TIFF16: Moonlight and Jackie Set for Toronto International Film Festival Platform

Erik Anderson August 12, 2016

The Toronto International Film Festival has announced its lineup for Platform, a program now in its second year. Platform was designed to be a champion of director’s cinema and includes films from all around the world. From crime thrillers to tragedies to satire to coming-of-stories, Platform is destined to be a mainstay of TIFF for years to come.

Two high profile films have been included in the lineup; Barry Jenkins’ MOONLIGHT (watch the first trailer here) and Pablo Larraín’s JACKIE, starring Oscar-winner Natalie Portman (Black Swan) as First Lady Jackie Kennedy. MOONLIGHT is set for an October bow from A24, JACKIE has yet to secure a distributor. NOCTURAMA, from critically acclaimed writer/director Bertrand Bonello will also have its international premiere.

Platform films will screen from Thursday, September 8 to Thursday, September 15. Each film will have its first screening for public, press and industry at the Winter Garden Theatre.

“A multicultural epicentre, Toronto is one of the most diverse and inclusive cities in the world, and it is the perfect home for Platform to live and grow as a world-class programme,” said Piers Handling, Director and CEO of TIFF. “The lineup this year aims to shine the spotlight on fearless, artistic films that will inspire a global dialogue around issues that affect us all, and we are thrilled to honour the next generation of filmmakers who are capturing the evolving discourse with their transformative visions.”

“In its inaugural year in 2015, Platform successfully established itself as fundamental to the Festival, and we’re proud to present a dramatically thrilling and daring programme for its second year,” said Cameron Bailey, Artistic Director of the Toronto International Film Festival. “This year’s group of bold and brilliant filmmakers brought forth narratives that are provocative, personal, and will challenge conventional forms of expression and redefine the art of storytelling. The lineup will give our audiences a window into the minds of some of the most masterful and exploratory directors of our time.”

Platform titles are eligible for the Toronto Platform Prize ($25,000 CAD), which goes to the best film in the programme as selected by a three-person international jury, and will be announced at the Awards Ceremony on September 18, 2016.

The Platform Jury will be announced in the coming weeks. The 41st Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 8 to 18, 2016.

Here is the Platform lineup for TIFF16:

Daguerrotype (Le Secret de la chambre noire) Kiyoshi Kurosawa, France/Japan/Belgium
World Premiere
Kiyoshi Kurosawa makes his first film outside Japan with this French-language ghost romance fantasy, about an aging photographer whose obsession with an archaic technique draws his young assistant and beautiful daughter into a dark and mysterious world. StarringTaharRahim, Constance Rousseau, Olivier Gourmet, and MathieuAmalric. ***Goldstone Ivan Sen, Australia
International Premiere
Indigenous detective Jay Swan arrives in the Australian outback town of Goldstone investigating a missing persons enquiry. What seems like a simple light duties case opens into a web of crime and corruption. Jay must pull his life together and bury his personal differences with young local cop Josh, so together they can bring justice to Goldstone. Starring Aaron Pedersen, Alex Russell, Pei Pei Cheng, David Gulpilil, David Wenham, and Jacki Weaver.

Heal the Living (Réparer les vivants) Katell Quillévéré, France/Belgium
North American Premiere
It all starts at daybreak, three young surfers on the raging seas. A few hours later, on the way home, an accident occurs. Now entirely dependent upon life-support in a hospital in Le Havre, France, Simon’s existence is little more than an illusion. Meanwhile, in Paris, a woman awaits the organ transplant that will give her a new lease on life. Starring Tahar Rahim, Emmanuelle Seigner, Anne Dorval, Bouli Lanners, Kool Shen, Monia Chokri, Alice Taglioni, Karim Leklou, Alice de Lencquesaing, Finnegan Oldfield, Théo Cholbi, Gabin Verdet, and Dominique Blanc.

Hema Hema: Sing Me a Song While I Wait (he-mà he-mà) Khyentse Norbu, Bhutan/Hong Kong
North American Premiere
The new film from Bhutanese lama and filmmaker Khyentse Norbu chronicles a sacred jungle ritual where masked, anonymous participants seek complete self-knowledge — or descend into thievery, violation, and murder. Starring Tshering Dorji, Sadon Lhamo, Thinley Dorji, and Xun Zhou.

Home Fien Troch, Belgium
North American Premiere
Home portrays the struggle between two generations: teenagers who explore a thin line between trust, friendship, and loyalty, and adults who seem alienated from their past younger selves. Both find it difficult to communicate and understand each other’s closed-off world. The clash can be more brutal than expected. Starring Sebastian Van Dun, Mistral Guidotti, Loïc Batog, Lena Suijkerbuijk, Karlijn Sileghem, Els Deceukelier, Robby Cleiren, Yavuz Saçikara, and Els Dottermans.

