Screen International TIFF 2016 Day 2

DA Y

2

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 9 2016

AT TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL www.ScreenDaily.com

Editorial +1 416 599 8433 ext 2512

Advertising +44 7765 257 260

TODAY

SCREENINGS

» Page 26

F IL M IN D U S T R Y N A IC R E M A IN T T H E LA C O N N E C T IN G W IT H

3 0 C E D / NOV 29

DA Y

2

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 9 2016

AT TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL www.ScreenDaily.com

Editorial +1 310 922 5908

Advertising +44 7765 257 260

Amazon sets sights on David Lynch doc-biopic Naomi Kawase

MK2 puts shine on Kawase’s Radiance

BY MELANIE GOODFELLOW

MK2 Films is reuniting with Japanese director Naomi Kawase to sell her upcoming feature Radiance.

The picture, budgeted at $2.3m (¤2m), revolves around Misako, a passionate writer of film voiceovers for the visually impaired who meets Masaya, an older photographer who is slowly losing his eyesight. His work ends up provoking memories of her past. Prolific Japanese actor Masatoshi Nagase, who appeared in Kawase’s An, has signed for the role of Masaya. The role of Misako has yet to be cast.

Paris-based MK2 Films is launching sales at Toronto. The company handled Kawase’s last two films, Still The Water and An, both of which screened at TIFF having premiered in Cannes. The company secured sales in more than 40 territories overall on An, Kawase’s biggest box-office success to date.

Other titles on the company’s Toronto slate include Stéphane Brizé’s A Woman’s Life and Olivier Assayas’ Personal Shopper.

BY ANDREAS WISEMAN

Amazon is understood to be finalising a deal for North American streaming rights to Venice and Toronto documentary biopic David Lynch: The Art Of Life.

The company is lining up the well-received Venice Classics title for a 2017 release on its Amazon Prime service following a separate theatrical run via arthouse specialists Janus Films. The film’s blu-ray release will be through the Criterion Collection.

Fabien Westerhoff ’s Film Constellation is handling the movie,

ries from his past including key events and inspirations. Producers are Nguyen, Jason S and Sabrina Sutherland. The latter is also a producer on Lynch’s upcoming sequel to hit TV series Twin Peaks.

Co-producer is Marina GirardMuttelet.

Amazon’s high-profile arthouse acquisitions over the last 12 months include Nicolas Winding Refn’s The Neon Demon, Jim Jarmusch titles Paterson and Gimme Shelter, Woody Allen’s Café Society and Sundance breakout Manchester By The Sea.

Hubert Boesl

Moonlight, page 12

REVIEW Moonlight Barry Jenkins’ film is a devastating portrait of an African-American life » Page 12

INTERVIEW Battsek to the fore Film4 director Daniel Battsek discusses his slate and strategy » Page 18

FEATURE Portrait of a lady The story behind buzzy UK title Lady Macbeth » Page 24

SCREENINGS

» Page 26

TORONTO BRIEFS Focus sharp on PTA Focus Features has acquired worldwide rights to Paul Thomas Anderson’s project with Daniel DayLewis, which will be set in the 1950s London couture scene. It is understood Focus paid around $35m for the project.

Cuaron’s Mexican reunion Participant Media and Alfonso Cuaron are teaming up on an untitled project that will mark the Oscar winner’s first Mexico-set film since his 2001 breakout Y Tu Mama Tambien. Production is scheduled to begin in Mexico this autumn on the project, which chronicles a year in the life of a middle-class family in Mexico City in the early 1970s.

(From left) Martin Sensmeier, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Denzel Washington, director Antoine Fuqua, Chris Pratt and Ethan Hawke walk the TIFF red carpet last night for festival opener The Magnificent Seven

Midwife delivers for Memento Memento Films International (MFI) has unveiled sales on Martin Provost’s comedy drama The Midwife, co-starring Catherine Deneuve and Catherine Frot.

Buyers are responding to the double bill of two renowned French actresses. Frot will play a midwife contacted out of the blue by her late father’s ex-lover (Deneuve).

In Europe, the film has sold to Spain (A Contracorriente), Benelux (Lumiere), Sweden (Folkets Bio),

which was described in Screen’s review as “an essential picture” for Lynch fans. Wanted Cinema snapped up Italian rights last week. David Lynch: The Art Of Life is the third in a trio of documentaries about Lynch by film-maker Jon Nguyen, who collaborated on this third instalment with Olivia Neergaard-Holm (Victoria) and Rick Barnes.

Made over four years, the filmmakers recorded more than 20 conversations with Lynch at his home. During the interviews, the iconic director retells personal sto-

TODAY

Denmark (41 Shadows), Portugal (Midas Filmes), Greece (Seven Films), Bulgaria (Bulgaria Film Vision) and ex-Yugoslavia (Demiurg). Elsewhere, the film has sold to Israel (Lev Cinema), Brazil (Mares Filmes), Mexico (Cinema Nueva Era), Hong Kong (Edko), Taiwan (Swallow Wings), Japan (Kino Films), as well as to Australia and New Zealand (Palace Films).

MFI will show a first promo at TIFF. Melanie Goodfellow

Girls Lost director falls for Paramour, Just Like Beauty

BY WENDY MITCHELL

Swedish director Alexandra-Therese Keining, who was signed by ICM at TIFF in 2015 after the premiere of fantastical drama Girls Lost, is attached to direct two English-language features.

Paramour, written by Jordan Katz, is being lined up for a 2017 shoot in Europe. Amy Rapp of Meredith Vieira Productions produces with US TV veteran Vieira executive producing. ICM handles

domestic sales and the film will likely be set up as a US-German co-production. The film is based on the true story of a Swiss businessman who tried to extort a German heiress. An Oscar-nominated actress is attached to the project.

The second feature, Just Like Beauty, is an adaptation of Lisa Lerner’s futuristic novel, which Keining describes as “a feminist Blade Runner deeply grounded in cultural satire”.

Saban acquires Last Face Saban Films has taken North American rights to Sean Penn’s Cannes Competition selection The Last Face, which stars Charlize Theron and Javier Bardem. Saban Films’ Bill Bromiley and Ness Saban negotiated the deal with CAA.

UFO grooms Hounds Boutique distributor UFO Distribution has acquired French rights to Ben Young’s debut feature Hounds Of Love, a true-life Australian crime thriller about a teenage girl kidnapped by a murderous couple, from UDI following the film’s Venice premiere.

