With so many dour and depressing dramas playing at this year's Toronto Film Festival--a couple of doozies will be reviewed shortly--two of the biggest surprises of the annual fest were dark, somber comedies. Craig Gillespie's Lars and the Real Girl (MGM), starring Ryan Gosling, came into TIFF as an underrated film with very few expectations and quickly became a crowd-pleasing favorite. On the other hand, Noah Baumbach's Margot at the Wedding (Paramount Vantage), his highly-anticipated follow-up to the 2005 critical fave The Squid and the Whale, left a lot of people wondering whether Baumbach had used up his talent on his previous award-garnering film.

The 2007 Toronto International Film Festival is over, but it wouldn't be a film festival without awards and prizes and though the competition at TIFF isn't something on which a lot of focus is placed, the awards reception today put the spotlight on a number of notable Canadian films and filmmakers. It probably wasn't too much of a coincidence that the Cadillac People's Choice Award was won by a hometown boy, as Toronto's own David Cronenberg took that honor with his new movie Eastern Promises (which conveniently opened yesterday), narrowly defeating Jason Reitman's crowd-pleasing Juno, starring Ellen Page.

You can read the full list of awards presented after the jump.

Continuing the trend that every movie I miss at a film festival is immediately bought, the latest to get picked up late in the fest is Bernie Goldmann and Melisa Wallack's Bill starring Aaron Eckhart and Jessica Alba, according to The Hollywood Reporter. I skipped this to see Death Defying Acts and haven't heard too many good things about it, but obviously, the buyers at First Look Studios must have liked what they saw, because they shelled out $3 million for the commercial comedy about a disillusioned man who mentors a young boy (Logan Lerman) after finding that his wife (Elizabeth Banks) is cheating on him.

It's also been reported that THINKFilm picked up Stuart Townshend's Battle in Seattle (which I also missed) for $2 million and The Weinstein Company paid the same amount for George Romero's Diary of the Dead, which I did see, and which you can read my mostly negative review here.

One of the better movies at the Toronto Film Festival this year was Anton Corbjin's Control about the life and death of Joy Division singer Ian Curtis. I loved the movie (you can read my review here) and I was seriously bummed that I missed TIFF's other Joy Division film, Grant Gee's documentary called merely Joy Division. Well, things are looking good that I'll get another chance because according to The Hollywood Reporter, the Weinstein Company, who brought Control to TIFF after buying it at Cannes in May, have picked up the documentary with the suggestion that fans of the seminal British post-punk band will someday be able to own a double disc DVD of the two movies. As a huge fan of the band myself, this might be some of the best news I've heard in my entire week spent in Toronto, and things are certainly looking up for the fans of this band's often gloomy music.

From a horror lover's point of view, one of the most anticipated movies in the Toronto Film Festival's Midnight Madness track had to be George Romero's latest zombie offering Diary of the Dead. As the filmmaker who single-handedly launched the zombie genre in 1968 with Night of the Living Dead, he's returned to that genre a number of times in the past few decades, but this is a very different beast from the studio-funded Land of the Dead.

If there's a secret to making a good British crime-thriller, a strong script and a good cast would probably be the best place to start. It also doesn't hurt to actually have those involved be British, which is why Woody Allen's latest attempt at a British crime-thriller Cassandra's Dream, starring Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell, falters worse than the flawed "remake" of Sleuth, starring Michael Caine and Jude Law. Both films played at the Toronto Film Festival, the Woody Allen movie having premiered at Cannes, and neither quite lives up to the expectations one might have when you have such strong writers and actors tackling this type of material.

What was rumored earlier in the week at the Toronto Film Festival has been confirmed, that The Weinstein Company has picked up Gillian Armstrong's long-in-deevelopment Houdini drama Death Defying Acts, starring Guy Pearce as the famed magician and escape artist. The film also stars Catherine Zeta-Jones, Timothy Spall and young Saoirse Ronan, who has made waves in Toronto with her performance in Joe Wright's Atonement.

Look for our review of Armstrong's film very soon.

