The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has revealed its lineup, and it's brimming with diverse and inclusive titles this year, along with showcasing new works by directors like Sam Mendes, Sarah Polley, Tyler Perry, Darren Aronofsky, and Reginald Hudlin. Mendes is presenting Empire of Light, a romance set in an English coastal cinema. The movie is written and directed by Mendes and features Olivia Colman and Colin Firth. A coming-of-age period drama A Jazzman’s Blues will be brought in by Perry. A new movie, The Whale, comes from Aronofsky about a 600-pound man trying to reconnect with his daughter starring Brendan Fraser. Additionally, the German-language adaptation of All Quiet on the Western Front, which stars Daniel Brühl, will be making its premiere at the festival as well.
Polley brings in a female-centric drama, Women Talking which follows a group of women in an isolated Mennonite religious colony reconciling with their faith after a series of sexual assaults. Hudlin is set to present a documentary produced by Oprah Winfrey titled, Sidney based on the life of path-breaking actor Sidney Poitier. Commenting on the lineup, TIFF’s CEO Cameron Bailey told Variety, “The film world and the films that go to festivals have been profoundly affected by a kind of reckoning and awakening in terms of gender.” Adding,
We’re seeing many more films by women and more stories that either weren’t told when men dominated the film world or were placed in the background of men’s stories. When you put women in the writer’s chair or behind the camera as directors or as main characters, you get different kinds of stories and ones that resonate with audiences in different ways.
Adding to the movies seen from a woman's point of view are two fantastic features, the medieval comedy Catherine Called Birdy and Lila Neugebauer’s Causeway, starring Jennifer Lawrence. The film follows a soldier suffering from a traumatic brain injury.
Steven Spielberg's 'The Fabelmans' Sets World Premiere at TIFF
Two movies pertaining to the LGBTQ experience will also be screened during the festival – Harry Styles’ My Policeman which follows a closeted police officer in 1950s England and Billy Eichner’s romantic comedy ‘meet-cute’ story Bros. Much-awaited at TIFF is Rian Johnson’s Knives Out sequel Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery and the world premiere of Steven Spielberg’s semi-autobiographical drama The Fabelmans.
Bringing the Black experiences to the forefront is Stephen Williams’ Chevalier, a period drama about a Black violinist in the court of France’s Louis XVI, and Gina Prince-Bythewood’s historical epic The Woman King, starring Viola Davis, that tells the tale of an all-female military regiment of African warriors. These movies not only bring out a diverse point of view but also shed light on history that has been largely ignored.
Adding to the lineup are movies like Shekhar Kapur’s cross-cultural romantic feature What’s Love Got to Do With It? Stephen Frears’ The Lost King, Catherine Hardwicke’s Prisoner’s Daughter, Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness, and comedy horror The Menu by Mark Mylod. Some movies coming in are already film festival darlings like Cannes break out Holy Spider which tells the story of an Iranian serial killer, and the Palme d’Or winner Triangle of Sadness.
TIFF will showcase about 200 feature films and 40 short films across verticals between September 8 to 18. Check out the trailer for Woman King below: