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
Hurt Locker (musical) "Gravity on Ice", "Container Store: The Musical", "The Entire Bible", and "SoulCycle on Broadway". The Playbills, which describe the musical as having "explosions, negligible storytelling, camouflage and tits", also state that the musical's cast included actors such as Taye Diggs (who would go on to play the role of Hedwig in the summer of 2015) and that the music was written by Metallica and Stephen R. Schwartz, which is the real name of "Hedwig" songwriter Stephen Trask. Director Michael Mayer stated that they came up with the idea for "Hurt Locker: The Musical" as a way to explain Hedwig's presence