2024 Toronto International Film Festival: Coralie Fargeat’s ‘The Substance’ to Open Midnight Madness

Today, the Toronto International Film Festival announces its Midnight Madness lineup for 2024, which will open with the North American Premiere of Coralie Fargeat’s buzzy horror thriller The Substance, starring Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley, which won the Screenplay award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival.

The Substance tells the story of a fading celebrity (Moore) who decides to use a black market drug, a cell-replicating substance that temporarily creates a younger, better version of herself (Qualley). In his review of the film, AW’s Luke Hearfield said the film is “an instant transformational horror classic that demands to be watched with a crowd.”

The Midnight Madness program is presented by Intrepid Travel and features five World Premieres amongst the 10 titles that celebrate the best in action, horror, shock, and fantasy cinema with midnight premieres at the historic Royal Alexandra Theatre.

This year’s Midnight Madness features number of TIFF and Midnight Madness alumni returning this year, including Joseph Kahn (TIFF 2017 People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award winner), Timo Tjahjanto (who last attended in 2016), and Fargeat (whose debut feature premiered at TIFF in 2017).

2024 Midnight Madness program:

OPENING FILM
The Substance Coralie Fargeat | United Kingdom/USA/France
North American Premiere

Dead Mail Joe DeBoer, Kyle McConaghy | USA
Canadian Premiere
Sales Title

Dead Talents Society John Hsu | Taiwan
North American Premiere

Else Thibault Emin | France/Belgium
World Premiere
Sales Title

Escape from the 21st Century Yang LI | China
International Premiere
Sales Title

Friendship Andrew DeYoung | USA
World Premiere
Sales Title

Ick Joseph Kahn | USA
World Premiere
Sales Title

It Doesn’t Get Any Better Than This Rachel Kempf, Nick Toti | USA
Canadian Premiere
Sales Title

The Gesuidouz Kenichi Ugana | Japan
World Premiere
Sales Title

The Shadow Strays Timo Tjahjanto | Indonesia
World Premiere

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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