It’s that time of year again as festival and awards season concurrently kick-off with what is essentially one of the largest international film festivals on the globe, the Toronto International Film Festival (or TIFF), this year celebrating its 39th year as one of the festivals where some of the noteworthy awards films will premiere.
Everything from Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker to Paul Haggis’ Crash to The King’s Speech and Silver Linings Playbook and others have had their debuts in Toronto in early September before going on to Oscar gold. Sure, some of them played a couple of days before at the Telluride Film Festival, but that’s as much or more for industry people than regular moviegoers at this point. We shouldn’t forget that many of the Toronto People’s Choice Award winners went on to fare just as well among Academy voters, movies like last year’s winner 12 Years a Slave.
The biggest hurdle with going to TIFF is that there are often so many movies one will want to see that choices have to be made and it’s impossible to see them all. This year, there are over 80 movies playing at TIFF that I want to see and only about a third (or less) of those already have distribution and release dates in place. As in past years, there will be a number of movies I only discover or find out about while at the festival.
At least with the Film Society of Lincoln Center’s New York Film Festival, taking place just after Toronto, it’s sometimes easier to catch the movies running the September festival gauntlet when back home and see something else while at Toronto, though it’s this constantly aggravating decision-making process that makes attending TIFF so bittersweet.
That may sound like a weird problem to kvetch about, but so many publicists contact me about their movies, and for every movie they want me to see or do interviews for, there are already five movies I know I want or have to see that I’ll never get a chance to.
I’ll be perfectly honest that I have picked a number of movies that already have distribution in place and will be released in theaters before year’s end, and I also omitted some of the movies that have had their premieres at other festivals, such as Sundance, Berlin and Cannes, to focus more on movies that are more or less debuting at TIFF (although some might notice that a few have also played Telluride and Venice in the past week). I’ve also had to focus more on non-docs and less on smaller foreign films than I may have otherwise, because there are so many higher profile movies that are worth catching at TIFF.
Lastly, because there are so many movies worth seeing at this year’s TIFF, I’m going to split our usual preview into two parts this year. You can learn more about some of the TIFF offerings worth seeing in the gallery below.
(Note: Some of the movies have more than just the one production still, denoted by the movie titles with an asterisk, which you can click on to see more pictures.)
Look for Part 2 of our TIFF ’14 preview tomorrow!
TIFF 14 Preview - Part 1
-
<a href="https://www.comingsoon.net/films.php?id=78559">The Humbling</a>
Following their Emmy-winning partnership on the HBO movie "You Don't Know Jack," actor Al Pacino (in his first of two TIFF movies, the other being David Gordon Green's Manglehorn) and director Barry Levinson reteam for a film about aged actor Simon Axler, who has an affair with a younger woman, played by Greta Gerwig, after having a fall from grace that may point to dementia. -
<a href="https://www.comingsoon.net/films.php?id=99331">The Good Lie*</a>
Reese Witherspoon and Corey Stoll star in this film involving a group of "Lost Boys," an effort to bring thousands of boys and girls caught up in the Sudanese Civil War of 1983 to America so they can start a new life. Like Witherspoon's other TIFF premiere, Wild, it's directed by a French-Canadian, in this case Philippe Falardeau, whose previous film Monsieur Lazhar received an Oscar Foreign Language nomination.
Released by Warner Bros on Oct. 3 -
<a href="https://www.comingsoon.net/films.php?id=110584">Good Kill*</a>
Seventeen years after they teamed for the sci-fi cult classic Gattaca, director Andrew Niccol and actor Ethan Hawke reunite with the latter playing an Air Force officer in charge of sending drone strikes against presumed terrorists in the Middle East, although the job puts him into a serious moral dilemma after one particular strike. -
<a href="http://www.tiff.net/festivals/thefestival/programmes/specialpresentations/gemma-bovery">Gemma Bovery</a>
The lovely Gemma Arterton is back in graphic novel mode, starring in another Posy Simmonds adaptation (as she did for Stephen Frears' Tamara Drewe), this time teaming with director Anne Fontaine (Coco Before Chanel) for a story influenced and inspired by Gustave Flaubert's novel "Madame Bovary" (which oddly, also has a straight adaptation which also premieres at TIFF). -
<a href="https://www.comingsoon.net/films.php?id=103909">The Forger*</a>
John Travolta stars in the feature film debut by British television director Philip Martin, a thriller in which he plays an art forger let out of prison early to spend time with his cancer-ridden son (Tye Sheridan from Mud) who is coerced into one last art heist as replayment. It also stars Christopher Plummer (as his father) and Abigail Spencer. -
<a href="https://www.comingsoon.net/films.php?id=110214">The Face of an Angel</a>
TIFF regular Michael Winterbottom is back with a fictionalized version of Barbie Latza Nadeau's non-fiction crime novel "Angel Face" about the events surrounding the sexual assault and murder of Amanda Knox with Kate Beckinsale playing a journalist (as she did so well in Rod Lurie's Nothing But the Truth) and Austria's Daniel Bruhl as a documentary filmmaker. -
<a href="http://www.tiff.net/festivals/thefestival/programmes/specialpresentations/an-eye-for-beauty">An Eye for Beauty</a>
Quebec's Denys Arcand, whose 2003 drama sequel The Barbarian Invasions won the Foreign Language Oscar, returns to TIFF with a film about a married Quebec City architect who has an affair with a young woman he meets while spending time in Toronto. -
<a href="https://www.comingsoon.net/films.php?id=97045">Escobar: Paradise Lost*</a>
One of the many films involving the Colombian drug czar which has finally been produced, this one starring Benicio Del Toro as the legendary figure. "The Hunger Games" star Josh Hutcherson plays a young man who falls in love with a girl in Colombia, only to discover that her uncle is Pablo Escobar. Uh oh.
