Sarah Polley’s Women Talking and Jafar Panahi’s No Bears are coming to the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) this September. They were among new titles TIFF announced on Thursday joining the Galas and Special Presentations programs at TIFF.
Women Talking is Polley’s adaptation of the Miriam Toews novel about Mennonite women grappling with sexual assaults in their colony. The film, which was shooting in and around Toronto last summer, stars Jessie Buckley, Rooney Mara, Claire Foy and Frances McDormand. Women Talking is slated as an international premiere, which probably means that the movie will make its debut at the Telluride Film Festival before showing in Polley’s home turf.
Panahi’s No Bears, which follows two parallel love stories and was shot in secret, is arriving in Toronto following a Venice Film Festival premiere just as its director has been sent to Iranian prison, again. According to reports, Panahi was visiting an Iranian prison earlier this month to check in on two fellow filmmakers who were arrested for supporting protests when guards detained him to serve out an outstanding prison sentence for supporting protests in 2010. Panahi’s wife Tahereh Saeedi described it as a kidnapping.
Included in the list of 18 galas and 45 special presentations were big-ticket world premieres previously announced by TIFF, like the Knives Out sequel Glass Onion, Billy Eichner’s comedy Bros, Sanaa Lathan’s adaptation of On The Come Up, Clement Virgo’s Scarborough set drama Brother and Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story The Fabelmans. The latter, the first film Spielberg is bringing to TIFF, stars Seth Rogen and Michelle Williams, which means Toronto will be hosting a Take This Waltz reunion.
Other notable premieres with local connections included Mary Nighy’s Toronto-shot Alice, Darling, the story of a woman entangled in an abusive relationship, starring Anna Kendrick, Wunmi Mosaku and Kaniehtiio Horn; Hubert Davis’s Black Ice, a documentary about Black hockey players produced by Vinay Virmani and executive produced by Lebron James, Future The Prince and Drake; Canadian director Stephen Williams’s Chevalier, a film about an 18th century French-Caribbean composer Chevalier de Saint-Georges starring Kelvin Harrison Jr., Samara Weaving and Minnie Driver.
There are plenty of international art house faves present including Hirokazu Kore-eda, the Japanese filmmaker making his South Korean debut with Broker starring Parasite’s Song Kang-ho. Also in this category: Sebastián Lelio with his latest love story, The Wonder, starring Florence Pugh; Mia Hansen-Løve with One Fine Morning starring Léa Seydoux; Hong Sang-soo’s Walk Up; and Ruben Östlund’s Palme D’Or winner Triangle Of Sadness.
Hollywood’s shiniest is expected with a number of titles boasting starry casts, like Causeway with Jennifer Lawrence and Bryan Tyree Henry, Moving On starring Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin, and Reginald Hudlin’s Sidney, a documentary on Sidney Poitier produced by Oprah.
Florian Zeller’s follow-up to The Father, The Son, boasts Hugh Jackman, Laura Dern, Vanessa Kirby and Anthony Hopkins. The Banshees Of Inisherin brings an In Bruges reunion to Toronto: the film stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, and is directed by Martin McDonagh, who returns to TIFF after winning the People’s Choice Award for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.
Remember when Green Book won the People’s Choice Award? Well, its director Peter Farrelly is returning to the scene of the crime with The Greatest Beer Run Ever, a drama about veterans starring Zac Efron, Russell Crowe and Bill Murray. Tyler Perry is making his TIFF debut with A Jazzman’s Blues, a period drama about forbidden love. Catherine Hardwicke’s Prisoner’s Daughter should bring Succession star Brian Cox to town. He stars as an ex-con trying to reconnect with is daughter (Kate Beckinsale).
The summer of Top Gun continues at TIFF with JD Dillard’s Devotion, a period piece starring Jonathan Majors and Glenn Powell as Navy pilots. Henry Selick’s latest ghoulish stop-motion animation feature Wendell & Wild will hopefully bring along its voice cast, which includes Key and Peele. Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale is perhaps the most obvious awards contender in the lineup, boasting a rumoured-to-be great performance from Brendan Fraser, who plays a man struggling with obesity and Sadie Sink (Stranger Things) as his daughter.
The festival takes place September 8-18. For more information, visit tiff.net.
