New documentaries by Leonardo DiCaprio, Werner Herzog, Steve James, Errol Morris and Morgan Spurlock will screen at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, TIFF organizers announced on Tuesday.
In addition, the world premiere of “Blair Witch” will highlight the festival’s Midnight Madness section, which will also include films by Paul Schrader and Ben Wheatley.
The third in a series of weekly releases that will gradually reveal the entire scope of the 300-films-plus festival, Tuesday’s Toronto Film Festival announcement added programming in the TIFF Docs, Midnight Madness, Vanguard, TIFF Cinematheque and Short Cuts programs.
The TIFF Docs program, always a strength of the festival, includes “The Turning Point,” a film by Fisher Stevens (“The Cove”) and Leonardo DiCaprio in which DiCaprio conducts interviews around the world on issues of climate change and endangered species and native communities.
Broadcast rights to the film were recently bought by the National Geographic Channel, though the title had not been announced until Tuesday.
The non-fiction program will also be highlighted by new docs by acclaimed filmmakers Werner Herzog, who collaborated with Clive Oppenheimer on “Into the Inferno,” a “meditation on volcanoes and their meaning”; Errol Morris, who made “The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman’s Portrait Photography” about his friend, photographer Dorfman, and her decades of celebrated portraits; and “Hoop Dreams” director Steve James‘ “ABACUS: Small Enough to Jail,” about a small, immigrant-owned bank in New York that was the only bank to face criminal charges after the financial collapse of 2008.
Other documentaries include Raoul Peck’s “I Am Not Your Negro,” a film version of an unfinished James Baldwin book about race in America; Matt Tyrnauer’s “Citizen Jane: Battle for the City,” which looks at urban planning through the story of Jane Jacobs, author of “The Death and Life of Great American Cities”; and Keif Davidson and Richard Ladkani’s “The Ivory Game,” about activists and rangers fighting the ivory cartels in an attempt to save the African elephant.
As usual, a number of TIFF documentaries deal with music. “The 6th Beatle,” by Tony Guma and John Rose, is about the Beatles’ original manager, Sam Leach. John Scheinfeld’s “Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary” and Kasper Collin’s “I Called Him Morgan” deal with the great jazz musicians John Coltrane and Lee Morgan, respectively. “Mali Blues,” by Lutz Gregor, is about world music star Fatoumata Diawara. And Jim Jarmusch‘s “Gimme Danger,” which premiered in Cannes, deals with the seminal pre-punk band the Stooges, with Iggy Pop.
Other docs deal with accused murderer Amanda Knox (“Amanda Knox”), Indian activist Arvind Kejriwal (“An Insignificant Man”), the Beitar Jerusalem Football Club (“Forever Pure”), Pakistani squash player Maria Toorpakai Wazir (“Girl Unbound”) and the Syrian civil war (“The War Show”).
In addition to the world premiere of “Blair Witch,” the Midnight Madness program will include “Dog Eat Dog,” a Paul Schrader crime thriller starring Nicolas Cage and Willem Dafoe that recently screened at Cannes; Ben Wheatley’s “Free Fire,” with Brie Larson and Cillian Murphy about two Irishmen buying guns from a gang; the Indonesian action film “Headshot,” starring Iko Uwais (“The Raid”) as a killer who’s lost his memory; and “Rats,” a “horror documentary” from Morgan Spurlock based on Robert Sullivan’s book about the parasitic rodents.
The festival’s Vanguard section will feature Ana Lily Amirpour‘s “The Bad Batch,” a cannibal story with a cast that includes Jason Momoa, Giovanni Ribisi, Keanu Reeves and Jim Carrey. Other Vanguard titles: Sarah Adina Smith’s “Buster’s Mal Heart,” with “Mr. Robot” star Rami Malek in his first film lead; Nacho Vigalondo‘s “Colossal,” a Kaiju genre film with Anne Hathaway and Jason Sudeikis; “Message From the King,” a mystery starring Chadwick Boseman and directed by Fabrice Du Welz; and “My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea,” an animated film directed by graphic novelist Dash Shaw and featuring the voices of Jason Schwartzman, Lena Dunham and Alex Karpovsky.
The TIFF Cinematheque program will consist of 10 previously-released films, among them a 30th anniversary screening of Jonathan Demme‘s “Something Wild,” a 10th anniversary celebration of Guillermo del Toro‘s “Pan’s Labyrinth” and screenings of Olivier Assayas‘ “Irma Vep,” Agnes Varda‘s “One Sings, the Other Doesn’t,” Marlon Brando‘s “One-Eyed Jacks” and Gillo Pontecorvo’s “The Battle of Algiers.”
The section will also feature “Lumiere!,” consisting of restored versions of 98 films by the pioneering directors the Lumiere brothers, and “Daughters of the Dust,” the first feature directed by an African-American woman (Julie Dash) to receive a general theatrical release.
The festival also announced 41 international shorts that will join the previously-announced 33 Canadian shorts in the Short Cuts program. The films will screen in 11 curated programs, and will be eligible for a jury prize selected by filmmakers Abteen Bagheri, Eva Husson and Jeff Barnaby.
The complete list of short films can be found at TIFF.net.
The 2016 Toronto Film Festival will open on September 8 with “The Magnificent Seven” and close on September 18.
Additional programming announcements will be made in the coming weeks.
