The Toronto Film Festival has unveiled new star-driven Gala and Special Presentations titles, including Aziz Ansari’s Good Fortune, Maude Apatow’s Poetic License, Isabel Coixet’s Three Goodbyes, David Michod’s Christy, James Vanderbilt’s Nuremberg and Alice Winocour’s Couture.
Set for the buzzy red carpet at Roy Thomson Hall are world premieres for Bobby Farrelly’s road trip comedy Driver’s Ed, which stars Alyssa Milano, Kumail Nanjani and Molly Shannon; Russell Crowe’s Nazi thriller Nuremberg from director James Vanderbilt and Sony Pictures Classics, with the historical drama also starring Rami Malek, Michael Shannon and Leo Woodall; Succession actor Brian Cox bringing his directorial debut Glenrothan, where he stars alongside Alan Cumming and Shirley Henderson in a film about estranged brothers looking to save a family whisky distillery; and David Freyne’s romantic comedy Eternity for A24, which stars Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Miles Teller, Elizabeth Olsen and Callum Turner.
Nuremberg.
Kata Vermes
Other first looks in the Gala section include Aziz Ansari’s directorial debut Good Fortune, a Lionsgate release about a struggling gig economy worker (Ansari) meeting a tech giant, played by Seth Rogen, in a union overseen by an inept angel (Keanu Reeves); Hulu’s Swiped, with Lily James starring as Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd in the biopic from Unpregnant director Rachel Lee Goldenberg; Palestinian director Annemarie Jacir’s epic period drama Palestine 36, which has Jeremy Irons appearing alongside Hiam Abbass, Kamel Al Basha and Liam Cunningham; and Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery, director Ally Pankiw’s documentary about Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan’s 1990 all-female music festival that’s co-produced by Dan Levy and Elevation Pictures.
There’s also world bows for Alex Winter’s murder mystery Adulthood, led by Josh Gad, Kaya Scodelario, Billie Lourd, Winter and Anthony Carrigan; Outlaw King director David MacKenzie’s Fuze, a crime thriller starring Sam Worthington, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Theo James; Arnaud Desplechin’s Two Pianos, which stars Charlotte Rampling and Francois Civil in a drama about a virtuoso pianist living in an impossible love story. And there’s North American premieres for Scarlett Johansson’s Eleanor the Great dramedy, which bowed in Cannes and has Sony Pictures Classic releasing the feature directorial debut and award season contender on Sept. 26; and Ramesh Sippy’s Sholay, a remake of the Bollywood epic.
Quebec director Anne Emond’s Peak Everything, which bowed in Berlin, will close TIFF on Sept. 14. Toronto earlier announced Gala titles for films by Rebecca Zlotowski, Chloe Zhao, Derek Cianfrance, Peter Ho-Sun Chan and Nicholas Hytner.
Peak Everything.
Metafilms
Toronto’s Special Presentations sidebar also unveiled new titles, including world premieres for Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, a remake of the classic monster tale that stars Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi and Mia Goth and was shot in Toronto for Netflix; Euphoria actress Maude Apatow’s feature directorial debut Poetic License; and Jonatan Etzler’s Bad Apples, where Saoirse Ronan plays a primary teacher forced to make bad decisions over an unruly child in her class.
There’s also world debuts for Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis Presley documentary EPIC: Elvis Presley in Concert; James McAvoy’s directorial debut California Schemin’, starring Seamus McLean Ross and Samuel Bottomley as two Scottish friends pretending to be Californian rap duo; David Michod’s biopic Christy, with Sydney Sweeney transformed into U.S. boxing legend Christy Martin; and another pugilist biopic, Bennie Safdie’s The Smashing Machine, where Dwayne Johnson plays two-time UFC heavyweight champ Mark Kerr.
Also getting first looks is True Detective creator Nic Pizzolatto’s Easy’s Waltz, a Las Vegas-set drama starring Vince Vaughn as a lounge singer getting a chance for a second act with an old school entertainment manager played by Al Pacino; Romain Gavras’s Sacrifice, an action comedy co-written with Will Arbery (Succession) and starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Evans and Salma Hayek; First Nations/Cree filmmaker Tasha Hubbard’s Meadowlarks, top-lined by Michael Greyeyes, Carmen Moore, Alex Rice and Michelle Thrush; director Nick Davis’s You Had to Be There: How the Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution, a documentary about a 1972 star-making stage production in Toronto; the romance movie Charlie Harper from directors Tom Dean and Mac Eldridge and starring Emilia Jones and Toby Wallace; Alice Winocour’s high fashion drama Couture, featuring Angelina Jolie; and Yaniv Raz’s romantic epic Eternal Return, toplined by Kit Harington, Naomi Scott and Jeremy Irons.
Other new world debuts in Toronto include Train to Busan director Yeon Sang-ho’s latest film, the mystery thriller The Ugly; Isabel Coixet’s Three Goodbyes, led by Italian stars Alba Rohrwacher and Elio Germano; Mariana Rondon’s It Would Be Night in Caracas; Leon Le’s Ky Nam Inn; Philippe Falardeau’s Lovely Day; Anurag Kashyap’s Monkey in a Cage; Damiano Michieletto’s Primavera; Lee Hwan’s Project Y; and Lisa Rideout’s Degrassi documentary Degrassi: Whatever It Takes.
Nouvelle Vague.
Jean Louis Fernandez
Toronto has also booked an international premiere for Train Dreams, Clint Bentley’s take on the Denis Johnson novella that stars Joel Edgerton and Felicity Jones and bowed at Sundance; and Canadian premieres for Daniel Roher’s Tuner, a crime thriller starring Dustin Hoffman that marks the Oscar-winning Navalny director’s first narrative fiction film; Conclave director Edward Berger’s new thriller Ballad of a Small Player, starring Colin Farrell; Richard Linklater’s Cannes competition title Nouvelle Vague; and Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value, the Cannes Grand Prix winner that stars Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgard and Elle Fanning.
The Toronto Film Festival, set to run Sept. 4 to 14, will open with Colin Hanks’s John Candy documentary, John Candy: I Like Me. More lineup announcements will be made in the coming weeks.