Two movies with a lot of advance Oscar buzz merely from their trailers and their pedigree were the highlight of Day 4 at the 2007 Toronto Film Festival: Atonement (Focus Features) is the second movie from Pride & Prejudice director Joe Wright, while Elizabeth: The Golden Age (Universal) is a sequel (of sorts) to Shekhar Kapur and Cate Blanchett's triumphant Oscar-nominated 1998 film. (It was nominated for 7 Academy Awards, winning only one for make-up.) The fact that they're both produced by Working Title Films makes one think they're hedging their bets as is Universal, who while distributing the latter is also the parent company for the former.

Continuing to be so swamped with screenings and interviews that I've had very little time to write, but this morning, I caught a Weinstein Company double feature, Woody Allen's Cassandra's Dream (eh.) and Todd Haynes' Dylan movie I'm Not There (great!), both which were greatly delayed due to technical problems. (Cassandra started nearly 55 minutes after the planned start time throwing the next movie into disarray.)

After having a rare sit-down lunch with a local friend, I'm off to potentially three more screenings in a row, including the anticipated George Romero's Diary of Dead, the Asian crime drama Blood Brothers and then Paul Schrader's latest The Walker. Only the latter has distribution, being released by THINKFilm later this year.

Tomorrow morning is Reservation Road (Focus Features) starring Joaquin Phoenix, Jennifer Connelly and Mark Ruffalo, all of whom I'll be interviewing later, and I'll also be doing interviews for Kenneth Branagh's Sleuth with Michael Caine, who I've never met, and Jude Law, who I haven't interviewed in three years. Will also try to catch the international anthology Chacun son Cinema, Julian Schabel's concert film Lou Reed's Berlin and possibly the historic epic Silk, which opens on Friday.

Hope to have more to report and more reviews very soon...

Two of the goriest non-horror movies at this year's Toronto International Film Festival might not be too surprising when one takes into account the directors, David Cronenberg and The Coen Brothers, but only one of them really delivers on the goods. Both films deal with ordinary people who get caught up in the world of crime and violence, but the Coens' No Country for Old Men starring Tommy Lee Jones, Josh Brolin and Javier Bardem, is a far stronger effort than Cronenberg's Eastern Promises, which reunites him with his A History of Violence star, Viggo Mortensen.

THINKFilm has acquired all US rights to Then She Found Me, Helen Hunt's directorial debut starring Hunt, Bette Midler, Colin Firth and Matthew Broderick. TVA Films acquires all Canadian rights. The deal was completed in an overnight negotiation with several players involved following the film's World Premiere at the Toronto Film Festival.

Then She Found Me was directed by Helen Hunt. The screenplay was adapted by Hunt, Vic Levin and Alice Arlen from a novel by Elinor Lipman. It tells the funny and moving story of April Epner (Hunt) and her very unlikely path towards personal fulfillment.

A Killer Films production, the film was produced by Pamela Koffler, Katie Roumel, Christine Vachon, and Connie Tavel and Helen Hunt. The deal marks the first acquisition by THINKFilm of a Killer film. The title falls outside of the first-look deal but underscores the strong relationship between the two companies.

Notes Koffler: "Of course we love THINKFilm, but their swift action and real connection to and vision for the film is what sealed the deal."

Urman adds: "We are thrilled to be working with Killer and Helen on this thoroughly delightful film and look forward to bringing it to the widest possible audience."

And the backlog of movies to write-up continues as I'm finding that with all the running around and standing in line, it's very hard to sit down, take a breather and do some writing (not to mention the fact that I've been doing 15 to 18 hour days every day). I don't think that's going to stop very soon, although today I'm going to schedule some time to write. I'll be starting the day bright and early with Kenneth Branagh's remake of Sleuth, starring Jude Law and Michael Caine, that is if I don't cave and go to see the Joy Division documentary I've been dying to see. (In which case, I'll have to see Sleuth at 10:30 pm...ouch.)

Following that is Noah Baumbach's Margot at the Wedding, his follow-up to The Squid and the Whale starring Nicole Kidman and Mrs. Baumach aka Jennifer Jason Leigh. Going to run to do a couple interviews with director Joe Wright who helms the excellent novel adaptation of Ian McEwan's Atonement followed by a rescheduled chat with Thomas McCarthy, who's here with The Visitor.

