All Festival Coverage All The Time!
5 - AWARDS & FESTIVALS NEWS
Festival Party and Event Grid (EXCLUSIVE)
Updated 01.18.18 with 23 exclusive events! Headed to Park City? You’ll need our Exclusive Party and Event Grid, VIP parties & RSVP details. We’ll continue to update the list as we get closer to the big event, so you’ll have everything you need to keep the party going the whole time!
Amazon Studios’ Sundance pick-up The Big Sick was one of the biggest deals from last year’s festival, and it paid off big time as the most successful film out of last year’s fest. Others didn’t fare nearly as well.
Lynne (We Need to Talk About Kevin) Ramsay’s latest film comes to Sundance after receiving accolades at Cannes. It will be released by Amazon Studios on April 6.
Nicolas Cage playing a cult leader? A Tony Gilroy political thriller? A new Gus van Sant movie, a timely doc about Gloria Allred and Rupert Everett as Oscar Wilde (and possibly Oscar fodder?) could make this a wild and crazy Sundance indeed.
While there are plenty of new directors (47 first-time directors to be exact, including actors Paul Dano and Idris Elba), there are even more returning filmmakers, such as Sebastian Silva, Desiree Akhavan, Nicolas Pesce and the Zellner brothers.
The Oscar-winning filmmaker explores the 1994 Loughinisland massacre which went unsolved for decades, caught up in red tape and bureaucracy.
Analyzing sixteen of the movies at this year’s TIFF said to be “based on true stories” to see which ones are worth seeing, which ones have Oscar chances and most of all, which ones you can believe were really true stories.
Warwick Thornton’s Western set in the Australian Outback premiered at TIFF as part of the Platform section and won the jury-selected award in that section. It stars Hamilton Morris, Ewen Leslie and Sam Neill.
People will be talking about Sally Hawkins’ turn as a mute cleaning lady in Guillermo del Toro’s adult fairy tale The Shape of Water, but don’t forget about Richard Jenkins, who nearly steals the show.
Written by Joe Barton (Humans) and directed by David Bruckner (The Signal, Southbound), the film follows four friends hiking through the Scandinavian wilderness.
True stories such as Battle of the Sexes, Darkest Hour and The Disaster Artist reigned supreme at TIFF, where The Killing of a Sacred Deer also made a strong impression.
The crime drama from the filmmaker behind In Bruges stars Frances McDormand, Sam Rockwell and Woody Harrelson.
The festival favorite, starring Ethan Hawke and Amanda Seyfried, is the distributor’s first official buy at the 42nd annual film fest.
The two movies, directed by Scott Cooper (Black Mass) and Susanna White (Our Kind of Traitor), premiered at TIFF, one getting far more immediate attention than the other, but the simpler (and far less expensive) film ends up working better.
Two of Toronto’s bigger premieres feature great sports stars of the past as portrayed by popular actors from the present. One of the movies has a much bigger and more important message, though they both build up to spectacular match-ups.
With his droopy eye, gaunt face, long hair and an unplaceable accent, Franco is perfect as Tommy Wiseau, nd I wouldn’t be surprised if he earns a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy.
Louis C.K. plays a successful TV writer-producer whose teenage daughter strikes up an unusual friendship with a 68-year-old filmmaker whose past includes unsavory accusations. It’s a controversial premise for C.K., who has dealt with unsavory accusations of his own of late, not that buyers were bothered.
The streaming plunked down around $4 million for Mark Raso’s Kodachrome, which finds Ed Harris and Jason Sudeikis playing a father and son who embark on a road trip to Kansas to develop some important rolls of film. Joining them along the way is Elizabeth Olsen, a welcome presence in any indie movie.
Led by Tom Quinn and Tim League, Neon is one of the most exciting indie distributors around today, and it’s buying movies that we actually want to see.
Keep in mind that the list below is comprised solely of performances that we’ve actually seen at this point, which is why Denzel Washington, Sally Hawkins, Gary Oldman, Emma Stone Saoirse Ronan and Christian Bale aren’t on here… yet. We may post a sequel later in the week, so stay tuned!
Bodied is the rare satire that works, and in today’s hyper-sensitive, overly-PC culture, it may be exactly what we need right now, especially given the conversation it has inspired about free speech and the consequences of language.
There aren’t many true movie stars left these days, though Damon is still one of them. However, if he keeps this up, his career as a leading man may be what gets downsized. Because in Hollywood, like Suburbicon, there’s always some lookalike willing to take your place.
Tonya Harding and Molly Bloom may come from very different backgrounds, but they’re both women who picked themselves back up after getting knocked down. The fact that these movies debuted on the same night in Toronto is film festival poetry, folks.
With festival season having begun last week, Edward Douglas recommends the 12 TIFF World Premieres that he thinks will be “Can’t Miss” movies at the annual Canadian film festival.
Headed to Toronto for TIFF 2017? You’ll need our Exclusive Party and Event Grid, with premiere events, VIP parties, and RSVP details. We’ll continue to update the list as we get closer to the big event, so you’ll have everything you need to keep the party going all week!
Both filmmakers will be returning to the Toronto Film Festival after having success with previous films that played the fest. Gilroy’s Nightcrawler premiered there in 2014 leading to his screenplay receiving an Oscar nomination.
Running over the Labor Day weekend, the annual film festival has earned its reputation as the place where the year’s Oscar frontrunners get seen for the first time by many Academy members and others in the industry. Angelina Jolie, Alexander Payne, Joe Wright and Rebecca Miller are some of the filmmakers presenting films this year.