Blog: TIFF 2018 is here - do you need to be a member to get the best out of it?
Do you need a TIFF membership to get the best out of your festival experience?
Read MoreBLOG: Movies I would love to watch at TIFF 2017
Are you ready for TIFF 2017?
Ever since I moved to Toronto, I have been going to Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) almost religiously, increasing the number of movies I watched every year. In 2012, during my time in college, it was only 1 movie, “Laurence Anyways” by the Quebec director Xavier Dolan. In 2013, I watched 5 movies and experienced rush lines for the first time, lining up to see “The Fifth Estate” (which flopped but I still liked it), and then first disappointment as I missed out on the ticket for “August: Osage County”, and so on. In 2015, I beat my own record and watched 8 movies during the festival - for some of those movies I spent up to 4 hours in rush lines! It was intense! (You can read about my past experiences under Cinema tag.)
Unfortunately, last year I went on vacation right at the time of TIFF (which is beginning of September). I was very disappointed but seeing my family was more important. Unfortunately, this year I also going away.
So, to keep myself somewhat up-to-date with what is going on at the festival, I made a list of movies that would have been my initial list of movies to keep an eye out for. Obviously, it is not possible to watch so many during the festival (and still keep your full-time job), but it is always good to have 1-2 options to choose from for every day, as you never know if you are going to get a ticket or not.
I took the information about the movies from TIFF website, so please refer there for the schedule which will be available on August 22 at www.tiff.net.
A Fantastic Woman
Una Mujer Fantástica
Directed by Sebastián Lelio
Country: Chile
Duration: 103 minutes
Year: 2017
TIFF 2017 Program: Special Presentations
Chilean director Sebastián Lelio follows his 2013 Festival hit Gloria with this drama about a young transgender woman struggling with both her own grief and societal prejudice after the death of her middle-aged lover.
http://www.tiff.net/tiff/a-fantastic-woman/?v=a-fantastic-woman
Alias Grace
Directed by Mary Harron
Country: Canada, USA
Duration: 90 minutes
Year: 2017
TIFF 2017 Program: Primetime
A layered historical drama based on of Margaret Atwood’s Giller Prize–winning novel about a poor Irish servant accused and convicted of murder, from director Mary Harron and screenwriter Sarah Polley.
http://www.tiff.net/tiff/alias-grace/?v=alias-grace
Black Cop
Directed by Cory Bowles
Country: Canada
Duration: 91 minutes
Year: 2017
TIFF 2017 Program: Discovery
A black police officer (Ronnie Rowe Jr.) seeks revenge after being egregiously profiled and assaulted by his colleagues, in this searing political satire by actor-director Cory Bowles (Trailer Park Boys).
http://www.tiff.net/tiff/black-cop/?v=black-cop
Breathe
Directed by Andy Serkis
Country: United Kingdom
Duration: 117 minutes
Year: 2016
TIFF 2017 Program: Gala Presentations
Actor Andy Serkis makes his directorial debut with the inspiring true love story of Robin and Diana Cavendish (Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy), an adventurous couple who refuse to give up in the face of a devastating disease.
http://www.tiff.net/tiff/breathe/?v=breathe
Call Me By Your Name
Directed by Luca Guadagnino
Country: Italy, France
Duration: 132 minutes
Year: 2017
TIFF 2017 Program: Special Presentations
The latest from Italian auteur Luca Guadagnino ( I Am Love, A Bigger Splash) explores the tender, tentative relationship that blooms over the course of one summer between a 17-year-old boy on the cusp of adulthood (Timothée Chalamet) and his father's research assistant (Armie Hammer).
http://www.tiff.net/tiff/call-me-by-your-name/?v=call-me-by-your-name
Dark River
Directed by Clio Barnard
Country: United Kingdom
Duration: 89 minutes
Year: 2017
TIFF 2017 Program: Platform
Ruth Wilson stars in British filmmaker Clio Barnard’s atmospheric and layered drama about the old wounds and bitter new grievances that come to light when a woman returns home to settle the tenancy of her family’s Yorkshire farm.
http://www.tiff.net/tiff/dark-river/?v=dark-river
Darkest Hour
Directed by Joe Wright
Country: United Kingdom
Duration: 114 minutes
Year: 2017
TIFF 2017 Program: Gala Presentations
Gary Oldman steps into the imposing persona of Winston Churchill in Joe Wright’s (Pride and Prejudice, Atonement) period drama set in the early years of the Second World War, when Churchill’s rousing leadership inspired a nation.
http://www.tiff.net/tiff/darkest-hour/?v=darkest-hour
Disobedience
Directed by Sebastián Lelio
Country: United Kingdom
Duration: 114 minutes
Year: 2017
TIFF 2017 Program: Special Presentations
Sebastián Lelio (A Fantastic Woman, Gloria) directs Rachel Weisz and Rachel McAdams in this adaptation of Naomi Alderman’s novel about a woman who returns home to her orthodox Jewish community in London and rekindles a romance with her cousin’s wife.
http://www.tiff.net/tiff/disobedience/?v=disobedience
Euphoria
Directed by Lisa Langseth
Country: Sweden, Germany
Duration: 104 minutes
Year: 2017
TIFF 2017 Program:Platform
Swedish filmmaker Lisa Langseth directs her Hotell star Alicia Vikander and Eva Green (Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children) in this story of two estranged sisters attempting a difficult and ominous reconciliation, with supporting performances from Charles Dance, Charlotte Rampling, Mark Stanley, and Adrian Lester.
