When we found out Monday that box #7 in the advance film selection lottery was drawn, and we were in box #5, we thought we were screwed. Proper screwed. Being in the second-last box is not usually a happy place for a TIFF film-goer.

However.

We just got our email…and we lucked out. Two #1 picks, three #2 picks. No do-overs. W00t!

• We got Trust, not Biutiful. Trust is the one I’m shaking my head at the most…I think we only picked it because it worked in the time slot, not because we rated it that highly.
• We got Blame, not Beautiful Boy, but Blame feels a little like a sleeper.
• We got Let Me In (the remake of Let The Right One In) which is coming to regular theatres soon, but so is Cave of Forgotten Dreams, which is such a hot ticket I gave up any hope of seeing it the second I found out what box we were in.
• The other two — Confessions and 13 Assassins — were our first picks, and I’m quite happy to close out the festival with a full-on Takashi Miike samurai battle.