28/06/2007

The new generation of French directors will provide the focus at the 32nd Toronto Film Festival (September 6-15, 2007), which yesterday unveiled its line-up.

Its programme of 32 titles features 36 year-old Christophe Honoré’s Love Songs [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and 28 year-old Céline Sciamma’s Water Lilies [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]. Both titles – acclaimed at this year’s Cannes festival in official competition (see article) and the Un Certain Regard section (see article) respectively – have been selected in the Avant-garde section of the Canadian event, whose informal market exerts a strong power of attraction for international buyers. At the market, producer and sales agent of Honoré’s film Alma Films will be hoping to seal further deals, while Films Distribution - who sold Water Lilies to a number of territories at the Cannes Film Market - will also be on the lookout for new buyers.

In the Masters section, Toronto will screen Jacques Rivette’s Don’t Touch the Axe [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Pierre Grise Productions, sales handled by Les Films du Losange ), an official competition entry at Berlin this year ((news). Other films in the section are 100% French production Flight of the Red Balloon [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao Hsien (Cannes Un Certain Regard title, see article).

David Cronenberg’s UK co-production Eastern Promises, starring Viggo Mortensen, Naomi Watts and Vincent Cassel, is rumoured to open the 2007 edition of the festival, while eight minority French productions – almost all of which screened at Cannes this year – will be on show: Alexandra [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Russia’s Alexander Sokurov (see article), The Man from London [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Hungary’s Béla Tarr (see interview) and Ulzhan [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by German helmer Volker Schlöndorff.

The festival’s Visions section will host Cannes winner Silent Light [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Mexico’s Carlos Reygadas (see article) and You, the Living [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Pernilla Sandström
interview: Roy Andersson
film profile] by Sweden’s Roy Andersson (see news), while Cannes darling Caramel [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Lebanese filmmaker Nadine Labaki (sales by Roissy Films) has been selected in the Contemporary World Cinema sidebar, as has Salif Traoré’s Faro: Goddess of the Waters and Brazilian director Sandra Kogut’s Mutum.

(Translated from French)