Toronto Film Festival Freezes Over With Few Big Deals

By Brent Lang,
Ramin Setoodeh



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Jackie Natalie PortmanCOURTESY OF VENICE FILM FESTIVAL
SEPTEMBER 13, 2016 | 03:01PM PT
As Tom Ford’s “Nocturnal Animals” approached its terrifying climax, the sound and picture abruptly screeched to a halt. Members of the audience at Sunday’s Toronto Film Festival premiere gasped, as a smattering of boos filled the air. For the next few minutes, the 2,000-person crowd sat frozen in a dark room, wondering what would happen next. Then, finally, a projectionist got the picture going again, as the screen flickered back to life.

The technical breakdown is an apt metaphor for this year’s festival. There are certainly as many stars as ever north of the border — from Anne Hathaway to Amy Adams — but something feels off. It’s not just that deal-making is moving at a glacial pace. Studios seem disinterested in picking up product, as buyers complain that there’s rarely been a weaker assortment of films.


That’s not to say the independent film business is sliding into obsolescence. Quite the contrary, there are more players than ever before — from Netflix to Amazon to the mysterious Chinese buyer who snatched up “Colossal” over highly-favored A24. That monster movie, starring Hathaway and Jason Sudeikis, was supposed to be one of the more prized offerings to debut at Toronto. In fact, if anything, the market is sluggish because many of the glitziest movies playing here are came with distributors in tow. As a result of competitors, studios are picking up movies like “Loving,” “Snowden” or even “Nocturnal Animals” at the script stage, to avoid all-out bidding wars at a venue like Toronto.


“It’s supply and demand,” says Paul Davidson, executive vice president of film and TV for the indie label Orchard. “Companies don’t need as much good product, so they aren’t rushing to make big bids.” But quality control could help — many of the indies here are so small, it’s doubtful they compete with TV, which continue to thrive in terms of quality.

Toronto also felt off because its status as an Oscar kingmaker is now in question. Once the launching pad for the Oscars race with big splashy premieres for awards favorites like “American Beauty,” Venice and Telluride have stolen the festival’s thunder. As a result, Toronto now waits 72 hours (or more) before unveiling its best goods: “Moonlight,” “La La Land,” “Arrival,” “Jackie,” and “Manchester by the Sea,” all of which debuted at other festivals. It makes for a snail-paced first few days. By the time Toronto finally feels like it’s revving up, people are already getting ready to pack their bags for the airport.

Ironically, the most dramatic moment in this year’s opening weekend wasn’t on the big screen. It was during an awkward press conference on Sunday, where members of the press grilled “The Birth of a Nation” star Nate Parker about a rape trial and subsequent acquittal dating back to his college days. Although the event wasn’t officially affiliated with the festival, it added to the uneasiness and uncertainty of the market. It was a reminder for buyer’s to beware — Fox Searchlight shelled out $17.5 million for the biopic about slave rebellion leader Nat Turner, only to spend the last month fighting back press about its star’s past.

Fox Searchlight, did, however, give a moribund festival market a jolt of life late Monday night, swooping in to scoop up “Jackie” and taking one of the only hot projects off the table. The historical biopic is widely expected to earn Natalie Portman a ticket to the Oscars for her portrayal of Jacqueline Kennedy, but had some buyers grousing that it was more of an art house play than a mainstream picture. That’s a familiar refrain at this year’s festival and may be part of the reason why buyers have kept their checkbooks closed.

There are still several notable projects that are drawing interest from buyers and are expected to sell before the end of the festival. Those include “I Am Not Your Negro,” a documentary about writer James Baldwin; “Their Finest,” a World War II comedy, which has multiple offers; and “The Bleeder,” a boxing drama with Liev Schreiber that some buyers think could get an awards push.

But those are just the finished films. In years past, agencies have arrived with glossy packages that promise to unite a well-known star with a hot director, but that have yet to be filmed. This year, most of the scripts and star attachments are leaving studios cold.

“It’s definitely a different feeling in terms of the energy,” said Liz Kim Schwan, president of international at Covert Media, a film finance and distribution company. “There have not been a great number of big projects announced that getting the buyers buzzing.”

Agents argue privately that meetings are happening, and that a number of these talks will lead to consummation. It’s unusual for there to be so many films still searching for a home after nearly a week of screenings, particularly given that many studios executives have begun fleeing Canada.

“There seems to be the trend of people assessing the full landscape before they decide to go ahead and acquire something,” said Michael Luisi, president of WWE Studios.

Last year was slow too. In fact, it took so long for projects to sell that Variety noted it was the festival of “let’s not make a deal.” But it was practically a whirlwind of activity compared to this edition, when the major sales consist of “Jackie,” “Colossal,” and little else. By a similar point at last year’s gathering, “Florence Foster Jenkins,” “Miss Sloane,” and “Eye in the Sky” were just a few of the films to have already lined up distribution.

There are a number of reasons for the heightened caution. In the past, splashy pacts out of major film festivals haven’t worked out too well. “Begin Again” and “Hardcore Henry” are two films that scored multimillion deals out of Toronto only to wither at the box office.

Moreover, many major distributors came into Toronto with full slates. Netflix had moved heavily into producing its own movies, Amazon has several films that it has picked up at other festivals and markets, such as “Manchester by the Sea,” that it still needs to distribute, and Focus Features has a full slate of big movies yet to release, among them “A Monster Calls” and “Loving.”

“Probably we’ll leave without something new, but there’s still days left and we’ve still got the team running around screening things,” said Peter Kujawski, chairman of Focus Features. “We’re always on that quest for something that we fall in love with.”

