Wrapping Toronto.

No, no, not "wrapping" as in "the last word." Not by any means. But, even though not a lot of emphasis is put on awards in Toronto, that doesn't mean none are given at all. IndieWIRE's got a list of seven and mentions a few runners-up.

These awards signal that it's time for an entry gathering pointers to the overview-type pieces that have already begun appearing and will likely carry on appearing for the next few days. Meantime, I've been having a blast sorting through reviews, shaping entries and marveling (appreciatively, I should say) at the many varied ways critics can disagree. Look for those entries in the coming days as well.

"More than any other major festival, Toronto makes clear the divide between those movies that matter aesthetically and intellectually - think the work of Hou Hsiao-hsien, the Dardenne brothers and Gus Van Sant - and those movies that matter largely because of their awards potential and the presumed interest to what remains of the discriminating, adult audience," writes Manohla Dargis in the New York Times. "Think The Queen, Good Night, and Good Luck and any number of films nominated for best picture in recent years."

"The party’s over, but Hollywood’s marketing campaigns have only just begun," Stephen Garrett reminds us, blogging for Esquire. "Ever since 1999’s American Beauty went from a Toronto world premiere to scooping the Academy Award for Best Picture six months later, Canada’s September bacchanal of film has been the unofficial starting gun for kudos season."

Time's Richard Corliss and Susan Canto celebrate a landmark year for Midnight Madness: "This was where to find Peter Jackson before The Lord of the Rings (with Meet the Feebles and Braindead). James Wan launched his Saw franchise here; and Eli Roth, helmer of the Hostel horror movies, got his first international exposure with Cabin Fever.... The section, now in its 20th year, championed prime work from Tsui Hark, the Hong Kong action master, and France's Argentinian-born filmmaker Gaspar Noé, whose films might euphemistically be called depraved. The gaudily talented, impossibly prolific Takashi Miike got his start here and soon became a Madness regular."

A fun read: Ben Kenigsberg's Toronto index.

We can also look back on big and lively special sections, guides laced with blogs and audio and video and all, in the Globe and Mail, NOW Magazine, and of course, the Toronto Star.

Updates, 9/16: Tom Charity reviews the highlights for the Observer.

"What was striking was how many of the American movies on display were throwbacks to the cinema of the 60s and 70s, both in subject matter and in style," writes David Ansen in Newsweek.

Updates, 9/19: "[E]ven the grumpiest of the lot would have to admit this was a particularly strong edition of the festival - and, weirdly, it was much of the major pictures, already acquired, that showed some of the boldest risk-taking." Jason Clark wraps his TIFF at Slant.

The Chicago Reader's JR Jones caught a preview of Bill Maher and director Larry Charles's doc-in-progress, Religulous as well as, on the big screen, Jirí Menzel's Closely Watched Trains, introduced by Ken Loach: "As Loach explained, he's always been a fan of the politically oriented Czech films that predate the Prague Spring of 1968, particularly this one and Milos Forman's Loves of a Blonde (1966), but I was still fascinated that, of all the movies he might have chosen to introduce, he picked this buoyant, almost giddy comedy."

"[T]he average film quality this year was better than any of the past fests I've attended," writes Darren Hughes, introducing a list of his rankings.

Girish ranks the films he saw.

Andy Horbal: "11 TIFF screenings in 11 words or less."

Nathan Lee runs through his highlights in the Voice.

"There's something magical, transformative, about being in this kind of environment even with people you know well already: a stress-free openness, desire to share ideas, and travelers' fellow feeling takes over," writes Criterion editorial director Liz Helfgott, who also lists her favorite films from this year's edition.

Cheryl Eddy lacks back on the highs and lows; also in the San Francisco Bay Guardian: Midnights for Maniacs programmer Jesse Hawthorne Ficks picks six.

Variety's Anne Thompson's picks and pans.

David Poland assesses the state of indie business.

IndieWIRE indexes its coverage.

Jim Emerson puts faces to the bloggers you've been reading.

Steve lists away at the Film Experience.

Updates, 9/20: The Nashville Scene's Jim Ridley: "One Week, Seven Days, 33 Films."

More peaks and valleys from Eric Kohn in the New York Press and Josef Braun and Brian Gibson in the Vue Weekly.

Update, 9/21: "[B]ecause it arrives at the end of the festival cycle, Toronto is a way to assess the state of the world right now," writes Patrick Z McGavin at Stop Smiling.

Henry Sheehan's Toronto ranged from blah to rah - read about it in the LA CityBeat.

Updates, 9/22: "Simply put, Toronto is closest we have to a single (if expansive) snapshot of the state of international cinema of the 'moment' (that moment stretching back to the Cannes Film Festival in May)," blogs Sean Axmaker for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. "The line-up is an invigorating balance of elegance and egalitarianism, Hollywood class and indie ambition, international masters and daring young turks."

"In the foreign-language offerings at Toronto, three of the founding members of the French New Wave - Jacques Rivette, Claude Chabrol and Eric Rohmer - had the North American premieres of their new films." And so these are the films Patrick Z McGavin concentrates on in the second part of his Toronto report for Stop Smiling.

John Ortved's got an overview for Vanity Fair.

"[T]he actual workings of the festival offer fascinating insight into some of our contemporary social and intellectual problems as well as the possibility of overcoming them," writes David Walsh at the WSWS.

Update, 9/24: Dan Sallitt's posted a TIFF top ten.

Posted by dwhudson at September 15, 2007 4:02 PM