2015’s Toronto International Film Festival, now in its 40th year, will kick off the fall festival season with their opening night film, Demolition, starring Jake Gyllenhaal in Canadian filmmaker Jean-Marc Vallée’s follow-up to Dallas Buyers Club. Over 350 films are among this year’s festival.
TIFF 15’s list of Special Presentation is an incredible list of new films from Michael Moore (Where to Invade Next), Charlie Kaufmann (Anomalisa), Scott Cooper (Black Mass), Denis Villeneuve (Sicario), Tom Hooper (The Danish Girl), Cary Fukunaga (Netflix‘s Beasts of No Nation), and Jacques Audiard (Dheepan). Several of the titles were among this year’s Cannes lineup, including The Lobster, Youth, and Louder than Bombs.
Deepa Meetha’s Beeba Boys, Stephen Frears’s Lance Armstrong movie The Program, Freeheld, starring last year’s Oscar winner Julianne Moore alongside Ellen Page, Steve Carell, and Michael Shannon, Atom Egoyan’s Remember, and Brian Helgeland’s Tom Hardy showcase Legend are all among thus year’s Gala films.
TIFF will also screen a special showing of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo as part of their closing night festivities with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra performing Bernard Hermann’s score.
2014’s Audience Choice Award Winner The Imitation Game, as is the trend with many receipients of the TIFF prize, went on to be nominated for eight Oscars, including Best Picture.
Additionally, this week also saw announcements that the Danny Boyle biopic Steve Jobs would be the centerpiece film of the New York Film Festival, while Robert Zemeckis’s The Walk would open both NYFF and the Tokyo Film Festival.
This year’s festival runs from September 10 to 20. Find the full press release of announced titles and check out more at TIFF.net.
Correction 7/28: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Steve Jobs would be opening the New York Film Festival. It is the centerpiece film. This has been amended in the original story.
****
Piers Handling, CEO and Director of TIFF, and Cameron Bailey, Artistic Director of the Toronto International Film Festival, announced the first round of titles premiering in the Galas and Special Presentations programmes of the 40th Toronto International Film Festival®.
Of the 15 Galas and 34 Special Presentations announced, this initial lineup includes films from such acclaimed directors as Ridley Scott, Michael Moore, Deepa Mehta, Lenny Abrahamson, Brian Helgeland, Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson, Jason Bateman, Cary Fukunaga, Catherine Corsini, Stephen Frears, Tom Hooper, Hany Abu-Assad, Meghna Gulzar, Terence Davies, Jonás Cuarón, Julie Delpy, Rebecca Miller and Johnnie To.
“We are celebrating our 40th anniversary in 2015 and this first round of films offers a taste of the incredible lineup at this year’s Festival,” said Handling. “Made by both established and emerging filmmakers from around the world, these films offer a global snapshot of our times.”
“This year we are thrilled to share a diverse array of filmmakers from Australia, India, France, China, the United Kingdom and the USA,” said Bailey. “We look forward to sharing these fantastic films with Toronto audiences — the most engaged and enthusiastic in the world.” The 40th Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 10 to 20, 2015.
****
Full list of films announced, via Deadline:
Opening night
Demolition – directed by Jean-Marc Vallee, starring Jake Gyllenhaal
Special Presentations
Beasts of No Nation– directed by Cary Fukunaga, starring Idris Elba
Black Mass– directed by Scott Cooper, starring Johnny Depp
Anomalisa- directed by Duke Johnson, Charlie Kaufman, starring Jennifer Jason Leigh
Brooklyn– directed by John Crowley, starring Saoirse Ronan
The Club– directed by Pablo Larrain
Colonia – directed by Florian Gallenberger
The Danish Girl– directed by Tom Hooper, starring Eddie Redmayne, Alicia Vikander
The Daughter- directed by Simon Stone, starring Geoffrey Rush
Desierto– directed by Jonas Cuaron, starring Gael Garcia Bernal
Dheepan– directed by Jacques Audiard, starring Jesuthasan Antonythasan
Families– directed by Jean-Paul Rappeneau
The Family Fang– directed by Jason Bateman, starring Nicole Kidman
Guilty– directed by Meghna Gulzar
I Smile Back– directed by Adam Salky, starring Sarah Silverman
The Idol– directed by Hany Abu-Assad
The Lady In The Van – directed by Nicholas Hytner, starring Maggie Smith
The Lobster– directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, starring Colin Farrell
Louder Than Bombs– directed by Joachim Von Trier, starring Gabriel Byrne
Maggie’s Plan– directed by Rebecca Miller, starring Julianne Moore
Mountains May Depart– directed by Jia Zhangke
Office– directed by Won-Chan Hong
Parched– directed by Leena Yadav
Room– directed by Lenny Abrahamson, starring Brie Larson
Sicario– directed by Denis Villeneuve, starring Emily Blunt
Son of Saul– directed by Laszlo Nemes
Spotlight – directed by Thomas McCarthy, starring Mark Ruffalo
Summertime– directed by Gabriele Muccino,
Sunset Song -directed by Terence Davies, starring Peter Mullan
Trumbo– directed by Jay Roach, starring Bryan Cranston
Un Plus Un– directed by Claude Lelouch
Victoria– directed by Sebastian Schipper, starring Laia Costa
Where To Invade Next– directed by Michael Moore
Youth– directed by Paolo Sorrentino, starring Michael Caine, Harvey Keitel
Galas
Beeba Boys– directed by Deepa Mehta
The Dressmaker– directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse, starring Kate Winslet
Eye in the Sky– directed by Gavin Hood, starring Aaron Paul
Forsaken– directed by Jon Cassar, starring Kiefer Sutherland, Donald Sutherland
Freeheld– directed by Peter Sollett, starring Julianna Moore, Ellen Page
Hyena Road – directed by Paul Gross
Lolo – directed by Julie Delpy, starring Dany Boon
Legend– directed by Brian Helgeland, starring Tom Hardy
The Man Who Knew Infinity– directed by Matt Brown, starring Dev Patel
The Martian– directed by Ridley Scott, starring Matt Damon
The Program– directed by Stephen Frears, starring Lee Pace
Remember- directed by Atom Egoyan, starring Christopher Plummer
Septembers of Shiraz – directed by Wayne Blair, starring Salma Hayek, Adrien Brody
Stonewall – directed by Roland Emmerich, starring Ron Perlman, Jonathan Rhys Meyers