Toronto's Film Festival Opened Tonight
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Tonight, at 6:00 p.m., the red carpet unrolled at David Pecaut Square in downtown Toronto, and the 51st Toronto International Film Festival officially opened.
The night's centerpiece is the world premiere of "Being Heumann" at Roy Thomson Hall — a gala presentation from Siân Heder, the Oscar-winning director of "CODA," starring Ruth Madeley as Judy Heumann, the disability rights advocate whose activism reshaped accessibility law in the United States. It's the kind of opening-night choice TIFF has built its reputation on: a story about someone who changed how the world works, kicking off ten days that will decide which films everyone's talking about by December.
TIFF doesn't get the same volume of tabloid glamour as Cannes or Venice, but it's arguably the festival that matters most for what actually reaches audiences — a launchpad where awards contenders and box office hits alike have historically found their footing on the way to the rest of the year.
There's a specific minute where all of that starts: not the film itself, but the moment the carpet went down and the festival became real instead of scheduled. Tonight, that minute was 6:00 p.m.