Toronto International Film Festival sets lineup
It features the latest documentary from Werner Herzog and the directorial debut of Regina King.
NEW YORK » The Toronto International Film Festival unveiled a lineup bearing little in common with its normal barrage of awards contenders and premier fall films, but it features the directorial debut of Regina King and the latest documentaries from Frederick Wiseman and Werner Herzog.
Toronto, which is set to run Sept. 10-19, has plotted a largely virtual 45th edition due to the pandemic. In normal years, TIFF is the largest film festival in North America. This year, it has drastically scaled down its plans and scrapped together 50 films or TV series from around the world, leaning on projects set to debut on streaming services or television this fall.
Cameron Bailey, artistic director and co-head of the festival, acknowledged it was far from TIFF’s regular lineup.
“We began this year planning for a 45th Festival much like our previous editions, but along the way we had to rethink just about everything,” Bailey said. “This year’s lineup reflects that tumult. The names you already know are doing brand new things this year, and there’s a whole crop of exciting new names to discover.”
Some of the notable films include the 90-year-old Wiseman’s “City Hall,” a portrait of Boston’s City Hall; King’s drama about a young Muhammad Ali, then Cassius Clay, titled “One Night in Miami”; and Herzog and Clive Oppenheimer’s Apple TV+ meteorite documentary “Fireball: Visitors From Darker Worlds.”