In addition to HE’s 26 hard picks for the 2014 Toronto Film Festival (or 30 if you want to be liberal about it) I’m adding three or four films from a just-announced TIFF slate. These are all soft choices. That means if I don’t get to them…well, c’est le festival. Cedric Jimenez‘s The Connection, a period policer (set in 1975) about the Marseilles drug trade. Andrea Di Stefano‘s Escobar: Paradise Lost, in which Benicio del Toro portrays the late notorious drug dealer Pablo Escobar. Maya Forbes‘ Infinitely Polar Bear, which I missed at Sundance last January. Lynn Shelton‘s Laggies, which I saw at Sundance but would really to see again if the opportunity presents. And Richard Loncraine‘s Ruth and Alex (formerly titled Life Itself, based on Jill Ciment‘s novel”Heroic Measures”), a Morgan Freeman-Diane Keaton comedy about a couple deciding whether or not to sell their Brooklyn walk-up. You know something? Scratch that one. But what about The Weinstein Co.’s St. Vincent, which was reportedly a real possibility if Bill Murray could be persuaded to attend? With or without St. Vincent the tally is now at 33 or 34, which of course is outside my operational scope. I never manage to see more than 25 to 27 films over the festival’s nine days.