Then there are macroeconomic trends that are putting pressure on the business, particularly in terms of international distributors. A stronger dollar is limiting the ability of European buyers to pay the prices they were a few years ago, while Asian buyers seem more interested in taking meetings than making deals, sales agents say. Than there are the headaches associated with Great Britain’s vote last summer to leave the European Union — a decision that sent the value of the British pound plunging.

“Some of the English buyers are talking about how much they’re suffering from the exchange rate,” said Lisa Wilson, co-founder and partner of the international sales company the Solution Entertainment Group.

As the festival eyes the finish line, there are several projects, many with big stars, that still need to find homes. It’s possible that many will remain adrift for weeks, even months, after the Hollywood hordes have left Canada.

“Most of the films were terrible,” one distribution executive griped. “I can’t wait to get home.”

“Most of the films were terrible,” one distribution executive griped. “I can’t wait to get home.”

Think positive!

Oh, ich sehe, es gibt nun noch jemanden mehr hier an Board, der mein Motto teilt.

Auf jeden Fall möchte ich diesen Film auch unbedingt sehen.

TIFF 2016 REVIEW: BRAIN ON FIRE
Posted by Andrew Parker | September 14, 2016 | Festivals, TIFF 2016

The real life struggles of New York journalist Susannah Cahalan and her struggles to get a diagnosis for a rare disease comes to the big screen in Irish filmmaker Gerard Barrett’s Brain on Fire, a decent enough crowd pleaser that raises some pertinent questions about the American health care system.
Susannah (played here by Chloë Grace Moretz, delivering one of her best performances) hasn’t been functioning well at work or in her personal life. Her co-workers (Tyler Perry and Jenny Slate), boyfriend (Thomas Mann), and parents (Richard Armitage and Carrie-Anne Moss) are all concerned but at a loss. Afraid to ask for help, Susannah has to practically be dragged to the doctor for a condition that includes mood swings, blurred vision, the hearing of voices, and seizures. Doctors suggest everything from alcohol withdrawal to schizophrenia, but nothing seems concrete. Meanwhile, while doctors debate, her condition continues to rapidly deteriorate.
I’m sure there are some critics who would love to brand Brain on Fire as a “disease of the week” movie, but there’s something satisfying about Barrett’s approach. It’s a drama of one person’s descent into despair that’s also a mystery as to what could be going on. More importantly, the film sheds a necessary eye on a revolving door health care system that can’t afford to look into some ailments too deeply.
It works best whenever Moretz is on screen, and stumbles a bit whenever she isn’t, but on the whole it’s handled with a necessary delicate touch that makes it work quite well.
IS BRAIN ON FIRE ESSENTIAL FESTIVAL VIEWING?
If you’re in the mood for a rousing crowd pleaser that can be emotionally engaging without being a tear jerker, then sure.
BRAIN ON FIRE SCREENING TIMES
Friday, September 16, 2016 – 6:00 pm – Princess of Wales
Saturday, September 17, 2016 – 1:30 pm – Winter Garden Theatre

Davon abgesehen gilt weiterhin: Wir wollen diesen Film sehen! Und ob wir ihn schlecht finden oder nicht, entscheiden wir immer noch hinterher!

Brain on Fire review: Chloë Grace Moretz fails to ignite disease-of-the-week drama

There’s a great difficulty in bringing a true story about a character struggling with disease to the big screen. Thanks to hundreds of overly sentimental Lifetime movies, a set formula has meant that, as an audience, we’re so familiar with the beats, we need something radical or at least expertly played to make it seem worth telling. Yet for an actor, illness offers them the chance to rotate through a variety of Oscar-friendly situations, showing off how brilliantly they can play pained.


In Brain on Fire, Chloë Grace Moretz, who’s yet to find her footing as an adult actor, makes a bold plea to be accepted into the big leagues with a project that, on paper, sounds like a smart move. She plays journalist Susannah Cahalan, a rising star at the New York Post, who suddenly finds herself losing her grip on life. She’s less focused, finds it hard to sleep and her mood swings become rapidly uncontrollable. The world that she’s carefully built starts to fade and those around her must find out what’s at cause before it’s too late.

Based on Cahalan’s firsthand memoir of struggling with a rare autoimmune disorder, the film starts in well-worn but involving territory. The initial signs of trouble are convincingly played by Moretz and smartly paralleled with the frantic nature of the city around her. How hard would it be to realise you’re losing your mind when you’re living in a city as manic as New York?

But as the drama ramps up, we’re stuck firmly in dreary TV movie territory and Moretz starts to struggle with the challenges of the role. As a child actor, her precocious nature and startling maturity made her an engaging and unique screen presence but she still relies on a slightly over-emphatic form of acting that makes the breakdown scenes here feel false. She’s saved somewhat by a strong supporting cast, including Carrie-Ann Moss as her mother, Jenny Slate as a co-worker and Tyler Perry as her editor, delivering on his Gone Girl promise. But something is missing.

There’s undoubtedly a terrifying true story at the centre and it’s easy to see why the film’s producer Charlize Theron optioned the book but there’s something a little too flat in the delivery. The third act, based around trying to diagnose her affliction, is lacking in the emotional involvement and suspense that’s needed to make it soar. It’s a shame as the film marks Irish director Gerard Barrett’s Hollywood debut, after impressing with his gritty drama Glassland, making this feel like a film that’s the result of film-making by committee.

Moretz hopefully has an adult breakthrough role in her yet but this clearly marked awards-bait weepie is sadly not the right one. Her brain might be on fire but her film is feeling rather damp.

Da gibt es nix zu ergänzen!!!!!