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Latin America shone brighlty at the 72nd Venice Film Festival: two South American films, Venezuela’s From Afar (Desde Alla) took the top prize, the Golden Lion, with Argentina’s The Clan (El Clan) following close behind with the Silver Lion for best director for Pablo Trapero. In the Horizons’ section, Brazil’s Neon Bull (Boi Neon) received the Special Jury Prize.

The stars work hard in Toronto, the perfect venue to promote their Fall prestige films. Matt Damon was pure elegant casual at our press conference for The Martian at the Ritz Carlton hotel.

We are very relieved that beautiful actresses have finally stopped dressing like porn stars. The see-through-I-show-you-all look that was so de rigeur during the last award season seems to finally have gone where it belongs: in the closet or back on the window as the sheer curtain it was always meant to be.

As Venezia 72 comes to an end with the award ceremony on Saturday night, we contemplate the last 10 days. It is the nature of film festivals that attendees live in a bubble, largely shut off from the world and insulated from any reality but their own – mostly tight and busy – schedule.

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.

There are certain American directors that are more appreciated overseas than at home. In countries like France or Italy some filmmakers like Jerry Lewis or John Landis, have a cult status that they never quite attained at home.

The Venice festival seems small when it comes to screenings and press conferences. They all take place within one kilometer on the Lido di Venezia.

The festival enters the final stretch in Venice and it's time for showcasing several more unconventional films and works that defy easy definition. Laurie Anderson’s Heart of a Dog certainly fits that bill.

The past week has drawn some of the biggest names in the entertainment field. Charlotte Riley – wearing Haney – and husband, Tom Hardy, attended the London premiere of Legend, in which he portrays both infamous Krays, gangsters twins and the terror of London in the nineteen sixties.

The Venice Film festival took a decidedly offbeat turn with the premiere of Charlie Kaufman’s Anomalisa. With his latest work, the thrice Golden Globe-nominated screenwriter and director (Being John Malkovich, 2000; Adaptation, 2003; Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, 2005) moves into the unexplored idiom of stop motion animation, even as his narrative treads familiar territory.