David Byrne’s American Utopia is the opening night film of the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival. The Spike Lee film is an easy choice for the opening night, especially with far fewer films available thanks to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
The 2019 opening night film — Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band — was the first Canadian film to get the opening night status since 2010.
Score: A Hockey Musical was the 2010 opening night film. At that point in time, having a Canadian film as the TIFF opening film was rather common. Since then, TIFF has tried to go international in its approach to the frustration of Canadian filmmakers.
The previous decade was filled with Canadian films as the opening night film at TIFF. Let's look back at those films:
2010 Score: A Hockey Musical Noah Reid (Schitt's Creek) and Allie McDonald (Young Drunk Punk) were the romantic leads in a film that tried to force hockey in a musical. The musical part was fine; the hockey part was not. The memory I had was Reid's character winning the face-off to himself and then driving down and scoring all by himself, a play you would never see in a hockey game. Olivia Newton-John was an odd choice as Reid's mother in that she didn't sing. Reid and McDonald truly do their best in a film that produced unintentional laughter.
2008 Passchendaele This is the best of what can be categorised as "Paul Gross war films." Caroline Dhavernas definitely makes a difference in the World War I film.
2007 Fugitive Pieces A Canada-Greece co-production, the story of a Greek archeologist who saves a Polish orphan during World War II comes from Jeremy Podeswa, known for The Five Senses.
2006 The Journals of Knud Rasmussen is a Canadian-Danish film on traditional Inuit shamanistic beliefs. The film was co-directed by Zacharias Kunuk, known for Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner.
2005 Water This is the final and best known films of the Elements trilogy from Deepa Mehta. The film subsequently became Canada's entry to the Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film and made TIFF's Top 10 Canadian films list.
2003 The Barbarian Invasions The Denys Arcand follow-up to the Decline of the American Empire remains the only Canadian film to win an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. The film is also the only one on this list to win the Best Canadian Feature Film award at TIFF.
2002 Ararat This Atom Egoyan film won the Genie Award for Best Motion Picture, a story about a film crew working on a film dealing with the Armenian Genocide.
2001 Last Wedding The Bruce Sweeney film captures a number of inter-related relationships.
2000 Stardom Denys Arcand's take on celebrity obsession stars a then-unknown Jessica Paré as a hockey player turned model. This was the second film in a row Arcand did in English. The film is now 20 years old but was ahead of its time in several ways. The film still holds up well.
2020 TIFF Canadian film preview
Canadian film review: Stardom
There is an international flavour to some of these films from that decade. Back then, TIFF wanted to celebrate Canadian films by spotlighting them as the opening night feature. The festival moved away from that approach to be seen as a truly international film festival.
TIFF doesn't have to showcase Canadian film because the film is Canadian. The festival shouldn't ignore Canadian film that could be worthy of the opening night slot.
TIFF does have awards for Best Canadian Feature Film and Best Canadian First Feature Film. Then again, eyeballs usually pay attention to the opening night film as opposed to award winners once the festival has finished.
2019 TIFF Canadian film wrapup
2019 TIFF preview
CanadianCrossing.com film coverage
At the end of each TIFF, we list the winners of the Best Canadian Feature Film and Best Canadian First Feature Film. This year's winners will come from a very shallow bowl in terms of quantity with only 5 full-blown Canadian films on the docket.
In 2019, Antigone won Best Canadian Feature Film. The film went on to be Canada's entry to the Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film. The Twentieth Century won the Best Canadian First Feature Film award.
Having those award winners does help promote Canadian film. Going fewer than 9 years in between a Canadian film serving as the TIFF opening night film would be better.
photo credit: The Barbarian Invasions film
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