The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) unveiled the bulk of the lineup to its 51st edition on Monday, setting world premieres for Chris Rock's drama "Misty Green” and Peter Farrelly's Sylvester Stallone film "I Play Rocky.”
TIFF, North America's largest film festival, annually hosts some of the fall's most anticipated titles. On Monday, it revealed more than 60 films that will play in the festival's gala and special presentations sections. Those include the world premieres of Rock's fourth film as director and first for A24; Farrelly's drama about the making of "Rocky”; and Courteney Cox's true-crime drama "Evil Genius.”
Toronto, which runs Sept. 10-20, comes on the heels of the Venice and Telluride film festivals. Often, how premieres at TIFF are characterized tips where else they will first screen. For example, "The Debut,” Jesse Eisenberg's follow-up to 2024's "A Real Pain,” will play at Toronto as an international premiere, suggesting it will bow first at Venice. The same designation is given to Lee Chang-dong's "Possible Love,” the Korean filmmaker's first film since 2018's acclaimed "Burning.”
British filmmaker Andrew Haigh's latest, "A Long Winter,” and Mike Leigh's "Tender Loving Care” are both termed a Canadian premiere, a hint that they will first play Telluride.
Many standouts from May's Cannes Film Festival are also Toronto-bound, including "Club Kid,” "La Bola Negra,” "Minotaur,” "Clarissa,” "All of a Sudden” and the Palme d'Or winner "Fjord.”
In recent years, TIFF has increasingly functioned as a big movie market, hosting gala premieres of titles looking for distribution. Last year, that included Curry Barker's "Obsession,” which Focus Features acquired and then turned into a massive box-office hit this spring. The festival's top prize, the moviegoer-voted People's Choice Award, went to Chloe Zhao's "Hamnet.”
Festival organizers earlier announced that "Being Heumann,” director Siân Heder’s film about the late disability rights activist Judith Heumann, will open this year's edition.
