The Toronto International Film Festival unveiled the 10 world premiere features that comprise its Platform program for 2023, along with the 2023 Platform jury members: Academy Award–winning filmmaker Barry Jenkins, joined by Cannes Jury Prize–winning director, writer, and actor Nadine Labaki, and 2022 Platform Prize–winning filmmaker Anthony Shim.
Since its introduction in 2015, Platform has celebrated and showcased films with unique directorial perspectives. The 10 films in the 2023 program are eligible for the Platform Prize, an award of $20,000 CAD given to the best film in the program, selected by an in-person international jury.
Platform is TIFF’s competitive program that champions bold directorial visions. The films selected for this year’s program hail from 12 countries across three continents, all of which will be making their world premiere at TIFF.
“We are thrilled to present this year’s extraordinary films in the Platform program, and especially delighted to present Kristoffer Borgli’s latest film Dream Scenario, starring Nicolas Cage, as Platform’s opening film. This surrealist satire-comedy has sharp, timely observations about social media culture–especially ‘going viral’–and its impact on the way that we interact with others in our day-to-day life. Cage delivers some of his finest work,” said Robyn Citizen, director, programming & Platform lead. “This year’s diverse selection is distinguished by bold character studies and classic stories told through dynamic narrative and genre approaches. Audiences will witness the emergence of thematic threads like social exile and reconnection, woven in unexpectedly thrilling ways by an array of captivating local and international voices.”
Notable previous Platform selections include 2022 winner Riceboy Sleeps from Canadian director Anthony Shim, Hany Abu-Assad’s Huda’s Salon (2021), Kamila Andini’s Yuni (2021), Darius Marder’s Sound of Metal (2019), Alice Winocour’s Proxima (2019), Kazik Radwanski’s Anne at 13,000 Ft. (2019), Sarah Gavron’s Rocks (2019), Armando Iannucci’s The Death of Stalin (2017), Pablo Larraín’s Jackie (2016), Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight (2016), William Oldroyd’s Lady Macbeth (2016), and Ben Wheatley’s High-Rise (2015).
2023 Platform Program
Dear Jassi Tarsem Singh Dhandwar | India
World Premiere
Platform Program – Opening Night Film
Dream Scenario Kristoffer Borgli | USA
World Premiere
Great Absence Kei Chika-ura | Japan
World Premiere
I Told You So (Te l’avevo detto) Ginevra Elkann | Italy
World Premiere
The King Tide Christian Sparkes | Canada
World Premiere
Not A Word (Kein Wort) Hanna Slak | Germany/Slovenia/France
World Premiere
The Rye Horn (O Corno) Jaione Camborda | Spain/Belgium/Portugal
World Premiere
Sisterhood (HLM Pussy) Nora El Hourch | France
World Premiere
Shame on Dry Land (Syndabocken) Axel Petersén | Sweden
World Premiere
Spirit of Ecstasy (La Vénus d’argent) Héléna Klotz | France
World Premiere
Platform Jury Biographies
Barry Jenkins
Academy Award–winning filmmaker Jenkins has directed three highly acclaimed features that screened at TIFF–Medicine for Melancholy, Moonlight, and If Beale Street Could Talk–as well as his award-winning television series The Underground Railroad. Most recently, Jenkins produced Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun and Raven Jackson’s All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt. His upcoming directorial work includes the 2024 theatrical release of The Lion King.
Nadine Labaki
Labaki is a writer, director, and actor. Caramel, her 2007 debut film, opened at the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes and was Lebanon’s official submission to the 80th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film. Her next film, Where Do We Go Now?, premiered at Un Certain Regard in 2011 and won the People’s Choice Award at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival. Labaki wrote, directed, and starred in both. Most recently, she directed Campernaum, which won the Jury Prize at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival and went on to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film.
Anthony Shim
Shim began his career as an actor, theatre director, and producer. In 2019, Shim wrote, directed, and produced his first feature film, Daughter. His second film, Riceboy Sleeps, had its World Premiere at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, where it won the Platform Prize.
After 20 Years of Acting, Megan Park Finds Her Groove In The Director’s Chair On “My Old Ass”
Megan Park feels a little bad that her movie is making so many people cry. It's not just a single tear either — more like full body sobs.
She didn't set out to make a tearjerker with "My Old Ass," now streaming on Prime Video. She just wanted to tell a story about a young woman in conversation with her older self. The film is quite funny (the dialogue between 18-year-old and almost 40-year-old Elliott happens because of a mushroom trip that includes a Justin Bieber cover), but it packs an emotional punch, too.
Writing, Park said, is often her way of working through things. When she put pen to paper on "My Old Ass," she was a new mom and staying in her childhood bedroom during the pandemic. One night, she and her whole nuclear family slept under the same roof. She didn't know it then, but it would be the last time, and she started wondering what it would be like to have known that.
In the film, older Elliott ( Aubrey Plaza ) advises younger Elliott ( Maisy Stella ) to not be so eager to leave her provincial town, her younger brothers and her parents and to slow down and appreciate things as they are. She also tells her to stay away from a guy named Chad who she meets the next day and discovers that, unfortunately, he's quite cute.
At 38, Park is just getting started as a filmmaker. Her first, "The Fallout," in which Jenna Ortega plays a teen in the aftermath of a school shooting, had one of those pandemic releases that didn't even feel real. But it did get the attention of Margot Robbie 's production company LuckyChap Entertainment, who reached out to Park to see what other ideas she had brewing.
"They were very instrumental in encouraging me to go with it," Park said. "They're just really even-keeled, good people, which makes... Read More