Two labor strikes may be upending Hollywood’s awards season and the film festivals that serve as launching pads for many Oscar contenders, but the Toronto International Film Festival signaled Monday that it still plans to showcase the best in cinema, unveiling its 2023 slate of movies.
Alexander Payne, Richard Linklater, Kore-eda Hirokazu and Justine Triet are among the auteurs who will be screening their latest works at the festival. Payne will be on hand with “The Holdovers,” a comedy set in a boarding school that reunites him with “Sideways” star Paul Giamatti, while Linklater is showing “Hit Man,” an action-comedy with Glen Powell and Adria Arjona. Kore-eda and Triet will screen “Monster” and “Anatomy of a Fall,” both of which premiered at Cannes, where the latter won the Palme d’Or.
All told, the festival’s first wave of selections includes 60 films, representing 70 countries around the world. But the lineup is also notable in its lack of splashy studio premieres, like “Dune: Part 2” or the musical adaptation of “The Color Purple,” a sign that some of these films may move their release dates if the actors and screenwriters strikes stretch deeper into the fall.
Movie studios are worried about opening these films if the actors who star in them are on the picket lines and can’t promote their work. Some stars are working to get waivers from SAG-AFTRA to do press for films that are independently financed or are looking for distribution. Other indie studios are just pushing ahead with their release plans, hoping that a resolution is reached before they debut their movies. The festival is taking place between Sept. 7 to Sept. 17, which is rapidly approaching, and since the guilds and the studios have yet to resume talks, it’s unclear if a deal will be hammered out by the time stars should be dusting off their passports to head up north.
That’s not to say that TIFF, as Toronto is known to the artists and executives who routinely attend it, will be devoid of major premieres (even if its red carpets are a little less celebrity-packed). Craig Gillespie’s “Dumb Money,” a dramedy about the GameStop short squeeze from Sony that stars Seth Rogen and Paul Dano, as well as several Netflix films like George C. Wolfe’s “Rustin,” David Yates’ “Pain Hustlers,” and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s “Nyad,” will all screen at the festival. And Apple will bring “Flora and Son,” a heart-warming musical drama from “Sing Street” filmmaker John Carney,” after buying it out of Sundance for $20 million. But many of the movies, such as “Lee” with Kate Winslet as photographer Elizabeth “Lee” Miller and the Jodie Comer survival drama “The End We Start From,” that hit the festival will arrive without a studio home. They are looking to leverage strong reviews into a sale.
The lineup also has several movies from directors best known for their work in front of the camera, including Michael Keaton (“Knox Goes Away”), Chris Pine (“Poolman”), Anna Kendrick (“Woman of the Hour”), and Viggo Mortensen (“The Dead Don’t Hurt”). Ethan Hawke will bring his latest directorial effort “Wildcat,” which stars his daughter, Maya Hawke, as novelist Flannery O’Connor.
The festival’s backers have stressed that they plan to continue with their plans and in a statement TIFF’s CEO Cameron Bailey emphasized that breadth and depth of the lineup.
“This year’s Galas & Special Presentations showcase a rich tapestry of talent, vision, and storytelling,” he said. “From thought-provoking narratives to breathtaking visuals and stories so unreal they have to be real, each work embodies the power of cinema to inspire, challenge, and move audiences. Get ready to experience an unforgettable celebration of film and a memorable and star-studded festival, showcasing the best of global cinema for film lovers in September.”
But without many movie stars, will festival-goers and media show up in the numbers they once did?
