Toronto adds dozens more world premieres including Song for Marion as closing night gala

Toronto International Film Festival has announced that its closing night film will be the world premiere of Paul Andrew Williams’ anticipated UK feature Song For Marion, which stars Vanessa Redgrave, Terence Stamp and Gemma Arterton in a heart-warming story about an unconventional choir of elderly people. The Weinstein Company has US rights, while eOne sells rest of world and will release in the UK, Canada and Australia/New Zealand.

The other galas (also world premieres) added are Peter Webber’s Japan-US production Emperor, starring Matthew Fox and Tommy Lee Jones in the story of post-WWII Japan; and Scott McGehee and David Siegel’s What Maisie Knew, based on the Henry James Novella about a seven-year-old girl going through a custody battle. With these three additions, the number of galas now stands at 20.

In Special Presentations, Toronto has added new titles to bring the total to 70, including 48 world premieres. The new world premieres announced today include Colin Firth and Emily Blunt’s golfing love story Arthur Newman by Dante Ariola; Yvan Attal’s French comedy Do Not Disturb; Jeff Buckley project Greetings From Tim Buckley; Bahman Ghobadi’s Rhino Season about an Iranian poet who seeks to find his wife in Turkey; and Nick Cassavetes’ Yellow about an overly medicated young woman, starring Sienna Miller, Melanie Griffith and Ray Liotta. Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master, which will world premiere in Venice, has also been confirmed for Toronto.

Toronto has also unveiled its large Contemporary World Cinema programme with 62 international selections, including world premieres from the likes of Lenny Abrahamson, Sara Johnsen, Edward Burns, Carlos Sorin, Sion Sono, Robert Connolly, Annemarie Jacir and Jo Sung-hee.

In the innovation section Wavelengths, the artists and young autuers showcased will include Ben Rivers, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Wang Bing and Jean-Paul Kelly. This year’s Wavelengths lineup includes 47 films (including shorts), and includes titles that formerly would have been in TIFF’s Visions section.

“In bringing the audiences for Wavelengths and the former Visions programmes together,” said Cameron Bailey, Artistic Director of the Toronto International Film Festival, “I want to further that conversation among critics, film professionals and a general Festival audience around innovative cinema. Andréa Picard’s knowledge, passion and taste make her the perfect person to guide this section.”

The Future Projects programme includes installations and other artistic works across the city. Those are: Ming Wong’s Making Chinatown; Kelly Richardson’s Mariner 9; Jeroen Eisinga’s Springtime; Callum Cooper’s The Constant and the Flux; Luther Price’s Number 9 and Number 9 II; Liang Yue’s The Quiet Room; Sook-Yin Lee’s We Are Light Rays, and Peaches’ Peaches Does The Drake.

GALAS
Song for Marion by Paul Andrew Williams, UK [WP] [Closing Night Film]
Emperor by Peter Webber, Japan/US [WP]
What Maisie Knew by Scott McGehee, David Siegel (US) [WP]

SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
Arthur Newman by Dante Ariola, US [WP]
Bad 25 by Spike Lee, US
Disconnect by Henry Alex Rubin, US
Do Not Disturb by Yvan Attal, France [WP]
Greetings from Tim Buckley by Dan Algrant, US [WP]
Lines of Wellington by Valeria Sarmiento, Portugal
Love is All You Need by Susanne Bier, Denmark
On The Road by Walter Salles, France/Brazil
Passion by Brian De Palma, France/Germany
Rhino Season by Bahman Ghobadi, Iraqi Kurdistan/Turkey [WP]
Spring Breakers by Harmony Korine, US
The Master by Paul Thomas Anderson, US
The Paperboy by Lee Daniels, US
The Son Did It by Daniele Ciprì, Italy/France
The Suicide Shop by Patrice Leconte, France/Belgium/Canada
Thérèse Desqueyroux by Claude Miller, France
White Elephant by Pablo Trapero, Argentina/Spain
Yellow by Nick Cassavetes, US [WP]

