TIFF 2014 to screen Xavier Dolan and Denys Arcand films
Xavier Dolan’s Mommy, Denys Arcand’s An Eye For Beauty and Charles Binamé's The Elephant Song will all have special presentations at the Toronto International Film Festival next month.
The films were announced Wednesday afternoon in Toronto as organizers added 37 Canadian movies to the program for the 39th edition of the festival.
Mommy, Dolan's fifth feature, will arrive at TIFF fresh from a victorious showing in Cannes.
The drama stars Anne Dorval as a widowed mother overwhelmed by the task of raising her troubled teen, played by Antoine Pilon.
After the Cannes audience gave Mommy a lengthy standing ovation, it was awarded the festival's prestigious Jury Prize, which Dolan shared with French directing legend Jean-Luc Godard.
Dolan trades his director's chair for a starring role in another TIFF feature from Quebec: the English-language thriller The Elephant Song. Directed by Charles Binamé, the big-screen adaptation of the play by Nicolas Billon also stars Catherine Keener and Bruce Greenwood.
Oscar-winning Quebec director Denys Arcand's An Eye for Beauty will also get a special presentation at TIFF. Starring Éric Bruneau and Mélanie Thierry, Beauty tells the story of a talented young architect whose life is turned upside down by a mysterious woman.
Canadian masters and up-and-comers
TIFF's updated list features films from across the country, including titles from first-time directors and veteran filmmakers like Alanis Obomsawin.
Her new documentary Trick or Treaty? follows the the quest of indigenous people seeking justice and dialogue with the Canadian government. It will makes its world premiere in TIFF's masters program with other acclaimed directors.
Toronto-based director Jeffery St. Jules will screen his first feature-length film, the sci-fi musical Bang Bang Baby. The filmed-in-Toronto coming-of-age story Wet Bum by Lindsay MacKay will also make its premiere. The movie’s lead, Julia Sarah Stone, is one of TIFF's Rising Stars.
While Wednesday's announcement focused solely on the Canadian program, many homegrown talents had already been revealed as part of this year's lineup, including two American films each directed by a Canadian – Wild directed by Jean-Marc Vallée and The Good Lie, helmed by Philippe Falardeau.
David Cronenberg’s Canadian/German co-productionMaps to the Stars is also slated to screen. It features Canadian actress Sarah Gadon alongside Julianne Moore and Robert Pattinson.
There was speculation that Atom Egoyan's latest feature, The Captive, would be included in the lineup, but movie fans are going to have to wait to see it. However, festival goers will be able to see a retrospective screening of Egoyan’s 1989 film Speaking Parts.
Tickets and a complete festival lineup can be found on the official TIFF website.
The 2014 Toronto International Film Festival runs Sept. 4 to 14.
