2008 Toronto International Film Festival 2008 Toronto International Film Festival The 2008 Toronto International Film Festival, (TIFF) was held in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. This 33rd annual festival was from September 4 to September 13, 2008. The opening night gala was the World War I romantic epic "Passchendaele" from Canadian director Paul Gross. Festival is heavy on Canadian fare as well as featuring prominent indie films and worldwide and/or North American debuts including: "Adoration" directed by Canada's own Atom Egoyan, "Appaloosa" the second film from Ed Harris (who directed "Pollock"), "Blindness" from screenwriter-director, Fernando Meirelles, Iraq war thriller "The Hurt Locker" directed by Kathryn Bigelow, and
The Hurt Locker Festival before it was released in the United States on June 26, 2009 by Summit Entertainment. The film earned near universal acclaim from critics, who praised Bigelow's directing, the cast, writing, and action sequences. The film was nominated for nine Academy Awards and won six, including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay, making it the first Best Picture winner by a female director; Bigelow also became the first female director to win Best Director. The film grossed $49.2 million worldwide, making it one of the lowest grossing films to win Best Picture. In 2004, Sergeant First Class William James arrives