With the highly anticipated 33^rd annual Toronto International Film Festival, the entertainment industry is abuzz with more and more news of the exciting events and line-ups of films the festival has on.  Not only is TIFF a big draw for A-list celebrities to canoodle in Toronto, but it is one of the top international festivals with critics and industry professionals attending from around the world.

By: Jenny Sung (Toronto Correspondent - Canada) 

With the highly anticipated 33^rd annual Toronto International Film Festival, the entertainment industry is abuzz with more and more news of the exciting events and line-ups of films the festival has on.  Not only is TIFF a big draw for A-list celebrities to canoodle in Toronto, but it is one of the top international festivals with critics and industry professionals attending from around the world.

This year's festival touts a solid jury for both feature length and short film categories, with the list headed off with actress/director/activist Sarah Polley (Away from Her), director/producer Ann Marie Fleming (The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam), Co-Director of the "World Cinema Fund" Vincenzo Bugno and producer Michael Burns.  The short film jury rounds off the list with filmmaker/programmer Min Sook Lee (El Contrato), filmmaker Louise Archambault (Familia), programmer for the "International Film Festival Rotterdam", Peter van Hoof.  This international jury will be presenting the awards, which includes the TIFF Canadian Film Awards, at the Festival's Awards Reception on Saturday, September 13, 2008.  Past notable winners of the Canadian Film Awards are Guy Maddin's My Winnipeg for the 2007 City of Toronto Citytv Award for Best Canadian Feature Film, the French-Canadian C.R.A.Z.Y. in 2005 for the same award, and Atom Egoyan's Exotica and The Sweet Hereafter in 1994 and 1997, respectively. 

A festival favourite, Midnight Madness, will be returning this year with an exciting list of "wild and wicked films for the witching hour", opening with the international premiere of the somewhat hilariously titled and casted biopic, JCVD, and closing with the world premiere of Spanish filmmaker Miguel Martí's film aptly titled Sexy Killer.  Other programmes announced so far are the eighth Wavelengths presentation of leading avant-garde film and video works of the year, and Sprocket's Family Zone, sponsored by Sprockets Toronto International Film Festival for Children.   

Wavelengths, once again curated by Cinemathèque Ontario's Andréa Picard, has become renowned as a place and forum for discourse amongst artists and filmmakers to share in their interests in concerns about film and avant-garde art.  This seems to be right in line with this year's festival's promotional creative, which is described in a press release as to be designed to represent "the artistic integrity, imagination and boundless possibilities inherent in the practice of filmmaking".  Another programme boasting in Canadian talent is this year's Contemporary World Cinema, which will have five Canadian films in its line-up, including the world premiere of the four-part collective, Toronto Stories, amongst international heavy hitters such as Brazilian film Linha de Passe, whose Sandra Corveloni won the Best Actress award at this year's Cannes Film Festival.

Aside from these programmes, TIFF will proudly screen the best films from festivals all over the world, with the Gala Presentation opening with Korean film The Good, The Bad, The Weird, and Special Presentation screenings of the best of Cannes' Official Selection films, including France's Un Conte de Noël, and controversial Israeli animated film Waltz With Bashir.  Of course, Canadian Atom Egoyan's Adoration will also be a part of the high-calibre line-up.  For more information on all of this year's TIFF's presentations and events, visit www.tiff08.ca, and click on "Live From the Festival" for up to date festival information.