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TIFF shows strength with first batch of 2014 premieres
Wednesday July 23rd 2014Concerns about the Toronto International Film Festival’s hard line against other festivals poaching its premieres vanished on Tuesday as it unveiled a strong slate of films, from indie fare to celebrity-studded features.
The 59 films in the Gala and Special Presentation programs are a small slice of the 260-to-300-title lineup for the 39th edition of TIFF, which runs Sept. 4 to 14. There’s more to come, including the announcement of the opening night film. Canadian movies will be made public Aug. 6.
In June, the co-president of Sony Pictures Classics told Star movie critic Peter Howell that TIFF was in danger of becoming a “damaged” event if it stuck to a new policy limiting the crucial first weekend of the festival to movies that are world or North American premieres.
It’s part of an effort to ensure “clarity” for festival goers about what is truly a premiere, TIFF CEO and Director Piers Handling explained.
Violators who screen elsewhere after inking a TIFF premiere deal would be shunted to less-desirable slots later in the festival’s 11-day schedule.
The move was designed to put a stop to situations like those involving eventual Best Picture winner 12 Years a Slave and Quebecer Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners, which were set to have world premieres at TIFF 2013 but screened at Colorado’s Telluride Film Festival days before.
While it’s impossible to predict what audiences will see — and whether awards and accolades will follow — based on short descriptions and a handful of trailers unveiled Tuesday, there seem to be some very promising movies in the mix. The majority of the titles are world premieres.
An exception is Canadian director Jean-Marc Vallé’s Wild, starring Reese Witherspoon. It’s a Gala listed as an “international premiere,” meaning it will bow earlier at another festival. Under the new policy, its Toronto debut would occur sometime after opening weekend.
Among the other films announced Tuesday were Gala spots for Ed Zwick’s Pawn Sacrifice, starring Tobey Maguire as American chess master Bobby Fischer and Liev Schreiber as Boris Spassky, his Soviet challenger, David Cronenberg’s Cannes hit Maps to the Stars, and Canadian director Shawn Levy’s black comedy about a family brought together by a funeral, This is Where I Leave You, starring Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Jane Fonda and Adam Driver.
Also getting Gala slots were Samba, French directors Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache’s first film since The Intouchables, reuniting them with its star, Omar Sy, Antoine Fuqua’s The Equalizer, starring Denzel Washington and Chloe Grace Moretz, and Mike Binder’s custody drama about a biracial child, Black and White, starring Kevin Costner and Octavia Spencer.
The Canadian premiere of Olympic-themed drama Foxcatcher also screens in the Gala program. Starring Channing Tatum and Steve Carell, it previously bowed at Cannes, where Bennett Miler picked up the best director prize for the film.
South Korean director Shim Sung-bo’s thriller Haemoo and David Dobkin’s family drama The Judge, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Vera Farmiga, rounds out the announced Gala program.
The closing-night Gala was also announced: Alan Rickman’s A Little Chaos, starring Rickman, Kate Winslet and Stanley Tucci. But in an unusual move the opening-night film wasn’t named, as has been the norm in recent years.
Festival Artistic Director Cameron Bailey stressed the delay has nothing to do with TIFF’s new policy on premieres.
“Absolutely not,” he said. “We have a lot of movies to watch as you may know and they’re not always ready on our timeline, so we want to make sure we see all of the key possibilities for opening night and that we make the right decision.”
More Gala films will be added in coming weeks, including Canadian titles to be named at an Aug. 6 media conference.
Special Presentation films include movies starring Maggie Smith (My Old Lady), Kristen Stewart (Still Alice), TIFF stalwart Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game) and James Gandolfini in The Drop, his final role. Some of the other highlights:
Jessica Chastain and Colin Farrell star in Swedish actress-director Liv Ullman’s adaptation of the August Strindberg play, Miss Julie.
Andrew Niccol’s Good Kill, about a fighter pilot-turned drone pilot starring Ethan Hawke and January Jones.
Barry Levinson’s adaptation of the Philip Roth novel The Humbling, starring Al Pacino as an aging actor who becomes involved with a much younger woman (Greta Gerwig).
The directing debut of Captain America star Chris Evans with the romantic drama Before We Go.
