The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has released a list of 68 films that will be presented at this year’s festival and at the same time announced that Antoine Fuqua’s new movie The Magnificent Seven will kick things off. Fuqua’s new movie is a remake of the 1960s western and will star Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, and Ethan Hawke.
The Magnificent Seven marks the third time that Fuqua and Washington have worked together, previously teaming up for Training Day in 2001, which earned them both an Academy Award nomination and The Equalizer which was screened at TIFF in 2014.
The closing movie for TIFF 2016 will be The Edge of Seventeen , by new film maker Kelly Fremon Craig. The film stars Kyra Sedgewick, Hailee Steinfeld, and Woody Harrelson, and is about a high school kid whose best friend starts dating her older brother.
One movie with a lot of buzz surrounding it is Oliver Stone’s biopic about Edward Snowden starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Snowden is a political thriller about the National Security Agency whistleblower who leaked classified information to the media. With its release date having been pushed back a couple of times, it looks like it is now set for a September opening, making its screening at TIFF a perfect way to drum up buzz heading into awards season.
TIFF 2016 will also see Deepwater Horizon , Peter Berg’s new movie inspired by the worst oil spill in U.S. history, starring Mark Wahlberg, The Mazerunner ‘s Dylan O’Brien, Kate Hudson, Kurt Russell, and John Malkovich.
Canadian filmmaker Denis Villeneuve will be back at TIFF again this year, with his next movie Arrival which stars Amy Adams as a linguist who after an alien invasion has to determine the alien’s intentions. The movie also stars Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker.
Also screening at TIFF is the movie La La Land , which is a musical romance starring Ryan Gosling as a pianist who falls for an aspiring actress played by Emma Stone.
In addition to the movies listed above, the following films were announced today for TIFF 2016. More films will be released bit by bit to help build anticipation so keep checking TIFF ‘s website to keep up to date and follow their YouTube channel to see trailers for all the movies.
Galas
- The Headhunter’s Calling, Mark Williams, Canada.
- The Journey is the Destination, Bronwen Hughes, United Kingdom/South Africa.
- JT + The Tennessee Kids, Jonathan Demme, U.S.
- LBJ, Rob Reiner, U.S.
- Lion, Garth Davis, Australia.
- Loving, Jeff Nichols, U.S.
- A Monster Calls, J.A. Bayona, U.S./Spain.
- Planetarium, Rebecca Zlotowski, France/Belgium.
- Queen of Katwe, Mira Nair, South Africa/Uganda.
- The Rolling Stones Olé Olé Olé! : A Trip Across Latin America, Paul Dugdale, United Kingdom.
- The Secret Scripture, Jim Sheridan, Ireland.
- Strange Weather, Katherine Dieckmann, U.S.
- Their Finest, Lone Scherfig, United Kingdom.
- A United Kingdom, Amma Asante, United Kingdom.
Special Presentations
- The Age of Shadows (Miljeong), Kim Jee woon, South Korea.
- All I See Is You, Marc Forster, Thailand.
- American Honey, Andrea Arnold, U.S.
- American Pastoral, Ewan McGregor, U.S.
- Asura: The City of Madness, Kim Sung-soo, South Korea.
- Barakah Meets Barakah (Barakah yoqabil Barakah), Mahmoud Sabbagh, Saudi Arabia.
- Barry Vikram, Gandhi, U.S.
- Birth of the Dragon, George Nolfi, U.S./China/Canada.
- The Birth of a Nation, Nate Parker, U.S.
- Bleed for This, Ben Younger, U.S.
- Blue Jay, Alex Lehmann U.S.
- Brimstone, Martin Koolhoven, Netherlands/Germany/France/Belgium/Sweden/United Kingdom.
- BrOTHERHOOD, Noel Clarke, United Kingdom.
- Carrie Pilby, Susan Johnson, U.S.
- Catfight, Onur Tukel, U.S.
- City of Tiny Lights, Pete Travis, United Kingdom.
- The Commune (Kollektivet), Thomas Vinterberg, Denmark/Sweden/Netherlands.
- Daguerrotype (Le Secret de la chambre noire), Kiyoshi Kurosawa, France/Japan/Belgium.
- A Death in the Gunj, Konkona Sensharma, India.
- Denial, Mick Jackson, U.S./United Kingdom.
- Elle, Paul Verhoeven, France.
- Foreign Body (Jassad Gharib, Corps Etranger), Raja Amari, Tunisia/France.
- Frantz, François Ozon, France/Germany.
- The Handmaiden (Agassi), Park Chan-wook, South Korea.
- Harmonium (Fuchi ni tatsu), Kôji Fukada, Japan/France.
- I Am Not Madame Bovary, Feng Xiaogang, China.
- The Journey, Nick Hamm , United Kingdom.
- King of the Dancehall, Nick Cannon, U.S./Jamaica.
- The Limehouse Golem, Juan Carlos Medina, United Kingdom.
- Manchester by the Sea, Kenneth Lonergan, U.S.
- Maudie, Aisling Walsh, Canada/Ireland.
- Neruda, Pablo Larraín, Chile/Argentina/Spain/France.
- Nocturnal Animals, Tom Ford, USA/United Kingdom.
- The Oath, Baltasar Kormákur, Iceland.
- Orphan (Orpheline), Arnaud des Pallières, France.
- Paris Can Wait, Eleanor Coppola, U.S.
- Paterson, Jim Jarmusch, U.S.
- The Salesman , Asghar Farhadi.
- Salt and Fire, Werner Herzog, Germany/U.S./France/Mexico.
- Sing, Garth Jennings, U.S./France.
- Souvenir, Bavo Defurne, Belgium/Luxembourg/France.
- Things to Come (L’Avenir), Mia Hansen-Løve, France/Germany.
- Toni Erdmann, Maren Ade, Germany.
- Trespass Against Us, Adam Smith, United Kingdom.
- Una, Benedict Andrews, United Kingdom.
- Unless, Alan Gilsenan, Canada/Ireland.
- The Wasted Times (Luo Man Di Ke Xiao Wang Shi), Cheng Er, China.
The 41st annual Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 8 to 18, 2016. The festival attracts more than 500,000 movie lovers to the city of Toronto each September and draws the biggest movie stars and filmmakers in the business.
TIFF is seen as the kickoff of awards season each year, with the winner of the People’s Choice Awards often going on to win big at the major awards shows like the Golden Globe Awards and the Oscars. Last year’s winner, Room, dominated with star Brie Larson. The young actress earned a total of 33 award nominations at a variety of festivals and official awards and she went on to win 20 of those awards including an Academy Award.
The list of stars that will be heading to the Toronto International Film Festival will be released closer to the festival date.
[Photo by Leonard Adam/Getty Images]