12 new films named for Toronto festival
TIFF’s new competitive film program features projects from TV stars Elisabeth Moss, Lena Dunham and Norman Reedus while the festival’s first TV section will include work from filmmaker Jason Reitman and Oscar-winner Morgan Neville.
On Thursday, the Toronto International Film Festival announced 12 films for its inaugural Platform program, and six premieres in the new TV sidebar, Primetime.
Platform includes the London-set “High-Rise” from Ben Wheatley, based on J. G. Ballard’s 1975 novel about residents of a luxury apartment building who close themselves off from the world. It features Moss along with Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons and Sienna Miller.
“It’s incredibly imaginative, startling filmmaking and it arrested us,” festival director Piers Handling said Thursday.
“As soon as we saw that we felt, ‘Oh, yeah, this is going to be something that people pay attention to.”’
Dunham and Reedus star alongside Diane Kruger in the French/German film “Sky,” directed by Fabienne Berthaud. It’s about a woman who splits from her French husband while on holiday in the United States.
And Canadian doc-maker Alan Zweig makes the cut with “Hurt,” a portrait of one-legged cancer survivor Steve Fonyo, who raised millions with a cross-Canada run, only to succumb to crime and addiction over the following 30 years.
“It’s a wonderful portrait of somebody who was extremely well-known, was a celebrity at one time and this is his life 30, 40 years later and what it’s come to,” said Handling.
An international jury will award a $25,000 prize on Sept. 20. The festival kicks off Sept. 10.
Meanwhile, Primetime will put TV programs from France, Iceland, Argentina and the United States on the big screen.
It includes the first two episodes of the Hulu comedy “Casual,” directed by the Montreal-born Reitman. It follows the creator of a popular dating website who uses his success to supply himself with an endless string of beautiful but shallow women. Neville follows his acclaimed music doc “Twenty Feet from Stardom” with the Netflix original “Keith Richards: Under the Influence.”