TIFF 2021: Fabrice du Welz, Bent Hamer, Michael Showalter, Michael Pearce Selected

A day after San Sebastian Film Festival announced that films by Laurent Cantet, Lucile Hadzihalilovic, Claudia Llosa and Claire Simon will be part of the make-up of their next edition, TIFF programmers are slowly making their section by section announcements. have announced opening and closing night Gala films, a slew of Cannes Film Festival items that premiered in the last two weeks, a couple of Berlin titles, legit world premieres and a small helping of titles that will be mentioned shortly for Venice/Telluride line-ups. Stephen Chbosky’s Dear Evan Hansen opens the fest and Zhang Yimou’s One Second (which was nabbed by Neon and premiered in Berlin) will close the fest. Might we see a different version that was was showed in China?

Among the stand out items for international premieres which could point to a world preem in Venice are Michael Pearce’s Encounter, Mariano Cohn & Gastón Duprat’s Official Competition and Will Sharpe’s The Electrical Life of Louis Wain. While in the World Premieres we have the likes of Barry Levinson’s The Survivor (formerly titled Harry Haft has been in post for almost three years) and Michael Showalter’s The Eyes of Tammy Faye (a Searchlight title). Normally closer to the 250 range in the number of feature films, this will likely fall somewhere in the low one hundreds. Here are the selections:

GALA PRESENTATIONS
Clifford the Big Red Dog Walt Becker | USA/United Kingdom/Canada – World Premiere
Dear Evan Hansen Stephen Chbosky | USA – World Premiere
The Electrical Life of Louis Wain Will Sharpe | United Kingdom – Canadian Premiere
One Second Zhang Yimou | China – North American Premiere
The Survivor Barry Levinson | USA/Canada/Hungary – World Premiere

SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
Ali & Ava Clio Barnard | United Kingdom – North American Premiere
All My Puny Sorrows Michael McGowan | Canada – World Premiere
Bergman Island Mia Hansen-Løve | France – International Premiere
Drive My Car Ryusuke Hamaguchi | Japan – North American Premiere
Encounter Michael Pearce | United Kingdom/USA – International Premiere
The Eyes of Tammy Faye Michael Showalter | USA – World Premiere
I’m Your Man Maria Schrader | Germany – North American Premiere
Inexorable Fabrice du Welz | Belgium/France – International Premiere
The Middle Man Bent Hamer | Norway/Canada/Germany/Denmark – World Premiere
Official Competition – Mariano Cohn, Gastón Duprat | Spain/Argentina – North American Premiere
Paris, 13th District Jacques Audiard | France – North American Premiere
The Story of My Wife Ildikó Enyedi | Hungary/Germany/Italy/France – North American Premiere
Three Floors Nanni Moretti | Italy/France – North American Premiere
Violet Justine Bateman | USA – International Premiere
The Worst Person In The World Joachim Trier | Norway/France/Sweden/Denmark – North American Premiere