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How a COVID-Era Toronto Film Festival Found a New Purpose – as a Platform for Unheard Voices

What if they threw a fall film festival and it didn’t really have anything to do with Hollywood’s awards season? The Toronto International Film Festival has been doing something like that over the past week. The splashiest part of its annual festival is usually devoted to Hollywood studios showing off their biggest awards contenders in front of industry and press from around the world, but this year’s COVID-19 edition has stripped out virtually all of the press and industry and most of the Hollywood studio movies. What did that leave? Well, it actually left TIFF 2020 as a vehicle for a rich collection of smaller films that in many cases showcased the voices of directors from underrepresented groups, and told stories of communities that are often overlooked. In other words, the festival produced exactly what its organizers wanted. Also Read: Fall Film Festivals Struggle for Relevance in the Year of Coronavirus It wasn’t the usual TIFF, or anything like that, but if you adjusted your expectations it was a satisfying collection of films and a way to turn a massive, crowded annual event into a smaller, mostly virtual one that worked on its own terms. I missed the usual TIFF,...

Read original story How a COVID-Era Toronto Film Festival Found a New Purpose – as a Platform for Unheard Voices At TheWrap