Gala Presentations

A HAPPY EVENT (Fr)

Dir Rémi Bezancon

A Happy Event, the third feature from the director of The First Day Of The Rest Of Your Life, follows a couple whose world is turned upside down by the birth of their first child. Louise Bourgoin and Pio Marmai star.

Sales Gaumont - www.gaumont.fr

ALBERT NOBBS (UK-Ire-US)

Dir Rodrigo Garcia

Glenn Close co-wrote and stars in this period drama about a free-spirited woman passing for a man in 19th-century Dublin. Liddell Entertainment and Roadside Attractions have acquired the film for the US.

Int’l sales WestEnd Films - info@westendfilms.com

US sales CAA - (1) 424 288 2000

THE AWAKENING (UK)

Dir Nick Murphy

Rebecca Hall, Dominic West and Imelda Staunton star in this supernatural thriller set in 1921, the feature debut of TV director Murphy. Produced by David Thompson’s Origin Pictures.

Sales StudioCanal - harold.vanlier@studiocanal.com

Butter (US)

Dir Jim Field Smith

Jennifer Garner plays a midwestern butter-carving maestro in this comedy. Olivia Wilde, Hugh Jackman, Alicia Silverstone and Rob Corddry co-star. The Weinstein Company has US rights.

Sales The Weinstein Company - (1) 646 862 3400

From The Sky Down (opening film)

Dir Davis Guggenheim

Guggenheim revisits the rock doc genre following 2008’s It Might Get Loud. He chronicles Irish rockers U2 recording the album Achtung Baby.

Int’l sales Universal Music Group - (1) 310 865 4500

US sales CAA - (1) 424 288 2000

Hysteria (UK-US)

Dir Tanya Wexler

Maggie Gyllenhaal stars with Hugh Dancy, Felicity Jones, Jonathan Pryce, Rupert Everett and Ashley Jensen in a romantic comedy about the invention of the vibrator in Victorian England. Written by husband-and-wife team Stephen Dyer and Jonah Lisa Dyer, Hysteria is produced by Forthcoming Films’ Sarah Curtis, Informant Media’s Judy Cairo and Beachfront Films’ Tracey Becker. Pre-sales have been secured to France, Italy, Australia, Benelux and Poland.

Sales Elle Driver - sales@elledriver.eu

Killer Elite (US-Aus)

Dir Gary McKendry

Jason Statham stars in this thriller as an ex-SAS operative out to save his mentor from a rogue agent. Clive Owen and Robert De Niro up the ante. It will mark the first US release for Open Road on September 23.

Sales Inferno - (1) 310 598 2550

THE LADY (Fr-UK)

Dir Luc Besson

Besson tackles the story of Burmese activist Aung San Suu Kyi and the long-distance bond she maintained with her British husband while under house arrest. Michelle Yeoh and David Thewlis star in the English-language film.

Sales EuropaCorp - contact@europacorp.com

Machine Gun Preacher (US)

Dir Marc Forster

Gerard Butler stars in this dark drama based on the true story of former biker Sam Childers, who turned his life around and dedicated himself to saving children in African war zones. Relativity Media is releasing in the US.

Sales Lionsgate - (1) 310 449 9200

Moneyball (US)

Dir Bennett Miller

Brad Pitt, Robin Wright and Jonah Hill star in this drama based on the true story of an eccentric baseball manager who put together a team using computer analysis. Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin wrote the script, based on Michael Lewis’ book. It is six years since Miller’s first film, Capote, launched in Toronto.

Worldwide distribution - Sony Pictures

Peace, Love, & Misunderstanding (US)

Dir Bruce Beresford

Australian Beresford’s latest film is a comedy-drama starring Catherine Keener as a lawyer who takes her teenage children to meet their estranged grandmother, played by Jane Fonda. Sundance breakout Elizabeth Olsen of Martha Marcy May Marlene co-stars.

