TIFF
The Toronto International Film Festival announced its first crop of movies this morning, most of them big premieres set for gala screenings and other special presentations. The most surprising title among them is the latest documentary from Michael Moore. This secret project is titled Where to Invade Next, and it will world premiere at the event, which is held in early September. The title makes the subject matter pretty clear, but what we know so far is that Moore uses the doc to tell the Pentagon to “stand down” and then takes the lead in invading other countries for America.
Also making its world premiere is the highly anticipated new sci-fi effort from Ridley Scott, The Martian, which stars Matt Damon as an astronaut stranded on the Red Planet awaiting rescue. It joins fellow first looks from Stephen Frears (The Program), Roland Emmerich (Stonewall), Julie Delpy (Lolo), Nicolas Hytner (The Lady in the Van), Jay Roach (Trumbo), Rebecca Miller (Maggie’s Plan), Peter Sollett (Freeheld), Deepa Mehta (Beeba Boys) and Jean-Marc Vallee, whose Demolition is opening the fest.
TIFF will also host the Canadian premiere of the latest from Charlie Kaufman, a stop-motion feature titled Anomalisa he co-directed with Duke Johnson (Community’s animated Christmas episode). That one is set to make it’s primary debut at Venice and then presumably play Telluride for its North American bow, but we can expect it to make the most noise in Toronto.
Others premiering first elsewhere but worth noting for showing up here include new or already acclaimed films by Todd McCarthy (Spotlight), Denis Villeneuve (Sicario), Jacques Audiard (Dheepan) and Scott Cooper, whose Whitey Bulger movie Black Mass will be a very hot ticket.
Below is the full list of titles announced today. For more info, including synopses, visit the festival’s webpage. TIFF ’15 happens September 10–20.
GALAS:
“Beeba Boys,” director Deepa Mehta, Canada (World Premiere)
“Forsaken,” dir. Jon Cassar, Canada (World Premiere)
“Freeheld,” dir. Peter Sollett, USA (World Premiere)
“Hyena Road,” dir. Paul Gross, Canada (World Premiere)
“Lolo,” dir. Julie Delpy, France (World Premiere)
“LEGEND,” dir. Brian Helgeland, United Kingdom (International Premiere)
“The Man Who Knew Infinity,” dir. Matt Brown, United Kingdom (World Premiere)
“The Martian,” dir. Ridley Scott, USA (World Premiere)
“The Program,” dir. Stephen Frears, United Kingdom (World Premiere)
“Remember,” dir. Atom Egoyan, Canada (North American Premiere)
“Septembers of Shiraz,” dir. Wayne Blair, USA (World Premiere)
“Stonewall,” dir. Roland Emmerich, USA (World Premiere)
“The Dressmaker,” dir. Jocelyn Moorhouse, Australia (World Premiere)
“Eye in the Sky,” dir. Gavin Hood, United Kingdom (World Premiere)
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS:
“Anomalisa,” directors Charlie Kaufman, Duke Johnson, USA (Canadian Premiere)
“Beasts of No Nation,” dir. Cary Fukunaga, Ghana (Canadian Premiere)
“Black Mass,” dir. Scott Cooper, USA (Canadian Premiere)
“Brooklyn,” dir. John Crowley, United Kingdom/Ireland/Canada (Canadian Premiere)
“Colonia,” dir. Florian Gallenberger, Germany/Luxembourg/France (World Premiere)
“The Danish Girl,” dir. Tom Hooper, United Kingdom/Sweden (North American Premiere)
“The Daughter,” dir. Simon Stone, Australia (North American Premiere)
“Desierto,” dir. Jonás Cuarón, Mexico (World Premiere)
“Dheepan,” dir. Jacques Audiard, France (North American Premiere)
“Families,” dir. Jean-Paul Rappeneau, France (World Premiere)
“Guilty,” Meghna Gulzar, India (World Premiere)
“I Smile Back,” dir. Adam Salky, USA (Canadian Premiere)
“The Idol,” Hany Abu-Assad, United Kingdom/Palestine (World Premiere)
“The Lady in the Van,” dir. Nicolas Hytner, USA (World Premiere)
“Len and Company,” dir. Tim Godsall, USA (North American Premiere)
“The Lobster,” dir. Yorgos Lanthimos, Ireland/ United Kingdom/ Greece/ France/ Netherlands (North American Premiere)
“Louder than Bombs,” dir. Joachim Trier, Norway/France/Denmark (North American Premiere)
“Maggie’s Plan,” dir. Rebecca Miller, USA (World Premiere)
“Mountains May Depart,” dir. Jia Zhang-ke, China/France/Japan (North American Premiere)
“Parched,” dir. Leena Yadav, India/USA (World Premiere)
“Room,” dir. Lenny Abrahamson, Ireland/Canada (Canadian Premiere)
“Sicario,” dir. Denis Villeneuve, USA (North American Premiere)
“Son of Saul,” dir. László Nemes, Hungary (Canadian Premiere)
“Spotlight,” dir. Tom McCarthy, USA (Canadian Premiere)
“Sunset Song,” dir. Terence Davies, United Kingdom/Luxembourg (World Premiere)
“Trumbo,” dir. Jay Roach, USA (World Premiere)
“Un plus une,” dir. Claude Lelouch, France (World Premiere)
“Victoria,” dir. Sebastian Schipper, Germany (Canadian Premiere)
“Where To Invade Next,” dir. Michael Moore, USA (World Premiere)
“Youth,” dir. Paolo Sorrentino, Italy/France/United Kingdom/Switzerland (North American Premiere)
“The Club,” dir. Pablo Larraín, Chile (North American Premiere)
“The Daughter,” dir. Simon Stone, Australia (North American Premiere)
“The Family Fang,” dir. Jason Bateman, USA (World Premiere)
“Office,” dir. Johnnie To, China/Hong Kong (International Premiere)
“Son of Saul,” dir. Laszlo Nemes, Hungary (Canadian Premiere)
“Summertime,” dir. Catherine Corsini, France (North American Premiere)