TIFF has just finally released its official schedule for this year’s festival. Showcasing 278 titles at this festival, and with never enough time to see it all, I’ve been looking through the list to see what I’m going to check out, and what I’ll try to see if I can make it. There are a lot of titles that I’m excited about seeing. There are always adjustments and late additions (like some of the ones announced at the same time as their schedule has been released), but I’m already extremely ecstatic about many of the films playing at TIFF. So I had to write about some titles I will try to cover during the festival. These are some of the titles I’m most anticipating and hoping to see and likely cover while at TIFF next month.

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SATURDAY NIGHT
Dir. Jason Reitman

While lately, I haven’t been much of a fan of his past directorial efforts (Ghostbusters: Afterlife, and The Front Runner – I was just far more interested in Mamoudou Athie’s role and how the event influenced modern-day reporting on politics, where some journalist’s approach is scandal’s first). Reitman tackling this film and showing us the birth of the show, I’m ready to see it for the cast alone.

Nightbitch
Dir. Marielle Heller

Amy Adams plays Mother, and Mother believes she’s turning into a dog. Mother’s Husband is played by Scoot McNairy. The premise alone has me intrigued, but it is also directed by Marielle Heller whose previous work shows such incredible nuance in her direction. Now working with Amy Adams, yes, please.

Daniela Forever
Dir. Nacho Vigalondo

I love Nacho Vigalondo’s film which played at TIFF in 2016, Colossal. Starring Jason Sudeikis and Anne Hathaway. His latest film finds Henry Golding as Nick, who begins a clinical trial of a new drug that can help you have control over your dream after losing his lover Daniela (Beatrice Grannò). From programmer Peter Kuplowksy’s description of the movie, Vigalondo shoots the “Real World” in a boxy ratio and when we enter his dreams, we expand to cinemascope. These purposeful aspect ratio changes get to me, and I look forward to seeing them more and more. Kuplowsky also goes on to compare it thematically to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but. also Inception and Solaris. This sounds like the type of romantically devasting type of films that I would love.

A slight P.S. There’s going to be a Q&A with Vigalondo and a scientific expert in lucid dreaming on the 7th. Which would be at the same time as Nightbitch‘s premiere, which puts me in a predicament.

Shell
Dir. Max Minghella

Seeing Teen Spirit at 9:15 pm on a Saturday right at the end of the festival woke me up completely. I still listen to the soundtrack from time to time and rewatch the film often. I’m excited that Minghella is returning to the directing chair.

Dead Talent’s Society
Dir. John Hsu

A few years ago during the pandemic, I got to cover the Fantasia Film Festival remotely and one of the films I saw and loved was Detention. It was an adaptation of a video game of the same name and covered the White Terror period in Taiwan. I believe it is a continuation of recently good video game adaptations, and also a showcase of really great filmmaking. John Hsu won Best New Director at the Golden Horse Awards. Detention was filled with dread and suspense while handling emotion and tone very delicately. I was also able to interview John Hsu during the festival and briefly spoke about video games and working in VR. It was exciting to see that his new film Dead Talent’s Society will now have its North American premiere at the festival and that I’ll be able to see Hsu’s film on the big screen this time. While tonally, the trailer feels different from Hsu’s Detention, it looks like it’ll be a great time at the movies.

The Fire Inside
Dir. Rachel Morrison

I’ve been following Rachel Morrison’s career since I first saw Fruitvale Station in 2013. A sold-out matinee screening at Varsity here in Toronto. When some films impact me the way Fruitvale did, I pay attention to the cast and crew who made it. Between Ryan Coogler, Michael B. Jordan, and Ludwig Göransson – it was a good crew to follow. I remember seeing Rachel’s name and thinking, I have to see what else she does. I did not know that she had worked as a cinematographer on The Hills, but the television does make sense in terms of how magical Morrison could find a moment and capture it when it felt new. She was the first woman nominated for an Academy Award for Dee Rees’ Mudbound in 2018. This was the year that Roger Deakins won his first Oscar for Blade Runner 2049, so there was tough competition, but her feature directorial debut written by Barry Jenkins, based on the documentary T-Rex, which followed Claressa “T-Rex” Shields (to be played by Ryan Destiny) as she trains for 2012 Summer Olympics. So, I’m sold. 