Top Five, directed by Chris Rock, about a rising comic and starring a comedy who’s who, including Tracy Morgan, Jerry Seinfeld and Whoopi Goldberg.
Jason Reitman’s exploration of sexual frustrations among the generations, Men, Women and Children, starring The Fault in our Stars’ Ansel Elgort alongside Judy Greer, Adam Sandler and Emma Thompson.
Paul Dano plays a young version of Beach Boy Brian Wilson, while John Cusack plays the older musician in Bill Pohlad’s Love & Mercy, about the life of the reclusive and often-tormented musical genius.
Daniel Barnz’s Cake, starring Jennifer Aniston as an “acerbic” woman obsessed with a suicide in her chronic pain support group. Sam Worthington and Anna Kendrick also star.
Jake Gyllenhaal plays a freelance reporter looking for a steady gig covering the L.A. crime beat in Dan Gilroy’s Nightcrawler
TIFF-goers this year will have a new experience outside the theatre, as King St. W. closes to traffic from University Ave. to Peter St. becoming Festival Street for the first weekend of TIFF. A gathering place with a stage for musical performances, food and more still to be announced, it’s a place for festival patrons to “just hang out on the street to meet friends, relax between screenings,” said Bailey.
The list of stars coming to TIFF is usually announced mid-August.
For a full list of films and information on tickets, go to tiff.net.
Source: Toronto Star
Front Page, Industry News
TIFF shows strength with first batch of 2014 premieres
Wednesday July 23rd 2014Concerns about the Toronto International Film Festival’s hard line against other festivals poaching its premieres vanished on Tuesday as it unveiled a strong slate of films, from indie fare to celebrity-studded features.
The 59 films in the Gala and Special Presentation programs are a small slice of the 260-to-300-title lineup for the 39th edition of TIFF, which runs Sept. 4 to 14. There’s more to come, including the announcement of the opening night film. Canadian movies will be made public Aug. 6.
In June, the co-president of Sony Pictures Classics told Star movie critic Peter Howell that TIFF was in danger of becoming a “damaged” event if it stuck to a new policy limiting the crucial first weekend of the festival to movies that are world or North American premieres.
It’s part of an effort to ensure “clarity” for festival goers about what is truly a premiere, TIFF CEO and Director Piers Handling explained.
Violators who screen elsewhere after inking a TIFF premiere deal would be shunted to less-desirable slots later in the festival’s 11-day schedule.
The move was designed to put a stop to situations like those involving eventual Best Picture winner 12 Years a Slave and Quebecer Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners, which were set to have world premieres at TIFF 2013 but screened at Colorado’s Telluride Film Festival days before.
While it’s impossible to predict what audiences will see — and whether awards and accolades will follow — based on short descriptions and a handful of trailers unveiled Tuesday, there seem to be some very promising movies in the mix. The majority of the titles are world premieres.
An exception is Canadian director Jean-Marc Vallé’s Wild, starring Reese Witherspoon. It’s a Gala listed as an “international premiere,” meaning it will bow earlier at another festival. Under the new policy, its Toronto debut would occur sometime after opening weekend.
Among the other films announced Tuesday were Gala spots for Ed Zwick’s Pawn Sacrifice, starring Tobey Maguire as American chess master Bobby Fischer and Liev Schreiber as Boris Spassky, his Soviet challenger, David Cronenberg’s Cannes hit Maps to the Stars, and Canadian director Shawn Levy’s black comedy about a family brought together by a funeral, This is Where I Leave You, starring Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Jane Fonda and Adam Driver.
Also getting Gala slots were Samba, French directors Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache’s first film since The Intouchables, reuniting them with its star, Omar Sy, Antoine Fuqua’s The Equalizer, starring Denzel Washington and Chloe Grace Moretz, and Mike Binder’s custody drama about a biracial child, Black and White, starring Kevin Costner and Octavia Spencer.
The Canadian premiere of Olympic-themed drama Foxcatcher also screens in the Gala program. Starring Channing Tatum and Steve Carell, it previously bowed at Cannes, where Bennett Miler picked up the best director prize for the film.
South Korean director Shim Sung-bo’s thriller Haemoo and David Dobkin’s family drama The Judge, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Vera Farmiga, rounds out the announced Gala program.
