You’ve heard the refrain from us a lot lately. The fall film festival season is upon us and life is nuts. The Telluride Film Festival just ended on Monday. The Venice Film Festival is still going strong, though near the end. And now it’s time for the largest festival in North America, arguably the world: the Toronto International Film Festival. Now TIFF can be seen, in some ways, as pretty broad, McDonald’s-like, featuring many, many stars and red-carpet glamor, all the things that make film festivals feel superficial from the outside. But the reality is with over, 240-something films at the festival, TIFF has something for every single kind of audience member. The fest is stacked with documentaries, foreign films, midnight madness movies, festival favorites, and yes, shiny new titles coming out this fall, many of which will probably be in competition at the Oscars this year.
Yes, big, much-anticipated films like “Joker” with Joaquin Phoenix or Steven Soderbergh‘s “The Laundromat,” Terrence Malick‘s “A Hidden Life,” Bong Joon Ho‘s “Parasite,” Céline Sciamma‘s “Portrait Of A Lady On Fire,” and many others like these are playing at TIFF, but since we’ve already been to Cannes, Sundance, Telluride, and Venice—the latter two very recently—we’re just going to keep this preview to Toronto premieres. And there’s much to anticipate: new films by Rian Johnson, Taika Waititi, Marielle Heller, Noah Hawley, Alice Winocour, Destin Daniel Cretton, Justin Kurzel and many more. There are literally hundreds of films playing and you can make the festival anything you want it to be with your schedule, but here are 25 hot premieres that are going to get everyone talking.
READ MORE: 2019 Fall Preview: The 45 Most Anticipated Films
“Knives Out”
Cast: Chris Evans, Daniel Craig, Jamie Lee Curtis, Toni Collette, Ana de Armas, Lakeith Stanfield, Michael Shannon, Katherine Langford, Christopher Plummer
Synopsis: After a wealthy novelist (Plummer) is found dead at his 85th birthday party his entire extended family becomes suspects in the murder.
What You Need To Know: Writer and director Rian Johnson spoke publicly about wanting to make an old fashioned murder mystery as far back as 2010, but a little movie called “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” sidetracked him for almost a decade. Johnson has said the picture has a very strong Agatha Christie influence. The film also seems to suggest Daniel Craig now has a penchant for Southern accents.
Release Date: Nov. 27 – Gregory Ellwood
READ MORE: The Best Films Of 2019… So Far
“Hustlers”
Cast: Constance Wu, Jennifer Lopez, Cardi B, Keke Palmer, Julia Stiles, Mercedes Ruehl
Synopsis: Two professional strippers, Destiny (Wu) and Ramona (Lopez), modify their scamming game after the 2008 financial crisis wipes out their usual Wall Street clientele.
What You Need To Know: STX has focused on the sexy aspect of the strip club setting before 2008 in their marketing, but writer and director Lorene Scafaria(“Nick & Norah’s Infinite,” “Seeking a Friend for the End of the World”) has bigger themes of sexism and female empowerment in mind. The film is inspired by a true story chronicled in the New Yorker Magazine article “The Hustlers at Scores,” but the names (including the strip club) have been changed. The picture also showcases the live-action big-screen debuts for both Cardi B and Lizzo who have small supporting roles.
Release date: Sept. 13 – GE
“A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”
Cast: Tom Hanks, Matthew Rhys, Susan Kelechi Watson, Chris Cooper, Enrico Colantoni
Synopsis: Skeptical journalist Lloyd Vogel arrives in “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” to meet the beloved television icon and finds himself changed in the process.
What You Need to Know: Set phasers to ugly cry. The second recent film about Fred Rogers finds America’s dad, Tom Hanks, taking on the role, and we’re not sure we’re ready for the avalanche of affirmation and goodwill he’ll bring to the film. It’s exciting to see Marielle Heller back in theaters so soon after her outstanding 2018 effort “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” and her voice will be perfect for this journey into kindness and the power having people who care about you. If this lands right, expect it to launch into Oscar season with aplomb. This could be one of the major players in 2019, if only because its message and overall aura are just so needed and in demand right now. It could be the antidote so many are craving, and might get Hanks right back in the Oscar race after years of bizarre snubbings. We’re hoping this one is one of the definite highlights of Toronto, where it has its premiere.
Release Date: November 22 – Cory Woodroof
“Dolemite Is My Name”
Cast: Eddie Murphy, Keegan-Michael Key, Mike Epps, Craig Robinson, Tituss Burgess
Synopsis: The life story of Rudy Ray Moore who made his name as a comedian and movie star as the character of Dolemite in the ’70s.
What You Need To Know: This is Murphy’s first film since the little-seen “Mr. Church” in 2016 and just his fourth live-action production this decade. Strangely, this is also director Craig Brewer’s first film since 2011’s “Footloose” (a break-even hit) as he’s worked almost exclusively in television since. The screenplay is by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski whose credits include “Ed Wood,” “The People vs. Larry Flynt,” “Man on the Moon” and the Emmy-winning “American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson.”
Release Date: Oct. 4– GE
“Jojo Rabbit”
Cast: Roman Griffin Davis, Scarlett Johansson, Thomasin McKenzie, Sam Rockwell, Rebel Wilson, Stephen Merchant, Takia Waititi, Alfie Allen
Synopsis: A satire on Nazi Germany and nationalism finds a young boy confronting the way he views his world when his mother hides a young Jewish girl in their attic.
What You Need to Know: From the outrageously funny first trailer to the continued insistence the film is an “anti-hate satire,” Waititi’s latest film finds him taking on an incredibly dark subject with his patented whimsy and droll humor. He’s doubling down here, also playing a fictionalized version of Adolf Hitler who joins the hero as his imaginary friend. The film sounds as outlandish and rebellious as we could’ve hoped, and the fact that it made a Disney executive nervous in a recent test screening hints this film doesn’t hold anything back. Good. We need more biting satire of our socio-political moment, and Waititi’s style is perfect for such hazardous subject matter. No matter if awards season shows up or not, we’re ready for what this film has in store for its Toronto premiere.
Release Date: October 18 – CW