By Anthony D’Alessandro
July 24, 2023 8:00am

The dual WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes aren’t stalling the 48th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival, which announced the first 60 feature films in what’s expected to be a 200-plus-title schedule. Last year counted some 260 full length films.

TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey promised “a bumper crop” of acquisition titles this year, and indeed there are 39 movies that have either domestic or international distribution rights up for grabs; roughly 18 of them have U.S. rights available.

And while there’s only a handful of awards contenders from theatrical and streaming studios, there is a plethora of starry independent movies, many available for sale. If SAG-AFTRA negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland can clear these titles for promotion (he told us at Comic-Con that the guild “is looking at the issue”), then there’s a shot that actors could show up at TIFF red carpet premieres — that is if the AMPTP and SAG-AFTRA still haven’t hammered out a contract by the fest’s September 7-17 run.

Awards strategists have told us that if the strike isn’t resolved by mid-August, then the odds of stars heading to Toronto, Venice or Telluride remains unlikely for regular motion picture and streaming features in the mix. The question is whether more awards titles or Q3 or Q4 tentpoles get programmed at TIFF. Sources close to the fest have told us that none of the studios is pulling out. Such was the unfortunate case for the Venice Film Festival, which lost its big opening-night title, Challengers, starring Zendaya. Since the Emmy-winning actress and social media heavyweight can’t promote due to the actors strike, MGM pushed the R-rated Luca Guadagnino-directed romance to the end of April.

Among those potential awards-contender world premieres at TIFF, Sony Pictures will tee off its September 22 theatrical release Dumb Money from director Craig Gillespie, about the everyday folks who flipped the script and turned GameStop into a meme stock. The pic stars Paul Dano, Seth Rogen, Pete Davidson, Anthony Ramos, Shailene Woodley, Sebastian Stan and America Ferrera among others.

Focus Features’ The Holdovers from Alexander Payne title, which got snapped up by the Universal classic label last year at TIFF for $30M (as we first told you), will make its international premiere before its limited launch on October 27. Payne reteams with his Sideways Oscar nominee Paul Giamatti, who plays a curmudgeonly teacher at a Northeast prep school in 1970 who has to oversee those students left behind on their Christmas break.

There’s also a slew of Netflix awards possibilities in the mix including David Yates’ Emily Blunt-Chris Evans pic Pain Hustlers (which we told you the streamer snapped up for $50M out of Cannes 2022); Grant Singer’s Reptile, starring Benicio Del Toro and Justin TImberlake; George C. Wolfe’s Rustin with Chris Rock and Colman Domingo, who stars as gay civil rights activist Bayard Rustin; Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi’s Nyad, about 64-year-old marathon swimmer Diana Nyad, who attempts to become the first person ever to swim from Cuba to Florida. That pic stars Annette Bening as Nyad, Jodie Foster and Rhys Ifans. Netflix is also bringing its $20M Sundance pickup, the thriller Fair Play, to the Great White North cinema celebration.

MGM has the Cord Jefferson-directed American Fiction starring Jeffrey Wright, Adam Brody and Issa Rae about English professor and author Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, who writes a satirical novel under a pseudonym with the intent to expose the hypocrisies of the publishing industry. MGM’s parent company, Amazon Studios, has the Jamie Foxx-Tommy Lee Jones feature The Burial, directed by Maggie Betts, about a lawyer who helps a funeral home owner save his family business from a corporate behemoth, exposing a complex web of race, power and injustice.

Apple is also taking its $20M Sundance acquisition Flora and Son, from John Carney, to TIFF. There’s also a return of many Cannes-winning titles, i.e. Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of a Fall from Neon, A24’s Grand Prize winner The Zone of Interest and Queer Palm and Best Screenplay winner Monster from Kore-eda Hirokazu. There’s also Alice Rohrwacher’s Cannes pleaser La Chimera, which Neon took domestic on out of the fest.

Among the star-driven acquisition titles that have U.S. or North American rights available, there’s Lee starring Kate Winslet, Andrea Riseborough and Alexander Skarsgard, which follows the life of photographer Elizabeth “Lee” Miller, a fashion model who became an acclaimed war correspondent for Vogue during World War II.