UDI hosts a buyers’ screening today.

» Full stories on ScreenDaily.com

NEWS

Formula 1 driver Ronnie Peterson (right)

NonStop catches F1 ace

BY WENDY MITCHELL

NonStop Entertainment has taken theatrical rights in Scandinavia, Iceland, Benelux and the Baltics to Superswede, the Formula 1 story shooting now.

Nice Drama is producing Henrik Jansson-Schweizer’s feature documentary about Swedish racing legend Ronnie Peterson, a working-class kid who rose to worldwide fame before

dying in a crash in 1978.

Superswede is shooting in Orebro, Sweden; Monza, Italy; and London, UK, and will be released in autumn 2017. After the cinema release, the film will be available from spring 2018 on Scandinavian streaming service Viaplay. Peterson’s daughter Nina Kennedy is co-producing.

“It’s an amazing love story [between Ronnie and

Telefilm Canada sets diversity goal

BY JEREMY KAY

Te l e f i l m Ca n a d a h a s announced its goal to build, by 2020, a “representative and diversified” feature film portfolio that better reflects gender, diversity and indigenous communities. “Building a portfolio that better reflects Canadian society is a priority for us,” said Telefilm’s executive director Carolle Brabant. “I’m pleased to see the industry is committed to change.”

Telefilm will establish a working group with the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA) and the Association québécoise de la production médiatique (AQPM) to “help us develop lasting and impactful solutions”, said Brabant.

Telefilm has partnered with the industry to support representation and diversity in Canadian cinema through initiatives such as the Birks Diamond Tribute at TIFF.

Film Sales rows to Shore

BY JEREMY KAY

The Film Sales Company president Andrew Herwitz launches worldwide sales in Toronto on Sarah Moshman’s documentary Losing Sight Of Shore.

The film, in post, chronicles the harrowing journey of four women who rowed across the Pacific Ocean

4 Screen2 International at Toronto September 9, 2016 Toronto_2016.indd

05/09/16 22.00

from the US to Australia to raise awareness for breast cancer. Moshman follows the crew on their ninemonth ordeal as they overcome obstacles and defections.

“Sarah’s extraordinary access make this both a psychological and physical thriller,” said Herwitz.

his wife Barbro],” JanssonSchweizer said. “They tried to fit in, in a strange world of money and glory, and were inseparable through the hard times as Ronnie challenged the unwritten rules of the racing world.”

Jakob Abrahamsson, CEO of NonStop Entertainment, said: “We are enormously happy to be on board such an exciting project with Nice Drama.”

Shoreline has spirit of ’76 Shoreline Entertainment is in Toronto launching world sales excluding Africa on Izu Ojukwu’s Nigerian TIFF selection ’76, ahead of its world premiere in City To City on Sunday. The film is headed by Nollywood superstars Ramsey Nouah, Rita Dominic and Chidi Mokeme.

The film takes place against the backdrop of Nigeria’s civil war in the 1970s, as an army officer and expectant father in an intercultural marriage is caught up in a coup to assassinate General Murtala Mohammed.

Lonzo Nzekwe of Toronto-based streaming platform IronFlix brokered the deal between Shoreline Entertainment, Adonis Production and Princewill Trust.

Jeremy Kay

www.screendaily.com

Drama / Denmark / 2016

IN THE BLOOD Screenings

Press & Industry 09 / 10 / 16 4.45pm Scotiabank 7 (184) 09 / 14 / 16 3.30pm Scotiabank 11 (184)

copenhagen

Public 09 / 10 / 16 9.30pm Scotiabank 3 (387) 09 /11 / 16 3.15pm Scotiabank 10 (224) 09 / 17 / 16 3.15pm Scotiabank 11 (227)

/

hong kong

/

sydney

LevelK at TIFF: Scandinavian Stand at the Hyatt 1st floor (King Ballroom), September 8th - 13th.

Tine Klint

Derek Lui

tine@levelk.dk

derek@levelk.dk

NEWS

Boudica debut slate keeps female focus COPENHAGEN FILM FUND

is proud to be involved in Amat Escalante’s film ”The Untamed” and want to congratulate the team on the selection for

VENICE FILM FESTIVAL & TORONTO INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL

BY TOM GRATER

Boudica, the female focused film finance initiative launched by Rebecca Long and Ian Davies in Cannes, has revealed its first two investments.

The first project is feature doc We Are A Thousand, which will recount the story of how an Italian marine biologist and friends persuaded US rock band Foo Fighters to perform in their hometown of Cesena in

November 2015. The doc will be directed by debutante Anita Rivaroli and produced

by Caterina Turroni. It is in production and aiming for a 2017 festival premiere.

The second film will be coming-of-age pic Kat And The Band. EE Hegarty makes her feature debut on the project, which has a script from Michael Mueller; Stella Nwimo will produce. Dougie Poynter of UK boyband McFly will star in

his first feature role, with production scheduled for next spring.

The company’s initial investment slate, which totals $1m, will feature six to eight projects, with the rest to be announced at AFM and Berlin.

Boudica offers production and completion finance for films that meet criteria set to increase the employment of women in the film industry.

Hobbyhorse ready to rock

BY WENDY MITCHELL

Selma Vilhunen, the Finnish director making her feature debut with Little Wing in Discovery, is in post on documentary Hobbyhorse Revolution. Cats & Docs handles international sales and the film, co-produced with Sweden’s Bautafilm, will be presented as a work in progress at Nordisk Panorama this

month; it will be delivered for early 2017 festivals.

TV deals are in place with YLE in Finland and SVT in Sweden; the team at Vilhunen’s Helsinki-based Tuffi Films is looking for a partner to turn the subject — Finnish teenage girls obsessed with hobbyhorses — into a TV series as well. Tuffi producer Venla Hellstedt said:

“This is a kick-ass film about a girls’ subculture.”

Tuffi is also pitching Vilhunen’s second fiction feature, Stupid Young Heart, which was presented last month at Haugesund’s copro market and will shoot from autumn 2017. That film is about two teens expecting a baby as the father is drawn into a right-wing group.

Brightlight finds Karr

Work continues on the Scotiabank escalator

THE UNTAMED LA REGIÓN SALVAJE

A FILM BY

AMAT ESCALANTE

6 Screen International at Toronto September 9, 2016

Escalatorgate: going down Engineers are working on a broken escalator at the Scotiabank Theatre Toronto that has inconvenienced industry attendees at the festival.

