Harry Styles with a purse. Taylor Swift in gold. Steven Spielberg's love song to his late parents. After two years in the dark, with movie theaters shuttered and studios in existential struggle, the Toronto International Film Festival returned this week with a blockbuster, largely unmasked edition.
Structured as a sprawling public festival with sidebar industry meetings and critic-led buzz, Toronto has become the leading bellwether for the annual award season, where commerce and art converge. This year, though, as opposed to smaller, idiosyncratic and independent cinema that led the way through Covid, it was Hollywood studios and celebrity entourages that led the march back into sold-out cinemas.
