Local films crash Toronto International Film Festival

Toronto: Home of RUSH! Birthplace of Will Arnett, Sarah Polley and Mike Myers! And apparently, a land filled with unabashed lovers of Australian cinema! A bunch of home-grown features have been selected to screen at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival.

Michael Henry’s Blame, Leon Ford’s Griff the Invisible and Ben Lucas’ Wasted on the Young will all play in Toronto’s Discovery program; a showcase for innovative new filmmakers. The TIFF screening of Griff the Invisible (a superhero film starring Ryan Kwanten) will be its world debut. Louise Alston’s Jucy will screen in TIFF’s Contemporary World Cinema section.

A couple of documentaries have finagled their way into the Reel to Reel program. They include Mark Hartley’s Machete Maidens Unleashed and Paul Clarke’s Mother of Rocl: Lillian Roxon.

Featured below are details on each of the films, courtesy of Screen Australia.

CONTEMPORARY WORLD CINEMA
Jucy
www.jucythemovie.com
Production Companies: KCDC & Bunker Productions International
Producer: Kelly Chapman
Director: Louise Alston
Writer: Stephen Vagg
Sales: Odin’s Eye Entertainment
Cast: Francesca Gasteen, Cindy Nelson
Synopsis: Jackie and Lucy (Jucy) are stuck in delayed adolescence and the whole world knows it. Motivated by criticism and determined to prove to everyone they are ‘normal’, Jackie sets out to snag a boyfriend and Lucy goes after the job of her dreams… but the pressure of fitting in might force their ‘womance’ to implode.

DISCOVERY
Blame
www.blamefilm.com
Production Companies: Factor 30 Films & 3monkeyfilms
Producers: Ryan Hodgson, Melissa Kelly, Michael Robinson
Writer/Director: Michael Henry
Sales: High Point Media Group
Australian Distributor: PackScreen
Cast: Damian de Montemas, Sophie Lowe, Kestie Morassi, Simon Stone, Mark Leonard Winter, Ashley Zukerman
Synopsis: Seeking retribution for a past crime five friends violently attack a man and fake his suicide. But, to get away with murder you can’t make mistakes and as their bungled scheme unravels, so too the deception that brought them to their own ill-fated crime.

Griff the Invisible
http://www.grifftheinvisible.com
Production Company: Green Park Pictures
Producer: Nicole O’Donohue
Writer/Director: Leon Ford
Sales: Fortissimo Films
Australian Distributor: Transmission Films
Cast: Ryan Kwanten, Maeve Dermody
Synopsis: Griff – office worker by day, superhero by night – has his world turned upside down when he meets Melody, a beautiful young scientist who shares his passion for the impossible.

Wasted on the Young
www.wastedontheyoung.com
Production Company: WBMC
Producers: Janelle Landers, Aidan O’Bryan
Writer/Director: Ben C Lucas
Sales: Fortissimo Films
Australian Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Cast: Oliver Ackland, Adelaide Clemens, Alex Russell
Synopsis: After an incident at a high school party sets off a fatal chain of events, two brothers must place their lives at the mercy of popular opinion.

REAL TO REEL
Machete Maidens Unleashed!
www.machetemaidensunleashed.com
Production Companies: Fury Productions & Bionic Boy Productions
Producer: Veronica Fury
Writer/Director: Mark Hartley
Sales: Celluloid Nightmares, ABC Commercial
Synopsis: A fast-moving, no-holds-barred exploration of the blood-drenched and action-packed world of Filipino genre filmmaking.

Mother of Rock: Lillian Roxon
Production Company: Lowlands Media
Producer: Robert de Young
Writer/Director: Paul Clarke
Sales: SBS Content Sales
Synopsis: Mother of Rock: Lillian Roxon shines a light into the decadent world of Max’s Kansas City, a tiny underground club in New York, and Lillian Roxon’s place in documenting the emerging rock revolution as it rolled over the US in the 1960s and early 1970s.

Toronto International Film Festival runs from 9-19 September, 2010. Although the festival is non-competitive, there is a People’s Choice Award handed out each year. Previous winners include Slumdog Millionaire and Precious.

Discuss: Good luck to all!