Toronto To Open With ‘The Magnificent Seven’; ‘La La Land’, ‘Deepwater Horizon’ Among Galas & Presentations
The 41st edition of the Toronto Film Festival will open with Sony and MGM’s The Magnificent Seven, as Deadline predicted last night. The Antoine Fuqua-directed remake of the classic 1960s Western stars Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D’Onofrio, Haley Bennett and Peter Sarsgaard. It marks latest collaboration between Fuqua and Toronto. Fuqua brought Training Day and leading man Washington to TIFF 15 years ago.
The announcement was made this morning at a news conference presided over by TIFF director and chief executive Piers Handling and artistic director Cameron Bailey. The 41st edition of the festival runs September 8-18.
The closing-night film will be Kelly Fremon’s The Edge Of Seventeen, starring Hallee Steinfeld and Woody Harrelson. Other films selected for this year’s festival include Oliver Stone’s Snowden, David Oyelowo-Lupita Nyong’o starrer Queen Of Katwe, Amma Asante’s A United Kingdom, Jeff Nichol’s Loving, Gemma Arterton starrer Their Finest and much-anticipated musical LaLaLand, starring Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone.
Also selected are Tom Ford’s Nocturnal Animals, his sophomore feature as director, Rooney Mara-starrer Una, Cannes sensation Paul Verhoeven’s Elle, starring Isabelle Huppert and Ben Younger’s boxing drama Bleed For This with Miles Teller.
A traditional launchpad for awards season, Toronto will see indies and studios go up against each other as they send their eagerly anticipated fare into the marketplace for the first time. Last year’s big winner was Lenny Abrahamson’s Room, starring Brie Larson. In addition to winning the coveted Audience Award, the film also went on to earn Larson an Academy Award for best actress and noms for best film.
Here’s the full list of galas and special presentations:
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
The Age of Shadows (Miljeong) (Kim Jee woon)
All I See Is You (Marc Forster)
American Honey (Andrea Arnold)
American Pastoral (Ewan McGregor)
Asura: The City of Madness (Kim Sung-soo)
Barakah Meets Barakah (Barakah yoqabil Barakah) (Mahmoud Sabbagh)
Barry (Vikram Gandhi)
Birth of the Dragon (George Nolfi)
The Birth of a Nation (Nate Parker)
Bleed for This (Ben Younger)
Blue Jay (Alex Lehmann)
Brimstone (Martin Koolhoven)
BrOTHERHOOD (Noel Clarke)
Carrie Pilby (Susan Johnson)
Catfight (Onur Tukel)
City of Tiny Lights (Pete Travis)
The Commune (Kollektivet) (Thomas Vinterberg)
Daguerrotype (Le Secret de la chambre noire) (Kiyoshi Kurosawa)
A Death in the Gunj (Konkona Sensharma)
Denial (Mick Jackson)
Elle (Paul Verhoeven)
Foreign Body (Jassad Gharib, Corps Etranger) Raja Amari, Tunisia/France
Frantz (François Ozon)
The Handmaiden (Agassi) (Park Chan-wook)
Harmonium (Fuchi ni tatsu) (Kôji Fukada)
I Am Not Madame Bovary (Feng Xiaogang)
The Journey (Nick Hamm)
King of the Dancehall (Nick Cannon)
La La Land (Damien Chazelle)
The Limehouse Golem (Juan Carlos Medina)
Manchester by the Sea (Kenneth Lonergan)
Maudie (Aisling Walsh)
Neruda (Pablo Larraín)
Nocturnal Animals (Tom Ford)
The Oath (Baltasar Kormákur)
Orphan (Orpheline) (Arnaud des Pallières)
Paris Can Wait (Eleanor Coppola)
Paterson (Jim Jarmusch)
The Salesman (Asghar Farhadi)
Salt and Fire (Werner Herzog)
Sing (Garth Jennings)
Souvenir (Bavo Defurne)
Things to Come (L’Avenir) (Mia Hansen-Løve)
Toni Erdmann (Maren Ade)
Trespass Against Us (Adam Smith)
Una (Benedict Andrews)
Unless (Alan Gilsenan)
The Wasted Times (Luo Man Di Ke Xiao Wang Shi) (Cheng Er)(Deadline)