The long escalator is the easiest and fastest way to get from the theatre’s lobby area to the theatre level, where press and industry festival screenings got underway on Thursday.

Without it, the alterna-

tives at the venue on Richmond Street West are a tall flight of stairs and a single elevator located in a corner of the lobby. At time of writing, there was no estimate of when the conveyor would be operational again.

Pat Marshall of site owner Cineplex said: “We are awaiting guidance from ThyssenKrupp Elevator on when they can complete the repair.”

Vancouver-based Brightlight Pictures has hired former Telefilm Canada director of national business affairs Sandra Karr as COO. Karr will oversee the dayto-day operations of the company.

“Sandra’s extensive knowledge made her an ideal candidate,” said Brightlight president Shawn Williamson.

“From output deals with Voltage Pictures to securing Netflix series Haters Back Off and other feature film and TV deals, Brightlight has a strong future and I am excited to be part of it,” said Karr.

Jeremy Kay

www.screendaily.com

This year’s Golden Lion contender

by award winning director Andrei Konchalovsky

German Films Stand at the Hyatt Regency · King Ballroom (Mezzanine Level) · Contact: jpahl@arri.de · www.arrimedia.de/international ARRI_Screen_Toronto_060916.indd 1

07.09.16 17:18

LINEUP

BETA CINEMA AT TIFF 2 SCREENINGS TOMORROW / Sep 10th / 5:15 pm Winter Garden Theatre / PUBLIC

LAYLA M. Directed by Mijke de Jong

SUNDAY / Sep 11th / 8:45 am Scotiabank 14 / PRESS & INDUSTRY MONDAY / Sep 12th / 12:15 pm TIFF Bell Lightbox Cinema 2 / PUBLIC WEDNESDAY / Sep 14th / 4:30 pm Scotiabank 10 / PRESS & INDUSTRY SATURDAY / Sep 17th / 9:45 pm TIFF Bell Lightbox Cinema 1 / PUBLIC

SCREENINGS TODAY / Sep 09th / 4:30 pm Scotiabank 14 / PUBLIC

BLESSED BENEFIT Directed by Mahmoud al Massad

TODAY / Sep 09th / 11:15 am Scotiabank 10 / PRESS & INDUSTRY SUNDAY / Sep 11th / 7:15 pm Scotiabank 8 / PUBLIC WEDNESDAY / Sep 14th / 7:00 pm Scotiabank 6 / PRESS & INDUSTRY FRIDAY / Sep 16th / 9:00 pm Scotiabank 11 / PUBLIC

SCREENINGS TOMORROW / Sep 10th / 11:15 am Scotiabank 11 / PRESS & INDUSTRY

CLAIR OBSCUR Directed by Yesim Ustaoglu

SUNDAY / Sep 11th / 3:45 pm Scotiabank 13 / PUBLIC TUESDAY / Sep 13th / 12:30 pm TIFF Bell Lightbox Cinema 3 / PUBLIC THURSDAY / Sep 15th / 11:30 am Scotiabank 11 / PRESS & INDUSTRY FRIDAY / Sep 16th / 6:30 pm TIFF Bell Lightbox Cinema 2 / PUBLIC

SCREENING

SAND STORM Directed by Elite Zexer

TUESDAY / Sep 13th / 6:45 pm Scotiabank 13 / PUBLIC WEDNESDAY / Sep 14th / 9:15 am TIFF Bell Lightbox Cinema 3 / PUBLIC SATURDAY / Sep 17th / 4:00 pm TIFF Bell Lightbox Cinema 4 / PUBLIC

OFFICE King Ballroom / Hyatt Regency Hotel / 370 King St. West / Mezzanine Level (German Films Stand)

F 2016 SCREENINGS TOMORROW / Sep 10th / 2:15 pm Scotiabank 9 / PUBLIC

THE DAY MY FATHER BECAME A BUSH

TOMORROW / Sep 10th / 9:15 am Scotiabank 5 / PRESS & INDUSTRY FRIDAY / Sep 16th / 2:45 pm Scotiabank 7 / PRESS & INDUSTRY

Directed by Nicole van Kilsdonk

SATURDAY / Sep 17th / 3:45 pm Scotiabank 8 / PUBLIC

SCREENINGS

WASTELAND

TODAY / Sep 09th / 10:15 am Jackman Hall / PUBLIC

Directed by Ivan Zachariáš and Alice Nellis

SATURDAY / Sep 17th / 12:30 pm Scotiabank 7 / PUBLIC

SCARRED HEARTS

SCREENING MONDAY / Sep 12th / 3:00 pm TIFF Bell Lightbox Cinema 5 / PRIVATE

Directed by Radu Jude

UPCOMING

HEAD OFFICE

Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck Eran Riklis Stefan Ruzowitzky Agnieszka Holland Calin Peter Netzer Erik Poppe

WORK WITHOUT AUTHOR (WT) REFUGE (WT) HELL (WT) GAME COUNT ANA, MON AMOR THE KING’S CHOICE

Gruenwalder Weg 28d / D-82041 / Oberhaching / Phone +49 89 673469 - 828 beta@betacinema.com / www.betacinema.com

REVIEWS Reviews edited by Fionnuala Halligan finn.halligan@screendaily.com

» The Magnificent Seven p10 » Moonlight p12 » Nocturama p12 » Una p14

» The Journey p14 » Maudie p16 » Frantz p16

The Magnificent Seven Reviewed by Tim Grierson Its rousing finale notwithstanding, this sluggish remake of The Magnificent Seven fails to capitalise on a strong cast and the source material’s inherently crowd-pleasing battle between good and evil. Denzel Washington is oddly muted as the leader of a ragtag group of gunmen hired to protect a city from a ruthless industrialist, while director Antoine Fuqua shows little feel for the flinty, widescreen grandeur of the western genre.

After performing the unusual double act of closing Venice and opening TIFF, The Magnificent Seven will unspool across much of the globe on September 23. Audience familiarity with the 1960 John Sturges picture, which was itself a remake of Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, will help grosses, as will an ensemble featuring Washington, Chris Pratt and Ethan Hawke.

With little competition from other action movies in the marketplace, Fuqua’s film should nab respectable grosses, although mild word-ofmouth may limit its earning potential.

Set in 1879, The Magnificent Seven stars Washington as Sam Chisolm, a steely bounty hunter who prefers the more highfalutin terminology “warrant officer”. Hired by Emma (Haley Bennett), one of the citizens of Rose Creek, a town traumatised by the violent businessman Bartholomew Bogue (Peter Sarsgaard), Chisolm puts together a team of desperadoes to kill Bogue and his heavily armed men.

