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“Above all, I am glad I brought this film to Toronto,” Spielberg said in a statement. “This is the most personal film I have made, and the warm reception from everyone in Toronto made my first visit to TIFF intimate and personal for me and my entire ‘Fabelmans’ family.” “2022 brought an exceptional selection of films that excited festival audiences around the world,” said TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey. “Our lineup showcased beloved auteurs alongside fresh voices in filmmaking, including numerous women powerhouses....

This year’s tributees assembled for a press conference Tuesday morning ahead of the awards, which will be aired on CTV in Canada at at 8PM ET/PT, on demand on Crave, and streaming internationally via Variety.com at 8:30PM ET/ 5:30PM PT. Connecting to the TIFF Talk conference from their homes, from California (Zhao and Hopkins) and New Orleans (Blanchard) to London (Winslet), the honorees said they appreciated the lockdown time spent with their families....

Last weekend’s openings of “TÁR” (Focus) and “Triangle of Sadness” (Neon) saw good expansions, while “Till” (United Artists) and “Decision to Leave” (MUBI) made strong debuts. With “The Banshees of Inisherin” (Searchlight), “Aftersun” (A24), and “Armageddon Time” (Focus) to come in the next two weeks, October is becoming a strong month for specialized films. How strong is TBD. Unlike studios’ wide releases, initial impressive numbers don’t necessarily reflect strong results. It’s also possible that the titles could cannibalize each other....

The film beat out rookie Audrey Diwan’s Venice Golden Lion winner, the ’60s drama “Happening” (IFC Films), an immersive look at a high-school achiever’s harrowing experience trying to get an abortion, as well as surprise finalist “Bac Nord,” a slum policier directed by Cédric Jimenez, a French box-office smash with a low profile stateside — which was co-written by rising star Diwan. The French selection committee included one-year members — auteurs Florian Zeller and Julie Delpy, ex-WarnerMedia senior executive Iris Knobloch, producer Alain Goldman, and sales agents Emilie Georges and Grégory Chambet — as well as permanent institutional member Unifrance president Serge Toubiana, along with the César Academy’s Elisabeth Tanner (a top agent who represents “Titane” actress Agathe Rousselle), and Cannes director Thierry Frémaux (who favored his Palme d’Or winner)....

But, for director Zach Parrish (head of animation on the Oscar-winning “Big Hero 6” and director of the experimental Short Circuit film, “Puddles”), “Us Again” grew out of a youthful yearning. “I thought of the pains of aging in my 30s and longing for his younger body,” he said. “I spoke to my mom, and she told me she’s still waiting to grow up in her 60s.” Then he recalled how his grandparents had two very different approaches to aging — his grandfather was a homebody while his grandmother toured the country and liked to hike....

Though these films added freshness, the overall results on iTunes and Google Play (both ranking by number of transactions irrespective of price), and Vudu (which calculates by total revenue, favoring the more expensive Premium VOD releases) include only 13 titles. That’s the fewest seen since we started listing the results. This suggests that consumers might be narrowing their choice of what to watch, or maybe it’s just a result of a high number of popular titles that have broad appeal at the moment....

Where to Watch “Wellington Paranormal”: HBO Max and The CW app It’s not exactly a requirement that every comedy should have an episode where one actor plays at least two different characters. But if you want proof why it works, look no further than “Wellington Paranormal.” The first TV spinoff of the film version of “What We Do in the Shadows,” the New Zealand-set series has one of them in each of the two seasons currently available to stream stateside....