TIFF Announces 2020 Lineup: Regina King’s Directorial Debut, ‘Nomadland,’ Herzog, and More
The Toronto International Film Festival has announced its 2020 lineup of 50 new features, a dramatically smaller selection than last year, where the typically stuffed festival hosted more than 300 titles. Nevertheless, the festival program — which is expected to take place as a combination of virtual screenings and physical premieres, but no press and industry — features plenty of recognizable names.
As previously announced, Spike Lee’s “David Byrne’s American Utopia” will open the festival, which today announced it will close with a special presentation Mira Nair’s latest, the miniseries “A Suitable Boy,” based on Vikram Seth’s novel of the same name.
Chloe Zhao’s Frances McDormand-starring “Nomadland,” already set for a starry festival run, will screen at the festival, joining previously announced titles like Francis Lee’s “Ammonite,” Vinterberg’s Mads Mikkelsen drama “Another Round,” Ricky Staub’s Idris Elba vehicle “Concrete Cowboy,” Mexican-Canadian director Nicolas Pereda’s “Fauna,” Reinaldo Marcus Green’s Mark Wahlberg drama “Good Joe Bell,” Suzanne Lindon’s “Spring Blossom,” and Naomi Kawase’s Cannes 2020 selection “True Mothers.”
A number of this year’s offerings hail from actors who have taken their talents behind the camera, including Halle Berry (“Bruised”), Regina King (“One Night in Miami”), and Viggo Mortensen (“Falling,” which premiered at Sundance in January), all of whom are bringing their feature directorial debuts to the festival. And while this year will be very different than past iterations, TIFF‘s usually robust documentary lineup will be even more prominent, with new films from Sam Pollard, Werner Herzog, and Frederick Wiseman, among others. Forty-six percent of this year’s titles come from female filmmakers.
The festival, set to take place September 10 – 19, will exist as a both limited physical event and an online experience, through a combination of physical screenings and drive-ins, digital screenings, virtual red carpets, press conferences, and industry talks. The festival will not host press and industry screenings or media events on the ground; instead, as previously announced, it will launch a digital platform to host digital screenings, in addition to numerous talks and special events.
“We began this year planning for a 45th Festival much like our previous editions, but along the way we had to rethink just about everything,” said Cameron Bailey, Artistic Director and Co-Head of TIFF, in an official statement. “This year’s lineup reflects that tumult. The names you already know are doing brand new things this year, and there’s a whole crop of exciting new names to discover.”
“TIFF 2020 is a special edition and symbolizes what is possible when collaboration, ingenuity, and passion take center stage,” added Joana Vicente, Executive Director and Co-Head of TIFF, in a separate statement. “It’s also a time for us to celebrate and affirm some of the founding values of TIFF, including the power film has to propel us forward as a society and present a diversity of voices.”
Check out the full list of today’s announced titles below.
“180 Degree Rule,” Farnoosh Samadi, Iran
“76 Days,” Hao Wu, Anonymous, Weixi Chen, USA
“Ammonite,” Francis Lee, United Kingdom
“Another Round (Druk),” Thomas Vinterberg, Denmark
“Bandar Band,” Manijeh Hekmat, Iran/Germany
“Beans,” Tracey Deer, Canada
“Beginning (Dasatskisi),” Dea Kulumbegashvili, Georgia/France
“The Best is Yet to Come (Bu zhi bu xiu),” Wang Jing, China
“Bruised,” Halle Berry, USA
“City Hall,” Frederick Wiseman, USA
“Concrete Cowboy,” Ricky Staub, USA
“David Byrne’s American Utopia,” Spike Lee, USA Opening Night Film
“The Disciple,” Chaitanya Tamhane, India
“Enemies of the State,” Sonia Kennebeck, USA
“Falling,” Viggo Mortensen, Canada/United Kingdom
“The Father,” Florian Zeller, United Kingdom/France
“Fauna,” Nicolás Pereda, Mexico/Canada
“Fireball: Visitors from Darker Worlds,” Werner Herzog, Clive Oppenheimer, United Kingdom/USA “Gazamonamour,” Tarzan Nasser, Arab Nasser, France/Germany/Portugal/Palestine/Qatar
“Get the Hell Out (Taochulifayuan),” I-Fan Wang, Taiwan
“Good Joe Bell,” Reinaldo Marcus Green, USA
“I Care A Lot,” J Blakeson, United Kingdom
“Inconvenient Indian,” Michelle Latimer, Canada
“The Inheritance,” Ephraim Asili, USA
“Lift Like a Girl (Ashya Captain),” Mayye Zayed, Egypt/Germany/Denmark
“Limbo,” Ben Sharrock, United Kingdom
“Memory House (Casade Antiguidades),” João Paulo, Miranda Maria, Brazil/France
“MLK/FBI,” Sam Pollard, USA
“The New Corporation: An Unfortunately Necessary Sequel,” Joel Bakan, Jennifer Abbott, Canada
“New Order (Nuevo orden),” Michel Franco, Mexico
“Night of the Kings (La Nuit des rois),” Philippe Lacôte, Côte d’Ivoire/France/Canada/Senegal
“Nomadland,” Chloé Zhao, USA
“No Ordinary Man,” Aisling Chin-Yee, Chase Joynt, Canada
“Notturno,” Gianfranco Rosi, Italy/France/Germany
“One Night in Miami,” Regina King, USA
“Penguin Bloom,” Glendyn Ivin, Australia/USA
“Pieces of a Woman,” Kornél Mundruczó, USA/Canada/Hungary
“Preparations to Be Together For an Unknown Period of Time (Felkészülés meghatározatlan ideig tartó együttlétre),” Lili Horvát, Hungary
“Quo Vadis, Aïda?,” Jasmila Žbanic, Bosnia and Herzegovina/Norway/The Netherlands/Austria/Romania/France/Germany/Poland/Turkey
“Shadow In The Cloud,” Roseanne Liang, USA/New Zealand
“Shiva Baby,” Emma Seligman, USA/Canada
“Spring Blossom,” Suzanne Lindon, France
“A Suitable Boy,” Mira Nair, United Kingdom/India Closing Night Presentation
“Summer of 85 (Été 85),” François Ozon, France
“The Third Day,” Felix Barrett, Dennis Kelly, United Kingdom
“Trickster,” Michelle Latimer, Canada
“True Mothers (Asagakuru),” Naomi Kawase, Japan
“Under the Open Sky (Subarashikisekai),” Miwa Nishikawa, Japan
“Violation,” Madeleine Sims-Fewer, Dusty Mancinelli, Canada
“Wildfire,” Cathy Brady, United Kingdom/Ireland