There’s Mahalia Belo’s The End We Start From, starring Jodie Comer, Katherine Waterston and Benedict Cumberbatch. Here’s the logline: When an environmental crisis sees London submerged by flood waters, a young family is torn apart in the chaos. As a woman and her newborn try and find their way home, the profound novelty of motherhood is brought into sharp focus in this intimate and poetic portrayal of family survival.

Domestic is available on Richard Linklater’s Hitman starring Top Gun: Maverick‘s Glen Powell.

In addition, there are many stars heading behind the camera with world premieres including Tony Goldwyn’s Ezra, starring Robert De Niro, Rose Byrne, Bobby Cannavale, Vera Farmiga and Whoopi Goldberg (North American and some international rights available); Chris Pine’s Poolman, starring the Star Trek star, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Danny DeVito and Annette Bening (some rights available); Viggo Mortensen’s The Dead Don’t Hurt with Vicky Krieps, Garret Dillahunt and Danny Huston (North American available); and Anna Kendrick’s Woman of the Hour (U.S. available).

There’s also Kristin Scott Thomas’ feature directorial debut, North Star, with Sienna Miller and Scarlett Johansson and Scott Thomas (foreign rights available), and the Michael Keaton-directed thriller Knox Goes Away, about a contract killer who was diagnosed with a fast-moving form of dementia but has an opportunity to redeem himself by saving the life of his estranged adult son. The pic stars Al Pacino, James Marsden, Marcia Gay Harden and Keaton (U.S. rights available).

Since the DGA and AMPTP have agreed to a new contract, directors technically can show up at festivals to promote their work under that hat. Such multihyphenates such as Martin Scorsese and Wes Anderson, who respectively had Killers of the Flower Moon and Asteroid City at Cannes, did press back in May.

The 60 official selections in the Gala and Special Presentations program\s rep 70 countries. Today’s lineup comprises 37 world premieres, seven international premieres, 12 North American premieres and four Canadian premieres.

“This year’s Galas & Special Presentations showcase a rich tapestry of talent, vision, and storytelling,” said
Bailey in statement. “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.”

GALA PRESENTATIONS 2023
*Previously announced

Concrete Utopia Um Tae-Hwa | South Korea
North American Premiere
Sales title: North America rights available

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
Sales title: International rights available

Lee Ellen Kuras | United Kingdom
World Premiere
Sales title: U.S. rights available

*Next Goal Wins Taika Waititi | USA
World Premiere

Nyad Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin | USA
International Premiere

Punjab ’95 Honey Trehan | India
World Premiere
Sales title: International rights available

Solo Sophie Dupuis | Canada
World Premiere
Sales title: U.S. rights available

The End We Start From Mahalia Belo | United Kingdom
World Premiere
Sales title: North American rights available

The Movie Emperor Ning Hao | China
World Premiere
Sales title: International rights available

The New Boy Warwick Thornton | Australia
North American Premiere
Sales title: North American rights available

The Royal Hotel Kitty Green | Australia/United Kingdom
Canadian Premiere

SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS

A Difficult Year Éric Toledano and Olivier Nakache | France
International Premiere
Sales title: – U.S. rights available

A Normal Family Hur Jin-ho | South Korea
World Premiere
Sales title: North American rights available

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
Sales title: Worldwide rights available

Days of Happiness Chloé Robichaud | Canada
World Premiere
Sales title: International rights available

El Rapto Daniela Goggi | Argentina
North American Premiere
Sales title: North American rights available

Ezra Tony Goldwyn | USA
World Premiere
Sales title: North American and some international rights available

Fingernails Christos Nikou | USA
International Premiere

Four Daughters Kaouther Ben Hania | France/Tunisia/Germany/Saudi Arabia
North American Premiere
Sales title: Some rights available

His Three Daughters Azazel Jacobs | USA
World Premiere
Sales title: International rights available

Hitman Richard Linklater | USA
North American Premiere
Sales title: U.S. rights available

In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon Alex Gibney | USA
World Premiere
Sales title: International rights available

Kidnapped Marco Bellocchio | Italy/France/Germany
North American Premiere

Knox Goes Away Michael Keaton | USA
World Premiere
Sales title: U.S. rights available

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
Sales title: North America rights available

Memory Michel Franco | USA/Mexico
North American Premiere
Sales title: International rights available

Monster Kore-eda Hirokazu | Japan
North American Premiere

Mother Couch Niclas Larsson | USA
World Premiere

North Star Kristin Scott Thomas | United Kingdom
World Premiere
Sales title: International rights available

