The Toronto International Film Festival announced two of the most high-profile sections of the upcoming event on Monday, with 63 films in the Gala and Special Presentations programs.
Coming alongside other prominent fall festivals at Telluride, Venice and New York, Toronto has long served as part of an inflection point for the year in movies, launching awards season hopefuls.
Though there are still many more titles to be announced in the coming weeks for this year’s TIFF, which runs from Sept. 5 to 15, Monday’s announcement put forth a strong batch of movies to watch out for.
Among films having their world premiere at the festival are Mike Leigh’s “Hard Truths,” starring Marianne Jean-Baptiste and returning the filmmaker to a contemporary setting after a number of period films, and Gia Coppola’s drama “The Last Showgirl,” starring Pamela Anderson as a 50-something dancer who finds her life at a crossroads.
Marianne Jean-Baptiste in Mike Leigh’s “Hard Truths.”
(Bleecker Street)
Other world premieres include Edward Burns’ drama “Millers in Marriage,” starring Julianna Margulies, Gretchen Mol and Minnie Driver, and David MacKenzie’s thriller “Relay,” starring Riz Ahmed, Lily James and Sam Worthington. Also world premiering at TIFF will be Sydney Freeland’s sports drama “Rez Ball,” with a screenplay co-written by “Reservation Dogs” co-creator Sterlin Harjo, and Rachel Morrison’s “The Fire Inside,” a boxing drama with a screenplay by Barry Jenkins.
Angelina Jolie directed and wrote the screenplay for the war drama “Without Blood,” an adaptation of the book by Alessandro Baricco starring Salma Hayek and Demián Bichir.
Julianna Margulies and Gretchen Mol in Edward Burns’ “Millers in Marriage.”
(Republic Pictures)
Among those films having their international premieres at TIFF — dedicated festival watchers may try to parse what will also be at Venice or Telluride — will be “All Quiet on the Western Front” filmmaker Edward Berger’s papal drama “Conclave,” starring Ralph Fiennes and Stanley Tucci; Morgan Neville’s animated documentary on Pharrell Williams, “Piece by Piece”; and Malcolm Washington’s directorial debut “The Piano Lesson,” an adaptation of the August Wilson play starring his brother John David Washington and produced by his father Denzel Washington.
Certain to raise a strong curiosity factor is the world premiere of “Better Man,” directed by “The Greatest Showman’s” Michael Gracey, a musical biopic of Robbie Williams starring the singer himself.
Numerous titles from this year’s Cannes Film Festival will be among those playing at TIFF, include Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or-winning “Anora,” Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Pérez,” which garnered a group acting prize for Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez and Karla Sofía Gascón, as well as Jia Zhang-Ke’s “Caught by the Tides,” Andrea Arnold’s “Bird,” Rungano Nyoni’s “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl,” Paul Schrader’s “Oh, Canada,” Guy Maddin’s “Rumours” and David Cronenberg’s “The Shrouds.”
Mikey Madison in “Anora.”
(Festival de Cannes)
Titles previously announced as premiering at this year’s festival include Ron Howard’s survival drama “Eden,” starring Ana de Armas, Sydney Sweeney and Vanessa Kirby; John Crowley’s “We Live in Time,” starring Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield; Marielle Heller’s “Nightbitch,” starring Amy Adams; musician Anderson .Paak’s directorial debut ‘K-Pops,” and “Elton John: Never Too Late,” a tour documentary directed by R.J. Cutler and John’s husband, David Furnish.
Also previously announced, the festival will open with the world premiere of David Gordon Green’s “Nutcrackers,” starring Ben Stiller, and close with Rebel Wilson’s directing debut, the musical comedy “Debs.”
The 2023 edition of TIFF launched Cord Jefferson’s “American Fiction,” which won the coveted People’s Choice award and went on to earn Jefferson the Oscar for adapted screenplay, along with nominations for actor Jeffrey Wright and supporting actor Sterling K. Brown, as well as score and picture.