TORONTO – The Toronto International Film Festival officially kicked off Thursday, launching a 40th anniversary edition that will present a crop of 399 movies through Sept. 20. This year’s opening film “Demolition” had a glitzy red carpet premiere Thursday night at Roy Thomson Hall.

Here’s a look at some of Thursday’s other festival highlights:

Stage and screen star Christopher Plummer was one of the first celebrities to hit the interview circuit, and he regaled journalists with memories of his early career in Montreal.

The veteran actor stars in Atom Egoyan’s revenge thriller “Remember,” as a Holocaust survivor who believes he’s found the Nazi guard who murdered his family decades earlier.

His character is bent on revenge but is also shaken by early-stages dementia, which keeps him from remembering his mission. Plummer says he’s never tackled a character like this before.

“I’d usually play parts that drive the piece — whether it’s on the stage or on the screen — and this one was the victim, the screen drove him. Which is not easy,” he says.

“You have to sort of just let everything hit you and you take it on the jaw.”

Plummer says he’s able to watch his big screen performances with some objectivity these days, but that wasn’t always the case.

“As a youngster I was always worried about how (I) look and it’s so stupid,” he says.

“Because you’re always thinking when you’re playing young leading men, you’re always thinking, ‘Oh my God if only I had this jaw a little bit higher, the nose is too big.’ That’s all you think about. So vain.

“I’m so happy to be at an age where I don’t give a damn how I look anymore. There’s nothing that can be done to improve.”

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Bring on the stars! Jake Gyllenhaal led the parade of celebrities at Roy Thomson Hall Thursday night.

Gyllenhaal stars in “Demolition” as an investment banker stunned by the sudden death of his wife in a car crash. Unable to express his grief, he strikes up a relationship with a single mother and her teenage son, and embarks on a destructive mission.

Gyllenhaal said Montreal director Jean-Marc Vallee’s vision for the film was to “define a lot of things for us in a weird way.”

“Jean-Marc does something incredible with this movie I think in that he says there’s no conventional way to grieve, there’s no way in which you’re supposed to just feel this or just do that. It’s a beautiful thing that he’s done.”

As for collaborating with Vallee and fellow Canadian director Denis Villeneuve, Gyllenhaal said both men are competent filmmakers in what they want to say in their vision.

“I think that that has to do with the arts being cultivated here in this country in a way that I really admire and they’re a product of it and I love working with them because of that.”

The splashy world premiere was also attended by Montreal director Jean-Marc Vallee and co-stars Naomi Watts, Chris Cooper, Judah Lewis and Heather Lind.

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We all know that the fest officially opened with “Demolition” but unofficially, the movie marathon began much earlier with a quirky video project from Winnipeg artist Galen Johnson.

“The Forbidden Room — A Living Poster” was the first of a day’s worth of public screenings. It’s not exactly big-budget commercial fare.

The two-minute project is a looping collection of moving, morphing posters that was initially designed to promote Evan Johnson and Guy Maddin’s new film “The Forbidden Room,” also screening at TIFF.

It’s among about a dozen projects that will unspool before “Demolition.”

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TIFF may be focused on film, but it’s also putting a lot of attention on television this year.

A hot ticket Thursday night was an onstage conversation with “Mad Men” creator Matthew Weiner.

The TV guru, who was also a writer and producer on “The Sopranos,” discussed the art of serial storytelling and shared anecdotes from his time with two of the small screen’s most addictive and influential dramas.

And it just so happens that some of his “Mad Men” stars also happen to be at the festival with other projects — Elisabeth Moss, who played talented upstart Peggy Olson, is here with her films “Truth” and “High-Rise,” while John Slattery, best known as randy ad exec Roger Sterling, is promoting his ensemble drama “Spotlight.”

Weiner’s conversation was accompanied by a screening of the final episode of the first season of “Mad Men,” with live commentary from the celebrated showrunner.

Among the revelations in the talk? Weiner admitted that he firmly believed the first season finale — only the 13th episode in the show’s run — would be the show’s last episode and that it wouldn’t be brought back.

“I assumed it was,” he said. “I’m glad it wasn’t.”

He also noted that even close friends would get angry with him for some of the choices his “Mad Men” characters made — but he made no apologies for the flawed group.

“You don’t want to make them unappealing,” he said. “They’re real.”