Int’l sales Voltage Pictures - (1) 323 606 7630

North American sales CAA - (1) 424 288 2000

Starbuck (Can)

Dir Ken Scott

This Québécois comedy is the second feature from writer-director Scott, who penned the 2004 festival favourite Seducing Doctor Lewis, winner of the audience award at Sundance that year. Starbuck is about a middle-aged single man who discovers he has fathered hundreds of children through sperm donations.

Sales eOne International - (1) 416 646 2400

TAKE THIS WALTZ (Can)

Dir Sarah Polley

Canadian actress and film-maker Polley drew plaudits — and two Oscar nominations — for her 2006 film Away From Her. She returns with Take This Waltz, about a married woman torn between her husband and a man she has just met. The cast includes Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen, Luke Kirby and Sarah Silverman.

Sales TF1 International - sales@tf1.fr

Trespass (US)

Dir Joel Schumacher

Toronto 2010 premiere Rabbit Hole earned Nicole Kidman her third lead actress Oscar nomination; she returns with a very different proposition here, starring alongside Nicolas Cage as a kidnapped couple plotting their escape. Millennium Films has US rights.

Sales Nu Image - (1) 310 388 6900

WINNIE (S Afr-Can)

Dir Darrell J Roodt

This biopic of Winnie Mandela stars Jennifer Hudson, with Terrence Howard as Nelson Mandela. Produced by Ironwood Films and Equinoxe Films, Winnie shot in South Africa. Roodt’s credits include Cry, The Beloved Country and the Oscar-nominated Yesterday.

Int’l sales Film Bridge International - contact@filmbridgeinternational.com

US sales CAA - (1) 424 288 2000

Special Presentations

11 FLOWERS (Chi-Fr)

Dir Wang Xiaoshuai

A young boy meets a fugitive in the woods and hides him from the police, in this portrait of China during the Cultural Revolution. Director Wang’s credits include Beijing Bicycle and Shanghai Dreams.

Sales Films Distribution - fry@filmsdistribution.com

50/50 (US)

Dir Jonathan Levine

The Wackness director Levine tries his hand at a comedy about cancer. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is the patient diagnosed with a rare form of the disease; Seth Rogen, Bryce Dallas Howard and Anna Kendrick co-star. Summit is releasing in the US.

Sales Lionsgate - (1) 310 449 9200

360 (US-Aust-Fr-Braz)

Dir Fernando Meirelles

Jude Law, Anthony Hopkins and Rachel Weisz are the powerhouse cast in this drama about sexual mores by City Of God director Meirelles. With a script by Peter Morgan, the film is loosely based on Arthur Schnitzler’s play La Ronde. David Linde produced with Andrew Eaton of the UK’s Revolution Films, Austria’s Dor Film and France’s Fidélité.

Int’l sales Wild Bunch - (33) 1 53 01 50 22

US sales UTA - (1) 310 273 6700

A BETTER LIFE (Fr)

Dir Cédric Kahn

Guillaume Canet and Leila Bekhti star in this drama from the director of Roberto Succo, about a chef and a waitress who move to Canada.

Sales Wild Bunch - edevos@wildbunch.eu

Americano (Fr)

Dir Mathieu Demy

French director Demy also stars in his English-language debut, a drama about a man who leaves Paris for Los Angeles following his mother’s death. The international cast includes Salma Hayek, Chiara Mastroianni and Geraldine Chaplin. Demy’s mother, the film-maker Agnes Varda, is one of the film’s producers.

Sales Bac Films - (33) 153 53 52 52

ANONYMOUS (US-Ger)

Dir Roland Emmerich

The director of 2012 and Independence Day changes register with this English-language historical drama about the authorship of Shakespeare’s plays. The cast includes Rhys Ifans, Vanessa Redgrave, Joely Richardson and David Thewlis.