One Life James Hawes | United Kingdom
World Premiere
Sales title: International rights available

Pain Hustlers David Yates | USA
World Premiere

Poolman Chris Pine | USA
World Premiere
Sales title: Some rights available

Reptile Grant Singer | USA
World Premiere

Rustin George C. Wolfe | USA
International Premiere

*Seven Veils Atom Egoyan | Canada
World Premiere
Sales title: U.S. rights available

Shoshana Michael Winterbottom | United Kingdom/Italy
World Premiere
Sales title: North American rights available

Sing Sing Greg Kwedar | USA
World Premiere
Sales title: U.S. rights available

Smugglers Ryoo Seung-wan | South Korea
North American Premiere
Sales title: International rights available

Swan Song Chelsea McMullan | Canada
World Premiere
Sales title: Some rights available

The Beast Bertrand Bonello | France/Canada
North American Premiere
Sales title: International rights available

The Burial Maggie Betts | USA
World Premiere

The Convert Lee Tamahori | Australia/New Zealand
World Premiere
Sales title: Worldwide rights available

The Critic Anand Tucker | United Kingdom
World Premiere
Sales title: Some rights available

The Dead Don’t Hurt Viggo Mortensen | Mexico/Canada/Denmark
World Premiere
Sales title: Worldwide rights available

The Holdovers Alexander Payne | USA
International Premiere

The Peasants DK Welchman, Hugh Welchman | Poland/Serbia/Lithuania
World Premiere
Sales title: Some rights available

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
Sales title: International rights available

Uproar Paul Middleditch, Hamish Bennett | New Zealand
World Premiere
Sales title: International rights available

Wicked Little Letters Thea Sharrock | United Kingdom
World Premiere
Sales title: International rights available

Wildcat Ethan Hawke | USA
International Premiere
Sales title: Worldwide rights available

Woman of the Hour Anna Kendrick | USA
World Premiere
Sales title: U.S. rights available

Source: Deadline

By Benjamin VanHoose
Published on September 15, 2022 09:59 AM

I Wanna Dance with Somebody, directed by Kasi Lemmons, is in theaters Dec. 21.

Naomi Ackie admits she was “very” nervous to play the “incredible, multifaceted” Whitney Houston.

“She’s been elevated in my life for so long that it felt like an impossible thing to achieve at times,” she tells PEOPLE. “But so many people told me the same thing: If I wasn’t scared and nervous, they’d think something was wrong with me. … The biggest challenge was letting my fear of the magnitude of this task take a back seat. Nothing good comes from sitting in fear for too long.”

Ackie, 30, stars as the late singer in the upcoming biopic I Wanna Dance with Somebody. PEOPLE has an exclusive first look and trailer for the film, which hits theaters Dec. 21.

I Wanna Dance with Somebody is written by Anthony McCarten, the screenwriter behind the 2018 Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody, and produced by Clive Davis, who is portrayed by Stanley Tucci in the film.

Ackie says the filmmakers “managed to fit in so many of our favorite songs” from Houston’s career into the film, which she says showcases “parts of her life that we know about but through the scope of her own internal world.”

“Fans can expect to see her life like we see are our own. Ups and downs, triumphs and disappointments, all of it mixing together to make up a life,” says Ackie.

Director Kasi Lemmons (Harriet) tells PEOPLE it was important for her to capture Houston’s “spirit and humanity while celebrating her music and monumental artistry.” Lemmons adds that Ackie is “phenomenal” in the role.

“She completely inhabits the character of Whitney. She put in a year of rigorous preparation so that her transformation onscreen displays effortless virtuosity and is utterly believable,” says Lemmons.

“Audiences will get to experience the greatest voice of her generation, singing her most iconic hits, both in the studio and in concert. They’ll see how she created that work, to better understand and appreciate her artistic process and singular creative genius. Her fans will love reliving the music while getting an intimate look at the woman behind The Voice. We’ll all be reminded how lucky we were to have Whitney with us for the time we did.”

Ackie says she found at least one way to relate to the music legend.

“All Whitney wanted was to sing. I’m convinced that if that was an audience of two or 2 million, she would have felt that connection to her power. It was simple,” she says. “I guess, boiled down there was a need to share her gift. I think we have that in common. I just want to act. I want to share that. I worked from that base of commonality.”

