TIFF 2015: Toronto film fest celebrates 40th anniversary edition

"Defining moments since 1976" is the motto of this year's Toronto International Film Festival and for artistic director Cameron Bailey, his indelible TIFF memory has it all: passionate filmmakers, a star-studded cast, a rapturous audience reception, fervent media coverage and Oprah Winfrey.

"I've never felt that degree of emotional charge as I did in that room, that night," he recalled of the festival's 2009 premiere of Lee Daniels' Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire. 

The searing coming-of-age drama arrived in Toronto that September.

"We had Oprah. We had Tyler [Perry, both of whom joined the film as executive producers]. We had [singer] Mary J. Blige there. We had Mariah Carey, who is in the cast. [Director] Lee Daniels, who of course has gone on to Empire and all this success.

"It was the most staggering red carpet and stage party I had ever experienced ... People were all on their feet. Flashbulbs are going off everywhere like crazy. [Winfrey] just commanded all that, like Moses or something. It was really something quite remarkable."

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Anniversary edition

Celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, the massive, glitzy and internationally attended TIFF — which turns Toronto into the world's movie Mecca for 10 days each fall — has come a long way from its humble roots as Toronto's Festival of Festivals.

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"Whether it's a big red carpet movie [or] it's a smaller art house film, I think we can shine that bright spotlight on them," Bailey told CBC News.

'It's not about movie stars, even though they get a lot of attention... It's still about love of cinema and you don't find that at many other festivals.;- Paul Haggis, writer-director

In 1976, seeking to put Toronto on the global movie map, TIFF co-founders Bill Marshall, Henk van der Kolk and Dusty Cohl cobbled together a cinema-celebrating festival. 

Cousin Cousine was the opening film, the entire lineup included 127 titles from 30 countries and major celebs in attendance included French star Jeanne Moreau and documentarian Barbara Kopple. A $6 ticket could get a fan into any three daytime shows. Approximately 35,000 people attended that inaugural edition.

Today, TIFF has grown to become arguably the world's most important publicly attended film festival, with 500,000 attendees expected this year.

The star-studded Jean-Marc Vallée drama Demolition officially kicked off the 2015 proceedings, which includes a lineup of 399 films from 71 countries. A pantheon of Hollywood stars — including Julianne Moore, Johnny Depp, Matt Damon, Salma Hayek, Kristen Stewart and Benedict Cumberbatch — are expected to grace Toronto's red carpets. 

For 2015, ticket prices range from free (to watch classic films in the Cinematheque program) to $1,500 for TIFF's five-film "buzz list" package, although the cost of an average screening is about $25.

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"You can look at turning 40 in lots of different ways," Bailey said.

"Yes, it could be middle age, but it can also be that time when you're fully aware of who you are, fully aware of your abilities ... and what you can do.

Public focus

At 40, Toronto has developed a reputation as a valuable, real-world testing ground for movies, with a raft of eventual Oscar winners having begun their stratospheric rise at TIFF — several after having earned the festival's top prize: the People's Choice Award.

"It's never easy to put this festival together. But the advantage that we have now, four decades on, is that people understand the success, going back to The Big Chill, American Beauty and so many other films that have gone on to remarkable success here, [including] The King's Speech, Slumdog Millionaire and 12 Years a Slave," according to Bailey.

"We have the Toronto audience as our secret weapon. They are the best film audience in the world," he continued.

"They're sophisticated, not snobbish. They are ready to embrace a film. They're ready to be impressed. They're not sitting with their arms folded like they are at some other festivals, you know waiting to be disappointed or to turn up their noses. They're ready to be wowed. That atmosphere is what brings people to Toronto every year."

As TIFF has grown and changed it has endured criticism about being too Hollywood focused, too big, too pricey, too geared towards celebrities and too premiere hungry. It's the organizers' ongoing emphasis on the audience of average movie lovers that sets Toronto apart in the increasingly crowded world of film festivals.

"[TIFF] is still truly about people who come to see movies," Oscar-winning writer-director Paul Haggis said in a recent interview in Toronto.

"It's not about movie stars, even though they get a lot of attention — there's red carpets and parties. It's still about love of cinema and you don't find that at many other festivals."

The 40th edition of TIFF opens Thursday and continues through Sept. 20.