Showcasing over 250 feature length films and bringing in Hollywood talent like Oscar winners Julianne Moore and Eddie Redmayne and A-listers like Johnny Depp and Anna Kendrick, this year's Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) kicks off Sept.10 and is shaping up to be one of the biggest yet.
This year, I am lucky enough to be in attendance and covering North America's biggest film festival for The State Press.
There are way too many films to choose from, but if I have to pick, here are my five most anticipated films of the upcoming festival.
5. "Demolition"
Canadian Director Jean-Marc Vallée (“Dallas Buyers Club,” “Wild”) teams up with it-boy Jake Gyllenhaal in this dramedy, which will premiere worldwide on opening night.
Gyllenhaal plays Davis, an investment banker whose life falls apart after losing his wife in a car accident. In an attempt to vent, he starts writing to a vending machine company with stories of his day and life. A public relations representative of the company, Karen (Naomi Watts), is so touched that she reaches out to him and the two form an unusual connection.
I read the script this summer and I can say that “Demolition” will come on hard and fast, for better or for worse. Every character is dynamic and it will certainly make for an exciting film. Vallée, Gyllenhaal and Watts all have impressive filmographies, and the collaboration seems unique and inspired.
4. "Love"
Argentinian auteur Gaspar Noé (“Irreversible") has proven to be quite the divisive filmmaker. His last feature film, “Enter the Void,” received a 15-minute standing ovation at the 2009 Cannes Film Festival, but many subsequent viewers found it overlong and tiring.
“Love” proves to be another polarizing film to add to his collection. After receiving tepid response at the 2015 Cannes Festival, "Love" will have its North American premiere on Tuesday, Sept. 15.
Noé has claimed that “Love” is a love story told from a sexual point of view. “Love” intends to explore sex between three people in a cheerful way.
A mostly unscripted, sex drama in 3D may not interest everyone, but for fans of Noé's repertoire, this is exactly what we have come to expect.
3. "The Danish Girl "
Tom Hooper (“Les Misérables) isn’t a new face to TIFF, where his best picture-winning “The King’s Speech” played in 2010.
This year, Hooper is bringing “The Danish Girl” starring Oscar-winner Eddie Redmayne and indie darling Alicia Vikander. Redmayne will be playing Lili Elbe, one of the first people to undergo a sex-reassignment surgery. But I am almost more excited for Vikander, who plays Gerda Wegener, the wife who has to see her husband turn into the woman he was born to be.
The two actors leading the project are red-hot and should both be locks for Oscar nominations this coming season. The Danish Girl will have its North American premiere on Sept. 12.
2. "Anomalisa"
Anomalisa is one of the buzziest titles to play in the fall film festival circuit. Visionary director Charlie Kaufman (“Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” “Being John Malkovich”) unites with animation director Duke Johnson to create his first stop-motion picture. Audiences shouldn't expect a children’s movie; Anomalisa has a hard R-rating for “strong sexual content, graphic nudity and language.”
The film was entirely crowd-funded and marks the return of Kaufman seven years after his last feature, “Synecdoche, New York.” Anomalisa explores themes that Kaufman has already explored, such as the banality of life and the pursuit of love, but opens them up in a whole new way. Anomalisa’s Canadian Premiere is Tuesday, Sept. 15.
1. "The Arabian Nights Trilogy"
Perhaps Cannes greatest surprise hit is the six-and-a-half hour Portuguese epic “Arabian Nights” directed by Miguel Gomes.
"The Arabian Nights" trilogy is comprised of three parts that deconstruct the themes of the classic collection of stories, “One Thousand and One Nights,” and combines elements of drama, comedy and documentary to comment on the state of affairs in Portugal.
"The Arabian Nights" trilogy will have its North American premiere, playing in its entirety on Thursday, Sept. 17.
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Reach the reporter at tanner.stechnij@asu.edu or follow @tannerstechnij on Twitter.
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