After that is fairly open-ended although Renny Harlin's Cleaner is a definite option, and I'll see if I can squeeze in Johnnie To's Mad Detective and an animated film called Terra at 9:30pm or else I'll just use that time to write as I have about four reviews I need to finish up.

Unfortunately, I've fallen even further behind on writing-up the movies I've seen on Day 1 and 2 on TIFF due to the flaky and intermittent wireless service at the Bond Place Hotel, and I have to say that of my TIFF experience so far, my choice in hotels has been the one thing I've regretted the most, as I've spent far too much time over the last three days trying to resolve it. Seriously, if you ever come to Toronto, and the Bond Place Hotel is the only place with available rooms, I'd suggest sleeping on the street.

That be as it may, I had a pretty decent day of interviews, including one with director Anton Corbjin and Sam Riley from Control; Tony Leung, the star of Ang Lee's Lust, Caution; interviews for Cronenberg's Eastern Promises (and that review is ComingSoon, I promise!) and insanely crowded press conferences for Michael Clayton and The Assassination of Jesse James. I'm off to see Tom (The Station Agent) McCarthy's new movie The Visitor in a couple moments, but tomorrow (i.e. today) I'll be back to seeing movies from the morning to night.

First up is Craig Gillespie's Lars and the Real Girl (MGM) starring Ryan Gosling--essentially a boy meets blow-up doll comedy from the director whose 1st film Mr. Woodcock opens Friday. Hopefully, everyone else will be going to see Elizabeth: the Golden Age (Universal) tomorrow morning, although I'll be seeing the gala premiere that night.

Next up tomorrow morning is another movie that's one of my most anticipated at the fest, which is Joe Wright's Atonement starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy. I'll be talking with Joe on Monday afternoon, which I'm also looking forward to.

I have a couple interviews and then tomorrow night is all about the premiere of Elizabeth and then if I'm still alive after that, I'll be going to see the foreign horror-thriller The Passage, which I know very little about at this time. (I guess I can read the description at the link, but then again, so can you.)

Strange and Completely Irrelevant Toronto Trivia of the Day (The Return!): I noticed this the last time I was in Toronto, but all of the squirrels here seem to be black and you can see them scampering around any park. I've never seen a black squirrel anywhere else besides Toronto, and there doesn't seem to be any other color squirrel. The adventurer in me wants to try to find a way to sneak a black squirrel back to New York City in my luggage (surely, they don't check all of it!) and then start a genetic breeding experiment by letting it loose in Central Park.

You probably won't find two more different movies than two of the ones shown on Day 2 of TIFF, both press screenings shown in the largest Varsity theatre which holds 580 people. There was a lot of interest in both movies since each movie is the sophomore effort from the director of a popular debut, Rendition (New Line) being Gavin Hood's second movie after winning an Oscar with his South African crime-drama Tsotsi, and Juno (Fox Seachlight) is Jason Reitman's second movie after Thank You for Smoking, which was picked up by Fox Searchlight after the Toronto Film Festival two years ago. Both directors return to Toronto with full studio backing and movies in which their female stars are pregnant, although in Juno, the premise revolves around that pregnancy, while in Rendition, Reese Witherspoon's pregnancy is far less important to the story. More importantly than any of this is the fact that both movies star J.K. Simmons of HBO's "OZ", best known as Spider-Man's J. Jonah Jameson.

In case you hadn't noticed, I've fallen a bit behind on writing about the movies I've been seeing due to difficulty in finding time to write and finding places in downtown Toronto to get online to post--the wireless at my hotel has been a real bane on my existence the last few days, only working about fifteen minutes at a time. Because of this, I had to give up my chance of seeing Dario Argento's Mother of Tears tonight to try to catch up, and I'll have to hope I get another chance to see it next week.

Tomorrow (or today depending on when you're reading this) will be all about the interviews as I talk to the directors and cast of David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises (review coming soon!), Ang Lee's Lust, Caution, Anton Corbjin's Control and attend press conferences for Michael Clayton and The Assassination of Jesse James. If I'm not too exhausted after all that, I'll try to catch the Darfur doc Darfur Now, hoping its better than The Devil Came on Horseback and then I have to choose to see Tom McCarthy's The Visitor (which I should see as I hope to interview him) or Peter Greenaway's Nightwatching, which I kind of want to see more since I'm such a huge Greenaway fan. (I actually saw all six hours of The Tulse Luper Suitcases in one sitting...that's how big a fan I am!)

