Ian Mohr looks at upcoming festivals for Variety, in particular Toronto and Venice, exploring the increased focus on these fall fests as marketing launch pads for new fall films, perhaps at the expense of the events as markets for buying new movies. Mohr opens by noting, "Frustrated with the summer's ticket sales, studio marketers are marshalling their resources to mount a major assault on the Toronto Film Festival." And continues:

The fall festival circuit used to engender more anxiety among acquisitions execs than marketers. But as studios concentrate more on their own productions and pre-buys rather than finished film fare, the acquisitions market at these events is losing its luster.

Michael Almereyda talks to Rania Richardson at Downtown Express about his new documentary on photographer William Eggleston, "William Eggleston in the Real World," which will be featured at this year's Toronto Film Festival.

Organizers of the Toronto International Film Festival announced at Tuesday's press conference that some 500 guests are expected to attend this year's festival, issuing a massive list of expected filmmakers and celebrities...

At a press conference this morning in Toronto, organizers of the Toronto International Film Festival unveiled a lineup of 335 films from 52 countries that will screen at next month's event (September 8 - 17, 2005). Director & CEO Piers Handling, Festival Co-Director Noah Cowan, and Managing Director Michèle Maheux rounded out a list of 109 world premieres, among the 256 features, that will screen at the event. They also touted 84% of the feature lineup as world, international, or North American premieres. 67 films this year are from first time filmmakers.

Links to previous stories are available in indieWIRE's special Toronto '05 section and the complete Toronto lineup has been published on indieWIRE.com.

Niki Caro's "North Country" starring Charlize Theron, James Mangold's "Walk The Line" about Johnny Cash and June Carter, Phyllis Nagy's "Mrs. Harris" about Jean Harris who killed her lover Dr. Herman Tarnower, author of the best-selling The Complete Scarsdale Medical Diet. Also on tap are Cameron Crowe's "Elizabethtown" with Orlando Bloom and Kirsten Dunst and John Gatins' "Dreamer: Inspired By A True Story".

Among the films singled out as star-studded new fest titles include Scott McGehee & David Siegel's "Bee Season", baed on the best-selling novel, Neil Jordan's "Breakfast On Pluto" starring Cillian Murphy, Mary Harron's "The Notorious Bettie Page" with Gretchen Mol as the famous pin-up model, Udayan Prasad's "Opa!", Michael Winterbottom's "Tristram Shandy: A Cock and Bull Story", Roger Donaldson's "The World's Fastest Indian", Steven Soderbergh's "Bubble", Mike Johnson & Tim Burton's stop-motion animated "Corpse Bride", Liev Schreiber's "Everything Is Illuminated", Shane Black's "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang", Abel Ferrara's new film "Mary", and John Turturro's "Romance & Cigarettes".