World premieres from Lord Richard Attenborough, Renny Harlin, Gillian Armstrong, Alain Comeau, Wayne Wang and Michael Moore are among the highlights as the Toronto International Film Festival unveiled its complete line-up in advance of its September 6 opening.
Also announced were new films from Kenneth Branagh, Paul Schrader, Sidney Lumet, Brian De Palma, Anand Tucker, Julian Schnabel, Jonathan Demme, Jason Reitman and Thomas McCarthy.
Among the world premiere Gala titles are Harlin's Cleaner, starring Samuel L. Jackson, Ed Harris and Eva Mendes; Attenborough's Closing The Ring, starring Shirley MacLaine, Christopher Plummer and Mischa Barton; Corneau's Le Deuxieme Souffle, starring Daniel Auteil and Monica Bellucci; and Robin Swicord's The Jane Austen Book Club, starring Kathy Baker and Maria Bello. Other Gala titles announced are Branagh's Sleuth, starring Michael Caine and Jude Law and Schrader's The Walker, starring Woody Harrelson and Kristin Scott Thomas.
Thirteen titles were added to Special Presentations including Moore's Captain Mike Across America, Armstrong's Death Defying Acts; Vadim Perelman's In Bloom; Ira Sachs' Married Life: Alison Eastwood's Rails & Ties; McCarthy's The Visitor; Brad Furman's The Take and Melisa Wallack and Bernie Goldmann's Bill - all of them world premieres - along with Lumet's Before The Devil Knows You're Dead, De Palma's Redacted; Demme's profile of former US president Jimmy Carter, Man From Plains; Reitman's Thank You For Smoking follow-up Juno; and Tucker's When Did You Last See Your Father'
Wang will present two world premieres in the Masters programme A Thousand Years Of Good Prayers and The Princess Of Nebraska, two stories about the Chinese immigrant experience in the US.
Eight documentaries were added to the Real to Reel strand, including the world premieres of Paul Crowder and Murray Lerner's Amazing Journey: The Story Of The Who and Grant Gee's Joy Division. Also screening are Schnabel's Lou Reed's Berlin; Ran Tal's Children Of The Sun, Philippe Kholy's Callas Assoluta; Wang Bing's Fengming: A Chinese Memoir; Olga Konskaya and Andrei Nekrasov's Rebellion: The Litvinenko Case; and Jia Zhang-ke's Useless.
Peter Bogdanovich will be presented with the FIAPF Award for his contribution to film preservation. Bogdanovich, Lumet, Lord Attenborough along with Ken Loach and actors Max von Sydow and Ellen Burstyn will take part in Dialogues: Talking With Pictures screenings, showcasing inspirational or career-transforming films.
The Maverick programme will feature presentations from former president Carter and wife Rosalynn Carter, political commentator Bill Maher together with Larry Charles; Luis Moreno-Ocampo along with Don Cheadle; Mira Nair and Santosh Sivan.
In all the festival will screen 349 films from 55 countries, including 275 feature and mid-length films, 85 per cent of which are world, international or North American premieres, and 71 of which are feature directorial debuts.
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