I also will hope to finish up some reviews that I haven't had a chance to finish including a few lower-key foreign films from Day 1.

Ang Lee's latest movie Lust, Caution is a period drama set during WW II China, split between Hong Kong and Shanghai, and it has a lot in common with Paul Verhoeven's recent Black Book in terms of its content, dealing with the resistance in an occupied country and a woman who does her part to fight against the enemy by infiltrating the enemy camp using her body and her sexuality. In this case, the woman is a young college co-ed played by newcomer Tang Wei and the target is China's finest actor Tony Leung Chiu Wai as Mr. Yee, a high-ranking Japanese collaborator who the resistance wants to kill as a traitor to the Chinese people. At over 2 and a half hours long, the movie is somewhat of an enigma, and I have a feeling I'll probably have to see it a second time if I really want to batten down my opinion on the movie, because I'm generally mixed about it. It's a beautifully written, acted and shot film--another masterpiece in filmmaking from Lee for sure--but it's very long and there are aspects that at first glance don't seem particularly necessary that could have easily been trimmed.

My last movie of Day 1 (having missed Persepolis) was Control (The Weinstein Company), Anton Corbjin's profile on the life of Ian Curtis, the late singer of the British post-punk band Joy Division, who took his own life at the cusp of their fame. For fans of the band such as myself, there was always an air of mystery (and even romance) behind Curtis' suicide, because he did something so deliberate at such an odd time in his life that it left many early (and even later) fans wondering why the musical output of this talented singer was cut so short.

If you're reading this, that means I've survived Day 1 at TIFF with at least part of my sanity intact, which means that I'm probably crazy enough to schedule just as busy a day tomorrow. (Saturday will probably be lighter on the movie screenings as I conduct a bunch of interviews for the movies I've already seen.)

Tomorrow is going to be tricky because it'll start with a super-early screening (8:45AM!) of Gavin Hood's Rendition, starring Reese Witherspoon, in the Varsity's biggest room (capacity 580) and I still expect it to be packed.

Next up is my most anticipated movie of the fest, the Coen Brothers' No Country for Old Men, which I expect to be mobbed despite being shown in two screening rooms simultaneously, followed at 3:30 by Jason Reitman's Juno, which I also expect to be packed considering how well Thank You for Smoking was received two years ago at the fest, and the raves that Juno received from the recent Telluride Film Fest. Oh, and it stars the ultra-cute Ellen Page, who despite her role in Hard Candy is legal.

At 8pm, I'll finally get to see my second most anticipated movie of the fest, that being David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises, which opens next week. I'll be doing interviews for this movie on Saturday morning with David Cronenberg and the cast, which I'm looking forward to, as well.

Unfortunately, this screening is a good two miles away from the rest of the screenings so I might call it a night after that, but if I'm still alive, I'll try to get to Dario Argento's Mother of Tears at 10:15, which they're screening in the theatre at the Royal Ontario Museum.

Hopefully, tomorrow will go as well as today, and keep checking back for updates as I start cranking out some reviews for movies I've already seen.

I'm sure there are going to be a lot of great movies at the Toronto International Film Festival this year, but sadly, the opening night choice, Jeremy Podeswa's adaptation of Anne Michaels' novel Fugitive Pieces, isn't one of them.

Based on the novel by Anne Michaels and clearly influenced by every single European movie about the Holocaust, it follows the life of Jakob, who was found as a young boy hiding in Poland from the Nazis that killed his parents by a Greek archaeologist (Rade Sherbedgia) and eventually winding up in Canada after being smuggled out of the country. There, he begins to establish a career as a writer and meets the beautiful Alex (Rosamund Pike), but it's a marriage that's doomed from the start as he's unable to let go of his past and get over his obsession with his missing older sister.

Tonight, the Toronto International Film Festival kicked off with its opening night feature, the premiere of Jeremy Podeswa's Fugitive Pieces about a boy found hiding in Poland after watching his family slaughtered by Nazis and who spends the rest of his life wondering what happened to his sister. Apparently, it's the tenth film by Toronto producer Robert Lantos to open TIFF.

