Sundance has Sebastian Silva. Cannes has the Dardenne Bros. And at this point, we can call him a VIP guest at Toronto Intl. Film Festival as David Gordon Green will open the 49th edition of the festival with Nutcrackers – a dramedy about a workaholic, Mike (Ben Stiller) who has to travel to rural Ohio to look after his recently orphaned nephews. Gordon Green has shored up at the fest with the likes of everything from George Washington (2000), All the Real Girls (2003), Undertow (2004) and Snow Angels (2007) to Stronger (2017), and most recently, Halloween (2018). For us, this is a welcome return to working in a genre that is not popcorn studio horror projects. TIFF also confirmed that Rebel Wilson’s The Deb will indeed close the fest. Red carpet night for this Gala screening should be interesting seeing that there is a possible legal quarrel between the filmmaker and some of the film’s producers.
In other delicious news, Variety has Pedro Almodóvar shoring up on the Lido with The Room Next Door. His English-language debut is loaded with heavyweights Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton alongside Anya Taylor-Joy, Alessandro Nivola and John Turturro in “a tale about about a very imperfect mother and her resentful daughter, who live separate lives because of a profound misunderstanding”. Venice is dropping their line-up in one week from now!