TIFF '23: Final Farewells and a Jury of One

by Cláudio Alves

Since THE BOY AND THE HERON opened the festival, there was a Studio Ghibli pop-up store. Sadly, I didn't take either of these giant fur babies home. But it was tempting!

All things in life must come to an end, so it's time to say goodbye to TIFF '23. Words will never be enough to express my gratitude to Nathaniel and the Media Inclusion Initiative, whose help made this coverage possible. Overall, I watched 59 features and six shorts, reviewing most of them along the way, and getting positively drunk on cinema. It was especially incredible to experience so many of these films on giant screens, unlike the sort I get to experience in Lisbon-based festivals. To watch something like Rosine Mbakam's Mambar Pierrette on the Scotiabank Theater's IMAX screen is an experience I won't soon forget.

Beyond the films, I met amazing people at TIFF, from fellow critics to festival programmers and ex-directors, editors, and the like. I even got to take a selfie with Abe, my fellow Team Experience member who I only knew through Zoom until now. Pardon the sentimentality, but this was a dream come true…

To celebrate the end of this festival coverage, I took a page from Elisa and Nathaniel's book, presenting my awards from a jury of one. Because Toronto doesn't have a slew of regimented prizes like Cannes and the other major European fests, I chose to emulate the Oscars with a dash of the Film Bitch Awards at the end. After all, TIFF is so associated with Academy gold race that it seems appropriate to follow AMPAS' example. However, I tried to spread the wealth and prevent some movies from dominating every category. Hopefully, that makes for a more varied and exciting read. Let's start with my top ten, shall we?

TOP TEN FROM TIFF' 23

1. DO NOT EXPECT TOO MUCH FROM THE END OF THE WORLD, Radu Jude
2. THE HUMAN SURGE 3, Eduardo Williams
3. MAMBAR PIERRETTE, Rosine Mbakam
4. INSIDE THE YELLOW COCOON SHELL, Pham Thien An
5. THE BOY AND THE HERON, Hayao Miyazaki
6. CLOSE YOUR EYES, Víctor Erice
7. MONSTER, Hirokazu Kore-eda
8. THE ZONE OF INTEREST, Jonathan Glazer
9. PICTURES OF GHOSTS, Kleber Mendonça Filho
10. MIMANG, Kim Tae-yang

Radu Jude's provocative epic-sized comedy easily takes the top spot, but that's not to say the remaining top ten are too far away from that honor. Ask me another day, and this ranking will change radically. Just outside the list, you'll find the Cannes darlings La Chimera, Fallen Leaves, and Kidnapped, along with Agnieszka Holland's controversial Green Border and the sexual frankness of The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed.

BEST DIRECTOR (tie)
Eduardo Williams, THE HUMAN SURGE 3
Pham Thien An, INSIDE THE YELLOW COCOON SHELL

Forgive me for the indecision, but I couldn't choose between these two young masters. In a festival with so many established auteurs, it's worth celebrating how the new generations can still rise to the occasion, delivering feats of filmmaking imbued with radical fervor and mind-boggling formalistic rigor. Williams is wild, An precise, and both signal a bright future for their art form.

Honorable mentions go to Rosine Mbakar and her adaptation to narrative film in Mambar Pierrette, Jonathan Glazer's austerity in The Zone of Interest, and Ivan Sen's widescreen outback noir in shades of pitch, silver stone and bright burning sun – Limbo.

BEST ACTRESS
Zar Amir Ebrahimi, SHAYDA

Beating fearsome competition, Iranian actress Zar Amir Ebrahimi secures a victory here just like she did at last year's Cannes Film Festival. If possible, she's even better in Shayda than in Holy Spider. Still, much applause goes to Sakura Ando in Monster, Mouna Hawa in Inshallah A Boy, Cate Blanchett in The New Boy, and Ally Maki in Seagrass.

BEST ACTOR
Deniz Celiloğlu, ABOUT DRY GRASSES

There's nothing like a Nuri Bilge Ceylan protagonist, those arrogant, self-involved men with superiority complexes, intoxicated by their assumed intellectual power. Deniz Celiloğlu aces the auteur's preferred archetype, finding gradations of humor and pettiness amidst the cruelty. The protracted dialogues with the women in the teacher's life are especially spellbinding, articulating galaxies of odious meaning while keeping things grounded in an über-literate milieu.

