Next week the Toronto International Film Festival will kick off, and cinephiles, film critics and industry folks will be running amok all over downtown Toronto, rushing to get to screenings and saying things like, “Hey, I’d love to chat, but I’m rushing to get to the new Cronenberg! Catch you for drinks later?” And sometimes the drinks happen, but often they don’t because you’re just tired from seeing four or five films and you still need to write about them.

Every year, I try my darnedest to carefully plot and plan my schedule, only to have this or that throw it awry. So this year, I’ve decided to try something different. I’m using the TIFF preview as a way of narrowing down a list of the films I really want to see, and then I’ll look at the press schedule each day and catch as many of them as I can. If there’s two playing opposite each other (usually the case), maybe I’ll coin flip or something.

To kick things off, here’s a look at the films I’m most interested in seeing from the Gala, Masters and Special Presentation sections of the fest; more previews of the other sections will be coming shortly.
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