After 11 days and 260 film screenings, TIFF 2011 has officially come to close. The
Washington Post praises TIFF programmers for the exciting variety of movies on offer, describing the fest as a "balanced, healthy cinematic ecosystem."
"What's more, with some of the festival's smallest independent productions having been acquired by studios in recent days, audiences can be assured that, even as
multibillion-dollar spectacles and comic-book franchises threaten to gobble up the smaller fry, a diverse, harmonious cinematic habitat still has a chance of surviving."
"So, at this year's TIFF, audiences could rousingly applaud the funny, touching mainstream comedy
The Descendants—the festival's first bona fide home run, featuring a by-turns hilarious and heartbreaking performance by Clooney—then a few days later see
Shame, Steve McQueen's stark, disquietingly graphic portrait of a man grappling with sex addiction."
"But even though the market heated up somewhat, the heart and soul of TIFF beat on the streets of downtown Toronto, where thousands of
cinetourists make their annual pilgrimage, seeing up to four or even five movies a day, emerging only to cadge a hurried meal before plunging again into the dark. This is a world blithely oblivious to wheeling and dealing that occur in such elegant precincts as the Fairmont Royal York or InterContinental hotels, where the swells congregated this year. Instead, festival-goers—who could be heard coining the term
"TIFF-ing" for their cine-obsessed pastime—shuttle from queue to queue, comparing notes with their fellow enthusiasts over well-thumbed programs, circling and crossing out titles with the ruthlessness of seasoned racetrack sharpies."
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Washington Post