There is an escalating game of one-upsmanship that Midnight Madness plays with itself every year. Renowned for bringing the nasty back to Toronto screens again and again, each year's programme is set the task of finding a flick that out-ickies last year's most upsetting feature film. When 2007's closing show, Inside, proved to be one of the most gruesome films ever shown at the Toronto International Film Festival, finding a topper for 2008 was always going to be a challenge.

Martyrs has been brought in to fit the bill, a neo-horror picture so extreme, Midnight programmer Colin Geddes described it as "a suckerpunch." And if you can suckerpunch that guy, you've certainly earned a place in the program. After disappointing with Deadgirl and The Burrowers but hitting the nail on the head with Acolytes, how did Martyrs fare?

There was a point during the screening of Lymelife at the Toronto International Film Festival last night when I looked at Derick Martini (the film's director who happened to be sitting next to me) and saw a look in his eyes that seemed to say, "I made that, and people like it." That look has been one of the highlights of this year's festival for me.

We tend to forget too often — as press or as the movie-watching public — that for many filmmakers, showing at TIFF is not just something they have to do in order to get a distribution deal. For many filmmakers, the festival gives them an opportunity to see and understand the impact that their films have on people from around the world.

Okay, that's enough sentimentality from me for today. (And if you haven't seen Lymelife yet, check out one of its final two screenings. It's a gem.)

Didn't get to catch any screenings at the Toronto International Film Festival over the first week? Looking for some tips on what to watch this week, or just want to know enough to impress your co-workers?

In this edition of TIFF: Reviewed, five very special reviews by Tim and special guest critic Matthew Price: Hunger, The Real Shaolin, Lymelife, Slumdog Millionaire, and Me and Orson Welles.

Stop the presses. Paris Hilton is in town for the Toronto International Film Festival today. What? Not interested? There are reports that Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston had dinner together last night. Still not interested? Okay, well some reports are saying that Keira Knightley was looking too skinny on the red carpet last night.

And that, folks, is how silly celebrity spotting has become. Do people really care how skinny someone is? Apparently, they do. Because of the lack of Oscar-buzzworthy films at TIFF this year, most of the festival-related headlines around the web have more to do with celeb lifestyle than with film. Sad.

Entertainment Weekly has gone so far as saying that the Academy Awards and the Toronto International Film Festival have officially broken up. Now, most people might think that's a bad thing, but I think, in the long run, the decreased focus on Hollywood flicks will be good for cinephiles who will have better access to smaller, independent and foreign films.

It's the afternoon of the fourth day of the festival and with five films down and at least a dozen to go, I'm already tired. I'm attempting to see films every day while working long days, which leaves very little time for sleep, healthy food, and friends. But my situation is not uncommon; depending on who you talk to, seeing 5 films by this point is more than most but much less than some. I stand in awe of those managing the Festival Package of 50 films, or the Festival "Lite" of 30. I don't think I'd be able to handle that much cinema even if I were logistically able to.

Regardless, I've had good luck so far. Read further for mini-reviews of Treeless Mountain, All Around Us, and Sauna.

I was talking to a friend at the CFC barbecue yesterday who said that the Toronto International Film Festival should be treated like the Olympics. Intrigued, I asked him to go on. He continued to say that every country should have a running tally of how many distribution deals their films have closed at the festival, and the success of that country would then be measured by some confusing ratio involving amount of money involved in distribution deals and budget of said films.

I'm no mathematician, but his idea seemed like another way to highlight American dominance and show how Canada was underperforming, until I realized that in his model, countries like Canada and Germany actually shine based on the business they've been doing at TIFF this year. Look out for France to make a late charge.