8. Midnight Madness at the Toronto International Film Festival // Toronto, Canada // September 2018
“There’s a true love of cinema both high and lowbrow among this group,” says a panelist of the team behind Toronto International Film Festival’s Midnight Madness program, which is newly helmed by Peter Kuplowsky, right-hand man of long-standing programmer and supporter Colin Geddes. “Giant and enthusiastic audiences pack the screenings, and genre stars can be made overnight as they present their films at the Ryerson Theatre,” adds a panelist. Indeed, TIFFMM has been rife with these “star is born” tales—like the time Geddes plucked Eli Roth’s directorial debut, Cabin Fever, out of the program’s trash bin of rejections and took a chance on it. (Once Quentin Tarantino saw it, he proclaimed Roth “the future of horror,” and the rest is history.) No frills and all films, Midnight Madness is less about events than it is about rallying to root for the zaniest, riskiest new titles the genre has to offer, and with programming like this, loyal attendees trust that they’re in good hands.
The Room’s Tommy Wiseau with James Franco, who plays Wiseau in The Disaster Artist, during its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival’s Midnight Madness program. Photograph courtesy of Toronto International Film Festival
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