Photo Coverage: Inside TIFF Photo Call for ESCOBAR: PARADISE LOST

The Toronto International Film Festival just concluded yesterday, September 14, 2014. A total of 393 films were shown, including 143 world premieres. Below, BroadwayWorld brings you photos from the photo call for ESCOBAR: PARADISE LOST.

An American surfer (Josh Hutcherson, The Hunger Games) meets the girl of his dreams - but gets a brutal (sur)reality check when he meets her uncle, Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar (Benicio del Toro).

More than twenty years after his death in 1993, Pablo Escobar's impact on Colombia is still impossible to measure. His cocaine trafficking empire made him one of the wealthiest criminals in history, and he was responsible for the deaths of thousands. Yet the Robin Hood-like persona he cultivated, along with his brief political career, rendered him a folk hero among some of his fellow Colombians. Escobar: Paradise Lost is a chilling drama, based on a true story, that offers us a fascinating glimpse of Escobar's deadly allure.

Told from the perspective of Nick (Josh Hutcherson), an innocent surfer from Canada,Escobar: Paradise Lost unfolds during the final years of Escobar's reign. Nick and his brother Dylan (Brady Corbet) set up a modest surfing retreat near Medellin, where Nick meets the woman of his dreams, Maria (Claudia Traisac), who is busy campaigning for her politician uncle. That uncle turns out to be Pablo (Academy Award-winner Benicio del Toro), who invites Nick to a party at his "cottage," a sprawling, Xanadu-like jungle fortress. When he hears of the trouble Nick and Dylan are having with some local thugs, Pablo vows to "take care of it." The thugs turn up dead, and suddenly Nick finds himself immersed in a world of wild extravagance, corruption and bloodshed - one he will find nearly impossible to escape.

The Toronto International Film Festival has become the launching pad for the best of international, Hollywood and Canadian cinema, and is recognized as the most important film festival after Cannes. TIFF is dedicated to presenting the best of international and Canadian cinema to film lovers. What began as a ten-day film festival has grown to embrace programming 365 days a year. TIFF offers screenings, lectures, discussions, festivals, workshops, industry support and the chance to meet filmmakers from Canada and around the world. In September 2010, the opening of our new home, TIFF Bell Lightbox, enabled TIFF to expand to truly become a creative, community and global leader, and one of the world's premiere organizations in the discovery and understanding of film.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride

Director Andrea Di Stefano

Director Andrea Di Stefano and Benicio Del Toro

Benicio Del Toro

Claudia Traisac

Claudia Traisac

Josh Hutcherson

Benicio Del Toro

Director Andrea Di Stefano

Benicio Del Toro

Director Andrea Di Stefano and Benicio Del Toro

Josh Hutcherson

Claudia Traisac

Claudia Traisac

Josh Hutcherson

Claudia Traisac

Claudia Traisac

Josh Hutcherson

Director Andrea Di Stefano

Director Andrea Di Stefano

Josh Hutcherson

Claudia Traisac

Claudia Traisac and Josh Hutcherson

Director Andrea Di Stefano, Benicio Del Toro, Claudia Traisac and Josh Hutcherson