Part of the fun in an ensemble film such as this

10 Screen International at Toronto September 9, 2016

OPENING FILM US. 2016. 132mins Director Antoine Fuqua Production companies Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures, Columbia Pictures, LStar Capital, Village Roadshow Pictures, Pin High, Escape Artists Worldwide distribution Sony Pictures Producers Roger Birnbaum, Todd Black Screenplay Nic Pizzolatto, Richard Wenk Cinematography Mauro Fiore Production design Derek R Hill Editor John Refoua Music James Horner, Simon Franglen Main cast Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D’Onofrio, Lee Byung-hun, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Martin Sensmeier, Haley Bennett, Peter Sarsgaard, Luke Grimes, Matt Bomer

is the rounding up of characters who will work together to vanquish the bad guys. But as with other elements of Nic Pizzolatto and Richard Wenk’s screenplay, the set-up does not provide the expected spark, the story refusing to come to life as we meet each of these ornery individuals.

Pratt plays a cocky hired gun but, outside of his skill with card tricks, he is a blandly swaggering sidekick. The same anonymity infects several of Chisolm’s gang, including an expert with blades (Lee Byung-hun) and a Biblespouting recluse (Vincent D’Onofrio). Hawke fares slightly better as his colourfully named character, Goodnight Robicheaux, at least has some depth: he is a brilliant sharpshooter who is afraid to fire his gun after surviving the horrors of the Civil War. But because the roles are underwritten and the players struggle to establish a rapport, The Magnificent Seven never lets the audience feel like its along for the ride with a dynamic group of death-or-glory hombres.

This is Washington’s third film with Fuqua — their first, Training Day, won him an Oscar for best actor — but his usual effortless command of the screen is rarely evident. It is not that Washington has lost his charisma or quiet confidence — it is that Chisolm is meant to be a stoic figure, whose ulterior motive for taking on this assignment involves more than just money. Unfortunately, the character is given so little dimension that Chisolm becomes the dull centre of the film.

Fuqua tries to make his film inclusive, populating the remake with prominent Mexican,

Native American and female characters. And the very presence of Chisolm gives the story an unspoken political edge: this is a black man living in an America that is less than 15 years removed from a bitter war over slavery. A richer, smarter film would make the case that this melting pot of heroes coming together to defeat evil is actually a metaphor for a nation slowly learning to put aside its racial and gender inequality for the greater good. But this notion — as well as some lip service to the futility of revenge — is buried under Fuqua’s generally uninspired treatment of western tropes such as the tense standoff and the majesty of the untamed landscape.

Hawke and D’Onofrio chew the scenery, but even they pale in comparison to Sarsgaard’s theatrical turn. Aiming to make Bogue loathsome, Sarsgaard misses the target, ending up closer to camp and never delivering an antagonist whose cruelty provokes moral outrage.

When The Magnificent Seven reveals its epic final shootout, which pits the entire town of Rose Creek against Bogue and his men, Fuqua and editor John Refoua produce a sustained, exciting action sequence that not all of our heroes will survive. Ironically, it is through kinetic movement and selfless bravery that we finally get some glimpse into characters who have been ciphers for the previous two hours. Even then, though, The Magnificent Seven disappoints: just think how much more resonant the climax would have been if the audience had really connected with these people throughout the film.

www.screendaily.com

REVIEWS

Nocturama Reviewed by Lisa Nesselson

Moonlight Reviewed by Tim Grierson An indelible portrait of an imperilled life, Moonlight is quietly devastating in its depiction of masculinity, race, poverty and identity. Writer-director Barry Jenkins builds on the promise of his intimate 2008 romantic drama Medicine For Melancholy to examine a young African-American in danger of being dragged down by the destructive forces around him — and how, by embracing his true self, he may discover contentment.

Ambitious in scope but precise in its execution, this deceptively small-scale character piece reverberates with compassion and insight. Based on a story by playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney, Moonlight consists of three segments, each focusing on a black man named Chiron. A different actor portrays him in each chapter: as a youngster, in high school and then in his 20s. From the outset, we sense life is difficult for Chiron (Alex Hibbert), growing up in a crime-infested section of Miami in the 1980s with a drug-addicted single mother (Naomie Harris).

But there is another pressure on him: the boy is teased by school bullies who assume he is gay, even though he is unsure of his sexuality. Befriending Kevin (Jaden Piner), a kindly classmate, Chiron starts to develop feelings for him, a tension that plays out over the next two sections.

Throughout Moonlight, Jenkins is looking at how people change in response to external stimuli, and he is especially interested in how someone like Chiron, who does not fit in, can lose his way due to cultural pressures. Part of Moonlight’s suspense comes from its fast-forwarding from one time period to the next, as we watch how an older Chiron has absorbed the experiences from earlier in his life.

Working with cinematographer James Laxton and composer Nicholas Britell, Jenkins occasionally drapes the proceedings in an almost operatic significance. Sometimes the affectation can be jarring, with swirling cameras and soaring music artificially amplifying the stakes.

Throughout the film, we see how Chiron is metaphorically assaulted on all sides — by a mother who cares more about drugs, and by a black community that values a rigidly macho sense of “hardness” — and all three actors convey the character’s fragile self-esteem. Newcomer Hibbert shows Chiron’s budding intelligence, while Ashton Sanders gives us a timid teenage Chiron who is unable to defend himself against his classroom tormenters. And in his twenties, Trevante Rhodes presents a man who we almost don’t recognise, and yet the actor illustrates quickly how this surprising transformation has occurred.

12 Screen International at Toronto September 9, 2016

PLATFORM US. 2016. 111mins Director Barry Jenkins Production companies A24, Plan B Entertainment, Pastel International sales A24, info@a24films.com, infoLA@a24films.com Producers Adele Romanski, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner Executive producers Brad Pitt, Sarah Esberg, Tarell Alvin McCraney Screenplay Barry Jenkins, story by Tarell Alvin McCraney Cinematography James Laxton Production design Hannah Beachler Editors Nat Sanders, Joi McMillon Music Nicholas Britell Main cast Trevante Rhodes, André Holland, Janelle Monáe, Ashton Sanders, Jharrel Jerome, Naomie Harris, Mahershala Ali, Jaden Piner

Bertrand Bonello’s Paris-set Nocturama does a riveting job of observing a group of young people who think it is a good idea to do what should be unthinkable. This film could not be more pertinent, although it was in the works long before “Charlie Hebdo”, “Bataclan”, “Brussels train station”, “Orlando nightclub” and “Nice” became shorthand for out-of-the-blue violence.

