Demons, Darwin, Damon at Toronto film festival

TORONTO (AP) — The cinema smorgasbord of the Toronto International Film Festival has something for all tastes, a place where zombies, demons and vampires share screen time with art films, Hollywood awards contenders and studio crowd-pleasers.

One of the world’s biggest and most diverse movie showcases, the festival opens today with the Charles Darwin film biography “Creation,” starring real-life couple Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly. It closes Sept. 19 with another 19th-century biopic, “The Young Victoria,” featuring Emily Blunt as the British monarch in her early years.

The Toronto festival is a pivotal place for Academy Awards contenders. “If you’re going to bring a movie out around this time, there’s no better game in town,” said Matt Damon, who teams with director Steven Soderbergh for his entry, “The Informant!”