Center Court: Janus Metz’s Borg/McEnroe is 2017 TIFF Opener / Neon to Distribute

Date:

It was one of the titles on our radar for when we were thinking of the fall festival line-ups, and now Janus Metz‘s sports drama (and fiction debut) is going to be center court at the 42nd Toronto International Film Fest. Starring Shia LaBeouf, Sverrir Gudnason and Stellan Skarsgård, perhaps the red carpet for Borg/McEnroe will also include the players themselves. A tidbit worth mentioning that hadn’t been announced before is that Tom Quinn & Tim League’s Neon is the U.S distributor for the title and have dated this as a 2018 release.

Gist: Borg/McEnroe tells the story of the epic rivalry between Swedish tennis legend Björn Borg (Sverrir Gudnason)
and his greatest adversary, the brash American John McEnroe (Shia LaBeouf), which came to a head during the 1980 Wimbledon Championships.

Worth Noting: One of the rare docu films to be included in Cannes Critics Week, Armadillo is one hell of a war is hell piece. This is Metz’s long awaited sophomore pic.

Do We Care?: The opening film of the fest was long associated as being a whimper item, but we consider this biopic a prestige item.

Eric Lavallée
Eric Lavalléehttps://www.ericlavallee.com
Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist, and critic at IONCINEMA.com, established in 2000. A regular at Sundance, Cannes, and Venice, Eric holds a BFA in film studies from the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013, he served on the narrative competition jury at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson’s "This Teacher" (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). He is a Golden Globes Voter, member of the ICS (International Cinephile Society), FIPRESCI and AQCC (Association québécoise des critiques de cinéma).

Share post:

NEWSLETTER SIGNUP

Popular

More like this
Related

Interview: Lucía Aleñar Iglesias – Forastera

Set in Mallorca, Cata's summer is drenched in sun...

The Dreamed Adventure | 2026 Cannes Film Festival Review

The Era of Men: Valeska Dredges the Darkness of...

2026 Cannes Critics’ Panel: Were Fatherland & Fjord Tops of the Fest? We Compare Grids!

Fatherland and Fjord towered above the rest on our...

The Birthday Party (Histoires de la nuit) | 2026 Cannes Film Festival Review

Bird on a Wire: The Past Haunts the Present...