The closing-night Gala was also announced: Alan Rickman’s A Little Chaos, starring Rickman, Kate Winslet and Stanley Tucci. But in an unusual move the opening-night film wasn’t named, as has been the norm in recent years.
Festival Artistic Director Cameron Bailey stressed the delay has nothing to do with TIFF’s new policy on premieres.
“Absolutely not,” he said. “We have a lot of movies to watch as you may know and they’re not always ready on our timeline, so we want to make sure we see all of the key possibilities for opening night and that we make the right decision.”
More Gala films will be added in coming weeks, including Canadian titles to be named at an Aug. 6 media conference.
Special Presentation films include movies starring Maggie Smith (My Old Lady), Kristen Stewart (Still Alice), TIFF stalwart Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game) and James Gandolfini in The Drop, his final role. Some of the other highlights:
Jessica Chastain and Colin Farrell star in Swedish actress-director Liv Ullman’s adaptation of the August Strindberg play, Miss Julie.
Andrew Niccol’s Good Kill, about a fighter pilot-turned drone pilot starring Ethan Hawke and January Jones.
Barry Levinson’s adaptation of the Philip Roth novel The Humbling, starring Al Pacino as an aging actor who becomes involved with a much younger woman (Greta Gerwig).
The directing debut of Captain America star Chris Evans with the romantic drama Before We Go.
Top Five, directed by Chris Rock, about a rising comic and starring a comedy who’s who, including Tracy Morgan, Jerry Seinfeld and Whoopi Goldberg.
Jason Reitman’s exploration of sexual frustrations among the generations, Men, Women and Children, starring The Fault in our Stars’ Ansel Elgort alongside Judy Greer, Adam Sandler and Emma Thompson.
Paul Dano plays a young version of Beach Boy Brian Wilson, while John Cusack plays the older musician in Bill Pohlad’s Love & Mercy, about the life of the reclusive and often-tormented musical genius.
Daniel Barnz’s Cake, starring Jennifer Aniston as an “acerbic” woman obsessed with a suicide in her chronic pain support group. Sam Worthington and Anna Kendrick also star.
Jake Gyllenhaal plays a freelance reporter looking for a steady gig covering the L.A. crime beat in Dan Gilroy’s Nightcrawler
TIFF-goers this year will have a new experience outside the theatre, as King St. W. closes to traffic from University Ave. to Peter St. becoming Festival Street for the first weekend of TIFF. A gathering place with a stage for musical performances, food and more still to be announced, it’s a place for festival patrons to “just hang out on the street to meet friends, relax between screenings,” said Bailey.
The list of stars coming to TIFF is usually announced mid-August.
For a full list of films and information on tickets, go to tiff.net.
Source: Toronto Star
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Front Page, Industry News
TIFF shows strength with first batch of 2014 premieres
Wednesday July 23rd 2014Concerns about the Toronto International Film Festival’s hard line against other festivals poaching its premieres vanished on Tuesday as it unveiled a strong slate of films, from indie fare to celebrity-studded features.
The 59 films in the Gala and Special Presentation programs are a small slice of the 260-to-300-title lineup for the 39th edition of TIFF, which runs Sept. 4 to 14. There’s more to come, including the announcement of the opening night film. Canadian movies will be made public Aug. 6.
In June, the co-president of Sony Pictures Classics told Star movie critic Peter Howell that TIFF was in danger of becoming a “damaged” event if it stuck to a new policy limiting the crucial first weekend of the festival to movies that are world or North American premieres.
It’s part of an effort to ensure “clarity” for festival goers about what is truly a premiere, TIFF CEO and Director Piers Handling explained.
Violators who screen elsewhere after inking a TIFF premiere deal would be shunted to less-desirable slots later in the festival’s 11-day schedule.
The move was designed to put a stop to situations like those involving eventual Best Picture winner 12 Years a Slave and Quebecer Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners, which were set to have world premieres at TIFF 2013 but screened at Colorado’s Telluride Film Festival days before.
While it’s impossible to predict what audiences will see — and whether awards and accolades will follow — based on short descriptions and a handful of trailers unveiled Tuesday, there seem to be some very promising movies in the mix. The majority of the titles are world premieres.
