TORONTO: Greta Gerwig stood on the stage of the Ryerson Theatre at the Toronto International Film Festival, wiping back tears from the roaring standing ovation that greeted her directorial debut, “Lady Bird.”
Gerwig was already a successful actress and a proven screenwriter, having co-written several films including two with Noah Baumbach (“Frances Ha” and “Mistress America”). But her leap into directing, she said, took some gumption.
“When I finished this (script), I thought, you know what, I have always wanted to direct. And I never felt ready. I never felt like I had enough experience, enough time, enough hours under my belt, enough time being around other directors on set,” said Gerwig at the premiere. “And then I thought: It is time to jump, kid. You have got to do it. Even though it is scary, you have to give yourself a chance.”
“Lady Bird,” an autobiographical coming-of-age tale written and directed by Gerwig and starring Saoirse Ronan, is one of the films that has indie distributor A24 poised to again be a major player through awards season. After its first best-picture nominee two years ago (the Brie Larson-led “Room”) and Barry Jenkins’ best-picture winning “Moonlight” last year, A24’s blistering streak may well continue.
Both of those films made landfall at Telluride and then made their biggest splash at the Toronto International Film Festival. The same has also been true of “Lady Bird,” which is backed by producer Scott Rudin.
It is been hailed for its witty, honest portrait of a high school senior (a show-stopping Ronan) trying to breaking free of her youth while discovering acting and feuding with her mother (an extraordinary Laurie Metcalf).
“I wanted to make a film about home and the way home is only vivid when you are leaving. My home growing up was Sacramento so I felt like it was very underrepresented in the cinematic universe,” said Gerwig, chuckling. “I felt like nobody had made the Sacramento opus and it was time.”
While the Toronto International Film Festival is too sprawling for any one company to dominate, several recent festivals have often felt overwhelmed by Netflix or Amazon — the new deep-pocketed new heavyweights in film distribution. But Toronto has come close to belonging to A24.
A24 will also premiere the finished cut of James Franco’s anticipated comedy “The Disaster Artist” (it played as an unfinished film at SXSW earlier in the year) at a midnight screening in Toronto on Monday night. The rest of its Toronto roster includes Sean Baker’s acclaimed “The Florida Project,” a hit in May at Cannes; Yorgos Lathimos’ “The Killing of a Sacred Deer,” starring Nicole Kidman and Colin Farrell; Andrew Haigh’s latest “Lean on Pete” and the Kirsten Dunst-starring “Woodshock.”
The success of the slate stems directly from A24′s filmmaker-first attitude. Like it did with Jenkins, putting trust in the right talented young filmmakers is paying off.
“There is numbers for everything now,” said Willem Dafoe, star of “The Florida Project.” ″Movies can be bull---- but movies can also do a beautiful thing. They can change our minds about things. They can challenge how they think. In order to do that, they have to be made by original thinkers and they can not be made by logarithms.”
A24 has by no means cornered the market on filmmaker-driven cinema. Sony Pictures Classics (“Call Me By Your Name”), Fox Searchlight (“The Shape of Water”), Focus Features (“Darkest Hour”) and even major studios like Paramount Pictures (“Downsizing”), have all played major roles at this year’s Toronto. Other upstarts are also making noise, like Neon, which acquired the Tonya Harding tale “I, Tonya,” and Byron Allen’s Entertainment Studios, which grabbed the Ted Kennedy drama “Chappaquiddick.”
But A24 has established itself as an annual festival and awards season force.
“It is hard to get films like this made and I am glad that they are,” said Kidman. “In this cinematic world, there needs to be some voices. It is so diluted now. There are certain things that just don not get made or don not get talked about. So it nos like: Yeah, come on.”
‘Lady Bird’ leads another charge for ‘Moonlight’ maker A24
‘Lady Bird’ leads another charge for ‘Moonlight’ maker A24
Policewoman honored for soothing crying baby when her mother fell unconscious at Beirut airport
- ISF honors first adjutant for comforting and feeding baby-milk to scared infant whose mother was rushed to hospital
- Social media users praise policewoman for her ‘humane and empathetic’ act after photos went viral
BEIRUT: A Lebanese policewoman who comforted an infant and fed her milk while her mother was hospitalized after falling unconscious at Beirut airport was honored for what social media users dubbed a ‘humane and empathetic’ act.
First Adjutant Nadia Nasser was on duty when the unidentified baby’s mother suffered a sudden illness and fell unconscious at a checkpoint inside Beirut International Airport earlier this month.
Photos of Nasser holding the months-old baby in her arms, preparing a milk bottle and feeding her went viral across social media, where users described the policewomen’s act as ‘motherly, compassionate and humane’ behavior.
Brig. Gen. Moussa Karnib of Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces honored Nasser on Friday for caring for the infant for almost two hours at the airport after her mother was rushed to a hospital.
A media statement said the first adjutant was honored upon the directives of ISF’s Director General Maj. Gen. Raed Abdullah, after she took personal initiative on Feb. 2 to comfort the infant.
Commenting on Nasser’s photos that went viral, a user called Sami said she should be promoted for her ‘selfless and empathetic’ act.
Another user, Joe, commented: “She should be rewarded.
“This is how loyalty and love for one’s job and country are built,” wrote a user called Youssef.
Media reports said that when the incident happened, the baby’s fear and cries prompted Nasser to take the initiative to comfort and remain beside her until her mother’s condition stabilized.
ISF’s statement did not clarify whether Nasser and the baby accompanied the mother in the ambulance or how they were reunited later.
