The Toronto Film Festival on Tuesday unveiled 54 new film titles for its global-film focused Centerpiece program, including auteur-driven titles from Daniel Oriahi, Marie Clements, David Bezmozgis and Cody Lightning.
Toronto booked world bows for Kris Rey’s comedy Trash Mountain, starring Caleb Hearon, Zooey Deschanel, Jacki Weaver, Kyle Marvin, and Jaboukie Young-White; for Red Rocket star Simon Rex as he brings his latest movie, God Bless You, Mr Kopu, a comedy thriller directed by Alex Liu; the Irish feature Lemonade, starring Barry Keoghan and written and directed by documentary filmmaker Kim Bartley in her narrative feature debut; the Michelle Yeoh-starring action film The Surgeon, from writer/director Rohsan Sethi and Patrick Wachsberger’s 193; and the sports feature Smudge the Blades from writer-director Cody Lightning and starring Ed Helms (The Hangover), Paulina Alexis and Jana Schmieding alongside Lightning.
There’s also first looks at TIFF in the auteur-driven sidebar for Ron Murphy’s Back in Black, starring Christopher Walken, Ella Ballentine and Jane Curtin and shot in Toronto; Shawn Garry’s sophomore feature After Elena, which stars Alfredo Castro, a frequent collaborator with Pablo Larrain; Indian director Karthik Subbaraj’s tenth feature, the Tamil-language Dorothy; Indonesian director Kamila Andini’s Four Seasons in Java, about a woman released from prison and returning to her village to face the four seasons of her past; and Jenna Cato Bass’s time sci-fi pic Future Tense, where rich tourists use time travel to escape the past and an interracial couple put their relationship to the test when one decides to change history.
Louise Bagnall’s Julian.
Louis Bagnall
As Toronto turns its spotlight on international cinema and indie filmmakers, there’s world premieres for Bones of Crow director Marie Clement’s How We Stand, a film about an indigenous family forever changed after moving to Los Angeles as part of a 1950s relocation program and starring Amber Midthunder, Cara Jade Myers and Alyssa Wapanatâhk; Inherit, a horror film from Banjong Pisanthanakun, the Thai filmmaker behind genre landmarks like Shutter and Pee Mak; Alexandre Franchi’s The Other (L’Autre), starring Antigone star Nahema Ricci; Korean director Youm Kyu Bock’s Long Long Night. a 3D animated drama about a rhino befriending a young penguin; Neto Villalobos Brenes’ dystopian thriller Love Is the Monster, starring Paulina García (Gloria); Avi Nesher’s Oct. 7 tragedy Our Loves; and Rodrigo Barriuso’s Neverman, about a transgender woman battling dementia and starring Laura Wilson and Duane Murray.
Other world premieres well outside the Hollywood orbit and bound for Toronto’s Centerpiece sidebar include Hosam Abu Dan’s feature debut Thirteen in Gaza; Sunburn, from director Serville Poblete and about best friends escaping scorching summer heat during a massive power outage; David Bezmozgis’s Crimea-set psychological drama, The Betrayers, which adapts his earlier novel; The Bovine With the Curved Horns, from Colombian director Omar E. Ospina Giraldo; Daniel Oriahi’s The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives, a novel adaptation from Mo Abudu’s EbonyLife Films; and Where the River Begins, from director Juan Andres Arango.
Toronto also gave Centrepiece slots to Oscar-nominated director Louise Bagnall’s debut 2D animated feature Julian, which bowed in Annecy; Julien Chheng’s 2D animated feature Muyi, a mythic odyssey; The Violinist, animators Ervin Han and Raúl García’s hand-drawn 2D and CGI epic; and Viva Carmen, Sebastien Laudenbach’s 2D-animated reimagining of Bizet’s famous opera.
The Centerpiece sidebar has also booked North American premieres for Anthony Chen’s We Are All Strangers; Diego Luna’s immigrant drama Ashes; Sandra Wollner’s Cannes family drama Everytime; Yonfan’s autobiographical documentary Intermission; Marine Atlan’s La Gradiva; Light Pillar, by director Xu Zao; and Soumsoum, The Night of the Stars, from Franco-Chadian auteur Mahamat-Saleh Haroun.
Other Centerpiece titles include Rafiki Farlala’s Congo Boy; Iron Boy, from Louis Clichy; Ben’Imana, from Marie-Clementine Dusabejambo; The Dreamed Adventure, by Valeska Grisebach; May el-Toukhy’s Woman Unknown; Muayad Alayan’s Conversation With The Sea; Manuel Wetscher’s Eklipse; and Elephants in the Fog, a thriller and directorial debut from Abinash Bikram Shah.
The Toronto Film Festival is set to run Sept. 10 to 20.
Anna Díaz in Ashes.
Cannes Film Festival
