This year’s Toronto Film Festival will feature super-villain origin stories, splashy literary adaptations, and Tom Hanks as the most beloved performer in children’s television.
The 44th Toronto International Film Festival runs September 5–15, 2019.
The Canadian celebration of all things movies unveiled its 2019 lineup on Tuesday, and it appears to be an eclectic mixture of glossy awards bait, auteur-driven indies, and populist crowd-pleasers. Among the film going are Kasi Lemmons’ Harriet, starring Tony Award winner Cynthia Erivo as Harriet Tubman.
Also going is the Chinonye Chukwu’s Clemency, starring Academy Award Nominee Alfre Woodard. The film won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance this year and tremendous praise for Woodard’s performance.
Toronto is often viewed as a launching pad for awards season hopefuls, and this year’s edition features a number of titles that are on the hunt for Oscars. There’s “Ford v. Ferrari,” a drama about a team of designers driven to develop a new racing car that stars Matt Damon and Christian Bale. “The Goldfinch,” the big-screen version of Donna Tartt’s best-selling novel; “Just Mercy,” a court room drama with Michael B. Jordan; and “The Two Popes,” a look at the relationship between Pope Benedict and Pope Francis that features Anthony Hopkins and Jonathan Pryce as the church leaders. All of these movies have the kind of pedigree that could resonate with awards voters and critics.
Making its World Premiere will be Craig Brewer’s Dolemite Is My Name, starring Eddie Murphy and based on the life of Rudy Ray Moore, the comedian well-known for his raunchy, X-rated stand up that he also infused with rapping and rhythm, earning him the nickname Godfather of Rap. Wesley Snipes, Craig Robinson, Mike Epps, Titus Burgess, & Da’Vine Joy Randolph co-star in the film.
“In a fractious social moment, a lot of these stories are about characters looking for empathy or ways to connect,” he said. “These films don’t directly address what’s happening, but there seems to be a recognition that we are living in difficult times.”
Another film headed to TIFF is the inspiring drama “Just Mercy,” directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and based on the award-winning nonfiction bestseller by Bryan Stevenson. The film stars Michael B. Jordan and Academy Award winners Jamie Foxx and Brie Larson.
GALA PRESENTATIONS 2019
Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band
Daniel Roher | Canada
Radioactive
Marjane Satrapi | United Kingdom
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
Marielle Heller | USA
Abominable
Jill Culton | USA
Blackbird
Roger Michell | United Kingdom
Ford v Ferrari
James Mangold | USA
Harriet
Kasi Lemmons | USA
Hustlers
Lorene Scafaria | USA
Joker
Todd Phillips | USA
Just Mercy
Destin Daniel Cretton | USA
Ordinary Love
Lisa Barros D’Sa, Glenn Leyburn | United Kingdom
The Goldfinch
John Crowley | USA
The Sky Is Pink
Shonali Bose | India
The Song of Names
François Girard | Canada
True History of the Kelly Gang
Justin Kurzel | Australia
Western Stars
Thom Zimny, Bruce Springsteen | USA
American Woman
Semi Chellas | Canada
Clemency
Chinonye Chukwu| USA
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS 2019
A Herdade
Tiago Guedes | Portugal
Bad Education
Cory Finley | USA
Coming Home Again
Wayne Wang | USA/South Korea
The Two Popes
Fernando Meirelles
Dolemite Is My Name
Craig Brewer | USA
Ema
Pablo Larraín | Chile
Endings, Beginnings
Drake Doremus | USA
Frankie
Ira Sachs | France/Portugal
Greed
Michael Winterbottom | United Kingdom
Guest of Honour
Atom Egoyan | Canada
Heroic Losers (La odisea de los giles)
Sebastian Borensztein | Argentina/Spain
Honey Boy
Alma Har’el | USA
Hope Gap
William Nicholson | United Kingdom
How to Build a Girl
Coky Giedroyc | United Kingdom
I Am Woman
Unjoo Moon | Australia
Jojo Rabbit
Taika Waititi | USA
Judy
Rupert Goold | United Kingdom
Knives Out
Rian Johnson | USA
La Belle Époque
Nicolas Bedos | France
Marriage Story
Noah Baumbach | USA
Military Wives
Peter Cattaneo | United Kingdom
Motherless Brooklyn
Edward Norton | USA
No.7 Cherry Lane
Yonfan | Hong Kong
Pain and Glory
Pedro Almodóvar | Spain
Parasite (Gisaengchung)
Bong Joon-ho | South Korea
Pelican Blood (Pelikanblut)
Katrin Gebbe | Germany/Bulgaria
Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Portrait de la jeune fille en feu)
Céline Sciamma | France
Saturday Fiction (Lan Xin Da Ju Yuan)
Lou Ye | China
The Friend
Gabriela Cowperthwaite | USA
The Laundromat
Steven Soderbergh | USA
The Lighthouse
Robert Eggers | USA
The Other Lamb
Malgorzata Szumowska | Belgium/Ireland/USA
The Painted Bird
Václav Marhoul | Czech Republic/Ukraine/Slovakia
The Personal History of David Copperfield
Armando Iannucci | United Kingdom
The Report
Scott Z. Burns | USA
Uncut Gems
Benny Safdie, Josh Safdie | USA
Weathering With You
Makoto Shinkai | Japan
While at War (Mientras Dure La Guerra)
Alejandro Amenábar | Spain/Argentina
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