Gael Garcia Bernal

A big slate this weekend. The movie of the moment that everyone’s raving about, me included, is Jonathan Demme’s Rachel Getting Married. It’s a must-see, and Anne Hathaway is Oscar’s first It Girl. Then there’s a deck of jokers to choose from—Canada’s Michael Cera, America’s Bill Maher and Britain’s Simon Pegg—in Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, Religulous and How to Lose Friends and Alienate People respectively. But if you’re in the mood for a thought-provoking drama to accompany world economic collapse, the movie of choice is Blindness. This elegant disaster movie—a Canadian co-production blessed with an unusually wide North American release—is no walk in the park. But with the world as we know it going down the tubes, it has a timely resonance and gives you something to talk about after the final credits.

Now that you’ve seen the official TIFF awards, here are a few of my own. . .

I never recognize anyone. In my recent blog about the Saturday night party of Blindness (Blindness, Deafness and Babbling Zombies), the geeky DJ who cranked up the sound and pointed the speaker at the VIP area—forcing stars like Juliane Moore and Gael Garcia Bernal to plug their ears and flee from their velvet-rope pen—was none other than Moby.

One of the maddening things about TIFF, at least for a journalist trying to cover it single-handedly, is that most the action is front-loaded into the opening weekend. That’s when the big, star-driven movies premiere. The Hollywood studios invite a horde of North American press into town for junkets to promote these prestige pictures , and many of those same journalists have gone home by Tuesday or Wednesday. Which means if you want to get maximum media exposure for your film, you need to show it on the opening weekend. Which makes for a hectic time, to say the least. All this is by way of an apology to say it’s hard to find time to see all the absolutely unmissable films, interview all the absolutely irresistible stars and find time to blog on a daily basis. You’re always running to catch up to a festival that seems to be forever sliding through your hands.

Retro theatres, vintage cars, and a total lack of American paparazzi — it’s long way from the over-hyped Hollywood film festivals you’re used to seeing in the rest of the world. The Havana Film Festival enticed only one major film star (Gael García Bernal), but still had plenty of charm as it celebrated its 29th year.