Missing phones, queasy patrons and broken escalators: Memorable TIFF moments

TORONTO – The Toronto International Film Festival has come to a close, but the memories live on.

Here are some standout moments and highlights of the fest, as witnessed and experienced by The Canadian Press TIFF team:

— Sympathetic Stone: The press day with Oliver Stone was running about two hours behind, seemingly because the venerable “Snowden” director was so loquacious and thorough with his interviews. In order to make time for the backlog of reporters waiting to speak with him, he cancelled his flight and booked a later one, according to a rep.

— Lovely Lupita: Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong’o was a stunner dressed in traditional African garb for both the red carpet and interviews for the Ugandan-set “Queen of Katwe.” Asked about the wardrobe choice, she said she likes “to dress for the occasion.” “Right now I’m in Katwe mode and so I’m rocking my Katwe look. I have fun dressing up. Micaela Erlanger, my stylist and I, we always look at the film we’re promoting and we come up with ways to inspire ourselves.”

— Villeneuve impressions: Quebec director Denis Villeneuve couldn’t attend TIFF for his film “Arrival” because he was working on the “Blade Runner” sequel in Budapest. But he was there in spirit, by way of stars’ impersonations. “If you do a good job, he’s like, ‘I deeply love what you have done,’” “Arrival” star Amy Adams said at a press conference, affecting Villeneuve’s voice and accent. Ryan Gosling, who was at TIFF with “La La Land” and is starring in “Blade Runner 2,” did the same impersonation in an interview, saying with a Quebecois accent: “I deeply love it. I deeply love it.”

— Got Duplass’s digits?: During the media day for the TV series “Transparent,” a frantic publicist announced that star Jay Duplass’s phone had gone missing during his interviews, possibly inadvertently taken by a journalist who thought it was theirs. Perhaps it wasn’t the first time it happened. In August, the star tweeted: “Our family’s battle cry is “WHERE’S MY PHONE?!”

— Sole sisters: They portray combative enemies in the dark comedy “Catfight,” but there was nothing but sisterly love off-screen between co-stars Anne Heche and Canada’s Sandra Oh. When the two were asked to pose for a portrait following their interview, Oh graciously ditched her heels to not tower over Heche, who was in flats. In the end, both opted to go barefoot and posed for several shots hand-in-hand.

— Escalator follies: Moviegoers who skipped the gym certainly got a workout when the towering escalators at the Scotiabank Theatre broke down for days. The multiplex urged patrons to forego the elevators and climb the 75 steps leading up to the cinemas. That left journalists and Hollywood executives huffing and puffing their way into the movies, which sparked plenty of complaints and quips online. Four days after the festival started, the escalators were back in service — for a few hours, before another series of mechanical meltdowns struck.

— Theatrical glitches: Problems weren’t contained to the escalator. Air conditioning inside one of the Scotiabank Theatres failed on Day 1 and left the audience sweating through a screening of Paul Verhoeven’s “Elle.” Other movies ran into hurdles too, including a showing of “Nocturnal Animals” that stopped abruptly near the climax for several minutes before finally picking up again. Leonardo DiCaprio’s climate-change doc “Before the Flood” went dark about five minutes into the film but eventually restarted from the beginning amid some audible grumbling from the audience.

— Easy queasy: Midnight Madness programmer Colin Geddes has seen all sorts of gore, so his warning before a screening of the French cannibalism drama “Raw” should’ve been taken to heart. But at least two patrons couldn’t stomach the idea of the film’s main character devouring a few body parts. At least one of them was treated by emergency services, according to a festival representative. “Raw” now counts itself in the company of “Hostel,” another film on the exclusive list of gory TIFF picks that required viewers to seek medical assistance.

— Standout films: Audiences were doing a happy dance with the dreamy musical “La La Land,” granting it the People’s Choice prize; “Moonlight” moved many with its look at a boy struggling with his sexuality in an impoverished Miami neighbourhood; Quebec director Denis Villeneuve put a stellar spin on the sci-fi genre with “Arrival”; and fashion designer Tom Ford dazzled with his stylish but brutal revenge tale “Nocturnal Animals.”

— Stunning performances: A few possible Oscar contenders emerged from the lineup, including Natalie Portman for her gentle and meticulous portrayal of Jacqueline Kennedy in “Jackie.” There were plaudits aplenty for “Loving” actor Joel Edgerton, who brings layers of complexity to the role of a husband who became a reluctant fighter for the legalization of interracial marriage in the United States, while Ethiopian-Irish actress Ruth Negga brought a quiet confidence as his wife. Emma Stone slayed as a fledgling actress in “La La Land,” with exquisite singing and dancing to boot, and pint-sized newcomer Sunny Pawar turned in one of the most powerful performances of the fest in “Lion,” as a five-year-old Indian boy separated from his family.

— Amy Adams’s fest: Much of the success of “Arrival” lies in Adams’s delicate performance as a linguist tasked with communicating with aliens. Then there’s her multi-faceted role in revenge thriller “Nocturnal Animals,” which requires her to play two versions of the same character. We meet her as a conflicted art gallery owner who questions her privileged but empty life. But when her ex-husband’s upcoming book arrives in the mail, flashbacks reveal a youthful idealism and a series of compromises that prove costly years later.

— Dream team: Woody Harrelson isn’t shy about his aversion to conducting interviews for his films, but you wouldn’t know it from his latest movie “LBJ,” about former U.S. president Lyndon B. Johnson. The laid-back actor held court alongside director Rob Reiner in a lively 45-minute press conference. The duo often had the assembled journalists in stitches as they talked about their film, their craft, and of course, politics, pulling no punches when it came to expressing their distaste for U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump.

— compiled by Canadian Press reporters Victoria Ahearn, David Friend, Lauren La Rose, Diana Mehta and Cassandra Szklarski.