O Canada! The Best Quotes From the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival

After a few years hobbled by COVID and Hollywood strikes, the Toronto International Film Festival returned to its previous glory. Vanity Fair’s reporters were on hand for some irresistible moments, with Jude Law talking nudity, Florence Pugh getting teary, and Amy Adams admitting that she scared her costars on the set of Nightbitch (spoiler alert: they were dogs).

**Ben Stiller Has Not Quit Acting**

It probably wasn’t a coincidence that the Toronto International Film Festival’s opening night movie was a throwback. David Gordon Green (George Washington, Joe)—who’s been to TIFF frequently over the years—directed Nutcrackers. It’s a family drama starring Ben Stiller that wouldn’t have been out of place in a studio’s Christmastime offerings a couple decades ago. And that’s what Green was going for with this indie movie, which is currently looking for a distribution deal. After helming a trilogy of Halloween films, he told the audience at Roy Thomson Hall, he wanted to make a movie “without cynicism.”

Stiller hasn’t tackled a film role this substantial since 2017’s The Meyerowitz Stories and Brad’s Status. He is sweet and familiar as a real estate developer who must take care of his unusual nephews on their farm after their parents die. In a Q&A after the screening, Stiller said he pressed pause on acting to focus on directing and now only signs up for movies that really speak to him. He made clear that he hopes Nutcrackers will find a buyer looking to release it theatrically.

“We had this experience of going to the movies and seeing movies like this in theaters,” Stiller said of his generation of directors. “It’s important for us to try to experience a movie like this in a theater, hopefully. We need more movies like this on screens.”

The movie was introduced by everyone from TIFF head Cameron Bailey to Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau. When Bailey asked Green about his hopes for the release, the director admitted that the options are fraught. “That’s the tricky question—you just look at the industry right now,” he said. “You want to…push not just a distributor or a marketing department, but also an audience, to seek out the companionship of the cinematic experience.” —David Canfield

Meet Pamela Anderson, the Last Showgirl

After The Last Showgirl premiered at the Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto, Pamela Anderson, its star, spoke plainly about how much the movie meant to her. “I think I’ve been getting ready my whole life for this role,” she said, standing between director Gia Coppola and costar Jamie Lee Curtis. “It’s the first time I ever read a good script, first of all. I never had a script given to me that was coherent. So I was like, I’m really wanting to do this. I’ve never felt that strongly about something.”

The Last Showgirl is about Anderson’s Shelley, who’s in the only traditional floor show left in Las Vegas. When she learns it’s going to close, she looks back on the bumpy road she’s been on while considering her next move. “It’s a really hard life for people living in Vegas—it’s a really hard life,” said Curtis. “It is a movie about dreams and going after your dreams, but, of course, the dreams become a really harsh fucking reality.”

Coppola’s last movie was the poorly received Mainstream. This one is definitely a step up, but the people who think it will launch Anderson into the awards derby are speaking too soon. The film met mixed reactions out of the premiere. Still, Anderson can count The Last Showgirl as a significant win—and hopefully the start of a new chapter in her career. —D.C.

Rolex, Mentorship, and Movies

Acclaimed Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhang-Ke, director of A Touch of Sin and Still Life, sat with emerging director Rafael Manuel for a wide-ranging conversation about mentorship and influences in cinema. TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey moderated the conversation in partnership with Rolex, which connected Jia with Manuel via its mentorship program. Jia chose Manuel as his protégé after a 40-minute Zoom meeting in which he could tell that “he loves food, he loves smoking, [and], of course, he also loves film.” Jia went on to explain the importance of mentorship in Chinese education. “To me the Rolex mentoring program is quite Chinese…almost like Confucius in teaching. On the other hand, it’s also extremely modern. Because we met via video conferencing, I was able to peruse literally the entire world to finally choose my protégé, this young Filipino filmmaker.” —John Ross

**Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield Make Time for Romance**

At the premiere of A24’s We Live in Time, Andrew Garfield lambasted some unnamed former costars: “Sometimes there are actors who don’t want to do their off-camera lines, which is absolutely insane to me. You get no pressure on you, and you’re just watching an exquisite actor working.” This scenario was not the case with costar Florence Pugh, who got emotional talking about filming the movie and seeing it play in front of an audience. “It’s so amazing being in this space with all of you, because it was such a pleasure shooting this movie,” she said while holding back tears. —J.R.

Jude’s Law

Despite a medical emergency during its debut screening, Eden received an enthusiastic response from the audience—with audible gasps during the film’s most dramatic moments. In the movie, which is based on a true story, Jude Law plays Dr. Friedrich Ritter, the de facto leader of an island. After the screening, the actor said of his character, “He was a stubborn man and a kind of brilliant man who didn’t want to be moved. So that was the heart of the challenge. That and the nudity and having my teeth pulled.” Ana de Armas said she knew her character, the baroness, would be polarizing, adding that she thought “this might be the end of my career, but it looks like fun, so let’s go for it.” Speaking about her own reaction and her character, Sydney Sweeney told the audience, “I was absolutely amazed by, one, it’s a true story, and two, it wasn’t her choice—and she had to follow her husband’s footsteps, and she had no idea what she was getting herself into.” —J.R.

Going to the Dogs

Scoot McNairy, who plays Amy Adams’s husband in Searchlight’s Nightbitch, told the audience, “The one thing I did learn during this movie is, don’t mansplain. So you guys learn all the things that I learned. Shut up and listen.” The film, which had its world premiere Saturday night at the festival, is an adaptation of Rachel Yoder’s cult-hit novel about a stay-at-home mother who’s struggling with her identity post-baby—and might be turning into a dog. Working with 12 dogs proved to be challenging, especially with Adams’s convincing performance. “Her behavior was too odd and it flipped them. It was wild,” director Marielle Heller said after describing a moment in which the dogs all lunged at Adams on set. “Except one dog. One dog was like, that’s not okay, that’s not cool,” Adams added. “So yeah, I freaked the dogs out on the set.” —J.R.

Baptism of Fire

“I went to nun school, and they were not submissive,” said Isabella Rossellini during the post-screening Q&A for Focus Features’ Conclave. Her character, the only female with a prominent role in the film, acts as a guide to Cardinal Lawrence (played by Ralph Fiennes, who was not present at the premiere) as he navigates the Vatican during the papal conclave to find the next pope. “It’s a human story that contains some of the power mechanics that could replace Nancy Pelosi making sure the Democratic candidate changed,” said director Edward Berger, referencing the film’s parallels to the current US presidential election. —J.R.

Queer Eye

Luca Guadagnino’s latest film—an adaptation of William S. Burroughs’s novel Queer—was a true passion project. “This is a long journey for me,” the director said before the A24 film had its North American premiere at TIFF. “I tried to make this movie for so long. I read the book when I was 17, 18.” He called the final product, which tracks Daniel Craig’s Burroughs surrogate, Lee, as he pursues a withholding younger man named Allerton (Drew Starkey)—as well as a chance to experience ayahuasca—“a labor of love, but mostly a movie about love.”

Guadagnino expanded on that in the postshow Q&A alongside Starkey, saying that the book—which Burroughs wrote in the early ’50s but only published late in his life—was how the author “processed and couldn’t process the pain and anguish and elation of being in love with someone.” It was especially challenging when the man was Allerton, whom Starkey said Guadagnino was unsparing toward: “You had such a specific idea of him. I think one of the first things you said to me was, ‘He’s a nasty bitch.’ And I ran with that.” —Hillary Busis

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