Alfredo Castro almost took this honor for his religious hypocrisy in A Ravaging Wind, with Tergel Bold-Erdene not too far behind for the teen shaman in City of Wind. Much love goes to the leading men of TIFF's queer narratives, including Théodore Pellerin in Solo, Ben Hardy and Jason Patel in Unicorns.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Médina Diarra, SISTERHOOD

As the MVP of the festival's best ensemble cast, Médina Diarra takes this in a cakewalk. So many of her line readings are branded into my mind, hot iron on flesh, the disappointments of youth disillusioned with life. Still, there's plenty of greatness elsewhere. Think of Merve Dizdar and Ece Bağcı in About Dry Grasses, Eva Löbau in The Teachers' Lounge, and Barbara Ronchi in Kidnapped. Shout out to Mishell Guaña, as well. Her role in The Settlers is relatively small, but she leaves an unshakeable impression, acing the picture's final shot with a wave of simmering rage, barely contained and about to surge in a sneer.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Sergi López, A RAVAGING WIND

For the synthetization of a complicated father figure, a gruff exterior and violent impulses hiding an inner tenderness that slowly comes to the surface. López is followed by his A Ravaging Wind co-star, Alfredo Castro, who serves vampiric excellence in The Settlers. Further applause to Isac Graça in Toll, Babak Tafti, and Scott Cohen in The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed.

BEST SCREENPLAY
Víctor Erice & Michel Gaztambide, CLOSE YOUR EYES

A beautiful reflection on cinema as a repository of memory, a miracle machine, and a mortuary full of ghosts enclosed in celluloid. It's a brilliant return for Erice, absent for decades from the big screen glory where he belongs. That said, this was a close race that could have just as quickly gone to Yuji Sakamoto for Monster, Kim Tae-yang for Mimang, Joanna Arnow for the perfectly structured The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed, and Radu Jude's Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World.

BEST EDITING
Hirokazu Kore-eda, MONSTER 

For finding distinct rhythms to edit the same scene three times, continually revealing new information while allowing the moment to stand on its own, not just as a refracted fragment of what came before. Catalin Cristutiu's cutting for Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World is similarly exquisite, as is Eduardo Williams' work in The Human Surge 3. I also loved Matheus Farias's assemblage of Pictures of Ghosts and the shattering disruptions Anita Roth constructs within The Beast's three timelines.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Amine Berrada, BANEL & ADAMA 

Banel & Adama wins for its nighttime scenes, painterly beauties bathed in pearl moonlight before the break of golden sun. Nevertheless, this was another highly contested category where a myriad of other titles might have triumphed and felt like just choices. I think of the perfect high-contrast black-and-white of Je'vida, the Risorgimento Baroque revival of Kidnapped, Fallen Leaves' playful colors, and The Promised Land's old-fashioned grandeur.

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
Mohammed El Moudir, THE MOTHER OF ALL LIES 

Memory exorcized through miniature filmmaking, this is a feat of catharsis in set design that forms the foundation of its project in ways no other scenography work at TIFF does. Much love goes to the period squalor of Shadow of Fire, the apocalypse of Concrete Utopia, the rotting death of Sweet Dreams, and, of course, The Zone of Interest's architecture of evil.

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Loredana Buscemi, LA CHIMERA

After so many tight races, having one so easily won by a single, stupendous achievement is a relief. Buscemi evokes 1980s Tuscany while keeping faithful to her director's magical vision, delivering some of the year's most memorable fits and cinema's all-time best rumpled linen suit. Honorable mentions go to the African stylings of Mambar Pierrette, and I Do Not Come to You By Chance, as well as the cowboy subversions of The Settlers and Strange Way of Life.

BEST MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING
Felicity Bowring, Leo Corey Castellano & Daniel Curet, NYAD

Out of all these achievements, this is the most likely to translate into the actual Oscars. Let's hope it happens because it'd be eminently deserved, for all those mortifications of Annette Bening's body and face, dehydration galore, and jellyfish stings over a crispy tan. Honorable mentions go to The Zone of Interest with the world's least-flattering hairstyle, Origin and The Beast's alternating epochs, and the discombobulated sweaty Europeans of Sweet Dreams.

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
CONCRETE UTOPIA

In a festival full of unnecessary CGI flourishes - usually animal apparitions - Concrete Utopia rises to the top like some unstoppable torpedo. From the opening salvo, as a wave-like earthquake ravages Seoul, this is a VFX showcase cum masterclass. It's hard to come up with many honorable mentions, but the Snow Leopard deserves some praise, as do the low-fi work in The Human Surge 3.

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Łukasz Rostkowski, THE PEASANTS

DK Welchman and Hugh Welchman's latest oil paint animation sometimes feels like a Polish take on Belladonna of Sadness without the bloody climax or a sense of catharsis by its rain-soaked ending. Visual splinters like modern makeup take one out of the illusion, like a Millet mural suddenly spoiled by anachronism. However, the vibrant brushstrokes sometimes create a formidable effect when in movement, as if reality itself were about to dematerialize. This is augmented by a perfect score pulling from folkloric tradition, ancient work songs, and the flurry of operatic cinema. Two dance scenes are especially memorable, with music reaching a fever pitch that's both ravishing and deeply terrifying. 

Other festival highlights include the Japanese triple feature of Evil Does Not Exist, The Boy and the Heron, and Monster. Still, if there's one score I can't wait to download on Spotify, it's the wintry wonder of The Breaking Ice – such melancholic perfection.

