by Larry Richman
September 18, 2007 2:51 PM

The 2007 Toronto International Film Festival has come to an exciting conclusion and this reporter has returned home to take stock of our experience there. As we did last year, and as we do following every film festival (16 since the start of 2006), this wrapup will conclude with our list of Top Picks.

The lineup of films which we attended this year was very different than that of last year's festival, and, in fact, quite different from other festivals we've attended. I'm not sure if this is due to the fact that the festival's lineup of films was different or simply that our selections were. I suspect it's the latter. That said, a few notable changes from previous experiences include the following:

1) "What's up doc?" -- We traditionally see a number of documentaries at every festival. In fact, docs are often among the best, and take the place among our Top Picks on occasion. Last year, for example, The U.S. vs. John Lennon was actually the best film we saw, although our Top Picks last year were narrative features by choice. Similarly, we loved Billy the Kid at this year's SXSW Film Festival in March and did choose it as one of our three Top Picks.

Last year we saw a half dozen or so docs out of a total of over 30 films. This year we cut back on our schedule of 4-5 films a day, limiting our screenings to no more than three a day. We also stayed for just seven days vs. ten last year. The result was that we saw less then 20 films this year, and, for whatever reason, not one single documentary ended up on our list of screenings. So you won't find one among our Top Picks.

2) "No translation necessary" -- Similarly, close to half the films we saw last year were foreign films in the true sense of the word. That is, they were non-English speaking films with subtitles. This year we only saw three. And we were unimpressed, therefore, you won't see them on this year's Top Picks either. We did see films from Australia, France, and (ahem) Canada, but all were in English, so I won't call these "foreign" films.

3) "What's so funny?" -- Our schedule is traditionally heavy on heavy, that is, the films we see are usually somewhat dark. Indies tend to lean that way which, I suppose, is one reason why. In fact, we saw absolutely no comedies at all at this year's Sundance Film Festival as well as some of the smaller ones we attended. But Toronto turned out different. Not only did we see an unusually large percentage of comedies, but they make up three of our five Top Picks, including the #1 and #2 spots. This, for us, is a first. Even the dark films we saw elicited laughter at times -- but isn't that what real life is like? So most can be described as dramatic comedies, or comedic dramas, or whatever term you use. Sort of like partly cloudy vs. mostly sunny.

4) "Good news and bad news and good news" -- As readers of this blog know, our passion is independent film. We tend to avoid big Hollywood studio movies, as well as those which have already been picked up for distribution, in favor of indies that might fall by the wayside without some support. The reason can be found in last year's wrapup post. But a funny thing happened on the way back home. Almost all our favorites made deals, got picked up, and will be out in theaters soon. The good news is, well, you'll get to see them. Which makes my job, as an advocacy journalist, a bit easier. The bad news is, well, I miss out on some of the excitement of cheering for my favorites in hopes of them getting picked up. The good news is, it somewhat vindicates my choices. Four out of our five Top Picks have been picked up.

5) "Watch for shrinkage" -- This year we're only going to pick five films. It made sense to choose ten last year because we'd seen so many. But a more selective list of films attended dictates a more selective list of films chosen here. In addition, rather than select films in no particular order, we're going to dare to choose five films and rank them from #1-5. But being #5 doesn't mean the film is "worse" than #1. It just means that if you could only see one film, or two, or three, etc., this would be the order I would recommend.

So...with all that in mind...here is our list of Top Picks from the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival:

1) Juno
2) Bill
3) Normal
4) Atonement
5) Then She Found Me

Finally, a few notes:

All but Normal have now been picked up for distribution. The others were all purchased prior to or during the festival, and will be seen at a theater near you soon.

Over the past few days we posted pictures from the Q&As following our #1-3 Top Picks: Juno, Bill, and Normal.

The fact that our #1-4 Top Picks all have one word titles is coincidental. Or...is it??? I'll leave you to ponder that one...

See you at the next festival!