25 must-see films at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival

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After a mostly star-less edition last year, the Toronto International Film Festival is ready to roll out the red carpet over the next 11 days.

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The line-up kicks off Thursday night with the debut of David Gordon Green’s Ben Stiller-led dramedy Nutcrackers and wraps with Rebel Wilson’s directorial debut The Deb on Sept. 14.

In between, Toronto audiences will be the first in Canada to see the highly anticipated premieres of Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night; Amy Adams’ Nightbitch; Francis Ford Coppola’s audacious Megalopolis; the Sydney Sweeney-led nailbiter Eden; a slew of musical biopics that follow The Tragically Hip, Elton John, Bruce Springsteen, Pharrell Williams, Andrea Bocelli, Paul Anka and Randy Bachman; a revenge thriller drama directed by Angelina Jolie; and no shortage of dramas with actors (including Jennifer Lopez, Hugh Grant, Jude Law, Pamela Anderson and Tom Hiddleston) playing against type.

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Since 2005, 14 films that have screened for Canadian audiences first at TIFF have gone on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture. Its coveted People’s Choice winner is almost always a big player during awards season, with last year’s selection, American Fiction, getting five nominations and winning for Best Adapted Screenplay.

“We’re helping shape what’s seen as valuable in film,” TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey tells Postmedia.

Bailey says Toronto crowds respond to stories that feel “fresh.” He namechecks popular titles like The Big Chill, The Princess Bride, Slumdog Millionaire, Moonlight, The Silver Linings Playbook, 12 Years a Slave, Green Book and American Beauty as films that helped solidify the festival as a place to launch buzzworthy Oscar contenders.

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But TIFF is also a delight for all types of film lovers as it spotlights less mainstream fare alongside star-driven titles.

“I was looking back recently to 1986 when we did a spotlight on a kind of a weird Spanish filmmaker, who hadn’t been seen in North America before. His name is Pedro Almodovar, and of course now he’s an icon,” Bailey says. “I always encourage people attending the festival to seek out something that they’ve never heard of. Look for something that is going to surprise you and allow you to kind of expand your view of the world and your view of this art form.”

With 278 features set to make their Canadian debut in Toronto, we’ve picked out 25 titles we can’t wait to see. All of which will be coming to theatres (or streamers) in the near future.

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Anora
This year’s Palme d’Or winner follows a sex worker (Mikey Madison) who gets her chance at a Cinderella-like ending when she marries the son of a wealthy Russian oligarch.

Babygirl
Nicole Kidman plays a high-powered executive who risks everything when she starts a sexual relationship with an intern. “This is one woman’s story and this is, I hope, a very liberating story,” Kidman says.

The Brutalist
Hailed as a surprise awards-season contender following its Venice premiere earlier this week, director Brady Corbet (Vox Lux) chronicles the journey of a Hungarian-born Jewish architect (Adrien Brody) who flees to the United States to experience the “American dream.” All of it in shot in sumptuous 70mm VistaVision.

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Conclave
When Vatican figures gather for a conclave to choose a new pontiff, one Cardinal (Ralph Fiennes) uncovers a secret that others would rather stay hidden.

Disclaimer
Five-time Academy Award winner Alfonso Cuaron adapts Renee Knight’s novel into a seven-part psychological thriller coming to Apple TV+ about a journalist (Cate Blanchett) who is threatened with the exposure of her darkest secret.

Eden
Director Ron Howard’s passion project follows a group of disparate people try to find a slice of happiness on a previously uninhabited island in the Galapagos. Stars Jude Law, Vanessa Kirby, Sydney Sweeney, Daniel Bruhl and Ana de Armas.

Elton John: Never Too Late
Follows Elton John as he prepares for his final concert in North America at Los Angeles’ Dodger Stadium during his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour.

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Emilia Perez
Tells the story of a well-connected lawyer (Zoe Saldana) who takes a job helping a Mexican cartel leader (Karla Sofía Gascon) fake their death and undergo sex-reassignment operations. At the 77th Cannes Film Festival in May, writer-director Jacques Audiard took home the Festival’s Jury Prize, and Gascon, Saldana, Selena Gomez and their co-star Adriana Paz shared Best Actress.

Heretic
Writer-director duo Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (who penned A Quiet Place) cast Hugh Grant as a evil homeowner who traps two young missionaries when they make a mistake and knock on the wrong door.

