In a nod to its commitment to film preservation, the Toronto International Film Festival announced today that the 2019 TIFF Cinematheque program at the Festival will feature select screenings in 35mm, with two prints coming from the TIFF Film Reference Library Screening Collection, the organization’s own film library. The narrative titles selected will be preceded by guest introductions from Festival filmmakers past and present.
The Toronto International Film Festival announced the 10 eclectic films that will make up this year’s Midnight Madness lineup. Midnight Madness welcomes new genre filmmakers with remarkable debuts, including Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia’s dystopian sci-fi film The Platform; Rose Glass’s unnerving psychological thriller Saint Maud, starring Morfydd Clark (Love & Friendship) and Jennifer Ehle (Zero Dark Thirty); Andrew Patterson’s paranormal period piece The Vast of Night, which won the audience award for Best Narrative Feature at Slamdance and features breakout performances by Jake Horowitz and Sierra McCormick; and Keith Thomas’s supernatural horror film The Vigil.
The revamped Discovery program at this year’s 2019 Toronto International Film Festival features a lineup of 37 films from emerging filmmakers representing 35 countries, with 54% of its selection directed by women.
The Toronto International Film Festival unveiled its lineup of 25 documentary films covering high-profile figures including Truman Capote, Merce Cunningham, Ron Howard, Bikram Choudhury, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, and Imelda Marcos; as well as a broad range of themes, including journalism, immigration, global politics, environmentalism, capitalism, and racism.
Emmy winning director Lauren Greenfield (The Queen of Versailles), latest film The Kingmaker, will have its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival this August. The documentary centers on the indomitable character and controversial political career of Imelda Marcos, the former first lady of the Philippines whose behind-the-scenes influence of her husband Ferdinand’s presidency rocketed her to the global political stage.
Anthony Russo, one of the leading directors and creators in the entertainment industry, will take part in a Special Conversation at this week’s HollyShorts Film Festival; the 15th edition of the annual Oscar Qualifying Festival. The special Conversation with Russo will take place on Friday, August 9, 2019 at 10:30am at the TCL Chinese 6 Theaters located in Hollywood, CA. Buffalo 8 Partner and Producer Steven Adams will moderate the Conversation.
The Toronto International Film Festival unveiled the 10 features that comprise the Platform competition for 2019. Of the 10 features in this year’s Platform selection, 40% are directed by women. The films hail from a wide range of regions, including Europe, Latin America, East Asia, and the US. Kazik Radwanski’s Anne at 13,000 ft is the standout Canadian title in the program’s 2019 lineup, grounded in a career-best performance by
Deragh Campbell (TIFF 2015 Rising Star).
The International Premiere of Pietro Marcello’s Martin Eden, a “daring and singular” adaptation of the 1909 novel of the same title will close the 2019 edition of Platform at Toronto International Film Festival. The film is Marcello’s much anticipated second narrative film, following his debut, Lost and Beautiful, and several documentary shorts and features.
The World Premiere of Rocks, director Sarah Gavron’s “intimate, honest, and precise” third feature, will open the 2019 Platform program of the Toronto International Film Festival. The follow-up to her earlier Suffragette and Brick Lane stars Bukky Bakray in a career-launching role as Rocks, a teenager who suddenly finds herself struggling to take care of herself and her younger brother.
Fifteen films from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay will be showcased in the Horizontes Latinos section of the 2019 San Sebastian International Film Festival. The films cover a wide range of issues including the Guatemalan genocide, the Chile of the 70s, the crisis of the Cuban rafters, legal abortion in Argentina, and life in Mexico, but also narratives given no space in the history books: the passage into adult life, the crises of life and family relationships.
The world premiere of two new films – American Skin by American director, actor, screenwriter and producer Nate Parker (The Birth of a Nation) and Beyond the Beach: The Hell and the Hope, a documentary about the work of the NGO, ‘Emergency’, the debut as a director of English film producer Graeme A. Scott and American cinematographer Buddy Squires, will complete the line-up in the Sconfini section of the 76th Venice International Film Festival.
This year’s Main Slate of the 57th New York Film Festival, September 27 – October 13, showcases 29 films from 17 different countries. Nine films in the festival were honored at Cannes, including Bong Joon-ho’s Palme d’Or–winner Parasite; Grand Prix–winner Atlantics: A Ghost Love Story, directed by Mati Diop, an alum of annual FLC series Art of the Real and winner of the 2016 Lincoln Center Emerging Artist award; Céline Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire, NYFF’s Film Comment Presents selection and winner of both the Queer Palm and the Best Screenplay prize; Pedro Almodóvar’s Pain and Glory, awarded Best Actor for Antonio Banderas; Kleber Mendonça Filho and Juliano Dornelles’ Jury Prize–winner Bacurau; Young Ahmed, which brought home the Best Director prize for Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne; and three Un Certain Regard winners, including Oliver Laxe’s Jury Prize–winner Fire Will Come, Albert Serra’s Special Jury Prize–winner Liberté, and Kantemir Balagov’s Beanpole, which collected the Best Director prize. Top prize winners from the Berlinale will also appear in the Main Slate: Nadav Lapid’s Golden Bear–winner Synonyms and Angela Schanelec’s I Was at Home, But…, which won the Silver Bear for Best Director.