Earlier today, the lineup for the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival was announced and honestly, it’s pretty damn impressive. 50/50, The Ides Of March, Drive, Twixt, Shame and a number of other very intriguing and exciting films will be showing up in Toronto this September.
With the announcement of the lineup, we also got a ton of new photos/plot summaries for some of the films, giving us first and new looks at these titles. There are a lot of them so I won’t bother going in depth about each but you can check out all the new material below. The images will be included in the gallery at the end of the page.
First up is Lasse Hallstrom‘s Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, starring Ewan McGregor and Emily Blunt.
Stuffy government fisheries scientist Fred is asked by a fishing-obsessed Arab Sheik to do the seemingly impossible – introduce British salmon to the wadis of the Yemen. Despite considerable trepidation, Fred is finally won over by the charismatic Sheik, who reveals that fishing brings him closer to God, and he hopes it will have the same effect on his countrymen. Fred also begins to fall for the Sheik’s beautiful legal representative Harriet; and so he rises to the Sheik’s eccentric challenge, casting off his English reserve on a transformative journey of self discovery and late blooming love.
Following that is Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud‘s Chicken with Plums.
Tehran, 1958: Nasser Ali Khan, the most celebrated violin player, has his beloved instrument broken. Unable to find another to replace it, life without music seems intolerable. He stays in bed and slips further and further into his reveries from his youth to his own children‟s futures. Over the course of the week that follows, and as the pieces of this captivating story fall into place, we understand his poignant secret and the profundity of his decision to give up life for music and love.
Another exciting film comes in the form of Sarah Polley‘s Take this Waltz, starring Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen and Luke Kirby.
Swelteringly hot, bright and colourful like a bowl of fruit, Take this Waltz leads us laughing through the familiar, but uncharted question of what long-term relationships do to love, sex, and our images of ourselves.
Rachel Weisz‘s new drama The Deep Blue Sea will also be showing up at TIFF.
Hester Collyer (Academy Award-winner Rachel Weisz) leads a privileged life in 1950s London as the beautiful wife of high court judge Sir William Collyer (Simon Russell Beale). To the shock of those around her, she walks out on her marriage to move in with young ex-RAF pilot, Freddie Page (Tom Hiddleston), with whom she has fallen passionately in love.
Derick Martini will be bringing Hick to TIFF this year. The film will star Chloe Moretz, Blake Lively, Alec Baldwin, Rory Culkin, Ray McKinnon, Juliette Lewis and Eddie Redmayne.
A Nebraska teen gets much more than she bargained for when she sets out for the bright lights of the big city.
Then we have Jamie Linden‘s comedy/drama Ten Year, starring Channing Tatum, Rosario Dawson, Justin Long, Kate Mara, Anthony Mackie and Chris Pratt.
Ten Year focuses on a group of friends – married and unmarried, successful and unsuccessful, happy and unhappy – as they return home on the night of their high school reunion. It stars a large ensemble cast that includes.
Oren Moverman‘s will be showing off his follow-up to The Messenger, titled Rampart. The film will star Woody Harrelson and Ben Foster.
A genre-bending, 1990s Los Angeles police family drama, Rampart explores the dark soul and romantic misadventures of a never-changing LAPD cop (Woody Harrelson) whose past is finally catching up with him in the wake of a department-wide corruption scandal. Along the way, he is forced to confront his disgruntled daughters (Brie Larson, Sammy Boyarsky), his two ex-wives (Anne Heche, Cynthia Nixon), a tenacious Deputy DA (Sigourney Weaver), an investigator on his trail (Ice Cube), a homeless witness to his crimes (Ben Foster), his aging mentor (Ned Beatty) and a mysterious new lover who may or may not be on his side (Robin Wright), as he fights for his own sanity and survival.
Todd Solondz‘s follow-up to Life During Wartime, Dark Horse will be at the Festival as well and it stars Justin Bartha, Selma Blair, Christopher Walken.
A thirtysomething guy with arrested development (Justin Bartha) falls for a thirtysomething girl with arrested development (Selma Blair), but moving out of his junior high school bedroom proves too much and tragedy ensues.
