The 49th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival has unveiled its Gala and Special Presentations programs and now have have confirmations not only for what will play at TIFF, but will shore up in Venice and Telluride. The two biggest eyebrow-raisers have to be Joshua Oppenheimer‘s The End and Michael Gracey‘s Better Man (yes, the Robbie Williams biopic starring himself) – both films will be zig-zagging from Venice to Telluride and then Toronto. Following a flightpath from Cannes to Toronto by way of Telluride, we have the Sean Baker‘s Anora, Payal Kapadia‘s All We Imagine as Light and Jacques Audiard‘s Emilia Pérez all pushing onwards into awards season.
In the trio of sought-after fresher titles hitting Telluride and Toronto we got Scott McGehee & David Siegel‘s The Friend, Edward Berger‘s Conclave and Malcolm Washington‘s The Piano Lesson with the International Premiere status. A TIFF favorite, Athina Rachel Tsangari will indeed be making the Venice to Toronto route – likely hitting London BFI shortly after with Harvest. And finally, Mike Leigh‘s Hard Truths will indeed have its world premiere screening in Toronto. Other noteworthy World Preems include Rachel Morrison’s The Fire Inside, Gia Coppola’s The Last Showgirl, Christopher Andrews’ debut Bring Them Down, Uberto Pasolini’s The Return, William Goldenberg’s Unstoppable and David Mackenzie’s Relay. Here are the complete listings for both programmes.
LEGEND
*Previously announced
WP = World Premiere
CP = Canadian Premiere – Film has shown in a foreign country, then premiered in the U.S.
NAP = North American Premiere – Could mean going to Venice, then hitting Toronto.
IP= International Premiere – Premiered in a country beforehand, second premiere is Canada.
Galas
Andrea Bocelli: Because I Believe – Cosima Spender | UK (WP)
Better Man – Michael Gracey | USA (CP)
Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight – Embeth Davidtz | South Africa (CP)
*Eden – Ron Howard | USA (WP)
*Elton John: Never Too Late – R.J. Cutler, David Furnish | USA (WP)
*Harbin – Woo Min-ho | South Korea (WP)
Meet the Barbarians – Julie Delpy | France (IP)
*Nutcrackers – David Gordon Green | USA (WP)
Oh, Canada – Paul Schrader | USA (NAP)
Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band – Thom Zimny | USA (WP)
*Superboys of Malegaon – Reema Kagti | India (WP)
*The Deb – Rebel Wilson | Australia (WP)
The Friend – Scott McGehee, David Siegel | USA (IP)
The Penguin Lessons – Peter Cattaneo | Spain/United Kingdom (WP)
The Return – Uberto Pasolini | Italy/United Kingdom (WP)
The Shrouds – David Cronenberg | Canada/France (NAP)
*The Wild Robot – Chris Sanders | USA (WP)
Unstoppable – William Goldenberg | USA (WP)
Will & Harper – Josh Greenbaum | USA (IP)
Special Presentations
40 Acres – R.T. Thorne | Canada (WP)
All of You – William Bridges | USA (WP)
All We Imagine as Light – Payal Kapadia | France/India/Netherlands/Luxembourg (CP)
Anora – Sean Baker | USA (CP)
Bird – Andrea Arnold | United Kingdom (NAP)
Bring Them Down – Christopher Andrews | Ireland/Belgium (WP)
Can I Get A Witness? – Ann Marie Fleming | Canada (WP)
Carnival is Over – Fernando Coimbra | Brazil/Portugal (WP)
Caught by the Tides – Jia Zhang-Ke | China (NAP)
Conclave – Edward Berger | USA/United Kingdom (IP)
Emilia Pérez – Jacques Audiard | France/USA/Mexico (CP)
Hard Truths – Mike Leigh | United Kingdom/Spain (WP)
Harvest – Athina Rachel Tsangari | United Kingdom (NAP)
Heretic – Scott Beck, Bryan Woods | Canada (WP)
I’m Still Here – Walter Salles | Brazil/France (NAP)
I, the Executioner – Ryoo Seung-wan | South Korea (NAP)
*K-Pops – Anderson .Paak | USA (WP)
Love in the Big City – E.oni | South Korea (WP)
Millers in Marriage – Edward Burns | USA (WP)
Misericordia – Alain Guiraudie | Spain/Portugal/France (CP)
*Nightbitch – Marielle Heller | USA (WP)
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl – Rungano Nyoni | Zambia/United Kingdom/Ireland (NAP)
Piece by Piece – Morgan Neville | USA (IP)
Quisling – The Final Days – Erik Poppe | Norway (IP)
Relay – David Mackenzie | USA (WP)
*Rez Ball – Sydney Freeland | USA (WP)
Riff Raff Dito Montiel | USA (WP)
Rumours – Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson | Canada/Germany (NAP)
Sharp Corner – Jason Buxton | Canada/Ireland (WP)
*Shepherds – Sophie Deraspe | Canada/France (WP)
Sketch – Seth Worley | USA (WP)
The Assessment – Fleur Fortuné | United Kingdom/Germany/USA (WP)
The Cut – Sean Ellis | United Kingdom (WP)
The End – Joshua Oppenheimer | Denmark/UK (CP)
The Fire Inside – Rachel Morrison | USA (WP)
The Girl with the Needle Magnus von Horn | Denmark/Poland/Sweden (NAP)
The Last Showgirl – Gia Coppola | USA (WP)
*The Life of Chuck – Mike Flanagan | USA (WP)
The Order – Justin Kurzel | Canada/USA (NAP)
The Piano Lesson – Malcolm Washington | USA (IP)
*We Live in Time – John Crowley | United Kingdom/France (WP)
Went Up the Hill – Samuel Van Grinsven | New Zealand/Australia (WP)
Without Blood – Angelina Jolie | USA/Italy (WP)
Young Werther – José Avelino Gilles Corbett Lourenço | Canada (WP)
