama, adapted from a book by Slavenka Drakulic, follows the story of Samira, a young teacher who finds her life turned on its head the day a young soldier walks uninvited into her kitchen and she is sent to a concentration camp. It’s produced by James Flynn (King Arthur) and Nathalie Lichtenthaler (Cowboys and Angels) for Octagon Films and Wide Eye Films respectively.
Finally, Irish feature documentary ‘The Pipe’ will screen as part of the Real to Reel section. Directed by Risteard O'Domhnaill (Shtax: A Homecoming), the doc centres around the renowned Irish Shell to Sea protest. The Toronto festival takes place from the 9th to the 19th of September. Produced by Rachel Lysaght (Identities) for Scannaín Inbhear, the project was co-financed by the IFB/BSÉ and TG4 and was edited by Nigel O’Regan & Stephen O’Connell (West is West).
Risteard O'Domhnaill's The Pipe |
IFTN chatted to some of the filmmakers behind this year’s chosen projects to get their thoughts on the opportunities that a Toronto screening may lead to and whether they see the event as merely a chance to share their work with an international audience or as a way of securing a Canadian or American release in the coming months.
Katie Holly plans to go over on Friday, September 10th, joined by Tom Hall, producer Kieron J Walsh and some of the cast including Domhnall Gleeson, Patrick Ryan and Kelly Campbell. She sees Toronto as a fantastic platform for sales conversations. “As a festival it’s very well attended by industry members,” she tells us. “And while we don’t have a sales agent going into the festival there is already a lot of interest and we’d hope to secure a sales agent, if not at the festival itself then from follow up that comes directly out of it. It’s also a key place for other film festival programmers to screen the film and we’re also targeting a number of these for our screenings.”The producer already has a number of meetings scheduled in for the upcoming event which will look at both ‘Sensation’ and the group’s other feature, ‘Citadel’.
Risteard O’Domhnall is of the same mind and left for Toronto on September 7th with producer Rachel Lysaght. The pair, have undoubtedly launched into action to further promote their already well-known doc in Canada. “There’s great interest in it over there,” the director explains, “and it gets good media interest too because we’ve a publicist working for us over there, which you kinda have to do or it’ll get lost. We’re hoping to generate interest and raise the profile of the film in the media – we already have a few TV and radio interviews organised which is pretty good.”
Essential Killing |
Juanita, who journeys over to her first Toronto festival experience on September 13th is equally geared up to promote ‘As If I Am Not There’, aware as she is of the event’s importance: “There’s so much going on and, never having gone before, I only know the festival by reputation – everything I’ve heard about it is really positive and they seem to take film really seriously. So it’s a real honour to have been chosen especially for me because it’s my first feature and it’s amazing to have it shown at such a public platform. And it’s a great opportunity because there will be so many people over there - people who have asked about coming to the screenings, people who requested pre-screeners and meetings. I believe Toronto is one of the best markets as well as being a great festival and that exposure helps independent films like this one enormously.”
‘Essential Killing’ producer Andrew Lowe has already made the journey to Toronto with projects such as ‘Cracks’ last year and knows exactly what to expect. “I’ve been through it a few times at this stage and I always enjoy it because, as a market and as a festival, it’s really well organised.” He is also looking forward to the networking opportunities that Toronto presents its attendees with: “Toronto is a great place to keep an eye on up and coming projects,” he explains. “It’s also one of the best places to meet up with people you’d like to work with in the future and it’s a chance to catch up with people you’ve worked with it the past.”
A demanding production schedule means that Ripple World Picture’s Dominic Wright and Jacqueline Kerrin are unable to attend this year’s event. “We’d love to go and we totted up the logistics to see if there was any way of us getting over but we just wrapped on ‘Istanbul’ and we’re in prep with a new feature that will shoot later this month so there’s no way,” Dominic tells us. The feature will be well-represented though – the director Dome Karukoski and producer Aleksi Bardy (Playground) will be in attendance and ‘Lapland Odyssey’ and Ripple World’s other recent co-production, ‘Parked’ will be promoted at the festival: “It’s being sold by Yellow Affair,” explains the producer. “It’s a company that launched at Cannes that’s fronted by Miira Paasilinna formerly of Nonstop Films. She’s overseeing the press for us. There’ll be a reception after the premiere on Friday and she’s also going to be selling ‘Parked’– we’re just introducing it to the market now with flyers etc.”
Lapland Odyssey |
As to how the Toronto audience will react to the Irish projects screening, all our filmmakers are quietly confident that their respective projects will have the desired effect. ‘The Pipe’ has already enjoyed its first nod from North American audiences, as Risteard tells us: “It’ll be its first screening since the Fleadh and it’s really the first screening it’ll have to a non-home crowd – Galway was a very understanding crowd. That said, there were some Canadians and Americans at the screening in Galway and they really got it and seemed to connect with it emotionally.”
