27th Toronto International Film Festival Coverage: Day One

“Is this seat taken?”

“Is there room for two?”

“Where’s the opening night party?”

Yep, the battle cries of the Festival journalists can only mean one thing. The 27th Toronto International Film Festival is underway.

We started the day with a screening of Ararat, Atom Egoyan’s look at the Armenian genocide of 1915 as framed by a film within a film.

Considering the importance of the subject to the director, I found the film to be a little emotionally detached. Egoyan has a very important story to tell here, but it’s a story that’ll have to wait to be told by another director. His film-within-a-film and the relationship between his mother and lover/stepsister detracts from the more important historical story.

From the screening, we headed off to the Ararat premiere, the Festival’s opening gala. Check out our photos below.

Tomorrow we head into a busy day of press conferences and premieres.

TIFF Day One Photo Galleries