TIFF50: New Films from Steven Soderbergh, Nia DaCosta, Alejandro Amenábar to World Premiere at 50th Toronto International Film Festival
New movies from directors Steven Soderbergh and Nia DaCosta have been announced as premieres at the 50th edition of the Toronto Film Festival lineup.
TIFF organizers announced on Thursday the first five titles of its official Special Presentation selection, all of which are set to world premiere. They are Soderbergh’s The Christophers, DaCosta’s Hedda, Alejandro Amenábar’s The Captive, Sung-hyun Byun’s Good News and Chandler Levack’s Mile End Kicks.
Soderbergh, the Oscar-winning director of Traffic and prolific filmmaker of Ocean’s 11, Magic Mike, Out of Sight and Erin Brockovich, was at the last edition of TIFF with his spectral thriller Presence. His newest film, The Christophers, is described as a black comedy set in the art world and stars Ian McKellen, Michaela Coel, Jessica Gunning, and James Corden.
DaCosta, known for The Marvels, the Candyman remake and the upcoming 28 Years Later: Bone Temple, is adapting Henrik Ibsen’s famous play with Tessa Thompson and Imogen Poots in the lead roles. Hedda follows the eponymous character who is trapped in a house and marriage she does not want.
Amenábar is the Chilean-Spanish director of The Others, starring Nicole Kidman, and The Sea Inside, which starred Javier Bardem. His film The Captive follows famed Don Quixote writer Miguel de Cervantes, then a wounded navy soldier, as he’s held hostage in Algiers.
Sung-hyun Byun, a South Korean filmmaker whose 2017 film The Merciless had its world premiere at Cannes, will attend the festival with Good News. The movie is reportedly about people who attempt to land a hijacked plane.
Levack’s directorial debut I Like Movies a coming-of-age comedic drama, premiered at TIFF in 2022. Mile End Kicks follows a 24-year-old movie critic who moves to Montreal in the summer of 2011 with the goal of writing a book about Alanis Morissette’s “Jagged Little Pill.” Her plans take a turn when she falls for two guys in the same struggling indie band and vows to become their publicist.
“These first five films of our official selection reflect the innovation, heart, and global perspective that have made our festival a home for great cinema over the past 50 editions,” said TIFF’s CEO Cameron Bailey. “We’re excited to kick-off our special presentations with Chandler Levack’s ‘Mile End Kicks,’ a young, Canadian director who has very close ties to TIFF in addition to these established directors. We can’t wait to share more in the weeks ahead as we celebrate this historic year with audiences and filmmakers from around the world.”
The documentary John Candy: I Like Me, from director Colin Hanks and producer Ryan Reynolds, will open the festival’s 50th edition, as previously announced. TIFF is expected to slowly reveal the rest of its lineup over the next month with the full lineup announced July 27. This year’s event will take place from September 4 through 14, crossing over with the Venice Film Festival, which ends on September 6.
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), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) 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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