TIFF selections

Gave my picks for TIFF
Will box 29 bring luck?
Check back Labour Day

The excitement and whirlwind of the festival has begun! On Tuesday morning I picked up my TIFF Programme book and envelopes for Ivana and I to submit our picks. She emailed her list and I conferred with my TIFF peeps (Keith, who's in town working on a project, Pavlina, and DC Joe). Can't wait for our mini-reunion during the fest!!

Dropped the envelopes off Thursday after work. We are in box 29. Hopefully they won't pick box 30 or we'll be the very last. Here are my final picks. (Note: I had to severely cut back the number of films due to my marathon training schedule)

Thurs Sept 6 - RUN 10K
Fri Sept 7 - Disengagement
Sat Sept 8 - RUN 24K then The Assassination of Jesse James (1st choice) or In Bloom (2nd)
Sun Sept 9 - Then She Found Me (cuz Alison scored tickets online - YAY!) then Le Deuxième Souffle (1st) or Operation Filmmaker (2nd)
Mon Sept 10 - Elizabeth: The Golden Age (1st) or Man from Plains (2nd) then Run Fat Boy, Run (1st) or Lars and the Real Girl (2nd)
Tues Sept 11 - RUN 6K
Wed Sept 12 - Married Life (1st) or La Fille coupée en deux (2nd)
Thurs Sept 13 - E-Learning Forum at the MaRS in the day then RUN 13K in the evening
Fri Sept 14 - Chacun son cinéma (1st) or Chaotica Ana (2nd)
Sat Sept 15 - RUN 27K

That means during the 10 days of TIFF I will be running a total of 67K and seeing 8 movies and working full time. Incroyable...

Friday after 1:00 they email everyone about how many boxes there are. On Sunday, they email us with our list of successful matches for our picks and on the holiday Monday we pick the tickets up at the box office (right downstairs where I work at College Park).

Schoolhouse ROCKS! and TUFF

Last weekend I was up at Mary's schoolhouse near Hanover. Very relaxing and the food and company were amazing!!! (thank you Mary & Manuela!!). We dined on salmon, steak, gazpacho, cinnabons and cheddar Sun Chips. (mmmmm)

On Saturday morning I managed to run 16K on my own along concession roads. Saw a surprising amount of roadkill along the shoulder, even an ex-porcupine. Conditions were perfect: cool, overcast. Everything seemed greener up there - it was almost a spiritual experience.

While up north I had to edit my 60-second piece for TUFF (Toronto Urban Film Festival). I got a lot of editing done on my sexy MacBook Pro but it still needed more work on Monday before the submission deadline. I tried for 2 nights to upload it and was finally successful. If I make it into the finals, I'll be asking you all to vote for haikugirl!

TIFF

17 more days
TIFF Special Presentations
predict lots of stars

Bet many of these will be VISA screenings so lots of starpower is likely. Tomorrow they announce the complete film lineup. Check back again after 12 noon... ;-)

1 week away

TIFF is coming soon
just 22 days from now
watch the stars come out!


TIFF has been slowly releasing the list of films at this year's festival but in less than 1 week (Aug 21 at 12 noon) they announce the complete list of films for 2007. CAN'T WAIT! No need to speculate anymore about Across the Universe - it's already confirmed as a Gala Presentation on the TIFF website - click through the photos to see more. The Assassination of Jesse James shows up as a Special Presentation (which likely means it's VISA). The latter was partially shot in Winnipeg so I will be looking for local personalities and locations whenever I get a chance to see it.

Still thinking about how to juggle running and movies for an intense 10 days next month - stay tuned!

TIFF prediction #2 & 3: American Gangster & Across the Universe

Saw a lot of violent trailers when we went to see Bourne Ultimatum. Everything was REVENGE (Kevin Bacon doing revenge (Death Sentence) Jodi Foster doing revenge (The Brave One). By the time the movie started we were almost nauseous. Anyway, both of those are released later this summer and I WON'T be seeing them (until they come to TV or video). However, we saw another violent trailer: American Gangster starring Denzel, Russell and directed by Ridley Scott (whose film A Good Year at the 2006 TIFF was GALA but lame. Well the locations i.e. London, Provence, Russell driving a Smart car - were great. Just the end result was somewhat lame.) Now that Robert Altman can no longer come, Scott is like the elder statesman of these festivals (regardless of the quality of his product) so they'll show whatever he brings. With this level of Oscar-winning directing and star power (and a convenient November release) American Gangster is sure to be a RTH GALA (that's Roy Thomson Hall, not VISA). The Google results seemed to show Antoine Fuqua directing this project with Benicio del Toro but looks like the big guns took it over.(literally)

But wait, there's more.

The other cool trailer we saw was a musical... of Beatles songs... featuring fresh faced kids. NO it wasn't Grease VI or Hairspray II but Across the Universe. I was totally mesmerized. It's from Director Julie Taymor (who did The Lion King stage spectacle) so expect nothing less than a cirque du soleil level joy ride with a must-have soundtrack. I think this will go VISA (but could be RTH GALA instead).

Looks like it may be a good year for galas - too bad we didn't splurge on tickets. (We'll have to see what box we get in - selection is only 3 weeks away!!!)

Bourne Ultimatum

Saw Bourne Ultimatum on Friday to kick off my long weekend. AWESOME! Totally action-packed, great international locations - the perfect summer blockbuster. Matt Damon does an amazing job in the third installment of this franchise. Between Bourne and the Oceans movies, he's done well since winning his Oscar. Can't really say the same about Ben Affleck.

Bourne Ultimatum
non-stop action, intrigue, stunts
Matt Damon's AWESOME!

Washington bound

On August 2nd I dropped off my registration form for the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, DC so I'm now officially running this race in October. I also dropped off Richard's form so he's going to be running with JeansMarines too! It is very exciting (daunting?) for both of us and our training is well underway. I ran 16K last Saturday (10 miles) and my running partner and I are running 3 times a week for an average total of 30K per week!

Yesterday in the 31 degree heat and humidity Hardish and I still ran along the lakeshore - we even made a genius haiku with my inspirational running slogan for the marathon:

GO HAIKUGIRL GO!
Run Marine Corps Marathon
Beat the F***ing BRIDGE!

Those of you who know the Washington course know the bridge is the internal deadline for the marathon - if you don't make the bridge at mile 19 within 6 hours, you don't finish. So there is added pressure but we are working hard in training to build our speed so we can beat the bridge.

Enjoy your long weekend folks!