If you read my earlier preview piece, you may have heard me kvetching about the number of movies at this year's Toronto Film Festival and how hard it would be for any one person to see more than 30 movies while up in Toronto. Thankfully, there have been early screenings for a number of the movies premiering at the fest, some of which I'll be reviewing more fully, but right now, we'll look at some of the movies I've seen which don't yet have distribution. If you're attending the film festival and any of these sound interesting, you can check for screening dates and times by clicking on the respective title below.

Hopefully, Part 2 will look at some of the movies that already have distribution, many of which will be opening in the next few weeks, although as mentioned in my Day 1 Preview, things are about to get really crazy.

Sidney Lumet turned 82 earlier this year and arguably, some might have thought his best years as a filmmaker were behind him after the dog Find Me Guilty. Then again, anyone who might be counting the director of Network and Dog Day Afternoon out of the game will be pleasantly surprised by his new crime-drama Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (THINKFilm), which features his strongest cast and work as a director in over 20 years.

By contrast, screenwriter Tony Gilroy of the "Bourne" movies is making his directorial debut with Michael Clayton, a conspiracy thriller starring George Clooney as the "fixer" of a large corporate law firm who gets caught up in a major cover-up involving a multi-billion class action lawsuit against one of the firm's biggest clients.

There's something to be said for movies that play at TIFF after debuting at the Cannes Film Festival earlier in the year, but when they also play the New York Film Festival the following month, you know there's something special at hand. That's certainly the case with these foreign language films from Spain and France respectively, both of which are likely to be included on many year's end best lists. It doesn't hurt that Juan Antonio Bayona's debut The Orphanage (Picturehouse) has Guillermo del Toro's name on it as a producer, because his Spanish language ghost movie The Devil's Backbone is a fine precursor for this horror film with a heart.

The pedigree for the French film The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Miramax) is equally impressive, starting with the fact that it's Julian Schnabel's first film since 2000's Before Night Falls, and it's based on a heart-stirring French novel adapted by Ron (The Pianist) Harwood.

This being the first year that ComingSoon.net will be covering the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival (affectionately referred to as "TIFF" by entertainment hipsters everywhere), we felt that we had to do our homework a bit more than usual to try and provide as much coverage and information on our Official Festival Blog as we could.

It was obvious to us right off the bat that there were two very distinct film festivals in play here. There's one showing the movies by big name directors with big stars that already have distributors who are using the festival to promote them, knowing that they'll have the largest group of entertainment journalists from all over the world in one place who can help their movies get attention… and then there's all the rest. Sadly, it's the latter that needs and deserves the attention--especially the docs and the foreign films--because they're the ones that need to find distribution in order to be seen by more than a festival crowd, and it's tough getting attention away from all the high profile movies with big stars and name directors. Put it this way, if you have a choice between seeing a movie starring George Clooney or Brad Pitt or seeing a little movie about kids in Queens called Chop Shop, which would you go for?

Yeah, me too, which is why Toronto has to be such a hard festival for journalists and critics to cover thoroughly, and it's so important to make good choices, since the two hours spent watching a bad movie can keep you from seeing one of the bigger films that everyone's talking about later. This was somewhat of a problem at my first Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, but it's compounded by the fact that there are a lot more studio junkets and interview opportunities in Toronto, which means some movies might have to wait until the New York Film Festival later this month.

The final programming details and line-up for this year's Toronto International Film Festival has been firmed up with a press release from TIFF that counts the number of films being shown as 349 with 55 countries being represented. Filmmakers bringing new films to the festival include Wayne Wang, Jason Reitman (Thank You For Smoking), Kenneth Branagh, Renny Harlin, and docs from Jonathan Demme and Julian Schnabel. Also, filmmaker Peter Bogdonavich will be presented with the International Federation of Film Archives (FIAF) Award.

