TIFF Day 3 – Surburbicon, Mary Shelley, The Children Act, Killing of a Sacred Deer

Saturday, September 9th – day 3 of the Toronto International Film Festival, and it may have just been the most packed day yet!  And expect this to continue through to Sunday when mother! premieres, but I digress.  Today the Toronto was all buzzing about George.  Clooney‘s name was heard all over town as he was here for the premiere of his feature Suburbicon.  Julianne Moore was also on hand for the red carpet but noticeably absent was star Matt Damon much to the disappointment of the extremely large crowd that had been gathered for hours.  This trifecta of A-listers was a must see for celeb spotters and since Damon had been on the confirmed attendees list many were upset at his absence.  But, I can confirm Damon is in now town, Sunday morning being present for his press conference for Downsizing and Suburbicon.

On the other side of the festival at the Elgin theatre, there was a premiere for The Children Act, with Emma Thompson and Stanley Tucci, who provided the crowd with a humorous Q&A after the show.  Thompson even started the audience singing happy birthday to one of their producers – much to his obvious horror.  Her and Tucci’s obvious friendship was great to watch on stage, and Thompson was charming as always.

Athletes and stars alike gathered for basketball documentary The Carter Effect, though the Toronto Star reported that home town star Drake didn’t stop for fans who had camped out for hours to see him, instead heading straight inside (remember where you came from Drake!).  It was also probably the first time that a K-9 unit has been seen at the Princess of Wales theatre, likely due to the star power in the building (LeBron James anyone?).

The big gala of the evening at Roy Thompson Hall was Mary Shelley, a biopic of the Frankenstein author and the evening that inspired her most famous creation.  Stars Elle Fanning and Game of Thrones’ Maisie Williams were present, as was Amelia Warner (with her husband Jamie Dornan) at the premiere.

A very stunning Helen Mirren walked the red carpet along with Canadian Donald Sutherland at the premiere for The Leisure Seeker, a film about an elderly couple taking one last adventurous road trip.  She also did a full conversation on stage at TIFF this year, over an hour of wonderful Mirren wisdom – and you can watch the whole thing here.

Later premieres of the night included The Killing of  A Sacred Deer with Nicole Kidman and Colin Farrell as well as Brad’s Status with Ben Stiller and Jenna Fisher.  However, probably the craziest crowd was full of fans for Benedict Cumberbatch at The Current War.  Those Cumberbatch fans certainly come out in full force, though they also took many pictures with co-star Nicholas Hoult as well.

Onwards and upwards to Day 4! The Toronto International film festival continues until September 17th.  Information about the movies as well as tickets are available through tiff.net.