The star studded comedy Friends With Kids will show up at TIFF and it stars Adam Scott, Kristen Wiig, Megan Fox, Jon Hamm, Maya
Rudolph and Edward Burns.
A poignant ensemble comedy about a close-knit circle of friends at that moment in life when children arrive and everything changes. There are big laughs and unexpected emotional truths as the last two singles in the group, out of step with their married pals, resolve to have a kid together… and date other people.
One of my most anticipated films will also be showing its face at the Festival, Francis Ford Coppola‘s horror film Twixt starring Val Kilmer, Bruce Dern, Elle Fanning and Ben Chaplin.
A writer with a career in decline arrives in a small town as part of his book tour and gets caught up in a murder mystery involving a young girl.
George Clooney‘s Oscar hopeful Ides of March stars the director, as well as Ryan Gosling, Paul Giamatti and Philip Seymour Hoffman.
The Ides of March takes place during the frantic last days before a heavily contested Ohio presidential primary, when an up-and-coming campaign press secretary (Ryan Gosling) finds himself involved in a political scandal that threatens to upend his candidate’s shot at the presidency.
Ralph Fiennes’ directorial debut Coriolanus is earning excellent reviews on the festival circuit and it too will show up at TIFF.
Coriolanus (Ralph Fiennes), a hero of Rome, is a great soldier but despises the people. His extreme views ignite a mass riot and he is banished from Rome. Coriolanus allies with a sworn enemy (Gerard Butler) to take his revenge on the city.
City of God director Fernando Meirelles‘ 360 starring Jude Law, Anthony Hopkins, Rachel Weisz and Ben Foster will be arriving at TIFF as well.
Inspired by Arthur Schnitzler’s classic La Ronde, in 360, director Fernando Meirelles and screenwriter Peter Morgan combine a modern and dynamic roundelay of original stories into one, linking characters: from different cities and countries in a vivid, suspenseful and deeply moving tale of love in the 21st century. Starting in Vienna, the film beautifully weaves through Paris, London, Bratislava, Rio, Denver and Phoenix into a single, mesmerizing narrative.
Another one of my most anticipated films will be making an appearance at TIFF. Steve McQueen‘s Hunger follow-up Shame, which will star Michael Fassbender, Carey Mulligan, James Badge Dale and Nicole Beharie.
Brandon is a thirty-something man living in New York who is unable to manage his sex life. After his wayward younger sister moves into his apartment, Brandon‟s world spirals out of control. From director Steve McQueen (Hunger), Shame is a compelling and timely examination of the nature of need, how we live our lives and the experiences that shape us.
George Clooney will show up twice at TIFF, the second time being in Alexander Payne‘s new film, The Descendants.
From Alexander Payne, the creator of the Oscar-winning Sideways, set in Hawaii, “The Descendants” is a sometimes humorous, sometimes tragic journey for Matt King (George Clooney) an indifferent husband and father of two girls, who is forced to re-examine his past and embrace his future when his wife suffers a boating accident off of Waikiki. The event leads to a rapprochement with his young daughters while Matt wrestles with a decision to sell the family’s land handed down from Hawaiian royalty and missionaries.
David Cronenberg will be in Toronto this September with his latest film, A Dangerous Method, which stars Viggo Mortensen and Michael Fassbender.
Cronenberg adapts Christopher Hampton’s 2002 stage play concerning the turbulent relationship between Carl Jung (Michael Fassbender) and his mentor Sigmund Freud (Mortensen) as they struggle to treat a troubled patient (Kiera Knightley).
And finally we have Jay and Mark Duplass‘ Cyrus follow-up, Jeff, Who Lives at Home. The film will star Jason Segel, Ed Helms, Judy Greer and Susan Sarandon.
Penned by the writer/director team of brothers Jay and Mark Duplass (Cyrus), this is the story of one man searching for the meaning of life while running to the store to buy wood glue. Using the universe as his guide, Jeff looks for signs to help determine his path. However, a series of comedic and unexpected events leads him to cross paths with his family in the strangest of locations and circumstances. Jeff just may find the meaning of his life… and if he’s lucky, pick up the wood glue as well.