The Last Showgirl
Pamela Anderson has earned early Oscar buzz for her role as a Las Vegas dancer who is forced to plan for her future when her long-running show closes.

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The Life of Chuck
Adapted from the Stephen King novella published in his 2020 collection, If It Bleeds, Tom Hiddleston plays an ordinary accountant named Charles “Chuck” Krantz who leaves his mark on seemingly everyone. King himself describes the movie as “A happiness machine.”

Megalopolis
Francis Ford Coppola’s costly philosophical epic (which he self-funded after selling a stake in his wine empire) centres on Cesar (Adam Driver), a visionary architect who battles his nemesis, Mayor Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito), in a bid to create a more idealistic future. “The cast features people who were cancelled at one point or another. There were people who are archconservatives and others who are extremely politically progressive. But we were all working on one film together,” Coppola tells Rolling Stone.

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Nightbitch
Based on the bestselling 2021 novel of the same name, director Marielle Heller (Can You Ever Forgive Me) casts six-time Academy Award nominated Amy Adams as a stay-at-home-mom whose domestic life takes a surreal turn when she unleashes her inner dog.

Nutcrackers
After seven years away from the screen, Ben Stiller returns to acting in a story about a workaholic who has to care for his four nephews after their parents die in a car accident. “I never thought I’d take this much time away from acting,” Stiller tells Variety. “It wasn’t intentional; it was just how things evolved.”

The Order
The adaptation of Kevin Flynn and Gary Gerhardt’s nonfiction book The Silent Brotherhood follows the FBI’s investigation into a white supremacist group whose crimes included bank robberies and armoured car heists that led to one of the largest manhunts in FBI history. Stars Jude Law, Nicholas Hoult, Jurnee Smollett and Tye Sheridan.

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Piece by Piece
The life of singer and producer Pharrell Williams is told through LEGO pieces in this animated feature debut from Morgan Neville (Won’t You Be My Neighbor?).

Presence
After recently helming movies like Magic Mike’s Last Dance and Kimi, director Steven Soderbergh tries his hand at the horror genre with a film that centres on a family that moves into a suburban house and becomes convinced they’re not alone. According to Deadline, the movie grew out of an idea that Soderbergh had about the house where he lived when he learned a daughter killed her mother in the house.

Queer
Luca Guadagnino (Call Me by Your Name) reteams with his Challengers scribe Justin Kuritzkes to direct Daniel Craig in a story that centres on an American ex-pat living a solitary life in 1950s Mexico City.

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Relay
Directed by David Mackenzie (Hell or High Water), Oscar winner Riz Ahmed and Lily James star in a cat-and-mouse thriller about a corporate fixer and a former bio-tech company staffer who’s on the run after stealing scandalous documents from her employer.

Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band
Documentarian Thom Zimny captures Bruce Springsteen as The Boss looks back on the path he and the E Street Band have blazed since the ’70s up to their latest world tour.

Saturday Night
Jason Reitman (son of Ghostbusters director Ivan) captures the frantic hour-and-a-half leading up to the series premiere of Saturday Night Live back in 1975.

The Room Next Door
In Pedro Almodovar’s adaptation of Sigrid Nunez’s What Are You Going Through, Tilda Swinton plays a former war correspondent stricken with cancer who reconnects with an old friend (Julianne Moore) for a reunion that is described as “extreme but strangely sweet.” Following its premiere in Venice earlier this week, the film earned a never-ending 18-minute standing ovation.

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The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal
Director Mike Downie and band members Gord Downie, Rob Baker, Johnny Fay, Paul Langlois and Gord Sinclair take an emotional look back at the origin, impact, and legacy of the band that defined Canada.

Will & Harper
Follows Will Ferrell as he embarks on a cross-country road trip with an old friend after they reveal they are coming out as a trans woman. “It’s a movie about the power of friendship and acceptance — that we hope can help shift the culture,” the filmmakers say.

Without Blood
Adapted from Alessandro Baricco’s novel of the same name, the war drama, starring Salma Hayek Pinault and Demián Bichir, follows a young girl seeking revenge for the murders of her father and brother. Angelina Jolie directs.

The 49th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival runs from Sept. 5 to 15.

mdaniell@postmedia.com

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