TIFF 6: the winners, inconsequential trends

This is a bit late, but it takes a while to decompress from the cinematic nirvana of Toronto.

So, the winners.

David O. Russell's "Silver Linings Playbook" (didn't see it!) won the "Blackberry People's Choice Award." Good news for Russell, because previous winners ("Slumdog Millionaire," "The King's Speech") have gone on to win Best Picture Oscars. As for the winner of the "Midnight Madness" Award, Martin McDonagh's "Seven Psychopaths," the Oscar implications aren't so clear, but it deserves the Academy's  attention.

And of course the only award that matters is the FIPRESCI Award (as you might recall I was on the jury). The jury of six was divided into two minjuries of three each to cover the two categories: "Special Presentations," with films by established filmmakers, which I participated in, and the "Discoveries Programme," with debut features.

The "Discoveries" people chose Swedish director Mikael Marcimain's "Call Girl."

I didn't see it. Really? You didn't see it? Did you see anything? It doesn't seem like you did. So what were you doing up there for eleven days, then?

Well, there were 17 movies in the "Special Presentations" program to start with, okay? (One of the effects of the festival, at least for me, is having arguments with yourself). We gave the prize to François Ozon's "In the House." (I kind of favored  Derek Cianfrance's "The Place Beyond the Pines," but the other jurors gave me funny looks and ignored me). However, it is definitely an excellent choice. In fact I wrote a review of it for the FIPRESCI website.

Yet to be posted, however.

I did see number of other films as well. In fact I was starting to notice some weird trends among them.

For example, there were a lot of movies about writers writing. And survivors surviving. And boats. Time travel. Unlikely nude scenes and controversial medical procedures, sometimes in the same movie. People with secret pasts. People with secret futures.

Farewell, Toronto.