Interracial love stories, real-life dramas, past festival favorites, music movies with Justin Timberlake and the Rolling Stones and films featuring Jake Gyllenhaal, Amy Adams, Ryan Gosling, Mark Wahlberg, Rooney Mara and Woody Harrelson are in the first batch of movies booked for the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival, TIFF organizers announced on Tuesday morning in Toronto.
The festival also announced that its opening-night attraction will be Antoine Fuqua‘s remake of “The Magnificent Seven,” with Denzel Washington, and its closing-night film will be Kelly Fremon Craig’s “The Edge of Seventeen.”
TIFF revealed 65 films in the Galas and Special Presentations sections, more than 40 of them world premieres. The largest first-day announcement ever for TIFF, the hefty start was only a fraction of the more than 300 features and shorts that will be unveiled over the next month.
The festival begins on Sept. 8 and runs through Sept. 18 in the Canadian city, and it is expected to showcase many of the year’s top awards contenders. Over the last nine years, 2014’s “Birdman” was the only Oscar Best Picture winner not to screen in Toronto.
This year’s lineup includes a number of movies based on real people and events, including films about Lyndon Baines Johnson (Rob Reiner‘s “LBJ,” which stars Woody Harrelson as the U.S. president and covers some of the same events as Jay Roach‘s recent Emmy-nominated “All the Way”), Edward Snowden (Oliver Stone‘s “Snowden,” with Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the whistleblower), Pablo Neruda (Chilean filmmaker Pablo Larrain‘s “Neruda,” with Gael Garcia Bernal) and Barack Obama (Vikram Gandhi’s “Barry,” about the president’s college days).
Other notable films that will screen at TIFF include Tom Ford‘s “Nocturnal Animals,” with Jake Gyllenhaal and Amy Adams; “Whiplash” director Damien Chazelle‘s musical “La La Land,” with Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone; Peter Berg‘s “Deepwater Horizon,” a true-life drama about the oil spill, starring Mark Wahlberg and Kurt Russell; Werner Herzog‘s “Salt and Fire,” a drama in which Michael Shannon and Gael Garcia Bernal face ecological disaster in South America; Ewan McGregor‘s Philip Roth adaptation “American Pastoral,” the actor’s directorial debut; Denis Villeneuve‘s sci-fi drama “Arrival,” formerly titled “Story of Your Life,” with Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner; Juan Antonio Bayona‘s “A Monster Calls”; “Denial,” Mick Jackson’s drama starring Rachel Weisz as a historian sued by a Holocaust denier; Irish director Jim Sheridan‘s “The Secret Scripture,” with Vanessa Redgrave and Rooney Mara playing two different ages of a woman who keeps a diary of her time in a mental hospital; and “Mascots,” Christopher Guest‘s comedy about the world of sports mascots.
Two dramas about interracial love affairs will be featured, Jeff Nichols‘ “Loving” and Amma Asante’s “A United Kingdom.”
And music will feature prominently in Jonathan Demme‘s Justin Timberlake documentary, “JT + the Tennessee Kids,” Paul Dugdale’s doc “The Rolling Stones Olé Olé Olé! : A Trip Across Latin America” and a music-heavy film directed by and starring Nick Cannon and set in Jamaica, “King of the Dancehall.”
The selection also includes a number of films that premiered at previous festivals, including “Loving,” Andrea Arnold‘s raucous “American Honey,” Paul Verhoeven‘s subversive “Elle,” Park Chan-wook‘s kinky “The Handmaiden,” Jim Jarmusch‘s quiet “Paterson,” Asghar Farhadi‘s dramatic “The Salesman” and Maren Ade’s funny and touching “Toni Erdmann,” all of which screened in Cannes, as well as the Sundance hits “The Birth of a Nation” (from Nate Parker) and “Manchester by the Sea” (Kenneth Lonergan).
“La La Land” was previously announced as the opening-night attraction at the Venice Film Festival, which takes place just before Toronto.
Some of the films will likely also screen at the Telluride Film Festival, which takes place the weekend before TIFF but does not announce its program ahead of time. Because Toronto no longer allows films to bill themselves as world premieres if they also play Telluride, the TIFF listings (particularly the designation of world premiere vs. Canadian premiere) can offer clues as to what may be on track for Telluride and what may not.
Based on the announced schedule, “La La Land,” “Arrival,” Neruda” and “Toni Erdmann” appear to be Telluride-bound, while “LBJ,” “Snowden,” “Nocturnal Animals,” “American Pastoral,” “Barry” and many others are not.
Films remaining under wraps for now include Martin Scorsese‘s “Silence,” Ang Lee‘s “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk,” Clint Eastwood‘s “Sully” and Denzel Washington‘s “Fences.”
Additional TIFF programming will be announced weekly throughout most of August.