Released by RADiUS-TWC on Nov. 26 -
<a href="https://www.comingsoon.net/films.php?id=67074">The Equalizer</a>
Possibly one of the more commercial TIFF World Premieres has Denzel Washington taking on the Robert McCall role made famous on television by Edward Woodward. The film reunites him with Training Day director Antoine Fuqua for a revenge thriller about an "everyman" with a special ops background who goes up against the Russian mob in Boston to protect a young prostitute (Chloe Moretz).
Released by Sony Pictures on Sept. 26 -
<a href="http://www.tiff.net/festivals/thefestival/programmes/specialpresentations/eden">Eden</a>
French filmmaker Mia Hansen-Love received much acclaim for her previous film Goodbye First Love and in her new film, she explores the French boom of electronic dance music (EDM) in the '90s via a teenager named Paul who forms a DJ duo with a friend at the same time as some group called Daft Punk. Greta Gerwig plays Paul's temporary American love interest. -
<a href="http://www.tiff.net/festivals/thefestival/programmes/vanguard/the-duke-of-burgundy">The Duke of Burgundy</a>
Returning to TIFF after his success with the eerie Giallo tribute Berberian Sound Studio, British filmmaker Peter Strickland's film is about the growingly sadistic relationship between a wealthy butterfly collector and her new housekeeper. -
<a href="https://www.comingsoon.net/films.php?id=63243">The Drop*</a>
Based on the novel of the same name by Dennis Lehane ("Mystic River," "Shutter Island"), this is the English language debut from Belgian director Michael Roskam whose Bullhead received an Oscar nomination. The film stars Tom Hardy as a Brooklyn bartender who becomes involved in a robbery gone wrong through his cousin Marv (played by the late James Gandolfini). It costars Noomi Rapace, Matthias Schoenaerts from Bullhead and Rust and Bone and John Ortiz.
Released by Fox Searchlight on Sept. 12 -
<a href="http://www.tiff.net/festivals/thefestival/programmes/galapresentations/the-connection">The Connection</a>
Since I don't want to exclude some of the many great French and international films that come to TIFF, here's one from Cedric Jimenez, a '70s crime thriller throwback starring Oscar winner Jean Dujardin as a policeman sent to crack down on the French Connection, the city's organized crime that exports heroin worldwide, as he tries to take down the kingpin, played by Gilles Lelouche. -
<a href="https://www.comingsoon.net/films.php?id=109195">The Cobbler</a>
Tom McCarthy, the filmmaker behind The Visitor and The Station Agent, is one of two directors showing another side of Adam Sandler (the other is Jason Reitman), as he plays a New York shoe repairman who finds an heirloom that allows him to literally transform into whomever's shoes he tries on. McCarthy's unique look at the world has brought about great performances from the likes of Peter Dinklage and Richard Jenkins, and Sandler has a great supporting cast including Dustin Hoffman, Steve Buscemi and Ellen Barkin. -
<a href="https://www.comingsoon.net/films.php?id=116412">Cake</a>
Jennifer Aniston stars in this drama from director Daniel Barnz (Won't Back Down) as a woman in a pain support group investigating the suicide of a fellow group member (Anna Kendrick) who gets into a relationship with her husband (Sam Worthington). It also stars William H. Macy, Felicity Huffman and Adriana Barraza. -
<a href="https://www.comingsoon.net/films.php?id=103575">Black and White</a>
One of the more insightful filmmakers about drama of the human experience, Mike Binder reunites with Kevin Costner (him again!) from their earlier drama The Upside of Anger with Costner this time playing Elliot, a widowed attorney trying to raise his bi-racial granddaughter who finds himself in a custody battle with the girl's African-American grandmother (Octavia Spencer) and junkie father, who Elliot blames for his daughter's death. I wouldn't expect too much of the humor Binder served in "Mind of the Married Man." -
<a href="https://www.comingsoon.net/films.php?id=108598">Beyond the Lights*</a>
Gina Prince-Bythewood (Love and Basketball) directs this romance set in the world of the music business with Belle's breakout Gugu Mbatha-Raw playing a singing sensation who has tired of the pressures of fame until she meets Nate Parker's Kax, who is assigned to protect her. It's The Bodyguard meets... oh, let's face it. It's The Bodyguard.
Released by Relativity Media on Nov 14 -
<a href="https://www.comingsoon.net/films.php?id=110517">Before We Go</a>
"Captain America" Chris Evans tries his hand at directing with this romance about two strangers--Evans plays one, Alice Eve plays the other--who get stranded at Grand Central Station after missing their train. Probably good 'cause every time Evans gets on a train in a movie something bad happens. Instead, the two of them travel across New York City at night, him unawares that she has a husband waiting for her at home. -
<a href="http://www.tiff.net/festivals/thefestival/programmes/discovery/adult-beginners">Adult Beginners</a>
This comedy, the directorial debut from producer Ross Katz, stars Nick Kroll ("The League") as a city-based entrepreneur who returns home after losing everything, finding himself having to take care of his pregnant sister's three-year-old Teddy on weekends. That sister is played by Rose (Neighbors) Byrne with Bobby Cannavale playing her husband, and you just know this should be a riot. -
<a href="https://www.comingsoon.net/films.php?id=106943">99 Homes</a>
Already receiving raves out of the Venice Film Festival, the new film from Ramin Bahrani (Goodbye Solo) stars Andrew Garfield as a construction worker trying to save his home from foreclosure by a real estate broker, played by Michael Shannon. When you can't beat 'em, join 'em, and that's exactly what Garfield's character does. A very timely look at the state of the U.S. economy and how it affects individuals from the insightful filmmaker.
