TIFF 2012 - select observations about the guest list

Last year we had Brange and George. This year Johnny Depp and Will Smith. That’s a win when you can secure any two of the big 5 and both Depp and Smith were on the TIFF expected guest list released this morning.

A few quick notes which, by no means, covers everything, but we’ll add to it later as we approach the festival:

-Paul Thomas Anderson is on the list for The Master and, after the reaction from last week’s Chicago screening - click here for Sarah’s review - there’s no way it’s not contending for an Oscar, but neither Philip Seymour Hoffman or Joaquin Phoenix are on the list. The last time Phoenix was at TIFF he had a meltdown during my interview with him. Maybe that’s the point.

-Eva Mendes is confirmed to attend. She and Ryan Gosling will be at TIFF to screen The Place Beyond The Pines. It’ll be their first carpet. Mark that one down.

-Mark Ruffalo.

-Gwyneth and all her friends. The list is so long I’m including just a few names: Jude Law, Jake Gyllenhaal, Kate Hudson, Penelope Cruz, Garrett Hedlund, Naomi Watts... and an ex-friend in Winona Ryder. It’s been almost 15 years. It’s time to reconcile. Especially since G has so much great advice to offer now.

-MY OBSESSION: Aaron Taylor-Johnson is officially on the list for Anna Karenina. The Taylor-Johnsons never go anywhere without each other. I think I might pass out. If I see them I think I might pass out.

Anyway, here - I’m just copying and pasting the entire list from the TIFF press release below. Like I said, it’s stacked:

Konate Abdoul Karim, Hiroshi Abe, Ben Affleck, Riz Ahmed, Michael Angarano, Angelababy, Onata Aprile, Carlos Areces, Alan Arkin, Gemma Arterton, Penn Badgley, Doona Bae, Javier Bardem, Jason Bateman, Monica Bellucci, Imad Benchenni, Halle Berry, Magdalena Berus, Ruba Blal, Billy Bob Thornton, Park Bo-Young, Stéphane Breton, Jim Broadbent, Pierce Brosnan, Nichola Burley, Edward Burns, Jackie Chan, Jonas Chernick, Lily Collins, Jennifer Connelly, Bradley Cooper, Marion Cotillard, Bryan Cranston, Darren Criss, James Cromwell, Penelope Cruz, James D'Arcy, Johnny Dark, Keith David, Angela Davis, Robert De Niro, Andrea del Campo, Catherine Deneuve, Johnny Depp, Stephen Dorff, Fran Drescher, Patrice Dubois, Robert Duvall, Trine Dyrholm, Zac Efron, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Gad Elmaleh, Alice Englert, Nilay Erdonmez, Elle Fanning, Colin Farrell, Alexia Fast, Alexander Fehling, America Ferrara, Ralph Fiennes, Colin Firth, Matthew Fox, James Franco, Patrick Fugit, Josh Gad, Sarah Gadon, Victor Garber, José Luis García, Gael García Bernal, Greta Gerwig, Alex Gibney, Selena Gomez, John Goodman, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ryan Gosling, Holliday Grainger, Martina Gusman, David Gyasi, Jake Gyllenhaal, Emily Hampshire, Tom Hanks, John Hawkes, Garrett Hedlund, Christina Hendricks, Emile Hirsch, Chen Hong, Pedro Hossi, Thelma Houston, Kate Hudson, Helen Hunt, Adil Hussain, Ice-T, Jeremy Irvine, Toby Irvine, Connor Jessup, Terry Jones, Neeraj Kabi, Catherine Keener, Anna Kendrick, Greg Kinnear, Keira Knightley, Sebastian Koch, Olga Kurylenko, Hugh Laurie, Jude Law, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicolas Lea, Tommy Lee Jones, Logan Lerman, Jared Leto, Liano Liberato, Laura Linney, Snoop Lion, Ray Liotta, William H. Macy, Deborah Mailman, Makinov, Sarah Manninen, Tatiana Maslany, Jessica Mauboy, Rachel McAdams, Callan McAullife, Martin McCann, Ewan McGregor, Eva Mendes, Mads Mikkelson, Ezra Miller, Julianne Moore, Viggo Mortensen, Bill Murray, Mehdi Nebbou, Alessandro Nivola, Chris O'Dowd, Gwyneth Paltrow, Paula Patton, Michael Pena, Marija Pikic, Oliver Platt, Julien Poulin, Dennis Quaid, Aida Radwan Mostafa Elkashef, Lázaro Ramos, Vanessa Redgrave, Joely Richardson, Sam Riley, Tim Robbins, Sam Rockwell, Saoirse Ronan, Gabrielle Rose, Saskia Rosendahl, Eli Roth, Mark Ruffalo, Salman Rushdie, Winona Ryder, Vik Sahay, Andy Samberg, Adam Sandler, Shriya Saran, Susan Sarandon, Matthias Schoenaerts, Liev Schreiber, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Shari Sebbens, Suresh Shah, Michael Shannon, Molly Shannon, Siddarth, Alexander Siddig, Olgun Simsek, Saleem Sinai, Alexander Skarsgård, Maggie Smith, Will Smith, David Spade, Timothy Spall, Sridevi,Terence Stamp, Janice Stein, Jim Sturgess, Mickey Sumner, Kiefer Sutherland, Miranda Tapsell, Audrey Tautou, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Juno Temple, Marisa Tomei, Nele Trebs, Aya Ueto, Karl Urban, Carice Van Houten, Jelka Van Houten, Emma Watson, Naomi Watts, Hugo Weaving, Ben Whishaw, Kristen Wiig, Alex Williams, Bruce Willis, Jane Edith Wilson, Nat Wolff, Zhou Xun, Ronald Zehrfield, Zhang Ziyi and Slavoj ┼╜i┼╛ek.