The Toronto International Film Festival kicked off on Thursday night at the historic Elgin Theatre featuring a pair of faces familiar to local festival-goers. "Fugitive Pieces" director Jeremy Podewsa and producer Robert Lantos have a long history with the Toronto International Film Festival. Introducing the director, TIFF co-director Noah Cowan recalled that Podeswa, originally from Toronto, even worked as "shadow" to co-director Piers Handling back in the mid-1990s. The filmmaker proudly owned up to the trivia, adding that everything he'd ever made has shown at the festival. On the honor of opening TIFF, he noted that it was "quite overwhelming for so many reasons I can't even begin to tell you." Citing Toronto as one of the most "well-run and organized festivals in the world," Podewsa still calls the city home. He gave a heartfelt thanks to Lantos and the inspiration that Michaels gave him - at one point turning to her and announcing "I love you" before enthusiastically giving her a long hug.

With 349 films from 55 countries this year, the festival -- generally seen as the "kick-off" to awards season -- has a resounding amount of international clout and rivals top events like Cannes and the concurrent Venice fest. At the Elgin, organization CEO Handling promised an "absolutely spectacular" lineup that gives "a very stimulating look into the niches of world cinema." After discussing the recently announced plans for the Bell Lightbox, the festival's new homebase that is expected to open in a few years, Handling was later joined by Cowan who praised Podeswa's film as a "triumph for us Canadians," saying that the film "speaks to a specific kind of shared humanity that this country evokes at its best."

"Pieces," which spans nearly fifty years, poetically looks at the effect of the Holocaust on a young boy who immigrates to Canada after watching the brutal murder of his family. The film's producer, Robert Lantos, was introduced before he announced with pride that "Pieces" is his tenth production to open the Toronto festival. "I have one thing to say about being on this stage," Lantos said. "I like it!" The producer joked that he violated a "sacred law" in makin the film, that "thou must never invest thy own money in thy own film." Uncertain that the movie, adapted from Anne Michaels' award-winning novel, could ever be made, Lantos praised Podewsa's approach and spoke emotionally about the Holocaust and the importance of the film being made.

The film garnered a loud applause from the audience before screening again down the street and around the corner at Gala venue Roy Thompson Hall. The night ended with the annual lavish opening night celebration at the Liberty Grand and then a private bash for the film at The Gardiner Museum in Queen's Park.

["Fugitive Pieces" director Jeremy Podeswa (left), the book's author Anne Michael, and cast Ed Stoppard, Rade Sherbedgia, Rosamund Pike, Stephen Dillane, and Ayelet Zurer, with producer Robert Lantos today in Toronto on Friday morning. Photo by Brian Brooks/indieWIRE]