Damon, Depp and Gyllenhaal movies bound for Toronto film festival

By Cassandra Szklarski, The Canadian Press

TORONTO – An outer space thriller starring Matt Damon and a gangster film topped by Johnny Depp are among the titles headlining the 40th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival, an 11-day marathon that organizers promised will both celebrate a storied past and promising future.

TIFF bosses Piers Handling and Cameron Bailey announced a slate of gala and special presentations Tuesday stacked with buzzy titles and big-name directors, including Quebec favourite Jean-Marc Vallee, who will open the fest with “Demolition” on Sept. 10.

“As soon as we saw it, we fell in love with it and we just dreamt that this was our opening night film,” Handling said of the feature, starring festival stalwart Jake Gyllenhaal.

“Jean-Marc’s a dear friend of Cameron’s and myself and the festival, so having him open the 40th anniversary is going to be a joy.”

Damon stars in Ridley Scott’s “The Martian,” about an astronaut stranded on the red planet, while Depp leads Scott Cooper’s “Black Mass,” about mobster Whitey Bulger.

Atom Egoyan’s “Remember,” a Nazi revenge thriller featuring Canadian actor Christopher Plummer and Martin Landau, is also on the list.

Other Canadian titles include Deepa Mehta’s gangster drama “Beeba Boys,” Paul Gross’s war saga “Hyena Road,” Jon Cassar’s “Forsaken,” which stars father-son actors Donald and Kiefer Sutherland, and Lenny Abrahamson’s “Room,” — a Canada/Ireland co-production based on Emma Donoghue’s bestselling 2010 novel of the same name.

Mehta said she was excited to tackle a new genre.

“I’m always motivated by story and when I heard the story of … gangsters who are Indian-Canadians, I was just fascinated that they actually exist and what they do and what their lives are like,” said Mehta, whose past films include the Oscar-nominated “Water” and the sprawling book adaptation “Midnight’s Children.”

“I personally am really tired of seeing Indo-Canadians being depicted as terrorists or as cab drivers or convenience store owners, we have more complexity than that.”

Other titles headed to Toronto include Denis Villeneuve’s “Sicario,” the Julianne Moore/Ellen Page-helmed drama “Freehold,” Stephen Frears’ Lance Armstrong feature “The Program,” Charlie Kaufman’s crowd-funded, stop-motion animated “Anomalisa,” Michael Moore’s “Where To Invade Next” and Cary Fukunaga’s Netflix initiative, “Beasts of No Nation.”

Handling also touted new programs that will shine a spotlight on international TV projects and high-quality foreign cinema, a nod to the future of TIFF and how much it has evolved since 1976.

The motto this year: “Defining moments since 1976.”

Handling held up a one-page program from that very first year, when TIFF was known as the Festival of Festivals. It listed five screening venues for 30 films, six big parties, and a $50 all-access pass.

These days, TIFF programs can easily run 60-to-70 pages, and the fest has swelled to several hundred titles. Ticket prices, too, have ballooned: last year a VIP package for five flicks cost $1,500.

Handling marvelled at how much the organization has grown, and said that evolution will be celebrated with 10 short vignettes to be shown during the fest.

“(It) was a big leap of faith — there were no other film festivals in Canada at that point in time,” said Handling, who was named programming director in 1987 and festival director in 1994.

“I’m sure they had no idea what this organization would actually turn into and here we are 40 years later celebrating the 40th anniversary of one of the largest film festivals in the world.”

“The Martian” is among the world premieres being touted for this year’s run, a year after organizers said any film that debuted at a competing film festival could not screen during TIFF’s coveted opening weekend.

The edict came after several big films that had been promised as world or North American premieres ended up debuting at the Telluride Film Festival just before landing in Toronto.

TIFF said Tuesday it had softened its stance. For this edition, films that have debuted elsewhere can still appear during the first four days, but not at TIFF’s top three venues of Roy Thomson Hall, the Princess of Wales Theatre and the Visa Screening Room at the Elgin Theatre. Those venues will still be reserved for world and North American premieres.

The Toronto International Film Festival runs Sept. 10 to 20.

Other titles bound for TIFF include:

— “Dheepan,” directed by Jacques Audiard

— “Lolo,” directed by Julie Delpy

— “Stonewall,” directed by Roland Emmerich

— “Brooklyn,” directed by John Crowley

— “The Danish Girl,” directed by Tom Hooper

— “The Lobster,” directed by Yorgos Lanthimos

— “Louder than Bombs,” directed by Joachim Trier

— “Maggie’s Plan,” directed by Rebecca Miller

— “Trumbo,” directed by Jay Roach

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