Kevin Smith’s walrus-themed horror-comedy Tusk, Michael Winterbottom’s Amanda Knox-inspired thriller Face of an Angel and several big titles from last spring’s Cannes Film Festival are among a new batch of films announced to screen at the Toronto International Film Festival. TIFF released its list of films from the Midnight Madness, TIFF Docs, Vanguard and Master programs on Tuesday, which include several world and North American premieres.
Midnight Madness, a popular place for buzzworthy genre films, will screen Smith’s Tusk, which stars Justin Long as a podcaster who gets more than he bargained for when he interviews a creepy seafarer (Michael Parks). Other notable titles include Big Game, a survivalist thriller from Rare Exports director Jalmari Helander with Samuel L. Jackson as the president of the United States fending for his life after Air Force One crashes in the forest. Also, Sundance favorite The Guest, from You’re Next director Adam Wingard, will be screened as well.
The program opens with Japanese director Sion Sono’s Tokyo Tribe, a manga comic adaptation getting its international premiere. Also featured is the world premiere of [REC] 4: Apocalypse, the final installment in the beloved horror series, and What We Do in the Shadows, a vampire comedy starring Flight of the Conchords‘ Jemaine Clement.
Among the high-profile titles in the Masters slate include: the aforementioned Face of an Angel, starring Daniel Brühl and Kate Beckinsale, romantic comedy 1001 Grams (from O’Horten director Bent Hamer) and the new film from Swedish auteur Roy Andersson, with the bizarre title A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence. Other Canadian premieres include three films that received a lot of acclaim at Cannes: Jean-Luc Godard’s Goodbye to Language 3D, Andrei Zvyagintsev’s Leviathan and Timbuktu, from African filmmaker Abderrahmane Sissako.
A diverse selection of documentaries will premiere in Toronto, as well. The Look of Silence, Joshua Oppenheimer’s follow-up to his Oscar-nominated The Act of Killing, will make its world debut, as will new films from Frederick Wiseman (National Gallery) and Food, Inc. director Robert Kenner (Merchants of Doubt). Actor Ethan Hawke will screen a documentary he made, Seymour: An Introduction, about classical pianist and teacher Seymour Bernstein. Other hot titles include The Yes Men are Revolting, a sequel to the 2003 hit The Yes Men, the prescient This is My Land, about how Israeli and Palestinian schools teach national history, and I Am Here, the new film about Chinese youth from Last Train Home director Fan Lixin.
The Vanguard programme serves up more provocative art-house films, including new titles from Takashi Miike (Over Your Dead Body), Dave McKean (Luna) and Peter Strickland (The Duke of Burgundy).
The Toronto Film Festival runs from Sept. 4 to 14. Tell us, which movies are you most looking forward to checking out?
