"This is sukiyaki, not a dang lollipop!" - Quentin Tarantino in SUKIYAKI WESTERN DJANGO

I hate Takashi Miike. Hate, hate, hate. I've walked out of more of his films than I've stayed in. And yet, every time Colin Geddes programs one of his films for Midnight Madness, my ears perk up - each successive one sounds even more fun than the one before.

This time, it's SUKIYAKI WESTERN DJANGO (capitalized to grab your attention, like most of the movie) - and for the first time, I don't hate Takeshi Miike.

Miike's long association with Midnight Madness packed the house at the Ryerson tonight; tickets for DJANGO sold better than the Argento or Romero offerings and were the fastest sellout for MM this year. Actors from the film were in attendance, and Miike, who was unable to hop over to Toronto for the screening, taped a welcome for the crowd and wished everyone well. He even gave us his e-mail address so we could comment on the film (miike@olm.co.jp).

A look at the news and events surrounding the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival, and a very quick look at one Canadian short film every day.

Day Six

Clive Owen and Cate Blanchett may have been on the cover of Metro yesterday, but it is fitting that Ellen Page was on the cover of Screen Daily on the same day. Because while many people in Toronto may be abuzz about sightings of Jude Law and Angelina Jolie, the talk in the film world is buzzing about the quality of Canadian content at this year's film festival.

As my friends are fond of saying, that is how you do that.

Tonight's Midnight Madness was the world premiere of Stuck, by Stuart Gordon. As soon as word got out among the Midnight Madness congnoscenti that Colin Geddes was bringing a movie to TIFF about a man stuck in the windshield of a young woman's car (based on a true story, no less), it became the dark horse ticket-to-have for this year's MM lineup - even as Mother of Tears, Diary of the Dead and tomorrow night's SUKIYAKI WESTERN DJANGO garnered more of the attention. Stuck gets cred because it just sounds so darn cool - and you want to see if the director can pull this premise off.

We've written a whole lot about Canadian film Amal that will be premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival this coming Wednesday, and rightly so. Mississauga-raised director Richie Mehta's film is wonderfully crafted and marks the beginning of what promises to be a brilliant film-making career.

Though while everyone seems to be focusing on the Mehta's GTA origins, what many often forget is that Amal's star Rupinder Nagra also hails from southern Ontario, and is already one of Canada's most promising actors.

It's amazing to see all the great "third-party tools" Toronto-based developers are creating to help us organize our TIFF experience this year. Following up on my post about the Toronto Film Festival Facebook Application, I've just discovered something called Festival Scout - essentially an iPod version of the TIFF Programme Book. A video of how it looks is embedded above.

A look at the news and events surrounding the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival, and a very quick look at one Canadian short film every day.

Day Five

I've often heard TIFF being referred to as "the buyer's festival" on account of the big deals and acquisitions that often occur here. The sheer fact that everyone I happen to meet at the Varsity seems to be wearing an 'industry' badge is a testament to that nickname, and the money has already begun being thrown around. The buzz on the street (or at least during the industry screenings at the Varsity) is that Jacques Nolot's Before I Forget has already been picked up by Strand Releasing, and that THINKFilm just paid almost $3 million for Helen Hunt's directorial debut, Then She Found Me.