This time next week, expect to see me doing lunges, drinking protein shakes, and generally channeling Brock Lesnar in my pre-Festival prep routine (minus the grunting and pounding my ham hands into someone's face).  Around the internets, lots of folks are doing the same! Here`s the buzz going around on some of this year`s terrifying and titillating selections!

Harry Knowles of Ain't It Cool News had nothing but love for Solomon Kane back in May:

May 20th

7:15am:  My alarm rings, Tarantino is calling. I bolt out of bed, get dressed and head over to the Lumiere.

7:30am: Despite a long line-up I get a good balcony seat, about half-way back from the screen and just off to the right.  The film doesn't start until 8:30, so I have to sit for an hour while the theatre fills in.  I contemplate dozing off but I'm worried I'll snore.  I sit there bored and tired.

8:30am:  If there is one thing you can count on in Cannes, it's that the movies always start on time.  The lights go down, and up comes picture. More...

Cannes, May 19^th

6:15am:  My alarm rings. Why would I set my alarm at such an ungodly hour? Blame it on the Cannes festival organizers.  Everyone attending with a market badge has access to an online reservation system for invitations (ie. tickets) to the screening of films in competition.  You can't reserve the tickets until 26 hours before the screening.  I've been covetously eyeing a ticket to see the new Tarantino film, Inglourious Basterds.  I figure my best chance at getting one is to aim for the morning screening, which will be at 8:30am on Wednesday.  So, 26 hours prior to that, I have to wake up to reserve my ticket online. Once it's booked, I fall back asleep. The film better be worth it. More...

May 18^th

12:30am:  I pass out, and sleep long and hard.  I need it.

11am:  In the moments before getting out of bed I decide to take a semi-day off from the festival.  I have 3 full days left here and I need to recoup some energy.

2:30pm:  I see my first In Competition film at the Grand Theatre Lumiere.  More...

May 17^th

12:03am:  It’s a new day, so I head out for a night on the town.  I meet a group of friends at a tiny bistro where we drink cold glasses of Kronenbourg out on the street.

1:30am:  We head over to the Grand Hotel.  On the way, a Cannes veteran gives me a break down of the late night scene.  He says “the C listers head over to the Grand, the D listers drink at the Majestic and forget about the A and B listers.  They’re at villas, or on yachts or at parties where the door is guarded by a private army.”  So I guess we know where that leaves me... More...

Cannes, May 16^th

My second day in Cannes and I'm starting to get a feel for it.  From a far, this always seemed like a film lover's festival, but as I experience it up close, it's really about the biz, the glitz and bling.

8am:  Woke up and felt rested.  Started to feel adjusted to the time change.  Had a coffee and a croissant on an outdoor terrace.

10am:  Finally got a chance to peruse the 3 foot thick stack of material in my Cannes bag. More...

I was lucky enough to be selected by TIFF to attend Cannes as part of an extended Talent Lab initiative. I'm going to try and post a daily blog about my experiences. I'm not really sure how i should format these posts, so I'm just going to make it up as i go along.  Hope you enjoy it.

Here is a quick play by play of my first 24 hours experience of the festival. More...

On the Tuesday, the day before the Festival started, all the TIFF programmers who had arrived early got together for a meeting to share where we each are in our film selection process. TIFF co-director Cameron Bailey lead us through discussion as we explained the new works we have seen and what we are anticipating seeing in the market and in the various sections of Cannes. Noah Cowan also brought us up to speed on some of the developments with Bell Lightbox. More...

In the process of selecting films, many of the big decisions get made in Cannes. Not in the Cannes that you read about in the papers with the red carpets, the stars, the premieres, etc., but rather in the "Marche" or Market. Underneath the glitz and glamour in Cannes is a frenzy of film screenings for buyers and sellers of cinema, where films get shown for the first time and the bidding for various internationals rights begins. This is where I reside. Don't ask me about the new Jane Campion or Ken Loach or Pedro Almodovar unspooling in the main Festival in Cannes, cause I'm not interested at the moment. I'm on the hunt for the wild and grisly goods for Midnight Madness. More...

Today the Cannes market opened, showing works for industry badge holders, morning to night, in 27 official theaters. Some of those titles are unfinished, so I'm not at liberty to discuss them. Such was the case this morning for the doc anthology FREAKONOMICS (based on the best-selling book) which had a 16-minute segment shown by the sales company Celsius. Following that screening, I caught a film that I can discuss because it's already playing stateside on VOD, Steven Soderbergh's THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE. More...

As the Cannes Film Festival makes headlines for the next 12 days, you probably won't hear much about documentaries. But you can rely on TIFF's Doc Blog to fill you in. Don't be mistaken. Doc makers are here, just rarely on the red carpet.

Last year, the non-fiction sensation was WALTZ WITH BASHIR, playing in the main competition; while other sections contained gems like Terence Davies' OF TIME AND THE CITY; and the surprise from Slovakia, BLIND LOVES. All three of those went on to have their North American premieres at TIFF. More...