July 30th and time for the midsummer stretch.
But wait…is that my toe twitching? Dare I say I can’t wait for September? Before you pelt me with peaches, let me say… TIFF starts on September 5th!!!! While everyone else is sharpening their pencils, I am holed up in a black corner, blissed out, but my fun time is legal. I may be glassy-eyed, but festival furor is one of my adult pleasures.
I await the full lineup, but details are emerging, one summer day at a time.
If you saw Hunger or Shame, then expect to have your assumptions challenged with Brit director Steve McQueen’s latest drama, Twelve Years a Slave. The fine artist turned director has once again cast Michael Fassbender, a favourite collaborator, who joins an A-list cast that will likely turn up on the red carpet. But don’t be fooled by the trailer. Provocation is in store: McQueen doesn’t make accessible films.
If that cast doesn’t warm things up sufficiently, Idris Elba can be counted on to lend heat in the biopic Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom. Elba, star of The Wire and rumoured to be the next Bond, joins a long list of actors, including Sydney Poitier and Morgan Freeman, who have played Nelson Mandela in their careers. Elba is hardly a household name, but this film has Oscar buzz, just as Lincoln and The Iron Lady did. Both secured their leads an Oscar. So is Elba in for the same luck?
Other dramatic heavyweights include the film adaptation of the award-winning Tony and Pulitzer play “August: Osage County” with a stellar cast attached and golden boy George Clooney as producer.
The Midnight Madness program celebrates 25 this year, and programmer Colin Geddes promises a “feast of phantasmagorical characters and jaw-dropping scenes, playing host to bizarre biological monstrosities, ruthless dominatrix gangs, paranormal mirrors and the hijinks of supernatural cheerleaders.” Too bad I’ll be sleeping. I leave those choice gems for the TIFF night owls, one of which resides in my household.
This year’s City to City program, now in its fifth year spotlighting movies from a specific region, will feature Athens. Other announcements include the last film work of actors Cory Monteith and James Gandolfini and selections for TIFF DOCS, including the directorial debut from Mike Myers, Supermench. From Erroll Morris, The Unknown Known about Donald Rumsfield and The Square, which picked up the audience award at this year’s Sundance festival.
Excited? Join me in the dark or the lineup.*
Packages are on sale now, and single tickets will go on sale on September 1st.
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