Here’s a ranking of all of the feature films (40+ min.) I have seen that played in TIFF 2011. Many of them I saw during TIFF (Sept. 8-18), and many more I saw somewhere else. Let the key be your guide. I’ll start doing capsules again when the TIFF Cinematheque season resumes on October 1.
Key
– Saw at TIFF Proper (between Sept. 8-18)
– Saw at Cannes
– Saw at TIFF pre-festival press screening
– Saw via a DVD screener
Tier 1
House of Tolerance – Bertrand Bonello (8.4)
Melancholia – Lars von Trier (8.3)
Tier 2
Once Upon A Time in Anatolia – Nuri Bilge Ceylan (7.9)
Crazy Horse – Frederick Wiseman (7.6)
A Separation – Asghar Farhadi (7.4)
Martha Marcy May Marlene – Sean Durkin (7.4)
The Deep Blue Sea – Terence Davies (7.3)
The Loneliest Planet – Julia Loktev (7.2)
Drive – Nicolas Winding Refn (7.2)
The Turin Horse – Béla Tarr (7.1)
Elena – Andrey Zvyagintsev (7.1)
Goodbye First Love – Mia Hansen-Løve (7.0)
Tier 3
This is Not a Film – Jafar Panahi & Mojtaba Mirtahmasb (6.9)
Play – Ruben Östlund (6.9)
Damsels in Distress – Whit Stillman (6.7)
Low Life – Nicolas Klotz & Elisabeth Perceval (6.6)
The Silver Cliff – Karim Aïnouz (6.6)
Into the Abyss – Werner Herzog (6.6)
The Kid with a Bike – Jean-Pierre & Luc Dardenne (6.5)
That Summer – Philippe Garrel (6.5)
Whore’s Glory – Michael Glawogger (6.5)
ALPS – Yorgos Lanthimos (6.4)
Porfirio – Alejandro Landes (6.4)
A Mysterious World – Rodrigo Moreno (6.4)
Century of Birthing – Lav Diaz (6.3)
Outside Satan – Bruno Dumont (6.3)
Almayer’s Folly – Chantal Akerman (6.3)
Pina – Wim Wenders (6.3)
People Mountain People Sea – Cai Shangjun (6.2)
Amy George – Yonah Lewis & Calvin Thomas (6.2)
Good Bye – Mohammad Rasoulof (6.2)
Twenty Cigarettes – James Benning (6.1)
Killer Joe – William Friedkin (6.0)
The Cat Vanishes – Carlos Sorin (6.0)
Tier 4
Keyhole – Guy Maddin (5.9)
The Skin I Live In- Pedro Almodóvar (5.9)
Back to Stay – Milagros Mumenthaler (5.8)
Pariah – Dee Rees (5.8)
Mushrooms – Vimukthi Jayasundara (5.8)
Land of Oblivion – Michale Boganim (5.8)
Dreileben – Beats Being Dead – Christian Petzold (5.7)
Cut – Amir Naderi (5.7)
Life Without Principle – Johnnie To (5.7)
Historias Que So Existem Quando Lembradas – Julia Murat (5.6)
Dreileben – One Minute of Darkness – Christoph Hochhäusler (5.6)
The Ides of March – George Clooney (5.6)
Sleeping Beauty – Julia Leigh (5.5)
A Dangerous Method – David Cronenberg (5.5)
Habemus Papam – Nanni Moretti (5.3)
Miss Bala – Gerardo Naranjo (5.2)
Lena – Christophe Van Rompaey (5.2)
Dreileben – Don’t Follow Me Around – Dominik Graf (5.1)
Faust – Alexander Sokurov (5.0)
Crane World – Pablo Trapero (5.0)
Café de Flore – Jean-Marc Vallée (5.0)
Michael – Markus Schleinzer (5.0)
Nuit #1 – Anne Émond (5.0)
Le Havre – Aki Kaurismäki (5.0)
Tier 5
Fable of the Fish – Adolfo Borinaga Alix Jr. (4.9)
Breathing – Karl Markovics (4.9)
Take This Waltz – Sarah Polley (4.8)
Kill List – Ben Wheatley (4.8)
Restless – Gus Van Sant (4.8)
Oslo, August 31 – Joachim Trier (4.7)
Beauty – Oliver Hermanus (4.7)
Twixt – Francis Ford Coppola (4.6)
Samsara – Ron Fricke (4.6)
Invasion – Hugo Santiago (4.5)
Shame – Steve McQueen (4.5)
Headhunters – Morten Tyldum (4.5)
Carré blanc – Jean-Baptiste Leonetti (4.4)
The Cardboard Village – Ermanno Olmi (4.3)
The Artist – Michel Hazanavicius (4.3)
Fatherland – Nicolás Prividera (4.2)
Bonsái – Cristián Jiménez (4.2)
388 Arletta Ave. – Randall Cole (4.1)
Twilight Portrait – Angelina Nikonova (4.0)
Dark Horse – Todd Solondz (4.0)
Beloved – Christophe Honoré (4.0)
Tier 6
Volcano – Rúnar Rúnarsson (3.8)
Young Pines – Ute Aurand (3.8)
We Need to Talk About Kevin – Lynne Ramsay (3.7)
Think of Me – Bryan Wizemann (3.7)
Chicken with Plums – Marjane Satrapi & Vincent Paronnaud (3.6)
The Student – Santiago Mitre (3.4)
Wuthering Heights – Andrea Arnold (3.0)
Tier 7
The Other Side of Sleep – Rebecca Daly (2.8)
Footnote – Joseph Cedar (2.7)
Love and Bruises – Lou Ye (2.6)
Tier 8
Doppelgänger Paul – Dylan Akio Smith & Kris Elgstrand (1.6)
Arirang – Kim Ki-Duk (1.5)