Angelina Jolie’s ‘Without Blood,’ Mike Leigh’s ‘Hard Truths’ Added to Toronto Film Fest Lineup

The Toronto Film Festival has turned up the star power for its 49th edition, having added the latest movies from Alicia Vikander, Lupita Nyong’o, Steve Coogan, Ralph Fiennes, Jennifer Lopez, Salma Hayek, Lily James and Riz Ahmed.

For the Gala section at Roy Thomson Hall, there’s world bows for two music specials: the Andrea Bocelli biopic Andrea Bocelli: Because I Believe, a doc about the Italian tenor by director Cosima Spender; and Thom Zimny’s Bruce Springsteen doc for Disney+ and Hulu, Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band. Zimny was in Toronto last year with his Sylvester Stallone documentary Sly for Netflix.  

TIFF will also give a first look to Uberto Pasolini’s historical epic The Return, with Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche reteaming after The English Patient. And there’s gala world premieres for Peter Cattaneo’s The Penguin Lessons, toplined by Steve Coogan and Jonathan Pryce; Jennifer Lopez’s Unstoppable, a sports drama directed by William Goldenberg and backed by Artists Equity and Amazon MGM Studios; and Chris Sanders’ The Wild Robot, an animated movie from DreamWorks with a voice cast led by Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal and Kit Connor.

Toronto will this year feature a mix of films that debuted at Cannes and Venice, in addition to high-profile world premieres to screen in front of mainstream audiences at Roy Thomson Hall, TIFF Bell Lightbox, the Royal Alexandra Theatre and the Scotiabank Theatre, before jostling for position during the upcoming Hollywood awards season.

The Gala sidebar for Roy Thomson Hall also booked international premieres for Julie Delpy’s refugees comedy Meet the Barbarians, which premiered at the Rendez-Vous With French Cinema earlier this year; The Friend, by writer/directors Scott McGehee and David Siegel, and starring Naomi Watts and Costance Wu; and Josh Greenbaum’s Will & Harper, a road trip doc featuring Will Ferrell and Harper Steele.

From Cannes, Toronto is bringing for North American premieres Paul Schrader’s Oh, Canada (starring Uma Thurman, Richard Gere and Jacob Elordi); David Cronenberg’s The Shrouds; and Sean Baker’s latest film Anora, which took home the top prize in Cannes and stars Mikey Madison. Jacques Audiard’s crime musical Emilia Perez, which stars Zoe Saldana, Selena Gomez and Karla Sofia Gascon; Michael Gracey’s Better Man; and actor-turned-director Embeth Davidtz’s Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight will receive Canadian premieres.

Toronto earlier announced gala world premieres for Ron Howard’s Eden; Rebel Wilson’s The Deb; Elton John: Never Too Late, by directors R. J. Cutler and David Furnish; Woo Min-ho’s Harbin; and Reema Kagti’s Superboys of Malegaon.

Elsewhere, Toronto’s Special Presentations sidebar unveiled world premieres for Angelina Jolie’s Without Blood, with Salma Hayek and Demian Bichir as leads; Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths, which reunites the British director with his Secrets & Lies star Marianne Jean-Baptiste; Edward Burns’ Millers in Marriage, toplined by Julianna Margulies, Gretchen Mol, Minnie Driver and Morena Baccarin;  the Riz Ahmed and Lily James-starring thriller Relay from director David Mackenzie; Christopher Andrews’ crime thriller Bring Them Down for Mubi, where Barry Keoghan replaced Paul Mescal; the Netflix Native American basketball feature Rez Ball by veteran TV director Sydney Freeland and produced by LeBron James; and Ann Marie Fleming’s sci-fi thriller Can I Get a Witness?, starring the director’s earlier Window Horses collaborator Sandra Oh.

TIFF organizers are banking on Hollywood stars returning this year in big numbers after the Los Angeles labor disputes left Toronto’s 2023 edition short of celebrity talent on its red carpets, even as big-name filmmakers still made the journey. Without the old-world charm and glitz of Cannes or Venice, Toronto allows the major studios and independents to get their star-driven movies in front of ordinary film fans, and get seen or redeemed after world premieres at Telluride or marquee European festivals.

There’s world bows in the Special Presentations section in Toronto for Gia Coppola’s Pamela Anderson pic The Last Showgirl, also starring Jamie Lee Curtis and Dave Bautista; Dito Montiel’s crime comedy Riff Raff, led by Jennifer Coolidge and Brian Cox; the Alicia Vikander and Elisabeth Olsen-starring sci-fi thriller The Assessment, from director Fleur Fortune; Jason Buxton’s Sharp Corner, led by Cobie Smulders and Ben Foster; William Bridges’ All of You; R.T. Thorne’s post-apocalyptic thriller 40 Acres, starring Danielle Deadwyler; the A24 thriller Heretic, directed by A Quiet Place writers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods and starring Hugh Grant; and Korean director E. oni’s queer drama Love in the Big City.  

Other Special Presentations world debuts: Seth Worley’s directorial debut Sketch; Fernando Coimbra’s Carnival is Over, a mafia comedy set in Rio De Janeiro; the boxing drama The Cut from director Sean Ellis and starring Orlando Bloom; Rachel Morrison’s The Fire Inside, with a storyline written by Moonlight helmer Barry Jenkins about the boxer Claressa Shields; and Jose Lourenco’s Young Werther Goethe adaptation that stars Alison Pill, Patrick J. Adams and Douglas Booth.

Most high-profile U.S. titles booked into Toronto this year will already have U.S. distribution in place, making the festival a testing ground for how to position and market the films for their theatrical release later this year and next. There’s also around two dozen titles coming into Toronto with U.S. distribution up for grabs, with many of those films having first been shopped to buyers in Cannes.

For international titles, TIFF has traditionally been a gateway into the North American market, especially for crowd-pleasers like the Oscar winner Slumdog Millionaire and Japanese anime legend Hayao Miyazaki’s final film, The Boy and the Heron, which opened the 2023 Toronto Film Festival.

TIFF also unveiled international premieres for Edward Berger’s Conclave, the Vatican conspiracy film that stars Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci and John Lithgow; Morgan Neville’s animated biopic Piece by Piece, about Pharrell Williams; and Malcolm Washington’s feature directorial debut The Piano Lesson for Netflix, which stars Samuel L. Jackson, John David Washington and Ray Fisher.

There’s also North American bows for Walter Salles’ directorial return I’m Still Here, earlier picked up by Sony Pictures Classics out of Cannes; Athina Rachel Tsangari’s neo-Western Harvest, starring Caleb Landry Jones; and Rumors, the latest movie from Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson that bowed in Cannes.

Toronto earlier announced the 2024 edition will open with Ben Stiller’s comedy Nutcrackers, from director David Gordon Green. And Rebel Wilson’s The Deb, a musical comedy set in rural Australia, will close TIFF. Those film picks follow a tradition of Toronto leaning into mainstream crowd-pleasers to bookend its September event. 

The Toronto Film Festival is set to run from Sept. 5-15.