2024 Toronto International Film Festival Preview: 10 Titles to Look Forward To
Courtesy of TIFF
Over the past few years, the Toronto International Film Festival has been affronted with obstacles that many of its fellow fall festivals have been able to bypass, to varying degrees. In 2020, the festival was drastically scaled back to outdoor venues in the face of COVID-19. In 2021, screenings were limited, and social distancing was heavily mandated as Canada opened its borders mere days before the festival began. Then, last year, the WGA and SAG strikes resulted in a severe shortage of star power on the red carpets, a draw that has always kept the public imagination captivated with TIFF throughout its nearly fifty-year history. Despite these uncontrollable impediments of the past, the world-renowned public film festival still promises to make a huge splash this year, running from September 5-15.
TIFF’s schedule always features the best selection from the notable festivals that run before it—along with plenty of buzzy world premieres of its own. This year’s edition will feature nearly three hundred titles from across film and television, representing all corners of the globe. While some TIFF-goers will be most excited for the awards players or commercial hits that will screen this year, including the Opening Night film Nutcrackers from David Gordon Green, the Foremost Film team chooses to focus on the more special and unique projects that TIFF’s lineup has to offer its loyal following. Keep reading to check out the ten films we are most excited to see for the first time at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival:
Courtesy of TIFF
‘Collective Monologue’
Director: Jessica Sarah Rinland
Wavelengths Section
After premiering at the Locarno Film Festival earlier this month, Collective Monologue will make its North American debut in TIFF’s Wavelengths section. Shot on 16mm film by Rinland across Argentina, the documentary will contemplate the nuanced relationships between humans and nature formed within zoos, sanctuaries, and similar institutions. The Wavelengths section at TIFF always champions challenging, thought-provoking works, so Collective Monologue is a title that the Foremost Film team looks forward to investigating.
Courtesy of TIFF
‘M - Son of the Century’
Director: Joe Wright
Primetime Section
Over the past twenty-plus years, Wright’s most brilliant filmmaking has been defined by his understanding of bygone eras and the personalities that inhabited them. His latest project, M - Son of the Century, will be an eight-part miniseries chronicling the rise of Benito Mussolini in the years leading up to his 1922 seizure of power. As with many of Wright’s works, M - Son of the Century is adapted from a popular novel of the same name, written by Antonio Scurati. Luca Marinelli (Martin Eden, The Eight Mountains) will play the Italian dictator, with reasonable assumptions that the miniseries will draw connections between the far-right Nationalism of Mussolini’s lifetime and that on the rise around the globe today. M - Son of the Century will have its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival before making its way to Toronto.
Courtesy of TIFF
‘Nightbitch’
Directed by Marielle Heller
Special Presentations Section
Over the past few months, it has been safe to guess that Nightbitch may be one of the hottest world premieres at this year’s TIFF. Directed by Heller and starring Amy Adams, Nighbitch is another book-to-movie adaptation to make this list, based on a 2021 novel revolving around a disillusioned stay-at-home mom who begins to transform into a dog after the sun goes down. Adams will receive the TIFF Tribute Performer Award this year, setting the actress up for a potentially competitive chance in the upcoming awards season. Between the unusual source material and the incredible talent at the heart of this film, Nightbitch could become a big hit on the ground at TIFF this year.
Courtesy of TIFF
‘No Other Land’
Directors: Yuval Abraham ,Basel Adra ,Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor
Tiff Docs Section
Shot before the war began in October 2023, No Other Land was created by a young Palestinian-Israeli activist collective. It documents the injustice and imbalance of life on the West Bank that has increased over the years as Israel has advanced further into Palestinian territories. No Other Land speaks with a sense of urgency to the world issues that should be at the forefront of our concern, the type of essential viewing that TIFF’s documentary section always provides for its audiences. A big winner in the Panorama Section at the Berlinale back in February, No Other Land sparked social media controversy that underscored Germany’s history with Israel.
