I’m glad a stranger walked by the rush line at the 6:30 p.m. screening of American Fiction, which was announced as the People’s Choice Award winner on the last day of TIFF 2023, and asked if anyone wanted a ticket. A friend had cancelled; he really had the tickets on his phone, he said.
I don’t know how intentional the marketing of American Fiction was. First of all it’s called American Fiction. On paper there’s nothing lustrous about it—it has the matte finish of a campus novel offshoot, which doesn’t really jibe with what I want to see. What it actually is, is a well written (humorous) and well executed (funny) critique of the film and publishing industries, which have cultivated an environment in which people who identify as underrepresented feel beholden to their identities, wanting community, but also wanting not to be part of a monolith or a template of experience.
That tension was a topic of conversation at the TIFF industry conference and is something that can be perceived in the cinema being made today, even and especially in the films selected to be the cream of the crop.
A personal highlight of the festival—my first as a member of the press—would be Spike Lee walking right by me to get to the stage at the industry conference, another reminder to always strive to be aware of who or what’s behind you. At breakfast the first day someone almost had a cardiac arrest thinking my name was Angie Wang. You live for those unexpected moments when someone says something off kilter, a little surprising. It’s charming to be the exception and not the rule.
Thank you to the light-blue shirted volunteers and janitorial workers for making the experience such a delight.
I watched 36 films including 14 short films. Here are my favourites from TIFF 2023. I hope you get to see them, too.
NAGA (Meshal Aljaser | Saudi Arabia | Netflix)
The Breaking Ice (Anthony Chen | China | Canopy Pictures and Huace Pictures)
Toll (Carolina Markowicz | Brazil and Portugal | Luxbox)
NYAD (Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin | USA | Netflix)
American Fiction (Cord Jefferson | USA | MGM)
Daddio (Christy Hall | USA | Hercules Film Fund)
The Heart (Malia Ann | USA | 18m)
27 (Flóra Anna Buda | France and Hungary | 11m)
6 Minutes Per Kilometre (Catherine Boivin | Canada | 3m)
Electra (Daria Kashcheeva | Czech Republic, France and Slovakia | 27m)
Nada de todo esto (Francisco Cantón and Patricio Martínez | Argentina and USA | 17m)
All images courtesy of TIFF.