Toronto's International Film Festival is always in September and is a favorite summer event. It's a little less glitzy than Cannes, a little more business-oriented, but ever so popular with the film-loving crowd.Perhaps one reason the TIFF is successful is because the film audience in Toronto does not come and go with the festival. There is a discerning audience here, big enough to support a few cinema houses that feature award-winning, non-mainstream films year-round. One of them is The Carlton cinemas.
The Carlton is where I caught a showing of Magnifico, in Tagalog with English subtitles.
It's small, but big enough to have a cozy cafe aside from the standard popcorn concession. The screening rooms have fewer than 50 seats each, and if you go on a weekday, you might be the only person in the audience.
This January, many months after the TIFF, the following await our viewing at The Carlton:
A Christmas Tale (Un Conte de Noel); Australia; Happy-go-Lucky; I've Loved You So Long (Il y'a longtemps qui je 'taime); Rachel Getting Married; Religulous; Synecdoche, New York; The Boy In Striped Pajamas; Vicky Cristina Barcelona;
4 of these films have Golden Globe nominations: Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz and Rebecca Hall for Vicky Cristina Barcelona, Ann Hathaway in Rachel Getting Married; Kristin Scott Thomas in I've Loved You So Long; Sally Hawkins in Happy Go Lucky.
The other movies are no lightweights either. Some critics say that Un Conte de Noel and Synecdoche, New York ought to have nominations as well. And thankfully, we can judge them for ourselves because they are showing at The Carlton.
