Hello folks.  Welcome to our coverage of the Toronto International Film Festival 2013 from Toronto, Canada. The festival covers 300 films from 72 countries with celebrities and talent galore. What we aim to give you are flavors of the Indian selections alongside some selections from other countries. So read away.

Our special correspondent in Toronto, Swati Sharan has been mingling and movie watching at the prestigious and celeb-filled ‘Torono’ International Film Festival especially for Minority-Review after we received press accreditation from them.

 

Here are some interesting things Swati Says she’s been up to:

> I asked Ralph Fiennes and Felicity Jones if they planned to promote their film The Invisible Woman about Charles Dickens in non-English speaking countries like India. And they were both high up in smiles and said they would love to go there. The encounter should be up on a video soon.

 

> Also, I attended Julia Louis-Dreyfus‘s conference. All the women in her movie Enough Said including her are really, really good-looking in real life!

 

> I asked Liam Neeson a question. It was about what difference he found between playing characters based on real people like Oscar Schindler vs. fictional characters like those in his latest film The Third Person. He said it was easier to act out a real person vs. a fictitious one, as there were records or books to base his character on vs. with a fictional character like he’s played as a writer in this film. Here he has to really use his imagination. In the end though he did end up saying that both required “acts of imagination” on some level but the latter perhaps more.

Here’s the Press Conference for The Third Person and Swati’s question (at 33.0 mins)

 

> Got to attend press conference with Pierce Brosnan and Emma Thompson for their film The Love Punch. It was the warmest and cosiest press conference I’d ever attended. We were a small group but it was amazing. These guys were dynamite. I asked 3 questions and these guys gave us detailed answers and even the moderator fed off of these questions. Emma was hilarious and these guys really went out of their way to make us feel comfortable and at home. It was like if I were to chill and talk sitting with you on the couch.

They commented on everything at length from the story style to the global financial collapse to the art of acting being meditative. People were praising the questions and the moderator thanked us including myself for asking the questions after the stars went away.

 

Watch this extremely fun, insightful and informative press conference with Pierce Brosnan and the wonderful Emma Thompson:

 

> I saw Annette Bening up close on friday rather by accident. She was more beautiful in real life than she is on screen. Saw her at the Gala Premiere of The Face of Love.

 

>Met Jennifer Aniston and Tim Robbins at their press conference for Life of Crime. Asked two questions. Jen was genuinely surprised about her fan following in India and when asked about whether she would do a Bollywood number for her Indian fans if offered, she said, “Absolutely. I love watching dance numbers.”

> I also asked Tim and Jen about how much presence of mind the art of acting requires. Tim answered comically, “Well, let’s just say it’s not something to do when you’re unconscious.” And Jen laughed at his comment and then looked at me and then answered with a nod and wide eyes, “Oh very.”

Watch the Press Conference with the cast of Life of Crime including Jennifer Aniston and Tim Robbines. Swati’s question from Minority Review is the very first one at (3.44 mins)!

Other glimpses at the event: 

 

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WINNERS LIST:

Minority-Review’s Swati Sharan rounds up this year’s TIFF 2013 Winners

Prize of the International Critics for Special Presentations

Pawel Pawlikowski’s Ida

Prize of the International Critics for the Discovery Programme

Claude Sainte-Luce’s The Amazing Catfish

Blackberry’s People’s Choice Awards

Steve McQueen’s 12 Years A Slave

1st Runner up: Stephen Frear’s Philomena

2^nd Runner up: Dennis Villeneuve’s Prisoners

Blackberry’s People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award

Sion Sono’s Why Don’t You Play in Hell?

1st Runner up: Mike Flanagan’s Oculus

2^nd Runner up: Alex de la Iglesia’s Witching and Bitching

Blackberry’s People’s Choice Documentary Award

Jehanne Noujaim’s The Square

1st Runner up: Alanis Obmsawin’s Hi-Ho Mistahey!

2^nd Runner up: Leanne Pooley’s Beyond the Edge

NETPAC Award for International Asian Premiere

Anup Singh’s Qissa

Grolsch Film Works Discovery Award

Gia Milani’s All the Wrong Reasons

RBC Emerging Filmmaker’s Competition

Christoph Rainer’s Requiem for a Robot

Honorable Mentions

Dan Popa for Tales of Santa Fe and Kevan Funk for Destroyer

YouTube Award for best Canadian Short Film

Walter Woodman and Patrick Cederberg for Noah

Honorable Mentions

Kevan Funke for Yellowhead and Fraser Munden and Neil Rathbone’s The Chaperon 3D

City of Toronto+ Canada Goose Award for Best Canadian Feature Film

Alan Zweig’s When Jews Were Funny

A Special Citation for Jennifer Podemski, Cara Gee and Shay Eyre for Empire of Dirt

Award for Best Canadian First Feature Film
Shayne Ehman and Seth Scriver’s Asphalt Watches

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Read the 1st Set of Film Reviews (including The Lunchbox and The Invisible Woman) from TIFF 2013 here.

Read the 2nd Set of Film Reviews (including Gravity and Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom) from TIFF 2013 here 

Read the 3rd Set of Film Reviews (including Qissa and Words & Pictures) from TIFF 2013 here