Jackie Pablo Larraín, United Kingdom
North American Premiere
After US President John F. Kennedy is murdered, First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy fights through grief and trauma to regain her faith, console her children, and define her husband’s historic legacy. Starring Natalie Portman, Peter Sarsgaard, Greta Gerwig, Billy Crudup, and John Hurt.

Lady Macbeth William Oldroyd, United Kingdom
World Premiere
Rural England, 1865. Katherine is stifled by her loveless marriage to a bitter man twice her age and his cold, unforgiving family. When she embarks on a passionate affair with a young worker on her husband’s estate, a force is unleashed inside her so powerful that she will stop at nothing to get what she wants. Starring Florence Pugh, Cosmo Jarvis, Paul Hilton, Naomi Ackie, and Christopher Fairbank.

Layla M. Mijke de Jong, Netherlands/Belgium/Germany/Jordan
World Premiere
Eighteen year-old Layla, a Dutch girl with Moroccan roots, joins a group of radical Muslims. She encounters a world that nurtures her ideas initially, but finally confronts her with an impossible choice. Starring Nora El Koussour and Ilias Addab.

Maliglutit (Searchers) Zacharias Kunuk, Canada
World Premiere
Nunavut, Canada circa 1913. Kuanana returns from a caribou hunt to discover his wife and daughter kidnapped, and the rest of his family slaughtered. His father’s spirit helper, the loon Kallulik, sets him on course to overturn fate and reunite his family. Starring Benjamin Kunuk, Karen Ivalu, and Jonah Qunaq.

Moonlight Barry Jenkins, USA
International Premiere
Moonlight is the tender, heartbreaking story of a young man’s struggle to find himself, told across three defining chapters in his life as he experiences the ecstasy, pain, and beauty of falling in love, while grappling with his own sexuality. Anchored by the singular vision of filmmaker Barry Jenkins, Moonlight is an exploration of male masculinity — a sensual, intoxicating piece of cinema that uncovers deep truths about the moments that define us, the people who shape us most, and the ache of love that can last a lifetime. Starring Mahershala Ali, Naomie Harris, Trevante Rhodes, André Holland, Janelle Monáe, Ashton Sanders, Jharrel Jerome, Alex Hibbert, and Jaden Piner.

Nocturama Bertrand Bonello, France/Germany/Belgium
International Premiere
Bertrand Bonello directs this provocative account of a group of young, multiracial radicals whose terrorist attacks on Paris lead to a massive manhunt. Starring Finnegan Oldfield, Vincent Rottiers, Hamza Meziani, Manal Issa, Martin Guyot, Jamil Mc Craven,
Rabah Nait Oufella, Laure Valentinelli, Ilias Le Doré, Robin Goldbronn, Luis Rego, Hermine Karagheuz, and Adèle Haenel.

Those Who Make Revolution Halfway Only Dig Their Own Graves
(Ceux qui font les révolutions à moitié n’ont fait que se creuser un tombeau)
Mathieu Denis and Simon Lavoie, Canada
World Premiere
Klas Batalo, Giutizia, Tumulto, and Ordine Nuovo, four twenty-somethings from Québec, reject the world in which they live. Three years after the collapse of the Maple Spring protest movement, they resort to a form of vandalism that gradually leads them closer to terrorism. But their revolutionary avant-garde is far from society’s prevailing aspirations and threatens to blow up in their faces. Starring Charlotte Aubin, Laurent Bélanger, Emmanuelle Lussier-Martinez, and Gabrielle Tremblay.

***Previously announced as a Special Presentation, Daguerrotype (Le Secret de la chambre noire) now screens in Platform.

Purchase Festival ticket packages online 24 hours a day at tiff.net/tickets; by phone from 10am to 7pm ET daily at 416.599.TIFF or 1.888.599.8433; or visit the Steve & Rashmi Gupta Box Office at TIFF Bell Lightbox in person from 10am to 10pm ET daily at TIFF Bell Lightbox, Reitman Square, 350 King Street West, until August 14 for My Choice packages and August 24for TIFF Choice packages, while quantities last.

The 41st Toronto International Film Festival runs September 8 to 18, 2016.

About TIFF
TIFF is a charitable cultural organization whose mission is to transform the way people see the world, through film. An international leader in film culture, TIFF projects include the annual Toronto International Film Festival in September; TIFF Bell Lightbox, which features five cinemas, major exhibitions, and learning and entertainment facilities; and innovative national distribution program Film Circuit. The organization generates an annual economic impact of $189 million CAD. TIFF Bell Lightbox is generously supported by contributors including Founding Sponsor Bell, the Province of Ontario, the Government of Canada, the City of Toronto, the Reitman family (Ivan Reitman, Agi Mandel and Susan Michaels), The Daniels Corporation and RBC. For more information, visit tiff.net.

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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.