The good, the bad and the best of TIFF 2014

We finally wrapped up the busiest time of the year. The TIFF 2014 (Toronto International Film Festival) , where we had the chance to meet our favorite celebrities, attend premiers & screenings, press conferences, and even attend an exclusive Giorgio Armani party held at the CN Tower. 

This year the Festival’s Mavericks programme added In-Conversation-With stars such as Reese Witherspoon, Denzel Washington, and Richard Gere. One of the most disappointing parts of the festival was that Jason Reitman’s live read wasn’t part of the Ryerson theater screenings this year. The live read always attracted surprise celebrities in previous years such as Dane Cook, Josh Brolin, Dakota Fanning, and more.

Some of the most talked films this year and possible Oscar Contender’s were Reese Witherspoon’s performance in Wild, Jennifer Aniston in Cake, Juliette Binoche and Kristen Stewart in Clouds of Sils Maria, Miles Teller in Whiplash, Jake Gyllenhaal in Nightcrawler, Steve Carell in Foxcatcher, Eddie Redmayne in The Theory of Everything, and the 2014 Grolcsh’s People Choice award film, The Imitation Game, where Benedict Cumberbatch portrays Alan Turing. Though we haven’t seen any of these films yet, we are definitely hearing a lot of buzz on The Theory of Everything.

We had the chance to watch a few films, but one of our favorites would have to be Lynn Shelton’s comedy, “Laggies” starring Kiera Knightley, Chloe Moretz, and Sam Rockwell. The story is of a mid-twenty year old girl named Megan,(Knightley) who becomes close friends with high school student Annika,(Moretz) and she decides to stay with her to find out what she really wants to do with her life. The script is very well written, and watching Knightley play a comedic role is very intriguing since she doesn’t play many comedic roles. Knightley did an amazing job making the audience laugh and smile throughout the whole movie.

One of the last films we also checked out was Chris Evan’s first directorial debut “Before We Go“. A cute and fun romantic film starring Chris Evans and Alice Eve which tells a story about a girl who misses her 1:30 train to Boston and is stranded in New York. The film took only about 19 days to shoot, and it’s definitely one of those romantic films that every couple should see. Followed by the premier, the cast came out to do a brief Q & A, and some of the questions asked were “How does it feel to direct yourself?” Evans tells the audience, “It was actually great, it’s actually wonderful as an actor. The scariest thing as an actor as people would say is taking risks, taking chances. You give those performances, then you want to try things. The scariest thing is handing that performance over to sometimes director, or a group people who makes choices. The best thing of directing yourself is that you can try anything you want to try, you can really swing for the fences and take risks because ultimately it’s up to you to choose what you use.” Another fan asks “What drew you into the story?” and Evans explains, “I like love stories, to me it’s a love story not necessarily to each other but it’s a love story to love. You have two characters who love by a code, they believe in love, they give themselves to love and when you do that it’s scary. You run the risk of being hurt and these are two characters who are on the verge of being hurt and taking that damage upon themselves as who they are. That’s sad when that happens when those scars become a part of you and when they found each other they kind of revitalized their idea of what love can be. I think that’s more romantic than what any other love story can be.”  The film was picked up by Radius and is expecting a 2015 release.

Onto our TIFF celebrity sightings and which celebrities we thought made the most of TIFF. This year we truly got to experience the festival at its best and we bumped into a lot of our favorite celebrities. Some of the very fan friendly celebs this year were John Travolta (who signed and took pictures for almost everyone on the red carpet), Jessica Chastain, Reese Witherspoon, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Ryan Reynolds.  We also had some difficult encounters such as the likes of Tobey Maguire, Andrew Garfield, Jennifer Aniston, Kate Winslet, and Alan Rickman. Some of our personal favorite encounters would have to be Kate Bosworth, Chris Evans, Lacey Chabert, Madeline Stoewe, Ansel Elgort, and Tom Hardy. 

As we wrap up TIFF this year, preparation for next year is just beginning and a lot of these films are MUST-SEEs. Check out our fave pics below! Until next year, bring on TIFF 15!!