Anora 
Dir. Sean Baker

Another Neon Palme D’or winner so it immediately earns a spot on the list. More than that, I love Sean Baker’s humanist approach, and we’re allowed to live in other people’s messy lives for a few hours. It gives us a different point-of-view that we don’t often get to see, and it’s trying to make any decisions necessarily right, but understood. Mikey Madison has continuously been able to make a name for herself, and the response from Cannes is that in Anora, she gives another outstanding performance. 

Friendship
Andrew DeYoung

Strangely, I’m the most scared about what a Tim Robinson movie at TIFF for Midnight Madness would look like. How many times are we going to hear “I think he might be here for the ziplines”? That being said, I think a team-up of Robinson and Paul Rudd sounds like comedy gold, and I don’t see enough films that make me laugh, so I think laughing with the Midnight Madness crew would be needed.

We Live in Time
Dir. John Crowley

I find myself thinking of the film Brooklyn often and have done so since I saw it in 2015. A spectacularly well-made film with a phenomenal performance from Saoirse Ronan. Have we all had the chance to see the trailer for the film? I’m currently predicting that it will wreck me, but I’m eagerly hoping it will hit as much as it feels like it would. We Live In Time is John Crowley’s latest film, and this time, starring Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield as we visit different parts of their life in their relationship. The trailer shows glimpses of the past, present, and future. With these two actors as the two leads we are expected to care about, I’m fully invested.

Presence
Dir. Steven Soderbergh

Soderbergh tackling horror again? Yes, thank you. The film is shot from the perspective of a housebound spirit. From the teaser recently released, it does appear to have that weightlessness to the spirit as it will float around and maybe through the home. As someone extremely aware of what other films like this would have been like, so I’m extremely curious about the story that he’s interested in telling with Presence.

Queer
Dir. Luca Guadagino

Luca Guadagnino and Justin Kuritzkes reteam after bringing us everyone’s favourite film, Challengers. This time adapting a novel of the same name by William S. Burroughs. Queer is the film that I had kept waiting to see and anticipate it’d be having its North American premiere here at TIFF and I can not wait. As of this time, I’ve not seen his first three features or any of his documentaries, but starting since A Bigger Splash, I’ve seen and loved each of his films. Yes, I’m also someone who much rather watch Guadagnino’s Suspiria and stand my ground that it’s exquisite. I also believe his HBO show We Are Who We Are was lost when it was released during the pandemic. Getting to interview Guadagnino for it is one of the biggest “pinch me” moments I’ve ever had doing this and often forget that it was something that I was able to do. I do not plan on missing Queer during the festival.

It Doesn’t Get Any Better Than This
Dir. Rachel Kempf and Nick Toti

I think the appeal of it not being shown online and as a huge fan of found footage horror films, I’m completely sold. Plus, it’s not often that we see films play like this at the festival. Films that are deemed to be the scariest thing that Peter has seen, to which we disagree – that’s common, that’s stuff we spoke about in the Longlegs review in which it’s hard to compare with hype. With the very minor it shows in the trailer, there is a lot of hype but having it previously played at the Unnamed Found Footage festival (which, I’ve attended virtually previously and will be occurring again this year during the festival!) as well as the other festivals it had played amongst, I’m excited for it and will try to not let the hype get to me.

Speaking of which,

The Life of Chuck
Dir. Mike Flanagan

There was no other option as my most anticipated at the festival. By far, it is Mike Flanagan’s return to the big screen, The Life of Chuck. He is one of my favourite working filmmakers and creatives, so yes, I’m excited for The Life of Chuck. A triptych of a story, that seems to be a haunted home of sorts as a child. Flanagan has stated it’s not a horror film – and that’s incredibly fine for me, considering that he mentioned his take on The Exorcist will be scary heavy, monologues light – but the haunted home could be familial trauma, and I’m ready for Flanagan to give us another great film to be seen on the big screen. 

I’m excited and honoured that it’s another year that I’ll be attending TIFF as an accredited Press, and getting to do it for the site I’ve helped build and work on with friends always means a lot to me. I’ve been attending it since 2013, but I still get excited every year. I’ve been building out a sample schedule and as always, I hope this schedule works out.

See you at the festival.