As the two Hollywood strikes continue, the largest film festival in North America begins Thursday in Toronto with the international release of Oscar-winning Japanese animation artist Hayao Miyazaki’s likely final film.
Toronto film festival: The event’s planners were putting the finishing touches on a jam-packed schedule of premieres, red carpet galas, and prestige TV debuts featuring material from dozens of nations when Tinseltown’s actors staged a walkout.
However, according to festival CEO Cameron Bailey, the programming’s international scope and the performers’ and directors’ capacity to support independent filmmaking despite the strikes attest to the “strength of cinema right now.”
We are going to have a lot of red carpet talent, Bailey told AFP. “It took some weeks to really figure out the specifics and the details of how you would navigate a strike-affected festival, but it turns out that we’re going to have lots of red carpet talent,” she added.
A-list actors Taika Waititi, Anna Kendrick, Ethan Hawke, and Patricia Arquette—all of whom recently switched to directing—are among those anticipated in Canada’s largest city for the 10-day film festival.
Four years after the release of his Oscar-nominated debut film Les Miserables, French filmmaker Ladj Ly will present “Les Indesirables,” a follow-up examination of marginalised populations in the Paris suburbs.
“Upcoming Film Premieres and Highlights at the International Festival”
The Holdovers, a film by Alexander Payne (‘Sideways’) about a teacher (Paul Giamatti) tasked with supervising kids at a boarding school who are unable to travel home for Christmas break, will have its international debut as well.
Along with other music-related movies, like the world premiere of “In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon,” pop sensation Lil Nas X will add some flair to the red carpet for the debut of his documentary, “Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero.”
‘The Boy and the Heron,’ however, which is Miyazaki’s first feature-length movie in ten years and, at age 82, perhaps his last for the illustrious Studio Ghibli, will get its first marquee screening on Thursday night.
Young Mahito is followed as he experiences the horrors of World War II and the passing of his mother in the semi-autobiographical movie, which debuted in Japan in July. He encounters a talking heron and then seeks her out in a vivid fantasy realm.
“We are extremely happy to have that one. This might be one of the best filmmakers ever, and this is his last movie,” Bailey added.
It is wonderful.
Both Arquette’s “Gonzo Girl” and Kristin Scott Thomas’ “North Star,” another directorial debut, have their world premieres on Thursday night.
On Sunday, Arquette will be given the festival’s Groundbreaker Award. According to a statement from Bailey, she “consistently challenges conventions and elevates the discourse on salary equity for women through her influential platform.”
The Oscars’ harbinger
Along with Telluride and Venice, the Toronto Film Festival is a major event in the fall festival calendar when films aiming to gain early Oscars momentum usually have their premieres.
An increasingly reliable Oscars barometer, TIFF’s annual People’s Choice Award has predicted future best picture winners like “Nomadland” and “Green Book.”
The movie “Dumb Money,” starring Seth Rogen and Paul Dano, will have its world premiere on Friday. It tells the story of the novice investors that made GameStop a Wall Street sensation in 2021.
A man (Bobby Cannavale) who blows up his job and marriage moves back home with his father (Robert De Niro) in the movie “Ezra,” starring actor Tony Goldwyn, on Saturday.
‘Next Goal Wins’, a Waititi sports comedy, and ‘Knox Goes Away,’ a Michael Keaton film with Al Pacino, both had their global debuts.
The festival takes place during a Hollywood writers’ and performers’ strike over wages and other working conditions, which prevents union members from usually promoting films made by parties to the conflict.
In certain situations, waivers have been made available; in others, the films that are being screened in Toronto are exempt from the strikes since they were independently or internationally produced.
TIFF didn’t fully recover until 2022, following two years of online or hybrid events held in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
The event continues till September 17.