http://www.tiff.net/tiff/euphoria/?v=euphoria
For Nonna Anna
Directed by Luis De Filippis
Country: Canada
Duration: 13 minutes
Year: 2017
TIFF 2017 Program: Short Cuts
In this raw and graceful testimony of intersectional womanhood, a trans girl has to care for her Italian grandmother. She assumes that her Nonna disapproves of her — but instead discovers a tender bond in their shared vulnerability.
http://www.tiff.net/tiff/for-nonna-anna/?v=for-nonna-anna
Kings
Directed by Deniz Gamze Ergüven
Country: France, Belgium
Duration: 92 minutes
Year: 2017
TIFF 2017 Program: Gala Presentations
In the English-language debut from writer-director Deniz Gamze Ergüven (Mustang), a recluse (Daniel Craig) helps a woman (Halle Berry) and her multiple children when riots erupt in Los Angeles following the 1992 acquittal of the policemen charged with assaulting Rodney King.
http://www.tiff.net/tiff/kings/?v=kings
Mary Shelley
Directed by Haifaa Al Mansour
Country: Ireland, United Kingdom, Luxembourg, USA
Duration: 120 minutes
Year: 2017
TIFF 2017 Program: Gala Presentations
Elle Fanning stars in this scintillating biopic of the Frankenstein author, chronicling her tempestuous marriage to dissolute poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and the fateful night at a Swiss chateau that inspired her most famous creation.
http://www.tiff.net/tiff/mary-shelley/?v=mary-shelley
Pre-Drink
Directed by Marc-Antoine Lemire
Country: Canada
Duration: 23 minutes
Year: 2017
TIFF 2017 Program: Short Cuts
Alexe, a trans woman, and Carl, her gay best friend, disrupt the boundaries of their friendship when they decide to have sex for the first time — and raw emotional truths collide with illusions of breezy detachment at a time of transition.
http://www.tiff.net/tiff/pre-drink/?v=pre-drink
Professor Marston & the Wonder Women
Directed by Angela Robinson
Country: USA
Duration: 108 minutes
Year: 2017
TIFF 2017 Program: Special Presentations
Luke Evans (High-Rise, Beauty and the Beast), Rebecca Hall (Christine), and Bella Heathcote (Fifty Shades Darker) star in this biopic of William Moulton Marston, the American psychologist who put his progressive ideals about female liberation into practice by creating the DC superhero Wonder Woman and living in an "extended relationship" with his wife and another woman.
Submergence
Directed by Wim Wenders
Country:France, Germany, Spain
Duration: 112 minutes
Year: 2016
TIFF 2017 Program: Special Presentations
The new film from the great Wim Wenders (Pina) is a globe-trotting romance about a water engineer (James McAvoy) and a deep-sea researcher (Oscar winner Alicia Vikander) striving to reconnect although separated by oceans, continents, and civil war.
http://www.tiff.net/tiff/submergence/?v=submergence
The Current War
Directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon
Country: USA
Duration: 107 minutes
Year: 2017
TIFF 2017 Program: Special Presentations
Alfonso Gomez-Rejon (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl) directs Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael Shannon, Nicholas Hoult, Tom Holland, and Katherine Waterston in this account of the race for marketable electricity in the United States between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse.
http://www.tiff.net/tiff/the-current-war/?v=the-current-war
The Death of Stalin
Directed by Armando Iannucci
Country: France, United Kingdom, Belgium
Duration: 107 minutes
Year: 2017
TIFF 2017 Program: Platform
Armando Iannucci (Veep) directs Jeffrey Tambor, Steve Buscemi, and Andrea Riseborough in this acerbic send-up of the Soviet Supremo and his band of scheming bootlicks.
http://www.tiff.net/tiff/the-death-of-stalin/?v=the-death-of-stalin
The Upside
Directed by Neil Burger
Country: USA
Duration: 120 minutes
Year: 2017
TIFF 2017 Program: Gala Presentations
Bryan Cranston and Kevin Hart star in this remake of the French hit The Intouchables, a dramatic buddy comedy about the unlikely friendship between a rich quadriplegic and his working-class caregiver.
http://www.tiff.net/tiff/the-upside/?v=the-upside
Thelma
Directed by Joachim Trier
Country: Norway, Sweden, France, Denmark
Duration: 116 minutes
Year: 2017
TIFF 2017 Program: Special Presentations
Recently moved to Oslo to attend school, a young woman falls in love and discovers that she possesses terrifying powers, in this supernatural thriller from acclaimed director Joachim Trier (Louder Than Bombs).
http://www.tiff.net/tiff/thelma/?v=thelma
What Will People Say
Hva vil folk si
Directed by Iram Haq
Norway, Germany, Sweden106 minutes2017STCColourNorwegian, UrduWorld Premiere
TIFF 2017 Program: Platform
Nisha’s double life — obedient to her traditional Pakistani upbringing at home, typical Norwegian teenager to her friends — comes crashing down when her concerned parents kidnap her and send her to Pakistan, in Iram Haq’s personal, empathetic story of family, community, and culture.
http://www.tiff.net/tiff/what-will-people-say/?v=what-will-people-say
Let me know what you would like to see this year!