TORONTO COMPLETES LINEUP

With Tuesday’s announcement of 10 more titles, the Gala Presentations program of the 2004 Toronto International Film Festival is now complete. Among the additional titles announced are:

Mike Barker’s A Good Woman, a world premiere and a charmingly comedic tale of high-society Americans in Italy starring Helen Hunt and Scarlett Johansson;

Kevin Spacey’s Beyond the Sea, a world premiere starring Kevin Spacey as Bobby Darin;

Oliver Hirschbiegel’s Downfall, an intense thriller that dramatizes the fall of Berlin at the end of the Second World War starring Bruno Ganz and Juliane Kohler;

John Stephenson’s Five Children and It, a dazzling combination of live action and animation starring Kenneth Branagh and Freddie Highmore;

the world premiere of Jean-Paul Salome’s Arsene Lupin, the thrilling and passionate story of the whirlwind adventures of a legendary hero starring Romain Duris and Kristin Scott Thomas;

the international premiere of Carlo Mazzacurati’s An Italian Romance, which follows two estranged lovers and the passionate love affair that ensues when they reunite;

Mick Davis’s Modigliani, a world premiere starring Andy Garcia that recounts the untold story of the bitter rivalry between Modigliani and Picasso;

Bille August’s Return to Sender, a world premiere starring Kelly Preston and Aidan Quinn in the rivetting story of a cynical lawyer who fights to exonerate a woman on death row;

Walter Salles’s The Motorcycle Diaries, which traces the youthful origins of revolutionary Che Guevara;

and a fascinating look at the theater during the height of the English Restoration, Sir Richard Eyre’s Stage Beauty.

The complete Masters lineup boasts 21 films from 19 countries, including Buddhadeb Dasgupta’s Chased by Dreams;

Brides from Pantelis Voulgaris;

Goran Paskaljevic’s Midwinter Night’s Dream;

Wong Kar Wai, Steven Soderbergh and Michelangelo Antonioni’s portmanteau film, Eros;

Low Life from Im Kwon-Taek;

Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s Cafe Lumiere;

Bad Education from Pedro Almodovar;

Land of Plenty from Wim Wenders;

The Ninth Day from Volker Schlondorff;

Human Touch from Paul Cox;

and Theo Angelopoulos’s Trilogy: The Weeping Meadow.

As Planet Africa celebrates its 10th anniversary, the Festival presents Ousmane Sembene’s Moolaade and Spike Lee’s Sucker Free City in Masters.

Planet Africa begins on Monday, September 13 with the North American premiere of Moolaade, the latest from novelist and veteran filmmaker Ousmane Sembene. Moolaade confronts female circumcision, a horrific ritual still practised in several African countries, through the dramatic and moving tale of a mother who challenges the established order to protect her daughter.

Spike Lee’s latest is Sucker Free City, a world premiere. Nick (Ben Crowley), a white boy, and his family are forced to move from wealthy Mission Point to the poor black side of town, where they are harassed by the local gang. Planet Africa includes six features, and seven shorts, including three world, two international, and one North American premiere from 11 countries.

The complete Special Presentations lineup offers 31 films from 14 countries, 29 of which make their world, international, or North American premieres, including Florian Gallenberger’s Shadows of Time, a tragic love story that traces the lives of two teenagers who meet in a carpet factory near Calcutta;

Danny Boyle’s Millions, a comic fantasy about a pair of young Liverpudlian boys who stumble across the loot from a robbery and have one week to spend it;

Sally Potter’s Yes, a complex and arresting narrative about a distinguished scientist (Joan Allen) whose love affair with a Lebanese surgeon (Simon Abkarian) takes them on a global journey;

Laurence Dunmore’s The Libertine, which follows the rise and fall of John Wilmot (Johnny Depp), Second Earl of Rochester — a licentious wit and poet who frequented the court of Charles II (John Malkovich);

John Waters’s NC-17 A Dirty Shame, an outlandish comedy from the cult-hero director featuring Tracey Ullman and Johnny Knoxville;

and Jim Brown’s Isn’t This a Time! A Tribute Concert for Harold Leventhal, the first screening of which will be followed by a rare, live performance by The Weavers with Pete Seeger.

Contemporary World Cinema represents a rich diversity of world cinema, showcasing premieres and prize-winners from international directors. An additional 49 titles have been added to Contemporary World Cinema for a total of 58 features and one short, 51 of which are world, international, or North American premieres, from a total of 37 countries.

Highlights of this year’s selection include Carlos Sorin’s Bombon — El Perro;

Frederic Fonteyne’s La Femme de Gilles;

Robert Guediguian’s Mon Pere Est Ingenieur;

Pawel Pawlikowski’s My Summer of Love;

Christophe Honore’s Ma Mere;

Gregg Araki’s Mysterious Skin;

Bahman Ghobadi’s Turtles Can Fly;

Alex de la Iglesia’s Ferpect Crime;

and Liu Bingjian’s Plastic Flowers.

The complete lineup of documentaries throughout the Festival was announced on Tuesday, including the North American premiere of Mark S. Wexler’s star-studded Tell Them Who You Are, which screens at the VISA Screening Room at the Elgin Theatre as part of Real to Reel. The Festival includes 38 documentaries from 18 countries, including 19 world and 10 North American premieres. In addition to Real to Reel, documentaries also screen in Masters, Special Presentations, Visions, and Planet Africa .

The Festival lineup also includes seven films in the National Cinema program, South Africa: Ten Years Later; 23 films in Wavelengths; 21 films from 14 countries in Visions; 28 features from 23 countries in Discovery; 10 films in Canada First!; 39 shorts in Short Cuts Canada; The Rowdyman as the Canadian Open Vault; the films of Pierre Perrault featured in Canadian Retrospective; and 10 films in Midnight Madness.

The tenth installment of Dialogues: Talking With Pictures features seven films that have influenced the lives of the presenters, such as a restored version of Michael Cimino’s Heaven’s Gate, as presented by cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond and MGM archivist John Kirk.

As a pilot project this year, the Festival collaborates with world-renowned curators of The Power Plant Art Gallery to present several film-based installation works by internationally recognized Canadian and international artists. Art Project: Role Play screens at various locations downtown. Additionally, the Festival presents the work of gifted cinematographer Christopher Doyle via a DVD installation of his work at the year-round Box Office. These installations are free and open to the public.