Courtesy of TIFF
‘Pedro Páramo’
Director: Rodrigo Prieto
Platform Section
Best known for his work as one of the leading cinematographers of the age (Brokeback Mountain, Killers of the Flower Moon, Barbie), Pedro Páramo marks Prieto’s directorial debut. Adapted from the 1955 Juan Rulfo novel of the same name, the film is set to center around a man’s search for a father he never knew, delving into the mystery of his father’s wealthy influence over a small Mexican town where the living and dead blend into one. Pedro Páramo is expected to delve into Mexico’s tumultuous national history of the early 20th century, as well as the traditions of Magic realism birthed by Latin American writers. Pedro Páramo is eligible for TIFF’s esteemed Platform Prize, which has been awarded to notable films in the past including Jackie, Sweet Country, and Martin Eden. Netflix is set to release Pedro Páramo later this year.
Courtesy of TIFF
‘The Brutalist’
Director: Brady Corbet
Special Presentations Section
From his first two feature films, The Childhood of a Leader and Vox Lux, thirty-six-year-old Corbet has proven his intellectual fascination with the foundations of power and how they can shape individuals and bleed into their communities. Corbet’s latest work promises to be his most sprawling vision yet: The Brutalist, starring Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, and Guy Pearce. Brody stars as László Toth, a Hungarian-Jewish architect hoping to build a fresh start in Philidelphia after surviving the Second World War. When Toth takes on an impossibly grandeur new project under the patronage of a wealthy businessman, the undertaking threatens to overtake him. Over three-and-a-half hours in length and set to be projected on 70mm film, The Brutalist is set to become one of the festival’s most ambitious viewing experiences this year.
Courtesy of TIFF
‘The End’
Director: Joshua Oppenheimer
Special Presentations Section
Best known for his idiosyncratic documentaries, Oppenheimer delves into narrative filmmaking for the first time with The End. Part dark musical, part post-apocalyptic invention, the film boasts an all-star cast that includes Moses Ingram, George MacKay, Michael Shannon, and Tilda Swinton. The latter three lead as an affluent family who has spent the past twenty years in an underground bunker, shielded from an unseen ecological disaster that has destroyed the earth. The family’s sense of routine normalcy is upended when a mysterious figure (Ingram) arrives from the world above. Neon will distribute The End in the United States.
Courtesy of TIFF
‘The Last Showgirl’
Director: Gia Coppola
Special Presentations Section
Over the past decade, Pamela Anderson has used her authentic, down-to-earth personality to rewrite her own cultural narrative, one unfairly painted by misogynistic concepts of the buxom blonde based mainly on her physical appearance. Anderson is the star of Coppola’s latest, The Last Showgirl, which will make its world premiere at TIFF on September 6. Set against the glittering lights of the Los Vegas Strip, The Last Showgirl chronicles Shelley (Anderson), a seasoned showgirl whose gig is finally coming to an end after thirty years. Forced to start afresh, Shelley looks to use this new chapter to rebuild her relationship with her daughter. Coppola’s filmography to date has proven to be up and down, but The Last Showgirl seems poised to show Anderson in a totally refreshing light.
‘The Room Next Door’
Director: Pedro Almodóvar
Special Presentations
After carving out his iconic career with twenty-two Spanish-language feature-length projects, Almodóvar will finally showcase his first English-language feature with The Room Next Door, starring Oscar-winners Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton. Akin to his explorations of the passage of time in 2019’s Pain and Glory, The Room Next Door revolves around two journalists who rekindle their friendship on the escarpments of tragedy after many years apart. Fusing Almodóvar’s melodramatic flair and distinctive visual style with the multifaceted talents of Moore and Swinton, The Room Next Door could prove to be an emotional heavy hitter as it pitstops in Toronto following its world premiere in Venice.
‘Universal Language’
Director: Matthew Rankin
Centrepiece Section
After winning the inaugural Audience Award in the Director’s Fortnight at this year’s Cannes, Rankin’s Universal Language will finally come home to Canada at TIFF, screening in the Centrepiece section. First hitting the international scene in 2019 with The Twentieth Century, Rankin’s sensibilities have become synonymous with his irreverent perspectives on the cultural and historical fabric of Canada. Universal Language exists in an alternate universe where French and Persian are the country’s official languages. Traversing from Montreal to Manitoba, Rankin re-imagines an eccentric version of Canada that aligns itself with his singular style and splashes of influences from the New Iranian Cinema movement.
The 2024 Toronto International Film Festival will run from September 5 to 15. Click here for more information about TIFF.