Graced with a distinctive cast and cinematic verve, there is lingering food for thought in this borderline surreal, delectably tense, artistically coherent venture that should attract plenty of attention. The only drawback is that reviews may spill too many beans before prospective viewers can experience for themselves the aura of mystery permeating the first, deeply intriguing 20 minutes.

There is a virtuoso matter-of-factness to the action, which plays out with exact times — starting at 2:07pm — superimposed over sequences of half-a-dozen individuals who may or may not know each other solemnly taking public transportation in Paris. For those familiar with the Paris Metro system, the spatial geography is superb — many shots were reportedly grabbed on the fly.

There is a creepy momentum at work — to what end is anybody’s guess, but the clock is ticking. They are not frivolous or fun-loving, they are on a mission. But what is it?

In due time, they have done something irreparable and it looks as if they are going to get away with it if they just wait out one night together in an enclosed central Paris location, rife with visual possibilities.

Their detachment is not brought on by brainwashing or drugs or terrible childhoods or any of the customary culprits. They have jobs, romantic partners and are integrated into society. It is simply a given they share: society needs to wake up, but society is unlikely to read their actions as they do. They also have no intention of becoming martyrs.

Time is fractured with a directness that gives events a non-stop undertow of anxiety, something Bonello handles well. Whereas his last film, Saint Laurent, was extravagant in its approach to artistry and debauchery on a rarefied plane, here there is something poignant about so much misguided stupidity masquerading as intelligence. The protagonists are pathetic yet see themselves as bold and daring and, in this, Bonello has captured something about the present moment that rings absolutely true.

PLATFORM Fr-Ger-Bel. 2016.

130mins Director/screenplay/ music Bertrand Bonello Production companies Rectangle Productions, Wild Bunch, Pandora Film Produktion, Scope Pictures, Arte France Cinema, My New Picture International sales Wild Bunch, obarbier@ wildbunch.eu Producers Edouard Weil, Alice Girard Cinematography Léo Hinstin Editor Fabrice Rouaud Production design Katia Wyszkop Main cast Finnegan Oldfield, Vincent Rottiers, Hamza Meziani, Manal Issa, Martin Guyot, Jamil McCraven, Rabah Naït Oufella, Laure Valentinelli, Ilias Le Doré, Robin Goldbronn

www.screendaily.com

BRIMSTONE Special Presentations

Films from The Netherlands Dir: Martin Koolhoven Sales: Embankment Films

LAYLA M. Platform

THE DAY MY FATHER BECAME A BUSH TIFF Kids

Dir: Mijke de Jong

Dir: Nicole van Kilsdonk

Sales: Beta Cinema

Sales: Beta Cinema

BEZNESS AS USUAL

IMPORT

TIFF Docs

Short Cuts

Dir: Alex Pitstra

Dir: Ena Sendijarević

Sales: Selfmade Films

Sales: Pupkin Film

adv screen 01-09-16.indd 1

01-09-16 16:00

REVIEWS

Una Reviewed by Graham Fuller Cat and mouse trade places in the exacting psycho-social drama Una, which depicts the eponymous damaged Englishwoman’s stalking of the outwardly ordinary man with whom, 15 years previously, aged 13, she had a threemonth sexual relationship. Adapted by David Harrower from his 2005 play Blackbird, the first feature helmed by the radical Australian stage director-dramatist Benedict Andrews is a crucible for the combustible combination of stars Rooney Mara and Ben Mendelsohn.

The film crosscuts between Una’s current life as a bitter, promiscuous 27-year-old living with her sick widowed mother (Tara Fitzgerald) and her tragic experience as a precocious adolescent (the excellent Ruby Stokes) smitten by her father’s fortyish friend and neighbour Ray (Mendelsohn). Flashbacks trace the progress of their affair, from a flirtation at a barbecue, an underwater dalliance at a swimming pool and a tryst in a park, to an evening in a cheap hotel where they slept together.

The opening shows the adult Una (Mara) coming home at dawn, having had anonymous sex in a club bathroom, and setting out to confront Ray, who she has located working as a staff manager on an industrial estate. She is led to him by a young employee, Scott (Riz Ahmed), who takes a shine to her — and on

SPECIAL PRESENTATION US-UK-Can. 2016.

94mins Director Benedict Andrews Production companies Bron Studios, Film4 Productions, Jean Doumanian Productions, WestEnd Films International sales WestEnd Films, info@ westendfilms.com Producers Jean Doumanian, Patrick Daly, Maya Amsellem Screenplay David Harrower Cinematographer Thimios Bakatakis Editor Nick Fenton Production design Fiona Crombie Music Jed Kurzel Main cast Rooney Mara, Ben Mendelsohn, Ruby Stokes, Tara Fitzgerald, Riz Ahmed, Tobias Menzies, Natasha Little

their impromptu later date treats her with more respect than Ray ever did.

Once Ray, who has taken a different name, overcomes the shock of being discovered by Una, their conversation takes a serpentine course. He says he was persecuted as a paedophile during his four-year prison term but argues he isn’t one of those “sick bastards”. He has rebuilt his life and married. Una’s recriminations slip into nostalgic reminiscences of their affair, and it is worryingly clear she yearns to renew their intimacy. Yet whatever Una’s feelings for Ray were when she was 13, and are now she is 27, Ray was guilty of raping her as a

minor. That bottom line is unerasable, but Harrower’s script allows that there are imponderables, given Ray has now paid his debt to society.

Mendelsohn makes Ray plausibly remorseful, yet the suspicion remains that he is as creepily self-serving as Humbert Humbert in Nabokov’s Lolita. Mara, meanwhile, is like a seared, broken Alice groping for a way out of a psychic labyrinth — it is a fearsome performance.

The play has been superbly opened out, and the prowling cinematography of Thimios Bakatakis (Attenberg, The Lobster) and Fiona Crombie’s cheerless sets combine to sustain an oppressive mood throughout.

The film indulges the fiction that the former enemies’ decade-long refusal to address a word to each other was broken that weekend, in the Scottish golfing resort, at talks designed to regulate the devolution of power to the Northern Irish parliament at Stormont. We’re asked to believe that, in the midst of the conference, Paisley demanded to fly back to Belfast to celebrate his 50th wedding anniversary, and McGuinness insisted on accompanying him.