“Our lives are very different,” she adds, “but the drive to share a part of ourselves through different mediums is the same.”

I Wanna Dance with Somebody is in theaters Dec. 21.

Source: PEOPLE

BY DAVID CANFIELD
SEPTEMBER 12, 2022

Majors plays the U.S. Navy’s first-ever Black aviator in the smart film from J.D. Dillard—which also finds Glen Powell back in the pilot’s seat post-Top Gun: Maverick.

Forget the epic aerial cinematography and claustrophobic plane sequences, the real reason to watch Devotion in IMAX is Jonathan Majors’s face. The Emmy-nominated actor (Lovecraft Country) gets a scene early on in which his character Jesse Brown, based on the true story of the U.S. Navy’s first-ever Black aviator, addresses himself in the mirror with the vile, racist comments he’s heard his entire life. He writes each one down in a notebook, then confronts them regularly, head-on. Here’s a man at war with himself, battling the hatred of the world around him. The fury, the despair, and the strength on Majors’s face, projected on a giant screen without a cut, is grand enough to feel life-and-death.

Devotion, in that regard, seems somewhat curious for a film backed and distributed by a Hollywood giant in Sony Pictures. (It releases theatrically on November 23.) Early marketing would tell diehard Top Gun: Maverick fans that they’re in for a encore here, and to an extent, sure, J.D. Dillard’s brawny biopic scratches that fighter-pilot itch with panache. But until its high-wire final act, Devotion, which premiered Monday night at the Toronto International Film Festival, plays like a relatively intimate drama. Between the beats you’d expect of any war movie—the leaving home, the male bonding, the ultimate sacrifice—Dillard and screenwriters Jake Crane and Jonathan A. Stewart sketch out a more thematically rich, if less riveting, character study.

We meet Brown as, naturally, the only one in the room. The Korean War is heating up, fresh off of WWII, and he’s been welcomed among the Navy pilots bound to fight there on the basis of talent and reputation alone. All eyes are immediately on him; as he and the rest of the group—most notably Lieutenant Tom Hudner (Glen Powell, doing double-pilot duty post-Maverick)—inch closer toward fighting in the war, Brown is treated like everything from a Navy prop to an unwelcome mascot. The film deftly imbues combat-movie clichés with an understanding of what it means for a Black pilot—the first, in fact—to drive the action. His first flying sequence, for instance, finds Brown’s colleagues watching him in awe and terror, holding their breath for him to land safely; but one vivid shot captures a group of Black sailors standing together, in a kind of nervous pride. His doing this means a great deal to them, and his doing it right would mean even more.

Which, of course, he does; Brown and Hudner are credited with changing the course of the Korean War on a dangerous mission. (I’ll avoid spoilers as to how.) Devotion takes its hero’s abilities somewhat at face value. He is a one-in-a-generation pilot, his only limitation being the racism of the time. Dillard wisely acknowledges the period’s realities without letting them define Brown; we instead meet a man who’s learned how to navigate the system and forge ahead. He does not drink. He calmly stands up for himself. He lets his abilities speak for themselves. But he does not always do what he’s told—because he’s learned, as a Black man who grew up in Jim Crow America, that he can’t always do as he’s told. The deck is stacked against him.

Devotion’s contours remain fairly conventional and, plot-wise, unsurprising; you need a great actor to sell such a tough, complex portrait within that. Fortunately, Majors works wonders with genre—the horror fantasies of Lovecraft Country, the Western gunslinging of The Harder They Fall. He knows how to take the familiar and make it his own. And he’s never felt like more of a star. In Devotion, he brings that effortless swagger, that charismatic ferocity to hold the thing together. The heartbreak skirting the edges of his performance only adds more dimension. (Kudos to Powell, too, for finding nuances in a different kind of role from his Maverick hotshot.)

Because Devotion can’t fully commit as a thorny character drama—this is, after all, a studio movie that must end with plenty of fighter-pilot fireworks—the broader scope of the film can feel slight. The script takes a lengthy Cannes detour for a party at a casino with Elizabeth Taylor (played by Serinda Swan), which doesn’t center Brown; scenes of the pilots out on the town, bonding and drinking, are dulled in comparison to the strong chemistry between Majors and Powell, since it’s so much more fully realized than what we see among the larger group. (Though Joe Jonas, as one such pilot, shines in a few short, funny moments.) Devotion can’t quite bridge Brown’s story with that of Korean-War-era pilots at large, and so it oscillates in tone between the two—admirably, if not always elegantly.

