The 51st edition of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) will feature world premieres of films led by Helen Mirren, Seth Rogen, and Chris Rock, among others. The festival, running from September 10 to 20, follows the Venice Film Festival and has historically hosted premieres of Oscar-winning movies such as Green Book, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Still Alice, Dallas Buyers Club, and Silver Linings Playbook.
Helen Mirren Portrays Patricia Highsmith
Helen Mirren will play the novelist Patricia Highsmith in A Talent for Murder, a thriller directed by Anton Corbijn (Control, A Most Wanted Man). The film stars recent Tony-winner Alden Ehrenreich as a literary agent sent to Switzerland to persuade Highsmith to write one more Ripley novel.
Seth Rogen and Chris Rock Bring New Comedies
Seth Rogen, who attended last year's TIFF with Aziz Ansari’s Good Fortune, will star alongside Anna Kendrick in Babies, a comedy drama written and directed by his wife Lauren Miller Rogen. The film also features Issa Rae, Kate Berlant, and Sharon Stone, centering on a childless couple forced into parenting when their divorced friend moves in with her three-year-old.
Chris Rock returns to the festival with his latest film as writer-director, the Hollywood-set comedy Misty Green. The A24 film, which also premiered Rock's previous effort Top Five at Toronto, focuses on a director offering a comeback to an actor whose career has been derailed by her vices. The cast includes Adam Driver, Daniel Kaluuya, Anna Kendrick, and British actor Rosalind Eleazar in the lead role.
World Premieres of Anticipated Dramas
The festival will also debut I Play Rocky, a drama about the making of Sylvester Stallone’s Oscar-winning film Rocky. Directed by Peter Farrelly, whose 1960s-set drama Green Book went from a Toronto premiere to a best picture Oscar win, the film stars Anthony Ippolito as Stallone.
Courteney Cox’s Evil Genius will make its bow at the festival. The crime thriller, Cox’s second film as director after Tallhotblond, is based on a true crime docuseries about the “Pizza Bomber” Brian Wells. The cast includes Patricia Arquette and David Harbour. Cox said of the project: “It’s stranger than fiction. At moments darkly funny and yet deeply emotional. A story about love, loneliness, manipulation, and the people on the fringes who get pulled into something much bigger than themselves.”
Rebel Wilson’s Girl Group, her follow-up after legal issues affected the release of her first film as director, will also premiere at Toronto. Wilson plays a singer kicked off her own group’s reunion tour who stages a comeback by attaching herself to a younger teen group. The cast includes Jennifer Coolidge, Sheridan Smith, Melanie C, and Nicole Scherzinger.
More Notable Premieres
John Madden, director of Shakespeare in Love, will head to Toronto with the drama Onwards and Sideways, starring Laura Linney and Rhys Ifans as two people who receive a Parkinson’s diagnosis on the same day.
Other premieres include the comedy thriller Everybody Wants to Fuck Me starring Taron Egerton about modern dating; the prison-set drama The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd starring Amanda Seyfried; supernatural drama Faith starring James McAvoy and Erin Doherty; Takashi Miike’s Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo with Lily James; coming-of-age drama The Julia Set starring Chase Infiniti; Diary of a Mad Old Man from The Joy Luck Club director Wayne Wang; and Up Against It, a Trudie Styler-directed romcom led by Antonio Banderas.
Previously Announced Premieres
Previously announced premieres include the romance Love of Your Life starring Margaret Qualley, Patrick Schwarzenegger, and Aaron Pierre; a big-screen adaptation of the hit stage drama Prima Facie starring Cynthia Erivo; revenge thriller Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother led by Mahershala Ali; and Being Heumann, the new film from Coda director Sian Heder.
TIFF's Legacy and Impact
Last year’s Toronto saw the premiere of the hit horror Obsession, which has since become the highest-grossing festival acquisition of all time, making $442 million worldwide. This year’s festival runs from September 10 to 20.