These white lies get Paisley and McGuinness

into a car to the airport together, driven by a seemingly naive chauffeur (Freddie Highmore) who asks the two if they are by any chance famous? What follows is a stand-off and slow thaw that is also an exercise in backstory.

Warmly shot, with soaring shots of Scottish landscapes that will do the local tourist board no harm, and with a sometimes over-sentimental but effective orchestral soundtrack by Stephen Warbeck, this is a small but punchy UK film that looks set to embark on its own road trip.

The Journey Reviewed by Lee Marshall Playing fast and loose with the historical record, Northern Irish directing and writing talents Nick Hamm and Colin Bateman dramatise the origin story of another Ulster duo, fiery Unionist leader Ian Paisley and former IRA leader turned member of Parliament Martin McGuinness, former sworn enemies who in May 2007 became, respectively, first minister and deputy first minister of Northern Ireland.

Although it breaks no new ground, there is heart, humour, charm and even a little healthy mischief in a film that re-imagines the rapprochement between the two former foes — which would lead to a road map for peace in Northern Ireland — in the form of a road trip.

Part of the film’s undeniable audience appeal has to do with the sparring of two actors at the top of their game: Timothy Spall — who convinces as the firebrand Paisley despite hardly resembling him at all — and Colm Meaney, more subdued but equally convincing as the reformed Catholic freedom fighter.

An opt-out clause at the end of an opening caption that briefly fills us in on the background of the October 2006 St Andrews conference states: “This story imagines that journey.”

14 Screen International at Toronto September 9, 2016

SPECIAL PRESENTATION UK-US. 2016. 94mins Director Nick Hamm Production companies Greenroom Entertainment, Tempo Production International sales IM Global, sales@ imglobalfilm.com Producers Piers Tempest, Mark Huffam, Nick Hamm, Matt Jackson, Stuart Ford Screenplay Colin Bateman Cinematography Greg Gardiner Editor Chris Gill Production designer David Craig Music Stephen Warbeck Main cast Timothy Spall, Colm Meaney, Toby Stephens, Catherine McCormack, Ian McElhinney, Barry Ward, Ian Beattie, Freddie Highmore, John Hurt

www.screendaily.com

COMPETITIVE FInanCIal InCEnTIVES SuICIDe SquaD

SPOTLIGHT

MISS SLOane

aMeRICan GODS

OnTaRIO PRODUCERS MaKE GREaT PaRTnERS Mean DReaMS

ROOM

COMe SHOOT In OnTaRIO “Ontario’s film and television industry contributed $1.5 billion to the province’s economy last year, a record number fueled by our highly-skilled crews and talent. Their dedication, creativity and hard work are the core of Ontario’s world-class production eco-system.”

—Justin Cutler, Ontario Film Commissioner

“Co-producing in Ontario was an award-winning formula for Room thanks to investment from OMDC’s film fund, scouting and the province’s tax incentives. Filming and premiering Room at 2015 TIFF was just the beginning of a great success story.”

—DAViD GrOss, no trace Camping, Producer, rOOM

We’ve got it going @OMDCtweets

OMDConline

OMDConline

® Toronto International Film Festival Inc., used under license.

REVIEWS

Maudie Reviewed by Tim Grierson

Frantz Reviewed by Jonathan Romney Versatile French writer-director Francois Ozon is arguably as successful as any contemporary auteur at consistently taking his audience by surprise. But his uncharacteristically sombre drama Frantz represents a distinct departure for a film-maker whose love of mischief has often been his foremost trait.

A black-and-white period piece in French and German, Frantz is arguably one of the straightest films Ozon has made — in both the dramatic and the sexual senses — but his complex sensibilities and fine-tuned irony are very evident in a mature work that transcends genre pastiche to be intellectually stimulating and emotionally satisfying.

Alongside a fine performance by Pierre Niney, the film offers a terrific showcase for German actress Paula Beer.

Named after a character who remains a haunting absence, the film is inspired by Ernst Lubitsch’s 1932 drama Broken Lullaby. Ozon’s setting is a small town in Germany after the First World War, where young Anna (Beer) is mourning the death of her fiancé Frantz, killed in combat. One day, a man is spotted laying flowers on Frantz’s grave; he is a Frenchman, Adrien (Niney), and he tells Anna that he and Frantz were friends.

Seeing him as a link to her lost love, Anna introduces Adrien to Frantz’s parents (Ernst Stötzner, Marie Gruber), who overcome their resistance to entertaining a former enemy. Others in town, however, are not so welcoming.

But the family does not yet know the whole of Adrien’s story, and more truths will emerge.

Ozon earlier attempted costume melodrama in the more demonstratively playful English-language Angel (2007), but here he is in an altogether more sombre mood; he takes to period evocation with absolute confidence, although a certain studiousness sometimes makes the drama feel more detached than it might be.

Pascal Marti’s fine black-and-white photography — with occasional subtle detours into colour — is composed and painterly and, in both German and French-set sequences, the art and costume departments — the latter under Pascaline Chavanne — excel.

A special Ozon stroke is the casting of Pierre Niney — a delicate, even feminine actor. Niney’s presence teasingly nudges us into seeking the homoerotic subtexts that are a constant with Ozon and, even if we are misled to some degree, Niney’s fascinating, subtly neurotic performance as Adrien certainly adds another layer to the film’s richness.

16 Screen International at Toronto September 9, 2016

SPECIAL PRESENTATION Fr-Ger. 2016. 113mins Director Francois Ozon Production companies Mandarin, X-Filme International sales Films Distribution, info@ filmsdistribution.com Producers Eric Altmayer, Nicolas Altmayer Screenplay Francois Ozon, Philippe Piazzo Cinematography Pascal Marti Production designer Michel Barthélemy Editor Laure Gardette Music Philippe Rombi Main cast Pierre Niney, Paula Beer, Ernst Stötzner, Marie Gruber, Johann von Bülow

A romantic drama with a scruffy integrity, Maudie is, for better and for worse, an actorly exercise in presenting an audience with two wilfully peculiar characters and then trying to find a way to make us fall for them.

Based on the true story of arthritic painter Maud Lewis and her monosyllabic fishmonger husband, this modest curio benefits greatly from the prickly rapport between Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke, producing a familiar and eventually affecting movie about finding a little contentment amid a world of heartache.

