Toronto film fest: Big-screen gems, absent movie stars

With a film festival as huge as the one held in Toronto this month, it’s folly to attempt to connect the dots and discern global cinematic trends. But several films about the Holocaust loomed large, centering primarily on stories about rescue missions, and there was at least one first-rate documentary on Ukraine.

I had not attended the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in four years, during which time the pandemic, until last year, had rendered it mostly virtual.

The reunion was both gratifying – films were back on the big screen, with movie-mad audiences – and somewhat disorienting. The event, after all, was taking place amid two major Hollywood labor union , as both the