TIFF 2008 Special Presentations Announced: The Wrestler, Zack and Miri, Synecdoche New York, and more!

Posted by on August 13th, 2008   Filed under: Festival Coverage
Source: Variety

This year’s Toronto International Film Festival is now less than a month away, and the full line-up of films has been slowly revealing itself through a string of small announcements over the past month or so. Today a large chunk of the Special Presentations were finally announced to round things out, and I am blown away by how many cool flicks are in the list. Among them: Stephen Soderbergh’s Che (in two parts), Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler, Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York, Rian Johnson’s The Brothers Bloom, and yes, even Kevin Smith’s Zack and Miri Make a Porno.

As some Film Junk readers may know, Greg attends the festival every year and writes up daily reports about his experiences. This year both Jay and I will also be attending at least a handful of screenings, although with such a great line-up I am definitely going to try to squeeze in as many movies as I possibly can. I would like to try doing some video podcasts while we’re in Toronto as well, but I’m not sure if it will be logistically possible. Either way, our TIFF coverage this year will definitely be the most extensive we’ve done to date. In the meantime, check out a fairly comprehensive list of announced titles after the jump.

Special Presentations

  • Aide-toi le ciel t’aidera (François Dupeyron)
  • Un Barrage Contre le Pacifique (Rithy Panh)
  • The Brothers Bloom (Rian Johnson)
  • Easy Virtue (Stephan Elliott)
  • Faubourg 36 (Christophe Barratier)
  • Genova (Michael Winterbottom)
  • Is There Anybody There? (John Crowley)
  • Last Stop 174 (Bruno Barreto)
  • Management (Stephen Belber)
  • Me and Orson Welles (Richard Linklater)
  • Slumdog Millionaire (Danny Boyle)
  • A Woman in Berlin (Max Färberböck)
  • Zack and Miri Make a Porno (Kevin Smith)
  • A Perfect Day (Ferzan Ozpetek)
  • Séraphine (Martin Provost)
  • 35 Rhums (Claire Denis)
  • The Burning Plain (Guillermo Arriaga)
  • Che: Part One (Stephen Soderbergh)
  • Che: Part Two (Stephen Soderbergh)
  • Inju, la bête dans l’ombre (Barbet Schroeder)
  • Synecdoche, New York (Charlie Kaufman)
  • The Wrestler (Darren Aronofsky)
  • Flash of Genius (Marc Abraham)

Previously Announced Titles

  • Disgrace (Steve Jacobs)
  • Good (Vicente Amorim)
  • Miracle at St. Anna (Spike Lee)
  • Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist (Peter Sollett)
  • Il Divo (Paolo Sorrentino)
  • The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow)
  • Adoration (Atom Egoyan)
  • The Other Man (Richard Eyre)
  • Rachel Getting Married (Jonathan Demme)
  • La Fille de Monaco (Anne Fontaine)
  • Appaloosa (Ed Harris)
  • I’ve Loved You So Long (Philippe Claudel)
  • The Good, The Bad, The Weird (Kim Jee-woon)
  • Passchendaele (Paul Gross)
  • Secret Life of Bees (Gina Prince-Bythewood)
  • The Duchess (Saul Dibb)
  • Ghost Town (David Koepp)
  • Religulous (Larry Charles)
  • Ashes of Time Redux (Wong Kar-wai)
  • Happy-Go-Lucky (Mike Leigh)
  • RocknRolla (Guy Ritchie)
  • Blindness (Fernando Meirelles)
  • JCVD (Mabrouk El Mechri)
  • Detroit Metal City (Toshio Lee)
  • Chocolate (Prachya Pinkaew)


  • Greg, when you go to wrestling events do you always see signs like, so and so sucks a fat dick and have you ever made one?

  • Greg

    Yeah….you used to see that at ECW shows back when it was it’s own company in the 90’s. You never see that at WWE events. Security will take them away as it’s televised. I’ve never made a sign at a wrestling event oddly enough. I never really got emotionally involved in the characters or angles enough to make a sign or spit on a wrestler or throw coins and lighters and whatnot.

    It’s so goddammned goofy it makes me laugh and I get a lot of enjoyment out of it. Plus, some of those dudes are tremendous athletes.

  • Glad to hear you guys are covering TIFF – it is looking to be such an exciting year! Video podcasts would be really cool, I hope you decide to do them! I might try that myself this year as well.