Int’l dist Sony Pictures Releasing International

Breakaway (Can)

Dir Robert Lieberman

Evocative of Bend It Like Beckham, this ice-hockey drama is set in the Indo-Canadian community of suburban Toronto and follows a young man caught between his family’s expectations and his dreams of becoming a hockey star. Rob Lowe stars in the film with rising star Vinay Virmani, Russell Peters and Camilla Belle. Breakaway has been godfathered by Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar and will be released by Hari Om Entertainment in India later this year.

Contact Whizbang Films - info@whizbangfilms.com

BURNING MAN (Aus)

Dir Jonathan Teplitzky

Produced by the UK’s Andy Paterson alongside writer-director Teplitzky, Burning Man tells the story of a UK chef at a chic Sydney restaurant who tries to reconnect with his son. Matthew Goode stars alongside Bojana Novakovic, Essie Davis, Kerry Fox and Rachel Griffiths.

Sales Filmbox - cedricjeanson@gmail.com

COUNTDOWN (S Kor)

Dir Huh Jong-ho

An action drama about a cold-blooded debt collector who needs a liver transplant and the beautiful swindler whose liver is his only hope. Produced by bom Film Productions, Countdown stars Jung Jae-young and Jeon Do-youn who won the best actress prize at Cannes in 2007 for Secret Sunshine.

Sales People In Communications - people.in.com@gmail.com

DEATH OF A SUPERHERO (Ger-Ire)

Dir Ian FitzGibbon

Andy Serkis and Thomas Brodie-Sangster star in this film which combines live action and animation to follows a sickly teenage boy who retreats into a self-made comic-book world. Germany’s Bavaria produced with Ireland’s Grand Pictures. FitzGibbon’s Perrier’s Bounty premiered at Toronto in 2009.

Sales Bavaria Film International - stefanie.zeitler@bavaria-film.de

THE DEEP BLUE SEA (UK)

Dir Terence Davies

The first fiction feature in a decade from Davies (Distant Voices, Still Lives; The House Of Mirth) stars Rachel Weisz, Tom Hiddleston and Simon Russell Beale. Based on a Terence Rattigan play, it tells the story of a woman in 1950s London who leaves her husband to move into a bedsit with her lover, an ex-RAF pilot.

Sales Protagonist Pictures - info@protagonistpictures.com

The Descendants (US)

Dir Alexander Payne

Seven years after Sideways premiered in Toronto, Payne is back with this comic drama. George Clooney plays an indifferent father who takes his children to Hawaii to sell a valuable parcel of land after his wife suffers a boating accident. Fox Searchlight is releasing in the US.

Int’l distribution 20th Century Fox

Edwin Boyd (Can)

Dir Nathan Morlando

Scott Speedman stars in this true story of a war veteran — disillusioned by his post-duty life and desperate to support his family — who becomes a notorious Toronto bank robber. UK actress Kelly Reilly plays his wife. Executive producer Kirk D’Amico of Myriad Pictures has said it is the epic love story that drew him to the project.

Sales Myriad Pictures - (1) 310 279 4000

ELLES (Fr-Pol-Ger)

Dir Malgorzata Szumowska

Juliette Binoche stars as a journalist investigating student prostitution for French Elle magazine. Drawn to two young women, the stories they share force the middle-aged writer to examine her own life. The film is produced by Slot Machine, Zentropa International Poland and Zentropa International Koln.

Sales Memento Films International - sales@memento-films.com

THE FIRST MAN (Fr-Alg-It)

Dir Gianni Amelio

Based on the autobiographical novel Albert Camus was working on when he died, the film follows a middle-aged man’s return to his childhood homeland in Algeria, 1957, as political tensions are bubbling up. Amelio’s credits include The Way We Laughed, which won the Golden Lion at Venice in 1998.

Sales StudioCanal - (33) 1 71 35 35 35

Friends With Kids (US)

Dir Jennifer Westfeldt

A comedy drama about a group of friends who experience seismic shifts in their relationships as they begin to have children. The stellar cast includes Kristen Wiig, Jon Hamm, Edward Burns and Megan Fox.