The lineup to date:
OPENING NIGHT
“The Magnificent Seven,” Antoine Fuqua (World Premiere)
CLOSING NIGHT
“The Edge of Seventeen,” Kelly Fremon Craig, USA (World Premiere)
GALAS
“Arrival,” Denis Villeneuve, USA (Canadian Premiere)
“Deepwater Horizon,” Peter Berg, USA (World Premiere)
“The Headhunter’s Calling,” Mark Williams, Canada (World Premiere)
“The Journey is the Destination,” Bronwen Hughes, United Kingdom/South Africa (World Premiere)
“JT + The Tennessee Kids,” Jonathan Demme, USA (World Premiere)
“LBJ,” Rob Reiner, USA (World Premiere)
“Lion,” Garth Davis, Australia (World Premiere)
“Loving,” Jeff Nichols, USA (North American Premiere)
“A Monster Calls,” J.A. Bayona, USA/Spain (World Premiere)
“Planetarium,” Rebecca Zlotowski, France/Belgium (North American Premiere)
“Queen of Katwe,” Mira Nair, South Africa/Uganda (World Premiere)
“The Rolling Stones Olé Olé Olé! : A Trip Across Latin America,” Paul Dugdale, United Kingdom (World Premiere)
“The Secret Scripture,” Jim Sheridan, Ireland (World Premiere)
“Snowden,” Oliver Stone, Germany/USA (World Premiere)
“Strange Weather,” Katherine Dieckmann, USA (World Premiere)
“Their Finest,” Lone Scherfig, United Kingdom (World Premiere)
“A United Kingdom,” Amma Asante, United Kingdom (World Premiere)
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
“The Age of Shadows” (“Miljeong”), Kim Jee woon, South Korea (North American Premiere)
“All I See Is You,” Marc Forster, Thailand (World Premiere)
“American Honey,” Andrea Arnold, USA (North American Premiere)
“American Pastoral,” Ewan McGregor, USA (World Premiere)
“Asura: The City of Madness,” Kim Sung-soo, South Korea (World Premiere)
“Barakah Meets Barakah” (“Barakah yoqabil Barakah”), Mahmoud Sabbagh, Saudi Arabia (North American Premiere)
“Barry,” Vikram Gandhi, USA (World Premiere)
“Birth of the Dragon,” George Nolfi, USA/China/Canada (World Premiere)
“The Birth of a Nation,” Nate Parker, USA (International Premiere)
“Bleed for This,” Ben Younger, USA (Canadian Premiere)
“Blue Jay,” Alex Lehmann USA (World Premiere)
“Brimstone,” Martin Koolhoven, Netherlands/Germany/France/Belgium/Sweden/United Kingdom (North American Premiere)
“BrOTHERHOOD,” Noel Clarke, United Kingdom (International Premiere)
“Carrie Pilby,” Susan Johnson, USA (World Premiere)
“Catfight,” Onur Tukel, USA (World Premiere)
“City of Tiny Lights,” Pete Travis, United Kingdom (World Premiere)
“The Commune” (“Kollektivet”) Thomas Vinterberg, Denmark/Sweden/Netherlands (North American Premiere)
“Daguerrotype” (“Le Secret de la chambre noire”), Kiyoshi Kurosawa, France/Japan/Belgium (World Premiere)
“A Death in the Gunj,” Konkona Sensharma, India (World Premiere)
“Denial,” Mick Jackson, USA/United Kingdom (World Premiere)
“Elle,” Paul Verhoeven, France (North American Premiere)
“Foreign Body” (“Jassad Gharib, Corps Etranger”) Raja Amari, Tunisia/France (World Premiere)
“Frantz,” François Ozon, France/Germany (Canadian Premiere)
“The Handmaiden” (“Agassi”), Park Chan-wook, South Korea (World Premiere)
“Harmonium” (“Fuchi ni tatsu”) ,Kôji Fukada, Japan/France (North American Premiere)
“I Am Not Madame Bovary,” Feng Xiaogang, China (World Premiere)
“The Journey,” Nick Hamm, United Kingdom (North American Premiere)
“King of the Dancehall,” Nick Cannon, USA/Jamaica (World Premiere)
“La La Land,” Damien Chazelle, USA (Canadian Premiere)
“The Limehouse Golem,” Juan Carlos Medina, United Kingdom (World Premiere)
“Manchester by the Sea,” Kenneth Lonergan, USA (Canadian Premiere)
“Mascots,” Christopher Guest, USA (World Premiere)
“Maudie,” Aisling Walsh, Canada/Ireland (Canadian Premiere)
“Neruda,” Pablo Larraín, Chile/Argentina/Spain/France (World Premiere)
“Nocturnal Animals,” Tom Ford, USA/United Kingdom (North American Premiere)
“The Oath,” Baltasar Kormákur, Iceland (World Premiere)
“Orphan” (“Orpheline”) Arnaud des Pallières, France (World Premiere)
“Paris Can Wait,” Eleanor Coppola, USA (World Premiere)
“Paterson,” Jim Jarmusch, USA (North American Premiere)
“The Salesman,” Asghar Farhadi (North American Premiere)
“Salt and Fire,” Werner Herzog, Germany/USA/France/Mexico (North American Premiere)
“Sing,” Garth Jennings, USA/France (World Premiere)
“Souvenir,” Bavo Defurne, Belgium/Luxembourg/France (North American Premiere)
“Things to Come” (“L’Avenir”), Mia Hansen-Løve, France/Germany (Canadian Premiere)
“Toni Erdmann,” Maren Ade, Germany (Canadian Premiere)
“Trespass Against Us,” Adam Smith, United Kingdom (World Premiere)
“Una,” Benedict Andrews, United Kingdom (Canadian Premiere)
“Unless,” Alan Gilsenan, Canada/Ireland (World Premiere)
“The Wasted Times” (“Luo Man Di Ke Xiao Wang Shi”), Cheng Er, China