A look at the news and events surrounding the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival.

Day Ten

The Toronto International Film Festival is officially over; well, it will be at the end of the day today. It has been a crazy ten days, and I'm hoping everyone had a great time. I sure did. Of course, none of the fun and the folly of the festival could have been possible without the hard work of all the volunteers.

Before every film screening, there's an ad by NBC Universal thanking the volunteers for their support during the festival. Most people will lend their applause in thanks during the ad, but there was one P&I screening where I found myself being the only one clapping. The guy next to me glared and said: "Why are you clapping? They're only doing it for the free movie passes, so there's no real reason to thank them."

At that, I intensified my applause to make up for the idiots like the man next to me in the audience. What that man didn't realize is that without the hundreds of volunteers around us, TIFF would be a logistical nightmare and wouldn't be as successful as it is now. Free movies passes are definitely not thanks enough for the people who work tirelessly in order to bring the film festival to our city.

So today, on this last day of the festival, I want to send a huge thank you to all the volunteers on behalf of the entire City of Toronto. You do us all proud.

If you're set on spending your final festival day doing some celeb stalking, here are some of the big names that are still hanging around in town today:

• Keira Knightley
• Michel Brault
• Nadine Labaki
• Richard Attenborough
• Ellen Spiro
• Gael Garcia Bernal
• Jeremy Podeswa
• Nina Dobrev
• Eddie Vedder
• Ira Sachs
• Freddie Prinze Jr.
• Clement Virgo
• Kevin Bacon
• Marcia Gay Harden
• Peter Lynch
• Bruce McDonald

Today's the last day of the festival, so of course, the biggest event of the day is the closing night gala of Paolo Barzman's Emotional Arithmetic at Roy Thomson Hall. Then you can spend the rest of the evening trying to speculate on what's going to be showing at next year's festival — or is that just me?

And now, a short (100-word) look at a short:

Madame Tutli-Putli
Everyone that knows me knows that I'm a bit of a betting man. So write this down: I'm betting that Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski's Madame Tutli-Putli will win the Academy Award for best animated short film come February. By far the best short film showing at the festival, Madame Tutli-Putli is a stop-motion animated film that uses puppetry and very creepy lighting in order to tell a mysterious and compelling story of a woman that faces her demons while taking the night train. The film is visually stunning and the content is much more intriguing than any other short film I've seen this year, Canadian or not.

Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski's Madame Tutli-Putli won't be screening today at the festival, but keep an eye out on the NFB website in the next few months. If my Oscar prediction comes through, I'm sure they'll be talking more about it as February approaches.

(Image: Poster of the Toronto International Film Festival, via TIFF.)