It sticks the landing, in any case. That climactic aerial sequence, lensed by Oscar-winning cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt (Mank) and aerial D.P. Michael FitzMaurice, gets the blood pumping, as it must, and generates those life-and-death stakes with palpable suspense. The final scenes that follow are moving. You still wish that the film would fight its formula as much as it does earlier on.

Devotion is thoroughly well-executed, but it’s rousing when Majors gets to play outside the box and show you something new. And so, as the credits rolled, I thought of the quote one pilot gives following a successful mission, speaking to the ambivalence that can surface after all is said and done. He calls this feeling “the mundanity of a job well-done.” Devotion leaves you with that, in a sense, but at its best is so much more.

Source: VANITY FAIR

By Anthony D’Alessandro
July 28, 2022 7:01am

The Toronto International Film Festival is back this year.

Seriously, they’re really back.

Unlike last year which was a significantly quieter festival with fewer stars and feature films at a count of 130, this year TIFF will see the celebratory closing down of King Street (sans streetcars), full capacity maskless theaters, no proof of vaccinations, live press conferences, the return of concessions and orange shirt volunteers, as well as a robust curation of 260 feature films, of which today the fest announced 18 galas and 45 special presentations.

In a fall and holiday corridor at the domestic box office that’s chock-a-block full of adult counterprogramming primed for awards season, distributors require a TIFF launch now more than ever in order to generate buzz and stoke older moviegoers who are still slow to return during the pandemic. A critically acclaimed film out of TIFF can propel a movie to cross-over to wider audiences, read the 2019 TIFF world premiere of Hustlers which became Jennifer Lopez’s highest grossing live-action movie stateside with $105M, and even the 2018 North American premiere of A Star Is Born which saw its way to a $215M-plus stateside gross, eight Oscars noms and one win.

“There are movies that will launch on the heels of the festival, that I hope adult audiences will see and revive that moviegoing habit. Thankfully that’s been done with the summer blockbusters. There’s a different kind of movie that launches in the fall, and we’re hoping audiences go and see them,” says TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey.

Outside of the already announced nine world premieres including opening night Netflix movie The Swimmers from Sally El Hosaini, Rian Johnson’s Netflix title Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Billy Eichner’s Bros, Clement Virgo’s Brother, Sanaa Lathan’s On the Come Up, the Harry Styles Amazon Prime pic My Policeman, Viola Davis starrer The Woman King, Steven Spielberg’s autobiopic The Fabelmans, and Lena Dunham’s Catherine Called Birdy; there are works by Martin McDonagh (The Banshees of Inisherin), Sam Mendes (Empire of Light), Tyler Perry (A Jazzman’s Blues), Catherine Hardwicke (Prisoner’s Daughter), Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale starring a very transformed, and big, Brendan Fraser; Peter Farrelly (The Greatest Beer Run Ever), Reginald Hudlin (the Sidney Pointier documentary Sidney), among several others.

Other star-studded world premieres include Jennifer Lawrence in the U.S. military veteran drama Causeway, Nicolas Cage in Butcher’s Crossing, Anna Kendrick in Alice, Darling; Jessica Chastain (who started her path to a Best Actress Oscar win last year at TIFF with The Eyes of Tammy Faye) and Eddie Redmayne in Netflix’s The Good Nurse; Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult and Ralph Fiennes in The Menu, Lily James and Emma Thompson in What’s Love Got To Do With It?, Jonathan Majors and Glen Powell in Devotion, Judi Dench in Sir Richard Eyre’s geriatric ward drama Allelujah and Sally Hawkins and Steve Coogan in Stephen Frears’ The Lost King.

Last year, films competing for the highly coveted Oscar bellwether TIFF prize, the Grolsch People’s Choice Award, were required to screen at the festival in-person and online, however, this year those rules have changed as Bailey says “We are a fully in-person festival”.

In regards to the hybrid nature of this year’s 47th edition, “We will only have a small sampling of films available in Canada for at-home viewing online. The festival is happening in-person, in theaters, and that’s where we want to see everyone,” adds Bailey.