The new additions:
TIFF DOCS
“The 6th Beatle,” Tony Guma and John Rose, USA/United Kingdom/Germany (World Premiere)
“ABACUS: Small Enough to Jail,” Steve James, USA (World Premiere)
“Amanda Knox,” Brian McGinn and Rod Blackhurst, USA/Denmark (World Premiere)
“An Insignificant Man,” Khushboo Ranka and Vinay Shukla, India (World Premiere)
“The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman’s Portrait Photography,” Errol Morris, USA (International Premiere)
“Beauties of the Night,” María José Cuevas, Mexico (Canadian Premiere)
“Bezness as Usual,” Alex Pitstra, Netherlands (North American Premiere)
“Chasing Trane: The John Coltrane Documentary,” John Scheinfeld, USA (International Premiere)
“The Cinema Travellers,” Shirley Abraham and Amit Madheshiya, India (North American Premiere)
“Citizen Jane: Battle for the City,” Matt Tyrnauer, USA (World Premiere)
“Forever Pure,” Maya Zinshtein, Israel/United Kingdom/Ireland/Norway (International Premiere)
“Gaza Surf Club,” Philip Gnadt and Mickey Yamine, Germany (World Premiere)
“Gimme Danger,” Jim Jarmusch, USA (North American Premiere)
“Girl Unbound,” Erin Heidenreich, Pakistan/Canada/Hong Kong/South Korea )World Premiere)
“I Am Not Your Negro,” Raoul Peck, USA/France/Belgium/Switzerland (World Premiere)
“I Called Him Morgan,” Kasper Collin, Sweden/USA (Canadian Premiere)
“India in a Day,” Richie Mehta, India/United Kingdom (International Premiere)
“In Exile,” Tin Win Naing, Germany/Myanmar (World Premiere)
“Into the Inferno,” Werner Herzog and Clive Oppenheimer, United Kingdom/Austria (International Premiere)
“The Ivory Game,” Kief Davidson and Richard Ladkani, Austria/USA (International Premiere)
“Karl Marx City,” Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker, USA/Germany (World Premiere)
“Mali Blues,” Lutz Gregor, Germany (North American Premiere)
“Politics, Instructions Manual” (“Política, manual de instrucciones”), Fernando León de Aranoa, Spain (International Premiere)
“Rodnye” (“Close Relations”), Vitaly Mansky, Latvia/Germany/Estonia/Ukraine (North American Premiere)
“The Turning Point,” Fisher Stevens, Leonardo DiCaprio, USA (World Premiere)
“The War Show,” Andreas Dalsgaard and Obaidah Zytoon, Denmark/Finland/Syria (North American Premiere)
“Water and Sugar: Carlo Di Palma, the Colours of Life,” Fariborz Kamkari, Italy (International Premiere)
MIDNIGHT MADNESS
“The Autopsy of Jane Doe,” André Øvredal, USA (World Premiere)
“The Belko Experiment,” Greg McLean, USA (World Premiere)
“Blair Witch,” Adam Wingard, USA (World Premiere)
“Dog Eat Dog,” Paul Schrader, USA (North American Premiere)
“Free Fire,” Ben Wheatley, United Kingdom (World Premiere) OPENING NIGHT FILM
“The Girl With All the Gifts,” Colm McCarthy, United Kingdom (North American Premiere)
“Headshot,” Kimo Stamboel and Timo Tjahjanto, Indonesia (World Premiere)
“Rats,” Morgan Spurlock, USA (World Premiere)
“Raw” (“Grave”), Julia Ducournau, France/Belgium (International Premiere)
“Sadako vs. Kayako,” Kōji Shiraishi, Japan (International Premiere) CLOSING NIGHT FILM
VANGUARD
“The Bad Batch,” Ana Lily Amirpour, USA (North American Premiere)
“Blind Sun,” Joyce A. Nashawati, France/Greece (North American Premiere)
“Buster’s Mal Heart,” Sarah Adina Smith, USA (World Premiere)
“Colossal,” Nacho Vigalondo, Canada (World Premiere)
“GODSPEED,” Chung Mong-Hong, Taiwan (World Premiere)
“I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House,” Osgood Perkins, Canada/USA (World Premiere)
“Interchange,” Dain Iskandar Said, Malaysia/Indonesia (North American Premiere)
“Message from the King,” Fabrice Du Welz, United Kingdom/France/Belgium (World Premiere)
“My Entire High School Sinking Into the Sea,” Dash Shaw, USA (World Premiere)
“Prevenge,” Alice Lowe, United Kingdom (North American Premiere)
“The Untamed” (“La región salvaje”), Amat Escalante, Mexico/Denmark/France/Germany/Norway (North American Premiere)
“WITHOUT NAME,” Lorcan Finnegan, Ireland (World Premiere)
TIFF CINEMATHEQUE
“Daughters of the Dust,” Julie Dash, USA
“General Report on Certain Matters of Interest for a Public Screening” (“Informe general sobre algunas cuestiones de interés para una proyección pública”), Pere Portabella, Spain
“Irma Vep,” Olivier Assayas, France
“Lumière!,” Lumière Brothers, France
“One Sings, the Other Doesn’t” (“L’une chante, l’autre pas”), Agnès Varda, France
“One-Eyed Jacks,” Marlon Brando, USA
“Pan’s Labyrinth,” Guillermo del Toro, Mexico/Spain/USA
“Something Wild,” Jonathan Demme, USA
“The Battle of Algiers” (“La battaglia di Algeri”), Gillo Pontecorvo, Algeria/Italy
“The Horse Thief,” Tian Zhuangzhuang, China