The Toronto International Film Festival has a bit of a spotty track record when it comes to opening films, and past five years have been evidence at how varied and sometimes random seeming the choices can be. The last few years have seen the festival lean toward starrier efforts like Robert Downey Jr.‘s "The Judge," Rian Johnson‘s sci-fi "Looper," and Benedict Cumberbatch‘s Julian Assange tale "The Fifth Estate." But the preceeding years were marked by the U2 documentary "From The Sky Down," and in perhaps the fest’s lowest moment, "Score: A Hockey Musical." And there’s always pressure on organizers to support Canadian produced content by giving a film made in the country, with Canuck financing, or with home grown talent, a big spotlight. And that seems to be driving the reported contenders for the opening slot this year.
Screen Daily reveals Atom Egoyan‘s "Remember" (trailer here), Deepa Mehta’s "Beeba Boys," and Paul Gross‘ war flick "Hyena Road" are among those vying for the opening slot, and all are Canadian backed films. Meanwhile, Montreal moviemaker and "Dallas Buyers Club" director Jean-Marc Valleé likely represents the glitziest option with his Jake Gyllenhaal and Naomi Watts starring drama "Demolition." But it’s not just Canadian-related movies that could wind up kicking things off in Toronto.
According to the trade, Bryan Cranston-starring "Trumbo" and Tom McCarthy‘s ensemble drama "Spotlight" (with Michael Keaton, Liev Schreiber, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel McAdams, John Slattery, and Brian d’Arcy James) could be in there as well.
READ MORE: The Top 10 Films Of The 2015 Cannes Film Festival
Yes, we know Cannes just ended, but TIFF is just three months away which means decisions are coming very soon. Anything you want to see hit TIFF this year? Let us know below.
SPOTLIGHT is an amazing script
I say Demolition. Spotlight sounds more Venice to me.
Alhough Remember is not a patch on Son of Saul, Plummer is a Canadian legend in a lead role pretty rare for his age. It\’s probably nice to pay tribute to him, along with the remembrance theme for 40th TIFF.
Derek Cianfrance\’s "Light Between Oceans" starring Michael Fassbender and Alicia Vikander and Rachel Weisz would make a nice, if probably dark, opening as well and is likely to be done in time.
Any thoughts on venice yet?
Yeah . There\’s a movie entitled Three Generations, starring Naomi Watts, Elle Fannig and Susan Sarandon. Watts is also one of the executive producers. It was picked up in Cannes by The einstein Company. It\’s an indie movie about a transgrender girl whose family has to come to terms with that fact. Elle Fanning plays the teen, Watts the mother and Sarandon the grandmother. It was shot during last year\’s fall. So to me it seems quite likely to hit TIFF. What do you think??