Polley 'honoured' by film fest
Jul. 19, 2006. 06:16 AM
BRUCE DEMARA
ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER
The Toronto International Film Festival has given actor Sarah Polley many opportunities over the years to try out her directing chops. Now it's giving her biggest opportunity yet by premiering her first feature-length film.
Polley's film, Away From Her, will be one of two films to receive a gala world-premiere presentation during the 31st annual festival, which runs from Sept. 7 to 16.
Based on an Alice Munro short story called The Bear Came Over the Mountain, it stars Gordon Pinsent and Julie Christie as an older couple whose relationship is tested when her memory begins to fail.
Polley said the premiere was "an amazing honour" following the previous seven years in which her short films have been presented at the festival.
"I think that support actually is a big part of the reason I have the confidence to keep trying and to ultimately make a feature (film). We're ... unbelievably honoured; this is a lot more than we could have hoped for when we made the film. We're just so thrilled," Polley said.