The Toronto International Film Festival on Thursday unveiled a lineup bearing little in common with its normal barrage of awards contenders and premier fall films, but features the directorial debut of Regina King and the latest documentaries from Frederick Wiseman and Werner Herzog.
Toronto, which is set to run Sept. 10-19, has plotted a largely virtual 45th edition due to the pandemic. In normal years, TIFF is the largest film festival in North America. This year, it has drastically scaled down its plans and scrapped together 50 films or TV series from around the world, leaning on projects set to debut on streaming services or television this fall.
Cameron Bailey, artistic director and co-head of the festival, acknowledged it was far from TIFF’s regular lineup.
“We began this year planning for a 45th Festival much like our previous editions, but along the way we had to rethink just about everything,” Bailey said. “This year’s lineup reflects that tumult. The names you already know are doing brand new things this year, and there’s a whole crop of exciting new names to discover.”
Some of the notable films include the 90-year-old Wiseman’s “City Hall,” a portrait of Boston’s City Hall; Regina King’s drama about a young Muhammad Ali, then Cassius Clay, titled “One Night in Miami”; Herzog and Clive Oppenheimer’s Apple TV+ meteorite documentary “Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds”; “Pieces of a Woman,” Kornel Mundruczo’s family drama with Shia LaBeouf; and Glendyn Ivin’s “Penguin Bloom,” with Naomi Watts.
Some of the films will play first at the much smaller Venice Film Festival the week prior in September. Toronto will also showcase new work from Mira Nair, Thomas Vinterberg and Michel Franco.
Toronto earlier announced that Spike Lee’s filmed version of David Byrne’s Broadway theatrical concert “American Utopia,” an HBO release, will open this year’s festival.
The major fall festivals — Venice, Toronto, Telluride and New York — earlier announced an alliance, saying they would collaborate on programming. Since then, Colorado’s Telluride has been canceled but reborn as a drive-in series in Los Angeles. The festivals earlier announced Chloe Zhao’s “Nomadland” will debut across all four events.
Toronto organizers say they continue to work with health officials to determine how and if it can host in-person events. With travel restricted between the U.S. and Canadian border, it has urged many festival-goers who flock to Toronto to stay home.
Here’s a rundown of the lineup:
180 Degree Rule
Farnoosh Samadi | Iran
76 Days
Hao Wu, Anonymous, Weixi Chen | USA
Ammonite
Francis Lee | United Kingdom
Another Round (Druk)
Thomas Vinterberg | Denmark
Bandar Band
Manijeh Hekmat | Iran/Germany
Beans
Tracey Deer | Canada
Beginning (Dasatskisi)
Dea Kulumbegashvili | Georgia/France
The Best is Yet to Come (Bu Zhi Bu Xiu)
Wang Jing | China
Bruised
Halle Berry | USA
City Hall
Frederick Wiseman | USA
Concrete Cowboy
Ricky Staub | USA
Opening Night Film.
David Byrne’s American Utopia
Spike Lee | USA
The Disciple
Chaitanya Tamhane | India
Enemies of the State
Sonia Kennebeck | USA
Falling
Viggo Mortensen | Canada/United Kingdom
The Father
Florian Zeller | United Kingdom/France
Fauna
Nicolรกs Pereda | Mexico/Canada
Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds
Werner Herzog, Clive Oppenheimer | United Kingdom/USA
Gaza mon amour
Tarzan Nasser, Arab Nasser | Palestine/France/Germany/Portugal/Qatar
Get the Hell Out (Tao Chu Li Fa Yuan)
I-Fan Wang | Taiwan
Good Joe Bell
Reinaldo Marcus Green | USA
I Care A Lot
J Blakeson | United Kingdom
Inconvenient Indian
Michelle Latimer | Canada
The Inheritance
Ephraim Asili | USA
Lift Like a Girl (Ash Ya Captain)
Mayye Zayed | Egypt/Germany/Denmark
Limbo
Ben Sharrock | United Kingdom
Memory House (Casa de Antiguidades)
Joรฃo Paulo Miranda Maria | Brazil/France
MLK/FBI
Sam Pollard | USA
The New Corporation: The Unfortunately Necessary Sequel
Joel Bakan, Jennifer Abbott | Canada
New Order (Nuevo orden)
Michel Franco | Mexico
Night of the Kings (La Nuit des Rois)
Philippe Lacรดte | Cรดte d’Ivoire/France/Canada/Senegal
Nomadland
Chloรฉ Zhao | USA
No Ordinary Man
Aisling Chin-Yee, Chase Joynt | Canada
Notturno
Gianfranco Rosi | Italy/France/Germany
One Night in Miami
Regina King | USA
Penguin Bloom
Glendyn Ivin | Australia
Pieces of a Woman
Kornรฉl Mundruczรณ | USA/Canada/Hungary
Preparations to Be Together For an Unknown Period of Time (Felkรฉszรผlรฉs meghatรกrozatlan ideig tartรณegyรผttlรฉtre)
Lili Horvรกt | Hungary
Quo Vadis, Aรฏda?
Jasmila ลฝbaniฤ | Bosnia and Herzegovina/Norway/The Netherlands/Austria/Romania/France/Germany/Poland/Turkey
Shadow In The Cloud
Roseanne Liang | USA/New Zealand
Shiva Baby
Emma Seligman | USA/Canada
Spring Blossom
Suzanne Lindon | France
Closing Night Presentation.
A Suitable Boy
Mira Nair | United Kingdom/India
Summer of 85 (รtรฉ 85)
Franรงois Ozon | France
The Third Day
Felix Barrett, Dennis Kelly | United Kingdom
Trickster
Michelle Latimer | Canada
True Mothers (Asa Ga Kuru)
Naomi Kawase | Japan
Under the Open Sky (Subarashiki Sekai)
Miwa Nishikawa | Japan
Violation Madeleine Sims-Fewer
Dusty Mancinelli | Canada
Wildfire
Cathy Brady | United Kingdom/Ireland
