TIFF’s Most Important Premieres |
The film-festival gauntlet continues with the kickoff of the Toronto International Film Festival. TIFF is traditionally the most commercial fall festival, but it always results in a few awards contenders anyway. The winner of the fest’s People’s Choice Award, voted on by festival attendees, often goes on to be an Oscar hopeful.
In recent years, American Fiction, The Fabelmans, and Nomadland all won the top prize. And even if a film gets second or third place, there’s still hope for it: Eventual best-picture winner Anora placed third last year, and previous second- and third-place winners include The Holdovers, Women Talking, and Parasite.
I’m Rebecca Ford, and I arrived in Toronto yesterday. There’s a lot to see here, including Venice and Telluride premieres like Hamnet and The Smashing Machine that are hoping to keep the momentum going. But I am most interested in movies that are making their world premieres, like Paul Greengrass’s The Lost Bus and Nia DaCosta’s Hedda.
Christy, which stars Sydney Sweeney as real-life boxing champion Christy Martin, is also making its world premiere at the fest. Sweeney transformed for the role, putting on more than 30 pounds and training for months. “I felt very strong and powerful,” Sweeney told me. “I loved it. Being able to lose myself to become a vessel for somebody else is my dream.” The film was just slated for release in November, a very awards-friendly date, so it’s very likely that the distributor, Black Bear Pictures, hopes to give Sweeney a big lead-actress push. (And if you’re wondering, I did ask her about the American Eagle controversy, and if she planned to talk about it at TIFF: “I am there to support my movie and the people involved in making it, and I’m not there to talk about jeans,” she said.)
Another Euphoria star, Maude Apatow, will also be at TIFF, though you won’t see her onscreen. Apatow is making her directorial debut with Poetic License, a film starring her mother, Leslie Mann. The story is set at a college where Mann’s character audits a poetry class and finds herself befriending two young men (Cooper Hoffman and Andrew Barth Feldman). I talked to Apatow about making the leap to director, how her father, Judd Apatow, helped on set, and why there are so many nepo babies in her movie.
Be sure to keep up with all the news from TIFF at vanityfair.com and on our liveblog, which will also have updates from the Venice Film Festival. It’s the busiest and best time of the season! |
