The latest films by Reese Witherspoon, Denzel Washington, and Robert Downey Jr. will premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival in September.
Witherspoon stars in Wild, based on the bestselling memoir by Cheryl Strayed and directed by Jean-Marc Vallée. The Quebec director earned accolades last year for his film Dallas Buyers Club, which also played at TIFF and earned both Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto Oscars for best actor and best supporting actor.
Wild is one of 13 galas announced this week by festival directors Piers Handling and Cameron Bailey.
“Toronto can anticipate another remarkable lineup of films,” Handling says. “Cinema’s collective and transformative experience lives at the heart of our festival — a sentiment that inspires the global dialogue rippling throughout the selections revealed today.”
Downey Jr. stars in The Judge, about a lawyer who returns to his childhood home where his father, the town’s judge, is suspected of murder. The film also features Robert Duvall, Vera Farmiga, Vincent D’Onofrio, and Billy Bob Thornton.
Director Antoine Fuqua (Training Day) re-teams with Denzel Washington for The Equalizer, a big-screen adaptation of the cult ’80s television show.
Other gala selections include:
Foxcatcher: Directed by Bennett Miller, and starring Steve Carell, Anthony Michael Hall, Channing Tatum and Mark Ruffalo, the film tells the story of an unlikely relationship between an eccentric multimillionaire and two champion wrestlers.
Maps to the Stars: Canadian director David Cronenberg is back with this satire on today’s celeb-obsessed culture. The film won Julianne Moore the Best Actress award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Mia Wasikowska, Olivia Williams, John Cusack and Robert Pattinson also star.
This is Where I Leave You: Shawn Levy’s film stars Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Jane Fonda, Adam Driver, and Rose Byrne in a story of four adult siblings who return home following their father’s death.
Black and White: Kevin Costner and Octavia Spencer star in this film about a widowed grandfather left to raise his bi-racial granddaughter and the legal battle that ensues when the girl’s paternal grandmother seeks custody.
In addition to the galas, more than 40 films were announced in the Special Presentations programme, including:
Men, Women and Children: Director Jason Reitman’s latest film stars Jennifer Garner, Adam Sandler and Judy Greer and focuses on a group of high school teens and their parents dealing with how the internet has changed their lives.
Miss Julie: Jessica Chastain, Colin Farrell and Samantha Morton star in the Liv Ullmann-directed adaptation of August Strindberg’s famous play.
The Humbling: Based on Philip Roth’s final novel, The Humbling stars Al Pacino in the story of a legendary stage actor who has an affair with a lesbian woman half his age at a country house in Connecticut.
Mr. Turner: Mike Leigh directs this biopic about the last quarter century of the British painter J.M.W. Turner. Turner is played by Timothy Spall.
Rosewater: The Daily Show‘s Jon Stewart makes his directorial debut with the true story of an Iranian-Canadian journalist (played by Gael Garcia Bernal) who is imprisoned by the Iranian government following his appearance on Stewart’s show.
The festival’s closing night film is directed by and stars Alan Rickman. A Little Chaos centers around the Palace of Versailles and the court of Louis XIV. Kate Winslet plays a landscape gardener invited to design one of the palace’s fountains — as the title suggests, the gardener finds herself caught up in courtly rivalries and attracted to the architect who hired her.
Says Rickman: “It’s a great privilege for A Little Chaos, to have its world premiere in Toronto and for it to be given the festival’s closing night gala, but it’s also a very personal pleasure. I have filmed in the city, visited often, and some of my closest friends live there. It will be like coming home.”
The full slate of films will be announced in the weeks to come, including the opening night selection. For the complete list of films announced so far, click here.
TIFF 2014 runs from September 4-14, 2014.
Stay tuned to Cityline.ca for more TIFF14 coverage! You’ll find it at www.cityline.ca/tiff2014. And don’t miss our partner coverage on CityNews.ca and www.bttoronto.ca.
Film photos: Reese Witherspoon in Wild (top); Mia Wasikowska and Julianne Moore in Maps to the Stars (middle); Channing Tatum and Steve Carell in Foxcatcher (bottom)