CONTEMPORARY WORLD CINEMA
3 by Pablo Stoll Ward, Uruguay/Germany/Argentina
A Hijacking by Tobias Lindholm, Denmark
A Werewolf Boy by Jo Sung-hee, South Korea [WP]
After the Battle by Yousry Nasrallah, Egypt/France
All That Matters is Past by Sara Johnsen, Norway [WP]
Baby Blues by Kasia Rosłaniec, Poland [WP]
Barbara by Christian Petzold, Germany
Bwakaw Jun by Robles Lana, Philippines
Children of Sarajevo by Aida Begic, Bosnia-Herzegovina/Germany/France/Turkey
Clandestine Childhood by Benjamín Ávila, Argentina/Spain/Brazil
Comrade Kim Goes Flying by Anja Daelemans, Nicholas Bonner and Gwang Hun Kim, Belgium/North Korea/UK [WP]
The Cowards Who Looked to the Sky by Yuki Tanada, Japan [WP]
The Cremator by Peng Tao, China [WP]
Dead Europe by Tony Krawitz, Australia
Dust by Julio Hernández Cordón, Guatemala/Spain/Chile/Germany
Eagles by Dror Sabo, Israel World Premiere
Fin (The End) by Jorge Torregrossa, Spain World Premiere
The Fitzgerald Family Christmas by Edward Burns, US [WP]
Fly With the Crane by Li Ruijun, China
Ghost Graduation by Javier Ruiz Caldera, Spain
God Loves Caviar by Iannis Smaragdis, Greece/Russia [WP]
Gone Fishing by Carlos Sorin, Argentina [WP]
The Great Kilapy by Zézé Gamboa, Angola/ Brazil/Portugal [WP]
Him, Here, After by Asoka Handagama, Sri Lanka North
The Holy Quaternity by Jan Hřebejk, Czech Republic [WP]
Imagine by Andrzej Jakimowski, Poland/France/Portugal [WP]
In The Fog by Sergei Loznitsa, Germany/Russia/Belarus/The Netherlands/Latvia
In the Name of Love by Luu Huynh, Vietnam [WP]
Jackie by Antoinette Beumer, The Netherlands
Jump by Kieron J. Walsh, Ireland/UK
Just the Wind by Bence Fliegauf, Hungary/Germany/France
Juvenile Offender by Yikwan Kang, South Korea [WP]
Key of Life by Kenji Uchida, Japan
Kinshasa Kids by Marc-Henri Wajnberg, Belgium
The Land of Hope by Sion Sono, Japan [WP]
Middle of Nowhere by Ava DuVernay, US
Museum Hours by Jem Cohen, Austria/US
Once Upon a Time Was I, Veronica by Marcelo Gomes, Brazil/France [WP]
Paradise: Love by Ulrich Seidl, Austria/Germany/France
The Patience Stone by Atiq Rahimi Afghanistan/France
Penance by Kioshi Kurosawa, Japan
Peripeteia by John Akomfrah, UK/Netherlands [WP]
Road North by Mika Kaurismäki, Finland
Shores of Hope by Toke Constantin Hebbeln, Germany
Sleeper’s Wake by Barry Berk, South Africa
Smashed by James Ponsoldt, US
The Thieves by Choi Dong-hoon, South Korea
The Tortoise, An Incarnation by Girish Kasaravalli, India
Three Kids by Jonas d’Adesky, Belgium [WP]
Three Worlds by Catherine Corsini, France
Thy Womb by Brillante Mendoza, The Philippines
Underground by Robert Connolly, Australia [WP]
Virgin Margarida by Licinio Azevedo, Mozambique [WP]
Watchtower by Pelin Esmer, Turkey/Germany/France [WP]
What Richard Did by Lenny Abrahamson, Ireland [WP]
When I Saw You by Annemarie Jacir, Palestine/Jordan/Greece [WP]
Zabana! by Saïd Ould-Khelifa, Algeria [WP]

Canadian films previously announced in the Contemporary World Cinema programme include: Rafaël Ouellet’s Camion, Bruce Sweeney’s Crimes of Mike Recket, Sudz Sutherland’s Home Again, Sean Garrity’s My Awkward Sexual Adventure and Anita Doron’s The Lesser Blessed.

WAVELENGTHS

FEATURES
The Last Time I Saw Macao (A Última Vez Que Vi Macau) by João Pedro Rodrigues, João Rul Guerra da Mata, Portugal/France
Differently, Molussia (autrement, la Molussie) by Nicolas Rey, France
Bestiaire by Denis Côté, Canada/France
Far From Afghanistan by John Gianvito, Jon Jost, Minda Martin, Soon-Mi Yoo, Travis Wilkerson, US
The Fifth Season by Peter Brosens, Jessica Woodworth, Belgium/The Netherlands/France
The Lebanese Rocket Society by Joana Hadjithomas, Khalil Joreige, Qatar [WP]
Leviathan by Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Véréna Paravel, France/UK/US
Perret in France and Algeria by Heinz Emigholz, Germany
Post Tenebras by Lux Carlos Reygadas, Mexico/France/The Netherlands/Germany
Three Sisters by Wang Bing, China
When Night Falls (Wo hai you hua yao shuo) by Ying Liang, South Korea/China

PAIRINGS

The Capsule Athina Rachel Tsangari, Greece
Walker Tsai-Ming Liang, China/Hong Kong

Viola Matías Piñeiro, Argentina
Birds (Ὄρνιθες) Gabriel Abrantes, Portugal

Mekong Hotel by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand
Big in Vietnam Mati Diop, France