In a matter of just days, we’ve been inundated with films from the 2024 Venice Film Festival and the just-ended Telluride Film Festival. Still, there is absolutely no rest for the wicked this year as the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) kicks off today up north.
As is usually the case, TIFF is the largest festival of the fall film lineup, featuring over 100 films this year (thankfully down from previous years when the numbers were almost double that). TIFF always has an eclectic mix, with broader, more mainstream populist titles but plenty of indies, docs, horror movies, action thrillers, international films, and more.
READ MORE: 2024 Fall Film Preview: 50 Movies To Watch
Big-name filmmakers returning to the festival include Angelina Jolie, Ron Howard, Mike Leigh, David Gordon Green, Julie Delpy, Marielle Heller, John Crowley, and many more.
Hot acquisition titles up for grabs include David Mackenzie’s “Relay,” with Riz Ahmed, Gia Coppola’s “The Last Showgirl” with Pamela Anderson, Howard’s “Eden,” with the starry cast of Jude Law, Vanessa Kirby, Sydney Sweeney, “Friendship” with Tim Robinson, Paul Rudd, Kate Mara, Daniel Minahan’s “On Swift Horses” featuring Daisy Edgar-Jones, Jacob Elordi, Will Poulter and many more.
Not featured in our preview because they’ve debuted elsewhere, either at Cannes or the recent aforementioned Telluride and Venice, but still of great interest to many audiences who haven’t seen them yet, including (with links to all our reviews) Francis Ford Coppola’s “Megalopolis,” Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or winning “Anora,” “Babygirl” featuring Nicole Kidman, Andrea Arnold’s “Bird,” Edward Berger’s “Conclave” with Ralph Fiennes, Jason Reitman’s “Saturday Night,” Brady Corbet’s “The Brutalist,” Tilda Swinton in “The End,” and many more.
As always, TIFF has something for everyone, so here are 20 quick picks to get you excited about the festival.
Follow along with all our coverage of the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival.
“Eden”
Coming off the heels of 2022’s “Thirteen Lives,” Oscar-winner Ron Howard returns with a historical thriller featuring an A-list cast. Ana de Armas, Vanessa Kirby, Sydney Sweeney, Jude Law, Daniel Brühl, Felix Kammerer, Toby Wallace, and Richard Roxburgh star in a drama about Europeans in the 1920s who seek a new life on the previously uninhabited island in the Galápagos, only to discover the hellish challenge of coexisting with desperate neighbors capable of theft, deception, and worse. – Rodrigo Perez
“The Life Of Chuck”
Macabre filmmaker Mike Flanagan takes a break from making spooky, supernatural Netflix series to get back to feature filmmaker and detours away from horror with a Stephen King adaption that unravels a seemingly ordinary accountant’s world. The cast is pretty bonkers, too. Tom Hiddleston stars alongside Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan, Mia Sara, Carl Lumbly, Benjamin Pajak, Jacob Tremblay, and Mark Hamill. -RP
“Nightbitch”
Where has the great six-time Oscar-nominated Amy Adams been for the last few years? Other than “Disenchanted” and a more minor appearance in “Dear Evan Hansen,” the actress seems to have taken a break since 2021. But Adams finally returns for “Nightbitch,” a horrors-of-motherhood black comedy horror directed by the acclaimed filmmaker Marielle Heller (“Can You Ever Forgive Me?” and “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood.” The supporting cast includes Scoot McNairy, Zoë Chao, Mary Holland, Ella Thomas, Archana Rajan, and Jessica Harper. – RP
“Bring Them Down”
Starring Christopher Abbott, who seems like he’s on the rise as a leading man all over again, and Oscar nominee Barry Keoghan, “Bring Them Down” is the feature-length directorial debut of Christopher Andrews, known for the shorts “Fire” (2015) and “Stalker” (2018). The drama chronicles a feud between neighboring families in rural Ireland in a world of desolate beauty and desperate men. Colm Meaney, Nora-Jane Noone, and Paul Ready co-star. – RP
“On Swift Horses”
American TV director Daniel Minahan (“Game of Thrones,” “Deadwood: The Movie,” “House of Cards”) makes his sophomore feature with “On Swift Horses.” Daisy Edgar-Jones and Jacob Elordi (“Euphoria”) star alongside Will Poulter, Diego Calva, and Sasha Calle in the adaptation of Shannon Pufahl’s 2019 novel. Set in the 1950s, the story follows a newlywed (Edgar-Jones) and her wayward brother-in-law (Elordi) as they undertake parallel journeys of risk, romance, and self-discovery. – RP