Int’l sales Red Granite International - (1) 310 500 5505

North American sales Cinetic - info@cineticmedia.com

Goon (US-Can)

Dir Michael Dowse

Jay Baruchel co-wrote the screenplay and stars with Seann William Scott and Alison Pill in the tale of a bouncer who leads a team of misfit ice-hockey players to glory — through sheer force.

Int’l sales Myriad Pictures - (1) 310 279 4000

US sales CAA - (1) 424 288 2000

Hick (US)

Dir Derick Martini

Chloe Moretz plays a Nebraska runaway who heads to Las Vegas in search of adventure; Blake Lively is the free spirit who befriends her. This is the second film from Martini, whose debut, Lymelife, won the Fipresci discovery prize at Toronto in 2008. Rory Culkin and Alec Baldwin co-star.

Int’l sales Content - (1) 310 576 1059

North American sales CAA - (1) 424 288 2000; WME - (1) 310 285 9000

THE HUNTER (Aus)

Dir Daniel Nettheim

Willem Dafoe plays a mercenary hired by a mysterious biotech company to hunt for the last living Tasmanian tiger. The Hunter also stars Frances O’Connor and Sam Neill, and was produced by Vincent Sheehan and executive produced by Liz Watts (Animal Kingdom), Anita Sheehan and Paul Wiegard.

Sales eOne Films International - www.entertainmentonegroup.com

IN DARKNESS (Can-Ger-Pol)

Dir Agnieszka Holland

Sony Pictures Classics has already picked up US rights to this drama based on the true story of Polish Jews struggling to survive in the sewers of Nazi-occupied Lvov. The film has also pre-sold to Metrodome for the UK and Roadshow Films for Australia and New Zealand, among others.

Sales Beta Cinema - beta@betacinema.com

INTRUDERS (Sp)

Dir Juan Carlos Fresnadillo

An intense psychological drama about two families whose children are visited by a dark presence, from the director of Intacto and 28 Weeks Later. Clive Owen, Daniel Brühl, Carice van Houten, Kerry Fox and Pilar Lopez de Ayala star. The film was produced by Apaches Entertainment and Antena 3 Films, and backed by Universal Pictures International.

Int’l dist Universal Pictures International

US sales United Talent Agency - (1) 310 273 6700

Jeff, Who Lives At Home (US)

Dirs Jay Duplass, Mark Duplass

The Duplass brothers hit Toronto with a comedy about a man who communes with the cosmos while on an errand. Jason Segel, who will be seen later this year in The Muppets, stars with Ed Helms, Susan Sarandon and Judy Greer.

Worldwide distribution Paramount Pictures

Keyhole (Can)

Dir Guy Maddin

Jason Patric, Isabella Rossellini and Udo Kier star in this anticipated new film from auteur Maddin about a dreamlike odyssey in which a man tries to reach his wife upstairs.

Sales eOne International - www.entertainmentonegroup.com

MY WORST NIGHTMARE (Fr-Bel)

Dir Anne Fontaine

This light-hearted comedy from Coco Before Chanel director Fontaine explores how a bourgeois couple’s life is turned upside down when they hire a man to do some work around the house. Isabelle Huppert and Benoit Poelvoorde star in the film which has pre-sold to territories including Germany (Concorde), CIS (Daro) and Portugal (Lusomundo).

Sales Pathé International - mike.runagall@pathe-uk.com

The Oranges (US)

Dir Julian Farino

Hugh Laurie, Allison Janney, Catherine Keener, Oliver Platt, Leighton Meester and Adam Brody star in a comedy about neighbouring families whose friendship evaporates when romance blossoms. This is the second feature from UK director Farino, who has made his name directing TV series including Our Mutual Friend in the UK and Entourage, Big Love and How To Make It In America in the US.

Int’l sales FilmNation - (1) 917 484 8900

North American sales CAA - (1) 424 288 2000

Pearl Jam Twenty (US)

Dir Cameron Crowe

Before the grunge band found global fame, Crowe hired them to portray Citizen Dick, the band fronted by Matt Dillon’s character in the 1992 release Singles. Two decades on, Crowe is ready to show his documentary spanning Pearl Jam’s 20-year career. Pearl Jam and Abramorama are self-distributing in the US.

