TIFF set to World Premiere ‘Widows,’ ‘If Beale Street Could Talk’, ‘Beautiful Boy,’ ‘High Life’ and more

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Piers Handling, CEO and Director of TIFF, and Cameron Bailey, Artistic Director of TIFF, today unveiled the first round of titles premiering in the Gala and Special Presentations of the 43rd Toronto International Film Festival.

Kicking it off are 21 World Premieres of hotly anticipated films from Oscar winners and nominees alike including Steve McQueen’s Widows with Viola Davis, Barry Jenkins’ If Beale Street Could Talk with Regina King and Felix Van Groeningen’s Beautiful Boy with Timothée Chalamet and Steve Carell, all of which will make Toronto their first stop this festival season. There are 7 International Premieres, including Oscar nominee Jason Reitman’s The Front Runner with Oscar nominees Hugh Jackman and Vera Farmiga and Oscar winner J.K. Simmons, Asghar Farhadi’s Cannes opener Everybody Knows with Oscar winners Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem, Burning from Lee Chang-dong and Can You Ever Forgive Me? from Marielle Heller and starring Oscar nominee Melissa McCarthy.

This year’s TIFF will also features 8 North American Premieres including Bradley Cooper’s directorial debut A Star Is Born with himself and Lady Gaga (after its Venice bow) and 11 Canadian Premieres. The selection announced today includes 13 features directed by women, including new films from Claire Denis, Mia Hanson-Løve, Nicole Holofcener and Amma Asante.

Some notable exceptions include the Freddie Mercury biopic Bohemian Rhapsody with Malek, James Gray’s Ad Astra, Vox Lux with Natalie Portman, the finally completed last film of Orson Welles, The Other Side of the Wind, Velvet Buzzsaw with Jake Gyllenhaal, Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Favourite, most of the Focus Features slate including On the Basis of Sex, Boy Erased and Mary Queen of Scots, and Canadian favorite Xavier Dolan with his newest film The Death and Life of John F. Donovan. This is just the first round there and more films will be announced.

“We have an exceptional selection of films this year that will excite Festival audiences from all walks of life,” said Handling. “Today’s lineup showcases beloved auteurs alongside fresh voices in filmmaking, including numerous female powerhouses. The sweeping range in cinematic storytelling from around the world is a testament to the uniqueness of the films that are being made.”

“Every September we invite the whole film world to Toronto, one of the most diverse, movie-mad cities in the world. I’m thrilled that we’ve been able to put together a lineup of Galas and Special Presentations that reflects Toronto’s spirit of inclusive, passionate engagement with film. We can’t wait to unveil these films for our audience.”

More announcements will follow in the coming weeks.

The 43rd Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 6th to 16th, 2018.

GALAS

Beautiful Boy, Felix van Groeningen, USA
World Premiere

Everybody Knows, Asghar Farhadi, Spain/France/Italy
North American Premiere

First Man, Damien Chazelle, USA
Canadian Premiere

Galveston, Mélanie Laurent, USA
Canadian Premiere

The Hate U Give, George Tillman, Jr., USA
World Premiere

Hidden Man, Jiang Wen, China
International Premiere

High Life, Claire Denis, Germany/France/Poland/United Kingdom
World Premiere

Husband Material, Anurag Kashyap, India
World Premiere

The Kindergarten Teacher, Sara Colangelo, USA
Canadian Premiere

The Land of Steady Habits, Nicole Holofcener, USA
World Premiere

Life Itself, Dan Fogelman, USA
World Premiere

The Public, Emilio Estevez, USA
World Premiere

Red Joan, Sir Trevor Nunn, United Kingdom
World Premiere

Shadow, Zhang Yimou, China
North American Premiere

A Star is Born, Bradley Cooper, USA
North American Premiere

What They Had, Elizabeth Chomko, USA
International Premiere

Widows, Steve McQueen, United Kingdom/USA
World Premiere

SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS 

Ben is Back, Peter Hedges, USA
World Premiere

Burning, Lee Chang-dong, South Korea
North American Premiere

Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Marielle Heller, USA
International Premiere

Capernaum, Nadine Labaki, Lebanon
North American Premiere

Cold War, Paweł Pawlikowski, Poland/United Kingdom/France
Canadian Premiere

Colette, Wash Westmoreland, United Kingdom
Canadian Premiere

Dogman, Matteo Garrone, Italy/France
Canadian Premiere

The Front Runner, Jason Reitman, USA
International Premiere

Giant Little Ones, Keith Behrman, Canada
World Premiere

Girls of the Sun, Eva Husson, France
International Premiere

Hotel Mumbai, Anthony Maras, Australia
World Premiere

The Hummingbird Project, Kim Nguyen, Canada
World Premiere

If Beale Street Could Talk, Barry Jenkins, USA
World Premiere

Manto, Nandita Das, India
North American Premiere

Maya, Mia Hansen-Løve, France
World Premiere

Monsters and Men, Reinaldo Marcus Green, USA
Canadian Premiere

*Special Presentations Opening Film*

MOUTHPIECE, Patricia Rozema, Canada
World Premiere

Non-Fiction, Olivier Assayas, France
Canadian Premiere

The Old Man & The Gun, David Lowery, USA
International Premiere

Papi Chulo, John Butler, Ireland
World Premiere

Roma, Alfonso Cuarón, Mexico/USA
Canadian Premiere

*Special Presentations Closing Film*

Shoplifters, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Japan
Canadian Premiere

The Sisters Brothers, Jacques Audiard, USA/France/Romania/Spain
North American Premiere

Sunset, László Nemes, Hungary/France
North American Premiere

Through Black Spruce, Don McKellar, Canada
World Premiere

The Wedding Guest, Michael Winterbottom, United Kingdom
World Premiere

The Weekend, Stella Meghie, USA
World Premiere

Where Hands Touch, Amma Asante, United Kingdom
World Premiere

White Boy Rick, Yann Demange, USA
International Premiere

Wildlife, Paul Dano, USA
Canadian Premiere