The 40th annual Toronto International Film Festival was officially launched yesterday, September 10, with a gala screening of Demolition, the latest work of Quebecois filmmaker Jean-Marc Vallée, starring Jake Gyllenhaal as a successful investment banker who sees his life unravel after the sudden death of his wife. The somber offering set the tone for a festival known for its eclecticism, dynamism, and uncanny power to promote and place titles in the spotlight for the upcoming awards season. Toronto is, in fact, the midpoint of a four-step journey that begins in early September with Venice, picks up steam over the Labor Day weekend with Telluride, crests in the Canadian metropolis, and comes to a conclusion, in late September to early October, at the New York Film Festival. By the time Thanksgiving comes around, the main contenders are apparent and pretty much-solidified thanks to a peculiar mix of awards, critical accolades, and spontaneous/fabricated buzz emanating from these four film forums. As always, there’s room for latecomers: Alejandro Gonzalez’s Iñarritu’s much anticipated The Revenant, for instance, is still in post-production and will only start its for-your-consideration screenings in late November, skipping the Fall festival circuit altogether. And, of course, upsets and surprises do occur: who knows what will happen to the feverishly awaited Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which will be kept under tightly secured wraps until the very last minute? Back to Toronto, then, a highly civilized and welcoming city with a festival to match its qualities. Four decades ago, TIFF, as the event is known, debuted to a less-than-warm welcome. Born out of the dreams of three friends at the famous terrace of the Carlton hotel in Cannes, the first TIFF had exactly zero stars and, in spite of concerted efforts and lots of promises, almost no high-profile films and zero support from the studios. A lot has changed, of course. As the awards season grew from an insiders’ ritual to a marketing tool, Toronto’s strategic position – its proximity to the U.S., its generous space at the onset of Fall – made it a key piece in the campaigns of films big and small. From Chariots of Fire to The King’s Speech, American Beauty to The Wrestler, Ray to Slumdog Millionaire, Toronto proved to be the perfect sounding board for a film’s potential for prestige and prizes. With an average of 400,000 attendees – of which over 4,000 are industry professionals – tightly packed in Toronto’s Entertainment District, TIFF is both the perfect environment for marketing activities – junkets, meet-and-greets, photo calls and such – and a thriving market, where interesting movies without full distribution deals can cover their bases. The selection for the 40th TIFF includes favorites from both Venice and Telluride, with some Cannes and Sundance, are thrown in for good measure – Charlie Kauffman’s Anomalisa, Scott Cooper’s Black Mass, Tom Hooper’s The Danish Girl, Cary Fukunaga’s Beasts of No Nation, Jacques Audiard’s Dheepan, Atom Egoyan’s Remember, László Nemes’ Son of Saul, Dennis Villeneuve’s Sicario, Paolo Sorrentino’s Youth, Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Lobster, Robert Eggers’ The Witch, Lenny Abrahamson’s Room, and Tom McCarthy’s Spotlight. A sprinkling of yet-unseen titles brings excitement to the mix. Roland Emmerich’s Stonewall, about the uprising in 1969 New York that gave birth to the LGBT rights movement; Peter Sollett’s Freeheld, focused on a lesbian couple (Julianne Moore, Elliot Page) facing legal discrimination; and Gaby Dellal’s About Ray, about a teenager dealing with gender identity issues, joins The Danish Girl in an interesting cinematic exploration of sexual politics. Directed by David Gordon Green and starring and produced by Golden Globe winner Sandra Bullock, Our Brand is Crisis unveils what happens when American-style machinations make their way into Latin American politics, while Gavin Hood’s Eye in The Sky, starring twice Golden Globe winner Helen Mirren follows the moral quandaries of the drone war. Marc Abrahams’ I Saw the Light brings Tom Hiddleston as country music icon Hank Williams, while Brian Helgeland’s Legend has Tom Hardy as both Kray twins, the murderous gangsters who terrorized 60s London. And of course, there’s Ridley Scott’s The Martian, an out-of-this-world thrill ride based on the eponymous bestseller by Andy Weir and starring Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain and a star-filled supporting cast. To make matters even more interesting, Toronto has added two new sections to the festival this year: Platform, with 12 films competing for a C$25,000 award appointed by a jury comprised of Claire Denis, Jia Zhangke and Agnieszka Holland; and Primetime, a selection of six new TV/streaming titles to be presented in special sessions followed by Q&A. Two Venice titles, Pablo Trapero’s The Clan and Brazil’s Neon Bull, directed by Gabriel Mascaro, are among the Platform competitors, while Jason Reitman’s new series Casual and Fabrice Gobert’s cult favorite The Returned are in the Primetime section.