Juanita is interested to see how the audience will take her challenging feature: “‘As If I Am Not There’ is based on the war in Bosnia so it’s an international story anyway, but it’ll be interesting to see how an audience outside of Europe will react – to see if they have a slightly different perspective on it. And I’m excited to see their reaction because I think the TIFF audience is a very good cinema audience. It’s the film’s first major screening, it’ll be nerve-wracking and exciting – it’s based on a true story, and quite a hard one to take for a lot of people so that’ll be interesting too.”
Another Toronto first-timer, Katie Holly is excited at the prospect of getting stuck in to the event: “It’s the first time for me to go over,” she starts. “And it’s great to be going over with a film. Of course, Kieron was there a few years back with ‘When Brendan Met Trudy’ so it’s great for him to be heading over again as a producer with a film. I can’t wait to see the film with the Toronto audience and also to meet with other filmmakers and industry people over there. There’ll be early mornings as well as lots of socialising so it’s an exciting time!”
Andrew has been very content with how his previous projects have performed in front of the Toronto audience in the past, telling us that: “Toronto is a great place to screen work because, as I’ve already said, it’s so well organised and also because all the screenings are really well attended. The Canadian audience is also one of the most enthusiastic groups I’ve ever come across. Furthermore I think the North American audience will be interested in the tough subject of our film – there’s a theme of the American policy in there which they will relate to very much.” Dominic is also confident the Canadian audience will have no problems in identifying with Ripple World’s co-production: “The interesting thing with something like ‘Lapland Odyssey’ is that we sincerely hope and feel that it’ll play well to a Canadian audience because in Northern Finland they’re huge hockey fans and, along with the ice and snow, it really matches Canada perfectly.”
Dominic is also acutely aware of the power of Toronto when it comes to promotion of independent work: “Toronto is truly the gateway to North America,” he states. “And especially for most independent European films - it’s a great place where you can get your foot in the door for American distribution which is the whole aim of this.
It’s the common aim, as Risteard demonstrates: “We want the distributors to take notice and to realise that this is something that will travel and that there will be an audience for it,” he says, and his sentiments are echoed further by Katie: “The hope is that we can secure some interest for the film from other territories and, hopefully, secure some invitations to other key film festivals. Obviously the trade reviews are also key so it will be nerve wracking opening them the mornings after the premiere...”
Furthermore, all those attending are keen to support their fellow Irish filmmakers. “I just hope we also get a chance to see some other films,” Katie says. “It’s a very full and interesting line-up and so great that ‘The Pipe’ and ‘As If I Am Not There’ have also been selected. And of course Domhnall Gleeson also features in ‘Never Let Me Go’ which I would love to try and catch.” Dominic also mentions the young actor, stating simply that: “He shall be having a very good Toronto.”
‘The Pipe’ gets a mention from Juanita who describes it as “a story that everyone can relate to.” The director is also looking forward to meeting some of the other Irish producers and directors: “Unfortunately we don’t know each other very well,” she says. “But what can happen is that you’ll bump into other filmmakers at screenings and I often find that you know and really like someone’s work so it’s really great when you get to meet them. And a celebration, like Toronto will be – that’s the best place to meet people.”
On the other hand, Risteard admits he is somewhat out of the loop when it comes to the other documentary project’s screening at the festival: “I don’t really know what’s on yet,” he tells us. “I don’t even get to watch anything while I’m at home so I’ll wait and see. People ask me if I’ve seen various other documentaries but I’ve been holed away in Mayo for the last few years and the world has kinda passed me by!”
The Irish features will be enjoy additional support in the form of the Irish Film Board’s production executive Alan Maher and CEO, Simon Perry who will be participating in the event’s Producers Lab. The Lab which takes place September 10th - 12th will look to bring together 24 European and Canadian producers with the aim of facilitating and increasing international co-productions and fostering the distribution of European films in Canada as well as Canadian films in Europe. ‘Belonging to Laura’ and ‘Snap’ producer, Martina Niland from Samson Films Ltd. & Accomplice TV will be one of twelve European participants taking part in the three day event.
Perry who is also president of ACE (Ateliers du Cinema Europeen) will be looking at European and Canadian film funds along with Micel Pradier, director of project financing at Telefilm Canada, and will also lead the discussion at the Financing Sessions, analysing Canadian English and French language projects co-produced with European partners. The Producers Lab is organised by European Film Promotion in collaboration with the Ontario Media Development Corp. and the Toronto International Film Festival.
- For a full list of the screening times and locations of both the Irish and international projects visit http://www.tiff.net/filmsandschedules/tiff/2010/
- Juanita Wilson will be keeping a diary of her first experience of the Toronto Film Festival which will be published on IFTN following her return.
