A drama about an Iranian human rights activist and a documentary about the hacking of queer indie pop duo Tegan and Sara are among the films that have been added to the lineup of the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, which unveiled its Centrepiece section on Tuesday to kick off a second week of programming announcements.
The 43 films come from filmmakers representing 41 countries, with 18 of the titles receiving their world premieres at TIFF. Those premieres include “Seven Days,” a film about an imprisoned Iranian activist directed by Ali Samadi Ahadi and written by Mohammad Rasoulof, a filmmaker who was himself sentenced to flogging and prison by Iranian authorities; “Jane Austen Wrecked My Life,” a romantic comedy from French writer-director Laura Piani; “The Legend of the Vagabond Queen of Lagos,” a debut from the Nigerian filmmaking group known as the Agbajowo Collective; and Erin Lee Carr’s “Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara,” a documentary about the Canadian duo whose online community was victimized by identify thieves in 2011.
A number of films in the Centrepiece program premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Those include Rasoulouf’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” which won a special award in the main competition; Boris Lojkine’s “Souleymane’s Story,” which was given the Un Certain Regard Jury Prize and Performance Prize; and Matthew Rankin’s “Universal Language,” which took the Directors’ Fortnight Audience Award.
Other Cannes titles in the Centrepiece lineup include Gints Zilbalodis’ “Flow,” Sandhya Suri’s “Santosh,” Rúnar Rúnarsson’s “When the Light Breaks,” Lou Ye’s “An Unfinished Film” and Mahdi Fleifel’s “To a Land Unknown.”
The lineup will also include Steven Soderbergh’s “Presence,” which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January.
More than 30 of the films are sales titles that will go to Toronto looking for distribution.
The Centrepiece program was introduced last year as a rebranding of the festival’s Contemporary World Cinema section. Centrepiece selections in 2023 included the Oscar nominees “Perfect Days,” “The Teacher’s Lounge” and “Robot Dreams,” as well as “About Dry Grasses,” “Fallen Leaves,” “The Monk and the Gun” and “The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed.”
TIFF previously announced the selections in its Galas, Special Presentations, Discovery, Platform and Midnight Madness sections. The Centrepiece announcement begins a week in which the festival’s TIFF Docs, Wavelength, Classics, Short Cuts and Primetime programs will also be announced.
The festival schedule is due to be announced on Aug. 13. The 2024 Toronto International Film Festival will take place from Sept. 5-15.
The full Centrepiece lineup:
“Addition,” Marcelle Lunam | Australia
World Premiere
Sales Title
“A Missing Part,” Guillaume Senez | Belgium/France
World Premiere
Sales Title
“An Unfinished Film,” Lou Ye | Singapore/Germany
North American Premiere
Sales Title
“Anywhere Anytime,” Milad Tangshir | Italy
International Premiere
Sales Title
“April,” Dea Kulumbegashvili | Italy/France/Georgia
North American Premiere
Sales Title
“Beloved Tropic,” Ana Endara | Panama/Colombia
World Premiere
Sales Title
“Bound in Heaven,” Huo Xin | China
World Premiere
Sales Title
“By the Stream,” Hong Sang-soo | South Korea
North American Premiere
“Cloud,” Kiyoshi Kurosawa | Japan
North American Premiere
Sales Title
“Crocodile Tears,” Tumpal Tampubolon | Indonesia/France/Singapore/Germany
World Premiere
Sales Title
“Don’t Cry, Butterfly,” Dương Diệu Linh | Vietnam/Singapore/Philippines/Indonesia
North American Premiere
Sales Title
“Edge of Night,” Türker Süer | Germany
North American Premiere
Sales Title
“Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara,” Erin Lee Carr | USA
World Premiere
“Flow,” Gints Zilbalodis | Latvia/France/Belgium
Canadian Premiere
“Front Row,” Merzak Allouache | Algeria/Saudi Arabia/France
World Premiere
Sales Title
“Happyend,” Neo Sora | Japan/USA
North American Premiere
Sales Title
“Happy Holidays,” Scandar Copti | Palestine/Germany/France/Italy/Qatar
North American Premiere
Sales Title
“Jane Austen Wrecked My Life,” Laura Piani | France
World Premiere
Sales Title
“Julie Keeps Quiet,” Leonardo van Dijl | Belgium/Sweden
North American Premiere
Sales Title
“Ka Whawhai Tonu – Struggle Without End,” Michael Jonathan | New Zealand
North American Premiere
Sales Title
“Kill the Jockey,” Luis Ortega | Argentina/Mexico/Spain/Denmark/USA
North American Premiere
Sales Title
“Little Jaffna,” Lawrence Valin | France
North American Premiere
Sales Title
“Los Tortuga,” Belén Funes | Spain/Chile
World Premiere
Sales Title
“Matt and Mara,” Kazik Radwanski | Canada
North American Premiere
“Measures for a Funeral,” Sofia Bohdanowicz | Canada
World Premiere
Sales Title
“My Sunshine,” Hiroshi Okuyama | Japan/France
North American Premiere
Sales Title
“Pimpinero: Blood and Oil,” Andrés Baiz | Colombia
World Premiere
“Presence,” Steven Soderbergh | USA
International Premiere
“Santosh,” Sandhya Suri | United Kingdom
Canadian Premiere
Sales Title
“Seven Days,” Ali Samadi Ahadi | Germany
World Premiere
Sales Title
“Souleymane’s Story,” Boris Lojkine | France
International Premiere
Sales Title
“Sunshine,” Antoinette Jadaone | Philippines
World Premiere
Sales Title
“Sweet Angel Baby,” Melanie Oates | Canada
World Premiere
Sales Title
“The Legend of the Vagabond Queen of Lagos,” Agbajowo Collective: James Tayler, Ogungbamila Temitope, Okechukwu Samuel, Mathew Cerf, Tina Edukpo, Bisola Akinmuyiwa, A.S. Elijah | Nigeria/Germany/South Africa/USA
World Premiere
Sales Title
“The Mother and the Bear,” Johnny Ma | Canada/Chile
World Premiere
Sales Title
“The Mountain,” Rachel House | New Zealand
North American Premiere
Sales Title
“The Seed of the Sacred Fig,” Mohammad Rasoulof | Iran/France/Germany
Canadian Premiere
“The Swedish Torpedo,” Frida Kempff | Sweden
World Premiere
Sales Title
“The Village Next to Paradise,” Mo Harawe | France/Austria/Germany/Somalia
North American Premiere
Sales Title
“To a Land Unknown,” Mahdi Fleifel | United Kingdom/France/Germany/ Netherlands/Greece/Qatar/Saudi Arabia/Palestine
North American Premiere
Sales Title
“Under the Volcano,” Damian Kocur | Poland
World Premiere
Sales Title
“Universal Language,” Matthew Rankin | Canada
North American Premiere
“When the Light Breaks,” Rúnar Rúnarsson | Iceland/Netherlands/Croatia/ France
North American Premiere
Sales Title