See the complete lineup below:
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
A Difficult Year
Éric Toledano and Olivier Nakache | France
International Premiere
A Normal Family
Hur Jin-ho | South Korea
World Premiere
American Fiction
Cord Jefferson | USA
World Premiere
Anatomy of a Fall
Justine Triet | France
Canadian Premiere
Close to You
Dominic Savage | Canada/United Kingdom
World Premiere
Days of Happiness
Chloé Robichaud | Canada
World Premiere
El Rapto
Daniela Goggi | Argentina
North American Premiere
Ezra
Tony Goldwyn | USA
World Premiere
Fingernails
Christos Nikou | USA
International Premiere
Four Daughters
Kaouther Ben Hania | France/Tunisia/Germany/Saudi Arabia
North American Premiere
His Three Daughters
Azazel Jacobs | USA
World Premiere
Hit Man
Richard Linklater | USA
North American Premiere
In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon
Alex Gibney | USA
World Premiere
Kidnapped
Marco Bellocchio | Italy/France/Germany
North American Premiere
Knox Goes Away
Michael Keaton | USA
World Premiere
La Chimera
Alice Rohrwacher | Italy/France/Switzerland
North American Premiere
Last Summer
Catherine Breillat | France
North American Premiere
Les Indésirables
Ladj Ly | France
World Premiere
Memory
Michel Franco | USA/Mexico
North American Premiere
Monster
Kore-eda Hirokazu | Japan
North American Premiere
Mother Couch
Niclas Larsson | USA
World Premiere
North Star
Kristin Scott Thomas | United Kingdom
World Premiere
One Life
James Hawes | United Kingdom
World Premiere
Pain Hustlers
David Yates | USA
World Premiere
Poolman
Chris Pine | USA
World Premiere
Reptile
Grant Singer | USA
World Premiere
Rustin
George C. Wolfe | USA
International Premiere
Seven Veils
Atom Egoyan | Canada
World Premiere
Shoshana
Michael Winterbottom | United Kingdom/Italy
World Premiere
Sing Sing
Greg Kwedar | USA
World Premiere
Smugglers
Ryoo Seung-wan | South Korea
North American Premiere
Swan Song
Chelsea McMullan | Canada
World Premiere
The Beast
Bertrand Bonello | France/Canada
North American Premiere
The Burial
Maggie Betts | USA
World Premiere
The Convert
Lee Tamahori | Australia/New Zealand
World Premiere
The Critic
Anand Tucker | United Kingdom
World Premiere
The Dead Don’t Hurt
Viggo Mortensen | Mexico/Canada/Denmark
World Premiere
The Holdovers
Alexander Payne | USA
International Premiere
The Peasants
DK Welchman, Hugh Welchman | Poland/Serbia/Lithuania
World Premiere
The Zone of Interest
Jonathan Glazer | United Kingdom/Poland/USA
Canadian Premiere
Together 99
Lukas Moodysson | Sweden/Denmark
World Premiere
Unicorns
Sally El Hosaini, James Krishna Floyd | United Kingdom/USA/Sweden
World Premiere
Uproar
Paul Middleditch, Hamish Bennett | New Zealand
World Premiere
Wicked Little Letters
Thea Sharrock | United Kingdom
World Premiere
Wildcat
Ethan Hawke | USA
International Premiere
Woman of the Hour
Anna Kendrick | USA
World Premiere
GALA PRESENTATIONS 2023
Concrete Utopia
Um Tae-Hwa | South Korea
North American Premiere
Dumb Money
Craig Gillespie | USA
World Premiere
Fair Play
Chloe Domont | USA
International Premiere
Flora and Son
John Carney | Ireland/USA
Canadian Premiere
Hate to Love: Nickelback
Leigh Brooks | Canada
World Premiere
Lee
Ellen Kuras | United Kingdom
World Premiere
Next Goal Wins
Taika Waititi | USA
World Premiere
NYAD
Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin | USA
International Premiere
Punjab ’95
Honey Trehan | India
World Premiere
Solo
Sophie Dupuis | Canada
World Premiere
The End We Start From
Mahalia Belo | United Kingdom
World Premiere
The Movie Emperor
Ning Hao | China
World Premiere
The New Boy
Warwick Thornton | Australia
North American Premiere
The Royal Hotel
Kitty Green | Australia/United Kingdom
Canadian Premiere