TORONTO () - The curtain blush wine on the Toronto International Film Festival on Thursday night with romance "Passchendaele" playing to a packed theater and starting a 10-day parade of films and stars at ane of the world's top movie gatherings.
In keeping with tradition, the event opened by shining its spotlight on a Canadian motion-picture show, but Hollywood invades in the days ahead with the likes of George Clooney, Brad Pitt and even Paris Hilton in town.
Before the festival ends on September 13, more than three hundred films testament screen here as filmmakers hope to gain attention that earns box office bucks and movie winnow buzz forward of Hollywood's upcoming Oscar season. Last year's Toronto darling, adolescent pregnancy comedy "Juno," went on to win wide acclaim.
But Thursday belonged to Canadian doer Paul Gross, who wrote, directed and starred-in "Passchendaele," a erotic love story set against the backdrop of Canadians fight in World War I.
"In the end, love is all that can counter the implacable barbarity" of state of war, Gross told the first step night consultation.
Beyond the romanticism, "Passchendaele" explores class and ethnic clashes in the country and serves up a tidy amount of Canadian patriotism.
Gross told that seeing his movie selected for opening night at a festival that has long promoted Canadian filmmakers was peculiarly gratifying.
"This movie took an uncommonly long time to get about to making, and hundreds of people were involved," he aforesaid of the labor of love that took more than than 15 years from idea to movie. "This is a great tribute to the people involved."�
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