Spanning about 35 years, the film begins in the late 1930s in Nova Scotia as Maud (Hawkins), who suffers from crippling arthritis and a curved back, seeks to break free of her overprotective family, taking a job as a live-in maid for the cantankerous loner Everett Lewis (Hawke), who sells fish around the community. At first, he does not want her interfering with his insular, rural life, but soon a stubborn affection develops between them, leading to marriage as Maud finds her confidence as a painter.

Director Aisling Walsh and screenwriter Sherry White do not make it easy on the viewer, refusing to do anything to make either of these odd characters more loveable.

Agonisingly self-conscious because of her ailments, Maud is so socially awkward that she struggles to conduct even the simplest of conversations. Meanwhile, Everett, who grew up an orphan, seems to detest people, initially treating Maud less well than his dogs and chickens.

But although Walsh and her stars dramatise this love affair as one that begins almost by default, Maudie uses that ambiguity to suggest the mysteries of romantic coupling. The film’s high-wire act of telling a story about such an unlikely pair requires both actors to test just how far they can push their characters’ eccentricities.

Hawkins’ big eyes convey Maud’s relief at meeting someone who learns to accept her, while Hawke’s gruff exterior softens slightly as his character finally discovers a person who makes him feel safe. At its weakest, Maudie defiantly withholds pleasure or insight as these characters stumble around in their insecurities while failing to make a connection with each other. But once the film finds its rhythm, the story’s gentle twists — accentuated

by Michael Timmins’ elegiac score — feel so unhurried that they take on an offhand, everyday grace. If, ultimately, Maudie does not have much new to say about love or art, at least its two misfits provide an insight into something deeply true about long-term commitment.

SPECIAL PRESENTATION Can-Ire. 2016. 115mins Director Aisling Walsh Production companies Mongrel Media, Telefilm Canada, Newfoundland and Labrador Film Development Corporation, Ontario Media Development Corporation, Harold Greenberg Fund, Irish Film Board/Bord Scannan na hEireann, Corner Piece Capital, Citadel Canadian Films Inc, Rink Rat Productions, Screen Door, Parallel Films International sales Mongrel International, charlotte@mongrelmedia. com US sales CAA, filmsales@ caa.com Producers Bob Cooper, Mary Young Leckie, Mary Sexton, Susan Mullen Screenplay Sherry White Cinematography Guy Godfree Production design John Hand Editor Stephen O’Connell Music Michael Timmins Main cast Sally Hawkins, Ethan Hawke, Kari Matchett, Gabrielle Rose, Zachary Bennett, Billy MacLellan

www.screendaily.com

FILM IN SCOTLAND FOR THE PERFECT LOCATION For a fast, free, confidential location-finding service, award-winning production companies, experienced crew and great facilities, contact us today.

Join us at this year’s Festival 10-15 September, UK Film Centre, Festival Room, 9th Floor, Hyatt Regency Hotel, 370 King Street West

www.creativescotlandlocations.com E locations@creativescotland.com T +44 (0) 141 302 1723/35 Cover: View from Blaven summit towards Black and Red Cuillin hills, the Isle of Skye, Inner Hebrides. Photo: Stewart Smith/Scottish Viewpoint

INTERVIEW DANIEL BATTSEK

Battsek to the fore Only a few months into the role, Film4’s new chief discusses strategy, challenges and striking the balance between UK and US-based productions. Matt Mueller reports

T

Diverse mix While an executive of Battsek’s stature will want to put his stamp on Film4, the native Brit — whose CV includes stints as president of Miramax Films, National Geographic Films and arthouse US distributor Cohen Media Group — is in no particular rush, expressing his immediate intention to continue Kosse’s recent legacy. “We have our own tastes in terms of material but, business-wise, we very much see eye-to-eye,” says Battsek. “I feel the brand is in very good shape and the content we have is an interesting, diverse mix. I don’t want to make any dramatic changes at this point but I hope over time my particular experience and my particular taste will be brought to bear.”

Asked what he hopes to bring to the

Alamy

wo months into his new job as director of Film4, Daniel Battsek is confident the transition period between himself and former head David Kosse — who stepped down this year to become president of international at STX Entertainment — has been “as seamless as we could make it”. Battsek’s official start was July, but he has effectively been on board since Cannes.

While it is still early days, these first months have been about reassuring the industry that Film4 — in a healthy place with recent award-winning productions including Carol, Room and The Lobster — will continue on a similar trajectory.

“I wanted to make sure there was real continuity between David and myself,” says Battsek. “There was a lot of material that was about to be greenlit or that had been in production and needed to be followed through.”

Over the summer, Film4-backed The Killing Of A Sacred Deer, Yorgos Lanthimos’s follow-up to The Lobster, went into production in the US, with Andrew Haigh’s Lean On Pete following suit in Oregon. Prior to arriving in Toronto, where Film4 has five films playing — Free Fire, Una, The Oath, Trespass Against Us and American Honey — Battsek dropped into the New York City set of Lynne Ramsay’s You Were Never Really Here starring Joaquin Phoenix, which had 10 days left to shoot. “I’m never that comfortable on movie sets on the first few days, but it seemed in very good working order,” he reports.

‘There will always be a balance between stuff we do in the UK and stuff we do in the US but we’ll always be led by our film-makers’ Daniel Battsek, Film4

Film4 logo doesn’t get noticed as much as it possibly should, and it’s important going forward that people are more aware of our involvement in these films.”

With three productions shooting simultaneously in the US, an increased emphasis on US-based production would seem apparent, although Battsek sees the current situation as “by accident, not necessarily design”.

“That’s just the film-makers we’re partnered with developing material that happened to be American-set,” he says.

“There will always be a balance between stuff we do in the UK and stuff we do in the US [but] we will always be led by our film-makers.”

Clockwise from top: Daniel Battsek, Film4 titles here at TIFF — American Honey, Trespass Against Us; Free Fire; The Oath. Below: Una

table as head of one of the most successful developers and backers of UK films and talent, Battsek says: “What excited me about this role is that I have had a multi-faceted experience in the UK, the US and internationally. I have never been

18 Screen International at Toronto September 9, 2016

able to bring that experience to bear in one organisation, but I’ve been at the coalface in all of those environments. I know from learning at the deep end, and I hope that will be very valuable as Film4 becomes more of a filmmaking brand.”

Battsek would like increased recognition for Film4’s critical role in the UK film ecosystem.