An exception is Canadian director Jean-Marc Vallé’s Wild, starring Reese Witherspoon. It’s a Gala listed as an “international premiere,” meaning it will bow earlier at another festival. Under the new policy, its Toronto debut would occur sometime after opening weekend.
Among the other films announced Tuesday were Gala spots for Ed Zwick’s Pawn Sacrifice, starring Tobey Maguire as American chess master Bobby Fischer and Liev Schreiber as Boris Spassky, his Soviet challenger, David Cronenberg’s Cannes hit Maps to the Stars, and Canadian director Shawn Levy’s black comedy about a family brought together by a funeral, This is Where I Leave You, starring Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Jane Fonda and Adam Driver.
Also getting Gala slots were Samba, French directors Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache’s first film since The Intouchables, reuniting them with its star, Omar Sy, Antoine Fuqua’s The Equalizer, starring Denzel Washington and Chloe Grace Moretz, and Mike Binder’s custody drama about a biracial child, Black and White, starring Kevin Costner and Octavia Spencer.
The Canadian premiere of Olympic-themed drama Foxcatcher also screens in the Gala program. Starring Channing Tatum and Steve Carell, it previously bowed at Cannes, where Bennett Miler picked up the best director prize for the film.
South Korean director Shim Sung-bo’s thriller Haemoo and David Dobkin’s family drama The Judge, starring Robert Downey Jr. and Vera Farmiga, rounds out the announced Gala program.
The closing-night Gala was also announced: Alan Rickman’s A Little Chaos, starring Rickman, Kate Winslet and Stanley Tucci. But in an unusual move the opening-night film wasn’t named, as has been the norm in recent years.
Festival Artistic Director Cameron Bailey stressed the delay has nothing to do with TIFF’s new policy on premieres.
“Absolutely not,” he said. “We have a lot of movies to watch as you may know and they’re not always ready on our timeline, so we want to make sure we see all of the key possibilities for opening night and that we make the right decision.”
More Gala films will be added in coming weeks, including Canadian titles to be named at an Aug. 6 media conference.
Special Presentation films include movies starring Maggie Smith (My Old Lady), Kristen Stewart (Still Alice), TIFF stalwart Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game) and James Gandolfini in The Drop, his final role. Some of the other highlights:
Jessica Chastain and Colin Farrell star in Swedish actress-director Liv Ullman’s adaptation of the August Strindberg play, Miss Julie.
Andrew Niccol’s Good Kill, about a fighter pilot-turned drone pilot starring Ethan Hawke and January Jones.
Barry Levinson’s adaptation of the Philip Roth novel The Humbling, starring Al Pacino as an aging actor who becomes involved with a much younger woman (Greta Gerwig).
The directing debut of Captain America star Chris Evans with the romantic drama Before We Go.
Top Five, directed by Chris Rock, about a rising comic and starring a comedy who’s who, including Tracy Morgan, Jerry Seinfeld and Whoopi Goldberg.
Jason Reitman’s exploration of sexual frustrations among the generations, Men, Women and Children, starring The Fault in our Stars’ Ansel Elgort alongside Judy Greer, Adam Sandler and Emma Thompson.
Paul Dano plays a young version of Beach Boy Brian Wilson, while John Cusack plays the older musician in Bill Pohlad’s Love & Mercy, about the life of the reclusive and often-tormented musical genius.
Daniel Barnz’s Cake, starring Jennifer Aniston as an “acerbic” woman obsessed with a suicide in her chronic pain support group. Sam Worthington and Anna Kendrick also star.
Jake Gyllenhaal plays a freelance reporter looking for a steady gig covering the L.A. crime beat in Dan Gilroy’s Nightcrawler
TIFF-goers this year will have a new experience outside the theatre, as King St. W. closes to traffic from University Ave. to Peter St. becoming Festival Street for the first weekend of TIFF. A gathering place with a stage for musical performances, food and more still to be announced, it’s a place for festival patrons to “just hang out on the street to meet friends, relax between screenings,” said Bailey.
The list of stars coming to TIFF is usually announced mid-August.
For a full list of films and information on tickets, go to tiff.net.
Source: Toronto Star
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