Preview: 45th Toronto International Film Festival

BY SCOTTIE KNOLLIN

The 45th annual Toronto International Film Festival kicks off in two weeks. Previously, it was announced that 50 new features would play the festival in-competition. Spike Lee’s “David Byrne’s American Utopia” is set to officially open the festival on September 10th and Mira Nair’s “A Suitable Boy” will close the festival on September 19th.

North Dakota Film Society’s co-founder Scottie Knollin has been accredited to attend the upcoming 45th Toronto International Film Festival as an Industry Member. With that attendee membership, Knollin will have the opportunity to attend virtual premieres, industry-exclusive events, and virtual industry networking events.

The festival will be presented in a hybrid format, with most attendees viewing films and events virtually.

TIFF has shared the official Press & Industry screening list, which includes the titles available to be screened digitally by accredited members and some of the planned special events that surround the festival schedule each year. Notably, a few anticipated titles, like Francis Lee’s “Ammonite,” have not been included on the digital screening schedule and will only be available for invite-only, in-person screenings in Toronto.

Throughout the festival, Knollin will be sharing film reviews, event recaps, and other exclusive coverage on NorthDakotaFilmSociety.com.

Some of the special events include:

• MASTER CLASS: Viola Davis & Julius Tennon

• PERSPECTIVES: Sorority Row: Women in Genre Filmmaking

• MASTER CLASS: Luca Guadagnino

• IN CONVERSATION WITH: Saoirse Ronan

• MICROSESSION: Fusion: The Music, the Movie, and the Money

• IN CONVERSATION WITH: Ava DuVernay

• SPECIAL INDUSTRY EVENT: Aaron Sorkin on “The Trial of the Chicago 7”

• IN CONVERSATION WITH: Barry Levinson and Denzel Washington

• IN CONVERSATION WITH: Claire Denis and Barry Jenkins

The films available for Press & Industry virtual screenings (BOLD signifies titles most-anticipated):

• 40 Years a Prisoner
  Directed by Tommy Oliver

• 76 Days
  Directed by Hao Wu, Weixi Chen, Anonymous

• 180-degree Rule
  Directed by Farnoosh Samadi

• Akilla’s Escape
  Directed by Charles Officer

• Bandar Band
  Directed by Manijeh Hekmat

• Beans
  Directed by Tracey Deer

• The Best Is Yet to Come
  Directed by Jing Wang

• The Boy from Medellin
  Directed by Matthew Heineman

• City Hall
  Directed by Frederick Wiseman

• Concrete Cowboy
  Directed by Ricky Staub

• David Byrne’s American Utopia
  Directed by Spike Lee

• The Disciple
  Directed by Chaitanya Tamhane

• Downstream to Kinshasa
  Directed by Dieudo Hamadi

• Enemies of the State
  Directed by Sonia Kennebeck

• Falling
  Directed by Viggo Mortensen

• Fauna
  Directed by Nicolas Pereda

• Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds
  Directed by Werner Herzog, Clive Oppenheimer

• Gaza mon amour
  Directed by Tarzan Nasser, Arab Nasser

• Get the Hell Out
  Directed by I-Fan Wang

• Good Joe Bell
  Directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green

• I Am Greta
  Directed by Nathan Grossman

• Inconvenient Indian
  Directed by Michelle Latimer

• The Inheritance
  Directed by Ephraim Asili

• Lift Like a Girl
  Directed by Mayye Zayed

• Limbo
  Directed by Ben Sharrock

• MLK/FBI
  Directed by Sam Pollard

• The New Corporation: The Unfortunately Necessary Sequel
  Directed by Joel Bakan, Jennifer Abbott

• New Order
  Directed by Michel Franco

• Night of the Kings
  Directed by Philippe Lacote

• No Ordinary Man
  Directed by Aisling Chin-Yee, Chase Joynt

• Nomadland
  Directed by Chloe Zhao

• Notturno
  Directed by Gianfranco Rosi

• One Night in Miami
  Directed by Regina King

• Penguin Bloom
  Directed by Glendyn Ivin

• Pieces of a Woman
  Directed by Kornel Mundruczo

• Preparations to Be Together For an Unknown Period of Time
  Directed by Lili Horvat

• Quo Vadis, Aida?
  Directed by Jasmila Zbanic

• Shadow in the Cloud
  Directed by Roseanne Liang

• Shiva Baby
  Directed by Emma Seligman

• A Suitable Boy
  Directed by Mira Nair

• Summer of 85
  Directed by Francois Ozon

• The Third Day
  Directed by Felix Barrett, Dennis Kelly, Marc Munden, Philippa Lowthorpe

• Trickster
  Directed by Michelle Latimer

• The Truffle Hunters
  Directed by Michael Dweck, Gregory Kershaw

• Under the Open Sky
  Directed by Miwa Nishikawa

• Underplayed
  Directed by Stacey Lee

• Violation
  Directed by Madeleine Sims-Fewer, Dusty Mancinelli

• The Water Man
  Directed by David Oyelowo

• The Way I See It
  Directed by Dawn Porter

• Wildfire
  Directed by Cathy Brady

• Wolfwalkers
  Directed by Tomm Moore, Ross Stewart