“We’re excited to welcome some of the most celebrated figures in movies back to Toronto to present their Gala and Special Presentation films,” he continues. “With stories that span six continents and feature performances you just have to see, this lineup delivers the rich experiences we wait all year for. Cinema is alive. Red carpets are back. And the best audience in the world awaits them in Toronto.”

Typically Spielberg’s awards season entries go down to the wire in post before their release (remember 2005’s Munich?), but here’s the 3x Oscar winner with a November release roaring to go at TIFF. Not to mention, the filmmaker doesn’t always world premiere his movies at festivals; Ready Player One being the last title at SXSW. Talking about how TIFF notched the filmmaker’s first ever movie at the festival, Bailey explained, “We are longtime partners with Universal pictures. We speak with them about what they have coming up in the fall, this was, of course, high on our list, and on their list as well.”

“When we saw the film, we responded in a strong emotional way. I sent a note, which was passed on to Steven, about our own reaction to the film, how moved we were by it, how it’s a beautiful love letter to films and movies,” he continues.

“Toronto is a place where the audience is paramount. The audience defines the shape of the festival, defines the films that everyone is speaking about and go on to further notice and elsewhere,” Bailey said, “The emotional reaction that we had when we saw it will be amplified when our audience sees it; that embrace will be stronger and fiercer than anywhere else.”

Talk about a festival that’s looking to be loud a year after Hollywood was reluctant to venture across the re-opened Canadian border, mega-performing artist Styles will reportedly be in Toronto for the world premiere of his love triangle movie My Policeman. However, curiously not receiving a North American premiere after its Venice Film Festival world premiere is the Styles starring, Olivia Wilde directed erotic drama Don’t Worry Darling. Sources have told Deadline that a situation didn’t want to be created at TIFF whereby a star such as Styles has two competing projects pulling on his profile. Says Bailey about why Don’t Worry Darling is M.I.A. at TIFF, “Great question, not one for me, that’s one for Warner Bros” further adding that in regards to Styles’ other title at the fest, “if you’re looking for edgy, you’re going to want to see My Policeman.”

With the vibrant return of an in-person festival, Bailey says that drive-in premieres, which were implemented during the pandemic, will be no longer.

“We had a two year run with drive-ins and it was an exciting new thing for us to do, but there’s all kinds of new complications of showing movies to people who are sitting in their cars, as you can imagine, but for the moment, we’re done,” Bailey says.

Before the pandemic forced TIFF to go hybrid over the last two years, attendance in 2019 reached a reported 307,362 for its most previous in-person event. Bailey feels upbeat that with the increased offerings this year, that audiences will indeed return to the fest.

“We are expecting full houses. We know from the ticket packages that we had going for the last few weeks, some of them have already gone off sale, but there’s a lot still available. There’s enough appetite for what we’ve seen so far that we’re expecting a big audience.”

GALA PRESENTATIONS
*Previously announced

Alice, Darling
Mary Nighy | Canada, USA
World Premiere

Black Ice
Hubert Davis | Canada
World Premiere

Butcher’s Crossing
Gabe Polsky | USA
World Premiere

The Greatest Beer Run Ever
Peter Farrelly | USA
World Premiere

The Hummingbird
Francesca Archibugi | Italy, France
World Premiere

Hunt
Lee Jung-jae | South Korea
North American Premiere

A Jazzman’s Blues
Tyler Perry | USA
World Premiere

Kacchey
Limbu Shubham Yogi | India
World Premiere

Moving On
Paul Weitz | USA
World Premiere

Paris Memories
Alice Winocour | France
North American Premiere

Prisoner’s Daughter
Catherine Hardwicke | USA
World Premiere

Raymond & Ray
Rodrigo García | USA
World Premiere

Roost
Amy Redford | USA
World Premiere

Sidney
Reginald Hudlin | USA
World Premiere

The Son
Florian Zeller | United Kingdom
North American Premiere

*The Swimmers (Opening Night Film)
Sally El Hosaini | United Kingdom
World Premiere

What’s Love Got To Do With It?
Shekhar Kapur | United Kingdom
World Premiere

*The Woman King
Gina Prince-Bythewood | USA
World Premiere

SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS

Allelujah
Richard Eyre | United Kingdom
World Premiere

All Quiet on the Western Front
Edward Berger | USA, Germany

The Banshees Of Inisherin
Martin McDonagh | United Kingdom, Ireland, USA
North American Premiere