Sales WME - (1) 310 285 9000

Rampart (US)

Dir Oren Moverman

Moverman earned wide acclaim for his stirring 2009 drama The Messenger. With a screenplay co-written by James Ellroy, Rampart reunites Moverman with two of The Messenger’s stars, Woody Harrelson and Ben Foster. Harrelson plays a crooked cop and family man caught up in the late 1990s Rampart corruption scandal in the Los Angeles police department. Sigourney Weaver and Steve Buscemi co-star.

Int’l sales Sierra/Affinity - (1) 424 653 1977

North American sales WME - (1) 310 285 9000

REBELLION (Fr)

Dir Mathieu Kassovitz

An action thriller about a young French captain sent to negotiate a hostage crisis. French director Kassovitz (La Haine, Babylon AD) also stars in the film, a fictionalised account of an incident in New Caledonia, a French colony in the Pacific, in 1988.

Sales Kinology - gmelin@kinology.eu

SALMON FISHING IN THE YEMEN (UK)

Dir Lasse Hallstrom

Adapted by Simon Beaufoy from Paul Torday’s bestseller and directed by Hallstrom, Salmon Fishing stars Ewan McGregor as a fisheries specialist who gets involved in a project to bring salmon to Yemen. The film also stars Emily Blunt and Kristin Scott Thomas. It was produced by Paul Webster with financing from BBC Films, the former UK Film Council and Lionsgate UK.

Sales Lionsgate International - www.lionsgate.com

Seasons Of Love (Ind)

Dir Pankaj Kapur

The directorial debut of actor Kapur, this love story stars Shahid Kapoor and Sonam Kapoor. Eros International, Cinergy Pictures and Indian film fund Vistaar Religare produce.

Sales Eros International - bhavna.mistry@erosintl.com

Ten Year (US)

Dir Jamie Linden

Channing Tatum stars in this high-school reunion story, the directorial debut of writer Linden whose credits include McG’s 2006 film We Are Marshall and Lasse Hallstrom’s romantic drama Dear John.

Int’l sales Voltage Pictures - (1) 323 606 7630

US sales Paradigm - (1) 310 288 2000

TRISHNA (UK)

Dir Michael Winterbottom

Slumdog Millionaire’s Freida Pinto stars with Riz Ahmed in the latest feature from prolific UK director Winterbottom. It is a contemporary adaptation of Tess Of The D’Urbervilles relocated to India. Produced by Melissa Parmenter for Revolution Films, Trishna was backed by Bankside Films, the former UK Film Council, Sweden’s Film i Vast and VTR Media Investment.

Sales Bankside Films - stephen@bankside-films.com

Twixt (US)

Dir Francis Ford Coppola

Coppola was at Comic-Con earlier this year to promote his gothic noir about a writer of mystery novels who becomes embroiled in a murder investigation. Val Kilmer, Elle Fanning and Ben Chaplin head the cast.

Int’l sales Hirsch Wallerstein - (1) 310 703 1700

Violet & Daisy (US)

Dir Geoffrey Fletcher

Hanna star Saoirse Ronan plays an assassin in this drama about teenage killers. Alexis Bledel, Danny Trejo and James Gandolfini co-star.

North American sales CAA - (1) 424 288 2000

THE WOMAN IN THE FIFTH (Fr-Pol-UK)

Dir Pawel Pawlikowski

The latest from My Summer Of Love director Pawlikowski is based on the bestselling novel by Douglas Kennedy. It stars Ethan Hawke as a US writer in Paris who becomes involved with a beguiling woman, played by Kristin Scott Thomas. The film is produced by Haut Et Court and co-financed by Film4. ATO Pictures has acquired North American rights, while Artificial Eye will release in the UK.

Sales Memento Films International - sales@memento-films.com