Full press release follows:

Toronto - Organizers of the Toronto International Film Festival today announced final programming details, including the complete lineup of films and programmes for its 32nd edition running September 6 - 15, 2007. At this year's Festival, 349 films from 55 countries will screen, including 275 feature and mid-length films, 85 per cent of which are world, international or North American premieres, and 71 of which are feature directorial debuts. Highlights from today's announcement include Mavericks presentations from former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and wife Rosalynn Carter, Bill Maher and Larry Charles, and Luis Moreno-Ocampo and Don Cheadle; Alain Corneau's LE DEUXIÈME SOUFFLE as a Gala Presentation; the first independent films from Wayne Wang (THE JOY LUCK CLUB) in ten years as part of Masters; cineastes' favourite Dialogues, featuring legendary actor Max von Sydow marking the passing of Ingmar Bergman with a presentation of Bergman's THE VIRGIN SPRING; Michael Moore's film CAPTAIN MIKE ACROSS AMERICA, the documentary MAN FROM PLAINS from Academy Award-winning filmmaker Jonathan Demme (THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS), IN BLOOM by Vadim Perelman (HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG), JUNO by Jason Reitman (THANK YOU FOR SMOKING) and THE VISITOR by Thomas McCarthy (THE STATION AGENT) as Special Presentations; and Julian Schnabel's documentary LOU REED'S BERLIN as part of Real to Reel. Ticket Passes and Packages now on sale. Gala and Visa Screening Room tickets on sale August 25 at 10 a.m. Tickets on sale Wednesday, September 5 at 7 a.m. For more information, please visit tiff07.ca or call 416-968-FILM or 1-877-968-FILM. The Festival programme book and Official Film Schedule are available August 28.

The 32nd Annual Toronto International Film Festival sinks its claws deep into Canada from September 6th - 15th and, as usual, its "Midnight Madess" slate is an auspicious lineup.

Most notable is the inclusion of George Romero's Diary of the Dead. Adam Mason's The Devil's Chair, Xavier Gens' Frontieres, Alexandre Bustillo and Julien Maury's Inside, Stuart Gordon's Stuck, Fumihiko Sori's Vexille, Wilson Yip's Flash Point and Hitoshi Matsumoto's Dainipponjin round out the schedule.

Naturally, ComingSoon.net's ShockTillYouDrop.com will be lurking about the fest, so stay tuned for coverage. For showtimes and ticket information, click here.

The 2007 Toronto International Film Festival has unveiled some of the movies that will have gala premieres at the festival between September 6 and 15.

George Clooney stars in the legal drama Michael Clayton, the directorial debut by screenwriter Tony Gilroy (The Bourne Identity) getting its North American premiere at the Roy Thomson Hall before being released theatrically by Warner Bros. on October 5.

Also, Gavin Hood, the director behind the Oscar-winning South African drama Tsotsi (which won Toronto's Audience Award in 2005), returns to the fest with the gala premiere of Rendition, starring Reese Witherspoon, Jake Gyllenhaal and Meryl Streep, before it opens in the United States on October 12.

Another WB release, Neil Jordan's The Brave One, starring Jodie Foster and Terrence Howard, will premiere as part of Toronto's Special Presentation sidebar, as will the North American debut of Peter Greenaway's Nightwatching, a biopic about painter Rembrandt, and Alan ("Six Feet Under", American Beauty) Ball's Nothing is Private, a Gulf War drama involving sexual politics, starring Aaron Eckhart, Maria Bello and Toni Collette. After winning an award at Cannes, Julian Schnabel's The Diving Bell and the Butterfly will also play in the TIFF sidebar months before its theatrical release in December.

(The full press release is after the jump as is one about other films premiering at the festival.)

This year's Toronto International Film Festival will be taking place from September 6 through September 15 and its Official Website has gone live with certain tickets passes and packages going on sale for Visa card members on Monday, July 9. More information after the jump.

The 32nd Toronto International Film Festival® opens September 6 with the world premiere Gala Presentation of Jeremy Podeswa's Fugitive Pieces.

Produced by Robert Lantos, and based on the international bestselling novel by Anne Michaels,Fugitive Pieces is a powerful, poetic, and emotionally-charged drama about love, loss and redemption. Jeremy Podeswa (The Five Senses) brings the beauty and passion of this much beloved novel to screen with a cast that features Stephen Dillane, Rade Sherbedgia, Rosamund Pike, Ayelet Zurer, Robbie Kay, Ed Stoppard, Rachelle Lefevre, and Nina Dobrev.