Blueback
Robert Connolly | Australia
World Premiere

The Blue Caftan
Maryam Touzani | Morocco, France, Belgium, Denmark
North American Premiere

Broker
Hirokazu Kore-eda | South Korea
Canadian Premiere

*Brother
Clement Virgo | Canada
World Premiere

*Bros
Nicholas Stoller | USA
World Premiere

*Catherine Called Birdy
Lena Dunham | United Kingdom
World Premiere

Causeway
Lila Neugebauer | USA
World Premiere

Chevalier
Stephen Williams | USA
World Premiere

Corsage
Marie Kreutzer | Austria, France, Germany
North American Premiere

Decision to Leave
Park Chan-wook | South Korea
North American Premiere

Devotion
JD Dillard | USA
World Premiere

Driving Madeleine
Christian Carion | France
International Premiere

El Suplente
Diego Lerman | Argentina, Italy, Mexico, Spain, France

Empire of Light
Sam Mendes | United Kingdom, USA
Canadian Premiere

The Eternal Daughter
Joanna Hogg | United Kingdom
North American Premiere

*The Fabelmans
Steven Spielberg | USA
World Premiere

*Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Rian Johnson | USA
World Premiere

Good Night Oppy
Ryan White | USA
International Premiere

The Good Nurse
Tobias Lindholm | USA
World Premiere

Holy Spider
Ali Abbasi | Denmark, Germany, Sweden, France
Canadian Premiere

Joyland
Saim Sadiq | Pakistan
North American Premiere

The King’s Horseman
Biyi Bandele | Nigeria
World Premiere

The Lost King
Stephen Frears | United Kingdom
World Premiere

A Man of Reason
Jung Woo-sung | South Korea
World Premiere

The Menu
Mark Mylod | USA
World Premiere

*On the Come Up
Sanaa Lathan | USA
World Premiere

One Fine Morning
Mia Hansen-Løve | France
Canadian Premiere

Other People’s Children
Rebecca Zlotowski | France
North American Premiere

Moonage Daydream
Brett Morgen | USA
North American Premiere

*My Policeman
Michael Grandage | United Kingdom
World Premiere

Nanny
Nikyatu Jusu | USA
International Premiere

No Bears
Jafar Panahi | Iran
North American Premiere

The Return of Tanya Tucker: Featuring Brandi Carlile
Kathlyn Horan | USA
International Premiere

Saint Omer
Alice Diop | France
North American Premiere

Sanctuary
Zachary Wigon | USA
World Premiere

Stories Not to be Told
Cesc Gay | Spain
World Premiere

Triangle of Sadness
Ruben Östlund | Sweden, United Kingdom, USA, France, Greece
North American Premiere

Walk Up
Hong Sangsoo | South Korea
World Premiere

Wendell & Wild
Henry Selick | USA
World Premiere

The Whale
Darren Aronofsky | USA
North American Premiere

Women Talking
Sarah Polley | USA
International Premiere

The Wonder
Sebastián Lelio | United Kingdom, Ireland
Canadian Premiere

SOURCE: DEADLINE

By Anthony D’Alessandro
July 6, 2022 2:49pm

Sony has decided to push Devotion to Wednesday, Nov. 23, as a wide release.

The Culver City studio previously planned an October rollout that included going limited on Oct. 14, an Oct. 21 expansion and wide break on Oct. 28.

On its new date, Devotion joins Disney’s animated Strange World, Universal/Amblin’s Steven Spielberg autobio pic The Fabelmans, an untitled movie from Neon and Luca Guadagnino’s Bones and All from United Artists Releasing. The weekend before, starting Nov. 18, brings Universal’s newsroom drama She Said and Searchlight’s The Menu.

The J.D. Dillard-directed aerial-war movie follows the harrowing true story of two elite U.S. Navy fighter pilots during the Korean War. Their heroic sacrifices ultimately would make them the Navy’s most celebrated wingmen. Jonathan Majors and Glen Powell star.

The pic’s screenplay is by Jake Crane & Jonathan A. H. Stewart, based on the book by Adam Makos. Molly Smith, Rachel Smith, Thad Luckinbill and Trent Luckinbill produce. EPs are Dillard and Powell. The film also stars Christina Jackson, Joe Jonas and Thomas Sadoski.

