George Pimentel is the most well-known celebrity and special events photographer based in Toronto. He’s a fixture at TIFF, and works directly at and for the festival, given special access to roam the red carpet and go backstage at the screenings and premieres, to photograph the biggest stars. His archive includes every major celebrity of the last 30 years, and there was recently an exhibit just before TIFF started for people to relive some of the most memorable moments from the festival over the last few decades. 

 

As a member of the media, I’ve been running into George my entire career, and I’m often assigned to the red carpets he works on, we shoot the sh-t, we gossip, we exchange information. A couple of days ahead TIFF opening night, George and I were at a party together and he was bursting with excitement – this is his time, TIFF is when he’s the most pumped because he gets the most exclusive access. But this year he was especially jacked. So I asked him, what and who is at the top of your list. His answer came right away: ANGELINA BABY! We’re back!

 

I mean, for a photographer, you can imagine what it’s like shooting that face, her impossible beauty, timeless and also of the time. But also…Angelina never depreciates – so for a photographer whose business relies on selling images, for him, and everyone else in his profession, she’s the one who always sells. He’ll get a lot of mileage out of the photos he took of her last night as she was in town to premiere her film Without Blood and also receive the TIFF Tribute Award. 

 

And it’s not just George, it’s almost everyone in media who is covering the festival. I’ve been working TIFF since 2007 and my best TIFF and Cannes memories involve Angelina. When she and Brad Pitt were still together, and before social media took over, I was lucky enough to be invited to the afterparties, observing them before it all fell apart, reporting on them on my own website and on ETALK, seeing the effect of her celebrity in person is an extraordinary experience. Fewer and fewer real movie stars are made these days, and there are fewer and fewer movie stars like her. When you’re in the vicinity, you can tell the difference between Angelina Jolie and virtually everyone else. It’s how the cameras and the lights become sentient in her presence, it’s how the public becomes feral in her presence, it’s how everyone else becomes smaller in her presence. 

Speaking of feral, it got out of control with the fans last night – TMZ has video of this and as you can see in that video, the fans were so chaotic with her, one of them even broke through security and managed to grab onto Angelina from behind. She handled it smoothly and without panicking and that in itself is an accomplishment because if it were me, I would have probably gotten physical. 

 

Chappell Roan has made headlines recently for what she has said about fan behaviour and her position on what she owes them and this came to mind when I was watching what went down with Angelina because while the rockstar fan crush is not unfamiliar, that person crashing into her for a full body hug is bonkers, like way beyond the accepted fan-celebrity contract. I know this sounds alarmist but, like, so many things could have gone horrifyingly wrong here, and now I wonder, even though Angelina was gracious, what kinds of conversations must have happened afterwards with among members of her security. Because that was a f-cking breach. And, frankly, it could have been even more intense because Angelina’s media presence was actually pretty restrained here at TIFF. 

We heard early on, even before TIFF began, that media opportunities with Angelina would be limited as the focus was to secure distribution for Without Blood so they’d likely do major outlets but would not be available to everyone. Deadline secured an interview with Angelina, Salma, and Demián Bichir that you can watch here for insight on how both actors feel about Angelina’s approach as a director and how much respect they have for her, and we’ll probably see coverage from the likes of Variety and The Hollywood Reporter but not many others were getting access. And it was communicated in advance of the Without Blood premiere last night that she would be taking photos but not stopping to do the entire press line. 

 

She skipped the press line entirely at the Tribute Awards where she was introduced by Salma who’s been quoted saying Angelina is the best actor/director she’s ever worked with and repeated that on stage: 

 

Sarah’s review of Without Blood is coming later this week – she saw it this morning and she’s already shared over at The Squawk in the daily chat that:

“Without Blood - looks great, structured in an unhelpful way. For a film about revenge, it's pretty cold.”

(Shameless promotion – that’s what you’re missing if you’re not subscribed to The Squawk on Substack!)

Without Blood, like most of the films Angelina has directed, is not meant for commercial appeal. It’ll be interesting to see whether or not they’ll be able to get a deal coming out of the festival. 

For Angelina, though, it’s probably already a win that Pax, who worked with her on the film, was able to join her at the premiere just weeks after his accident. That would have been traumatic for any parent, so to see him, well enough to join his mother and hold her hand, and celebrate the film, is such a relief. We already had indications that his situation had improved when she was seen in Venice to promote Maria so chances are, through the fall, we’ll be seeing her a lot more. Netflix has acquired Maria and it’ll be interesting to see when they set the release date and how that lines up with award season. That’s the next piece of information we’re waiting for as the race takes shape. This year the best actress category looks way more competitive than the best actor category. Let’s watch and see what the strategy will be around the campaigns.