Strange, I know.
The Toronto International Film Festival tends to not to be too picky in its selection of films. If it’s a big Hollywood film with a marquee director attached to its name then you can bet your bottom dollar TIFF will nab it for its 200+ film lineup.
I was led last night to a 2015 piece from THR, “Birdman” producer John Lesher is interviewed in saying that the fest passed over Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s film.
“We didn’t go to Toronto because we didn’t get into Toronto. We showed it to them as an early cut. Let’s just say folks at Toronto weren’t as enthusiastic as everyone else was.”
This doesn’t make any sense, but coming from the mouth of Lesher, a well-known producer, I guess I’ll take his word for it. If true, this was clearly a major f*ck-up on the part of then fest director Piers Handling.
“Birdman” wound up playing every other major fall festival: Venice, Telluride, New York, and London. It went on to win the Best Picture and Best Director Oscars the following year. Whoops.