Steve Pond
Steve Pond’s inside look at the artistry and insanity of the awards race, drawn from more than three decades of obsessively chronicling the Oscars and the entertainment industry.
TORONTO — When the crowd settles in, the lights go down and the movie starts, this year’s Toronto International Film Festival is more or less business as usual.
The rest of the time, not so much.
This is a TIFF with fewer stars, fewer studio movies and more films up for sale but fewer buyers willing to commit during the writers’ and actors’ strikes. That’s a distinctly different beast from the TIFF that would normally host a parade of movie stars on an array of red carpets every day, particularly during the opening weekend that concludes on Sunday.