BEST SOUND
Johnnie Burn, THE ZONE OF INTEREST

Muffled and lost in the distance, the sounds of suffering are like an infection that won't go away, pervading the organism of The Zone of Interest even while most characters refuse to react. It's an agonizing use of sound design, bound to unnerve you in ways few films ever attempt. Honorable mentions go to Woodland's editing-propulsive soundscape, Songs of Earth's requiem for a disappearing fjord, the dueling cosmos of The New Boy, and the expressive subjectivity in Days of Happiness.

And now, let's indulge in some Film Bitch-adjacent categories, plus some TIFF-specific additions by yours truly.

BEST ACTRESS IN A LIMITED PERFORMANCE OR CAMEO ROLE
Audra McDonald, ORIGIN

BEST ACTOR IN A LIMITED PERFORMANCE OR CAMEO ROLE
Josep Maria Pou, CLOSE YOUR EYES

BEST JUVENILE PERFORMANCE
Aswan Reid, THE NEW BOY

BEST ENSEMBLE
SISTERHOOD

BEST CASTING
THE FEELING THAT THE TIME FOR DOING SOMETHING HAS PASSED

BEST STUNTS
All the camel racing in HAJJAN.

BEST ADAPTED SCORE
THE TUNDRA WITHIN ME

HERO OF THE FESTIVAL
Pierrette Mambar, MAMBAR PIERRETTE

VILLAIN OF THE FESTIVAL
The caste system in all its forms, from ORIGIN, THE ZONE OF INTEREST, THE NEW BOY, JE'VIDA, THE SETTLERS, GREEN BORDER, and many more.

DIVA OF THE FESTIVAL
Angela's Andrew Tate-loving alter ego, DO NOT EXPECT TOO MUCH FROM THE END OF THE WORLD.

SEXPOT OF THE FESTIVAL
Pedro Pascal's Silva, STRANGE WAY OF LIFE

CUTEST DOG
The stray renamed Chaplin in FALLEN LEAVES

MIGHTIEST CAT
The titular big cat in SNOW LEOPARD.

WEIRDEST BIRDS
The avian cast of THE BOY AND THE HERON, especially the man-eating parakeets.

BEST MUSICAL SCENE
A son's performance to his mother at the end of TOLL.

BEST SEX SCENE
Finding love in a frozen place, from THE BREAKING ICE.

BEST OPENING SCENE
A director waits for the FOUR DAUGHTERS.

BEST ENDING
Posing for a photograph in THE SETTLERS.

BEST CREDIT SEQUENCE
The QR-coded end credits of THE BEAST.

BEST TITLE
HUMANIST VAMPIRE SEEKING CONSENTING SUICIDAL PERSON

BEST "TREND"
Thorny relationships between mothers and their sons, all parties portrayed with their due complexity.

WORST "TREND"
Bizarre and deeply unnecessary CGI twists into otherwise low-key arthouse projects.

MOST ENGROSSING LOVE LETTER TO CINEMA
PICTURES OF GHOSTS

I hope you enjoyed my TIFF '23 coverage. Please, sound off in the comments about the reviews, films, awards, or whatever comes to mind. I'm on cloud nine and would love to hear from you, dear readers.

Comments

[Frank Zappa]

Can't help noticing there's very little overlap between your top 10 and your main individual honors. How come?

[Cláudio Alves]

Frank Zappa-- Mostly, I was trying to spread the wealth and spotlight as many titles as possible.

[NATHANIEL R]

I can't believe how much you saw. I would get eye strain but Bravo! Thanks for your indefatigability.

[Kris]

Thank you Claudio for the coverage and sharing your jury of 1 bests. I did not get to go to Toronto, but have seen some of these in other festivals.
Sharing your love for "Do not expect too much from the end of the world" (it's my 2nd favorite so far of the ones that have been submitted to the Best international oscar race... although I've only seen about 10 of those...so far). And I also loved Zar Amir Ebrahimi in Shayda (but I seem to like almost all her roles... can't wait to see her in "Tatami" - premiered in Venice and she also co-directed that film).

Wasn't that keen on "Inside the yellow cocoon shell" as you were, although the technical side of that film was nice. Aswan Reid was good in "New boy", but the film itself (despite Cate) was soooo boring and the magic realism or the miraculosity in religion or whatever it strived to channel, just wasn't for me.
And I also think that the Canadian Vampire-title has to be the best of not just Toronto fest, but overall this year's movie titles :) (haven't seen the film yet though).

Of all the titles that you mention that I have not yet had a chance to see - here's my top3 biggest anticipation :
3. The peasants (wonder if it will be eligable for best animated film this year? the author did win the Nobel prize when he wrote it in the beginning of 1900s and the animation seems amazing)
2. Monster (have heard so much good about it, but hey.. this director never fails...
1. The zone of interest ... has been nr 1 on my waiting list for 2 years now :)

Will be watching "Pictures of ghosts" tonight! Thanks for the push!