45th Toronto International Film Festival Announces Lineup
BY: SCOTTIE KNOLLIN
Though the 2020 festival is going virtual this year, the 45th Toronto International Film Festival lineup includes several filmmaking greats and a surprising number of first-time directors.
Fifty new features, albeit noticeably smaller than previous years, will be screened throughout the September festival.
Spike Lee’s “David Byrne’s American Utopia” will open the festival on September 10th. Mira Nair’s “A Suitable Boy,” a miniseries by the legendary director, will close the festival on September 19th. “A Suitable Boy” is based on the novel of the same name by Vikram Seth.
Other notable screenings include Chloe Zhao’s “Nomadland,” which stars Frances McDormand and will also screen in Venice. Francis Lee’s highly-anticipated “Ammonite,” starring Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan, made the cut. And, debut films from Regina King, Viggo Mortensen, and Halle Berry are sure to be standouts.
The majority of the festival will be completely virtual, including special remote industry events before and after certain screenings. The festival will also host a small number of in-person and drive-in events.
Here are ten titles we’re most looking forward to. Click here to see the full lineup.
Ammonite
Directed by Francis Lee
Gala Presentations
Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan star in this raw love story between a solitary paleontologist and a wealthy, grieving wife in 19th-century Dorset.
Bandar Band
Directed by Manijeh Hekmat
Contemporary World Cinema
Manijeh Hekmat’s music-infused twist on a road movie follows a band’s day-long journey across a flooded landscape to Tehran.
Concrete Cowboy
Directed by Ricky Staub
Gala Presentations / TIFF Next Wave
While spending the summer in North Philadelphia, a troubled teen is caught between a life of crime and his estranged father’s vibrant urban-cowboy subculture.
David Byrne’s American Utopia
Directed by Spike Lee
Gala Presentations
Spike Lee documents the former Talking Heads frontman’s brilliant, timely 2019 Broadway show, based on his recent album and tour of the same name.
Inconvenient Indian
Directed by Michelle Latimer
TIFF Docs / TIFF Next Wave
Michelle Latimer’s affecting adaptation of Thomas King’s award-winning book explores the cultural colonization of Indigenous peoples in North America.
Nomadland
Directed by Chloe Zhao
Gala Presentations
Frances McDormand explores the vast landscapes of the American West in Chloe Zhao’s wise and intimate portrayal of life as a modern-day nomad.
One Night in Miami
Directed by Regina King
Gala Presentations
Actor-director Regina King’s feature directorial debut, based on Kemp Powers’ play, is a fictionalized account of a 1964 meeting between Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, Sam Cooke, and Jim Brown.
Summer of 85
Directed by Francois Ozon
Special Presentation
This gorgeous 1980s period piece from Francois Ozon looks at the fateful friendship and love affair between two teenage boys on the Normandy coast.
The Father
Directed by Florian Zeller
Special Presentation
Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman star in Florian Zeller’s ingenious, subtly hallucinatory chamber drama about a man’s slide into dementia.
True Mothers
Directed by Naomi Kawase
Special Presentations
The latest from acclaimed director Naomi Kawase - a candid force in contemporary Japanese cinema - is a touching family story of love and adoption.
