TORONTO — I got into a cab Friday at the Toronto International Film Festival, and the driver asked where I came from. I told him.
"Dallas," he repeated. "Thank you. Thank you for coming to Toronto."
This took me aback: Thank you for visiting our world-class city for the best film festival in North America. The sentiment, however, fits both the town and the fest, which kicked off Thursday night and is celebrating its 40th this year. Back in 1976, it was a humble affair called the Festival of Festivals. It's now a gargantuan movie party that brings in some of the industry's biggest stars.
But despite its expansion, TIFF still has a way with hospitality.
The festival has an out-in-the-open urban feel that invites interaction between celebrities and their fans. Among those pressing the flesh Thursday night were Jake Gyllenhaal and Naomi Watts, the stars of the opening-night film Demolition.
It's an odd choice for opener, a dark comedy about a widower (Gyllenhaal) who unravels and starts destroying things as he realizes he wasn't in love with his late wife.
Yet in some ways, it's not that odd. It features two popular stars, and a Canadian director, the Quebecois Jean-Marc Vallée, who has long been a staple of this festival (most recently with Dallas Buyers Club in 2013 and Wild in 2014).
Vallée urged the crowd to "make some noise" as he introduced "the most rock 'n' roll film" he's made to date. Demolition won't come out until next year. Meanwhile, the movies jockeying for awards-season positioning here are looking to make some noise of their own.
Both of the reigning lead-acting Oscar winners have movies here. Eddie Redmayne stars as the pioneering transgender artist Lili Elbe in The Danish Girl (likely a December opening in Dallas). In Freeheld (Oct. 9), Julianne Moore plays New Jersey police lieutenant Laurel Hester, who fought to gain domestic partnership pension benefits when she was diagnosed with lung cancer. Smart money says Redmayne and Moore will be nominated again this time around. (Moore's Freeheld costar, Ellen Page, will likely get a nod as well.)
These two films reflect a larger trend at this year's festival and in the wider cinematic landscape.
In About Ray (opening Friday), Elle Fanning plays a young woman transitioning from female to male; Watts and Susan Sarandon costar. Roland Emmerich's Stonewall (Sept. 25) uses the landmark 1969 New York gay-rights demonstrations in New York as the backdrop for a story about a young man from the sticks who discovers himself in the big city.
La Belle Saison (Summertime) tells a similar tale: A French country girl in the 1970s draws the wrath of her tradition-minded parents when she comes out of the closet and falls in love with a woman in Paris.
A festival this prominent can serve as a useful zeitgeist barometer. These films were surely in the works before the recent Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage, and before Caitlyn Jenner vaulted transgender issues into the public consciousness. Their time, however, is now, and in TIFF they have one grand coming-out party.