Source: DEADLINE

The war film based on Devotion: An Epic Story of Heroism, Friendship, and Sacrifice by Adam Makos tells the story of late Navy pilot Jesse Brown and hits theaters in October.

By Dana Rose Falcone
May 26, 2022 11:28 AM

Just ahead of Memorial Day, Jonathan Majors and his upcoming movie Devotion offer a reminder of the fight United States military veterans endured in battle.

The PEOPLE exclusive premiere of the trailer for Devotion introduces Jesse Brown (Majors), the first Black man to fly in combat for the U.S. Navy, during the Korean War.

“It’s a story about breaking through the limitations of society and breaking through the limitations of one’s own fear, and the legacy that leaves,” Majors, 32, tells PEOPLE of the war film based on Devotion: An Epic Story of Heroism, Friendship, and Sacrifice by Adam Makos.

Brown forms a bond that goes beyond friendship with fellow aviator Tom Hudner (Glen Powell), a clean-cut soldier from New England who passed up a chance to attend Harvard in favor of joining the Navy. Brown and Hudner find themselves in an unimaginable situation when one ends up shot down behind enemy lines and pinned in his burning plane, while the other attempts a seemingly impossible one-man rescue mission.

“Tom and Jesse are more soulmates than best friends, which is deep,” Majors says. “There’s no escaping each other. They are forever each other’s men, even in death.”

Majors says he and Devotion costars Powell, 33, Joe Jonas and Daren Kagasoff bonded off screen as well.

“Glen was really good at getting all the guys together,” the Lovecraft Country star says. “He and Joe, Daren — all the guys — they would get together and play at the park. And the park was right down the street from my house, so as I was walking my dogs or riding my bike, I’d see the guys, and we’d hang out and chat.”

Majors also liked to work out on set with Jonas, 32. “I would always bang my music, but Joe Jonas would also put his music and we would set up outside the trailers and we’d run, we’d do jump ropes, we’d do pushups, as a team,” Majors says of shooting in Savannah, Georgia. “We would work out and then go into the scene. We were a mixture of a boy band and a football team. We just held space for each other.”

Depicting a real person onscreen came with some pressure. But Majors made Brown’s family “a promise that I would do everything in my power, everything my talent will allow me to do, to do to bring this man’s story to the screen with as much integrity, and with the same moral fiber and humor that you all know he had,” he says.

Brown’s daughter Pam paid a surprise visit to the Devotion set and gave Majors some feedback on his portrayal. “After we shot a scene, I came out and she looked at me and she burst out crying,” Majors recalls. “She said, ‘I feel like I’m meeting my father for the first time.’ Because she was a baby when Jesse left us. That was a gift.”

Majors found similarities between Brown and late actor Sidney Poitier, who, in 1964, became the first Black man to win the Oscar for Best Actor. “No one thought Sidney would be able to do that,” the Yale School of Drama grad says. “I see a correlation between Jesse and Sidney’s fight, as they began to expand and exceed limitations. What Jesse is experiencing is such a universal thing in the same way as any trailblazer.”

Brown didn’t see himself as a trailblazer, though, simply a pilot who wanted to do his best and serve his country. Majors understands wanting one’s performance to speak for itself — and facing adversity.

“I’m proud to be a Black man, but you’re not going to minimize my experience by trying to make it a monolithic movement. I’m an individual,” Majors says. “And as that’s understood that you’re proud to be a Black man, you understand that the hardships you experienced were not because you wanted to be an aviator, it’s because you’re a Black man that wanted to be an aviator. It wasn’t because I wanted to be an actor, it’s because I was a Black man who wanted to be a leading man. That’s where the conflict comes in.”

Majors acknowledges “it’s a big conversation that we’re having” with Devotion’s approach to race and male friendship, but “we try to put some levity in it.”

“I know it’s difficult, but I hope something that people take away from it is this idea of friendship, it’s something we all have as human beings,” he continues. “It is what pushes us forward as a species, a devotion to one’s family, a devotion to one’s calling. I hope people feel uplifted and inspired to continue down their journeys to achieve whatever heights they hope to achieve.”

Devotion opens in theaters in limited release on Oct. 14 and wide on Oct. 28.

Source: PEOPLE