TIFF unveils the first batch of its lineup

The Toronto International Film Festival debuted a portion of its program for this fall's 39th running of the event Sept. 4 – 14 while announcing a policy change that the festival's first four days will be world premieres only.

The guest list has not been finalized, but names like Reese Witherspoon—who has two films at the festival—are being bandied about. Also, on today's press conference live stream, TIFF head Piers Handler and artistic director Cameron Bailey announced that Alan Rickman's A Little Chaos would be the closing night gala film. There will also an Asian Film Summit and a street festival along King St. that could offer food and a place to mill about between screenings for attendees.

Other announcements, including the full list of world premieres, the opening night gala screening, and an upcoming full slate of Canadian offerings will be released in coming weeks.

You can take a peak at all the films announced today here, but we have assembled ten (or so) we're excited to see apart from blockbuster fare like the Antoine Fuqua's The Equalizer reboot starring Denzel Washington.

Map To The Stars

David Cronenberg's latest feature already screened at Cannes this year but any time the Canadian auteur and master of body horror has a new film in Toronto, it's sure to be put in the spotlight. This time Cronenberg tackles Hollywood and people striving for celebrity in Los Angeles (although portions were filmed here). The cast includes Julianne Moore, John Cusack and a re-team with Robert Pattinson. We hope for better results than 2012's Cosmopolis

Rosewater

How could you not be curious about The Daily Show's Jon Stewart making his debut as a writer/director? This film is adapted from Iranian Canadian journalist and filmmaker Maziar Bahari's book, Then They Came For Me, about being trapped in Iran and brutally interrogated over 100 days. Bahari will be played by Gael García Bernal and the cast also includes Academy Award nominee Shohreh Aghdashloo.

Wild and The Good Lie

The festival's Reese Witherspoon double-bill is made up of roles in two films by French-Canadian directors. The first is Wild by Jean-Marc Vallée about a grieving woman taking a grueling 1,100 mile hike by herself. Vallée is Montreal-born and recently directed Dallas Buyers Club as well as the Quebec indie hit C.R.A.Z.Y. in 2005.

The other film is Philippe Falardeau's follow up to the Academy Award nominated Monsieur Lazhar, The Good Lie, in which Witherspoon plays an American woman who takes in a Sudanese refugee.

Manglehorn

You never know what to make of David Gordon Green's work. He started out making critically acclaimed small films like 2000's George Washington but has also made some real dogs like Your Highness and The Sitter. He seems to be back in a groove with Joe starring Nicholas Cage last year and let's hope it continues. The story is about a Texas locksmith (Al Pacino) obsessed with a woman who broke his heart years ago. The cast also includes Holly Hunter and Harmony Korine so you can't help but be intrigued.

Pacino is also starring in Barry Levinson's adaptation of Phillip Roth's final novel, The Humbling, also at the festival, so perhaps add Pacino to the list of possible attendees?

Miss Julie

Liv Ullmann is one of Sweden's most well-known international stars and was one of Ingmar Bergman's most cherished collaborators but here she's in the director's chair for an adaptation of August Strindberg's classic play. Despite the Scandinavian pedigree behind the scenes and setting of the play, the cast is made up of American, Irish and English talent with Jessica Chastain, Colin Farrell and Samantha Morton filling the leads.

Foxcatcher

At one point this film was considered for release in time for last year's award season, but director Bennett Miller (Capote and Moneyball) may have been wise to take more time to shape the film as it has emerged as an early Best Picture favourite. The film stars Channing Tatum as Olympic wrestler Mark Schultz, Mark Ruffalo as his brother David and Steve Carell as sponsor John du Pont. Carell's performance is apparently a tour de force.

Pasolini

Abel Ferrara can be all over the place but the idea of him directing a film about the notorious controversial Italian filmmaker Pier Paolo Pasolini starring Willem Dafoe has to tickle any film geek's oddball muscle. Apparently the film looks at the final days of Pasolini's life and the notorious circumstances in which he died.

The Imitation Game

Hopefully 2013's "it" guy Benedict Cumberbatch has more luck at TIFF this year than he did last with the tepidly received Julian Assange biopic The Fifth Estate. This film centers around the fascinating life of code-cracking mathematician Second World War hero Alan Turing. Turing would later poison himself with cyanide at 41 years of age after spending time in British prison for acts of indecency linked to homosexuality—and suffering through hormonal treatment as part of his sentence.

99 Homes

Director Ramin Bahrani has made some of the most stylistically assured films of the last decade with critical successes like Man Push Cart and Chop Shop. He stumbled a bit in 2012 with At Any Price but his film this year has a great cast with Andrew Garfield, Laura Dern, and Michael Shannon and an intriguing premise about a father deciding to work for the real estate broker who led to the eviction of his family from their home.

Black and White

Mike Binder teamed up Kevin Costner with Joan Allen in 2005's The Upside of Anger and got easily the best performance of the actor's career. Now the pair have re-teamed for a movie about the racial divide in America as a nasty custody fight over a bi-racial granddaughter splits a family. This should provide some meaty roles for Costner and a solid cast including Octavia Spencer, Anthony Mackie, Jennifer Ehle and Gillian Jacobs.

 

Much like attending the festival itself, there are already too many flicks to choose from and we haven't even mentioned new films by Ed Zwick (Pawn Sacrifice), Jason Reitman (Men, Women & Children), Noah Baumbach (While We're Young), and the Robert Downey Jr. starring film The Judge, which will premiere at the festival.

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