Ron Howard’s ‘Eden’ Joins Toronto Film Fest Lineup

Ron Howard’s survival thriller Eden is set for a world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in September, organizers said on Tuesday.

Eden, from Imagine Entertainment, stars Jude Law, Vanessa Kirby, Sydney Sweeney, Ana de Armas and Daniel Brühl and is based on real-life events and hails from Tetris scribe Noah Pink. The movie will play as a gala at Roy Thomson Hall.

Toronto also added world premieres for Anderson .Paak’s K-Pops; Shepherds, by Antigone director Sophie Deraspe; and Superboys of Malegaon, by Indian director Reema Kagti, which will play as a gala from Amazon MGM Studios. The film based on the life of Nasir Shaikh follows an aspiring filmmaker joining a group of friends to make a film for his town, Malegaon.

K-Pops marks the directorial debut of Grammy award-winning artist .Paak, with Yvette Nicole Brown and rapper Jonnie “Dumbfoundead” Park starring. The dramatic comedy portrays a washed-up musician from Los Angeles who tries to revive his career by joining the band for a K-Pop competition show in Seoul, only to discover his long-lost son could front one of the country’s hottest new groups.

Shepherds is a book-to-film adaptation of the Canadian novel D’où viens tu, berger?, which follows a young advertising executive who trades in his Montreal life to become a shepherd in France, only to find pastoral bliss adds up to hard work.

The other announcement Tuesday is a world premiere for John Crowley’s love story We Live in Time, which stars Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield. StudioCanal is behind the feature helmed by Crowley, the director behind the romance drama Brooklyn and Garfield’s break-out role Boy A. He will helm from a screenplay by playwright Nick Payne as We Live in Time captures a couple whose chance encounter changes their lives as they fall in love, build a home, start a family and face difficult truths.

Earlier, Toronto announced that Cate Blanchett will receive the TIFF Share Her Journey Groundbreaker Award in Toronto, David Cronenberg will pick up the Norman Jewison Career Achievement Award and Oscar-nominated actor Amy Adams will receive the TIFF Tribute Performer Award.

Past Tribute Awards honorees include Jessica Chastain, Roger Deakins, Colman Domingo, Brendan Fraser, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Joaquin Phoenix, Taika Waititi, Michelle Yeoh and Chloé Zhao.