“Our involvement in projects is vital during their lifespan, but it can get a little bit lost. The

Directors’ vision With Film4 in a strong position (despite uncertainties over Brexit and the looming privatisation of parent company Channel 4), Battsek could not be more delighted to take charge of the organisation at this time. He is finally getting an opportunity to work with UK film-makers he has been trying to link up with for years, including Mike Leigh, Danny Boyle, Steve McQueen and Lenny Abrahamson, all of whom have current projects with Film4.

“I was joking with Martin McDonagh the other day about the fact I desperately tried to buy In Bruges when I was at Miramax,” Battsek says. “I was also very keen on Andrew Haigh’s 45 Years [at Cohen Media], and I didn’t get my hands on that either. So I feel like I’ve done a smart pincer movement, to be working with them now. I feel very fortunate to come in at a time when these film-makers I have admired either closely or from afar are sort of in one place s at one time.” ■

www.screendaily.com

WWW.CARNABYSALES.COM @carnabyfilms

NOW IN POST-PRODUCTION

FIRST-LOOK FOOTAGE AVAILABLE AT TIFF! *FOOTAGE AVAILABLE VIA PRIVATE MEETINGS ONLY

ACTION-COMEDY UNITED KINGDOM • ENGLISH DELIVERY DATE DIRECTED BY STARRING

Q2 2017 SIMON WEST ANTONIO BANDERAS OLGA KURYLENKO

CARNABY INTERNATIONAL

saltytiffad.indd 1

The story follows Turk Henry; a mega platinum rock star who’s married to a supermodel and rich beyond his wildest dreams.

Whilst on holiday, his wife is mysteriously abducted by a group of renegade, ship-less pirates. With life skills better suited to playing bass, playing the field, and partying he is forced to navigate through deadly jungles and take on ruthless bandits in this truly hilarious, action-packed romp.

OFFICE: UK FILM CENTRE 9TH FLOOR OF HYATT HOTEL For Sales inquiries please contact Tania Sarra, Director of International Sales E: tania@carnabyinternational.com T: +44 7557 515 707

05/09/2016 11:01

SPOTLIGHT VOLTAGE PICTURES

Electric avenue Led by indefatigable co-founder Nicolas Chartier, Voltage Pictures has scaled up its production activities in recent years, leading to five films here in Toronto. Jeremy Kay reports

V

oltage Pictures co-founder Nicolas Chartier has never been short on ambition. The workaholic French expat (and former janitor at Disneyland Paris) started out in Hollywood as a screenwriter, worked in international sales and went on to win a best picture Oscar.

While many people might view one Academy Award as a career-highlight laurel on which to bed down, it only served to whet Chartier’s appetite. His indefatigable, behind-the-scenes work on The Hurt Locker in fact earned six Oscars in 2010, including the best picture accolade with Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal and Greg Shapiro — and marked the dawn of a new chapter.

Since then, Voltage, the privately funded venture that Chartier launched with Dean Devlin in 2005 before buying him out three years ago, has jumped into production with both feet. The company is disciplined on the financials but will take bets on eclectic work to complement

‘Every movie that gets made is a milestone’ Nicolas Chartier, Voltage Pictures

the sales business in order to maintain volume flow for distribution partners.

The result is an unprecedented five films in Toronto that illustrate the kind of operation Chartier and Voltage COO and president Jonathan Deckter are building. Voltage fully financed drama The Headhunter’s Calling starring Gerard Butler and co-financed, with Russell Levine’s Route One, the genre mash-up Colossal starring Anne Hathaway. The company put up a minimum guarantee against international for Jim Sheridan’s The Secret Scripture and Bronwen Hughes’ drama The Journey Is The Destination, while it acts in a pure sales capacity on Rob Reiner’s LBJ. Still, Chartier, a restless, no-nonsense personality whose passion for cinema has

Clockwise from top: The Headhunter’s Calling, The Journey Is The Destination and Colossal

unearthed gems such as Jean-Marc Vallée’s Dallas Buyers Club and William Friedkin’s Killer Joe, and seen him launch a crusade against online pirates, is not about to relax.

Nor, it seems, is anybody else at Voltage. When asked to ponder which films have marked milestones for the company, Chartier replies in a way that seems evasive but in fact speaks volumes: “Every movie that gets made is a milestone.”

Spreading out Housed in the old New Line building in West Hollywood, Voltage has been scaling up operations — TV and merchandising are nascent businesses — while keeping a relatively low headcount of 20 staff. “There were fewer projects on the market after the 2008 financial crisis,” says Chartier. “We needed movies to sell, so we had to start pro-

20 Screen International at Toronto September 9, 2016

ducing/financing to have films to sell at markets.

“We’re just trying to do the movies we want to do,” he adds, acknowledging a blend of passion projects and commercially robust ‘programmers’ for the sales slate.

“We’re more active on the production front than probably anybody in the independent space,” says Deckter, who joined last year as a partner after serving as president of IM Global. He says the goal is to finance or co-finance 10 films a year and pick up another 10-15 to feed the distribution pipeline. “We’re a high-volume business,” Deckter says. “We see a need for content in the marketplace and a diverse slate. We strive to make cast- »

www.screendaily.com

VOLTA AWARD The Audi Dublin International Film Festival, Ireland’s Premiere Film Festival, is dedicated to presenting the very best in international and Irish cinema. In 2007, the festival launched its Festival Tribute award.

Since then the award has grown into Ireland’s most prestigious film award – its alumni include Al Pacino, Daniel Day Lewis, Danny DeVito, Paolo Sorrentino, Julie Andrews, Josh Whedon, Francois Ozon, Kevin Brownlow and Thierry Frémaux.

ADIFF 16–26th February 2017 Sign up for our newsletters and book your place at next year’s festival: www.diff.ie

SPOTLIGHT VOLTAGE PICTURES

driven, upmarket movies that have wide release potential.”

To do that, Voltage has to stay nimble.

“We greenlight films as fast as anybody,” says Deckter. Case in point is The Headhunter’s Calling: “We got the script about a year ago, we read it over the weekend and immediately engaged. We had a deal done within the week, were in Toronto two weeks later launching the movie and were rolling cameras six weeks after that.”

Crucial to the deal was producer Craig Flores, president of Voltage Productions, who had worked as an executive producer on 300 and knew Butler. “[Director] Mark Williams and Gerard came to myself and Nicolas with this Black List script they’d had for a while,” Flores says.

“That’s where Nicolas and myself help these film-makers — very few of our competitors can greenlight a movie under $20m faster than us. The greenlight committee is very small and there’s a lot of informed decision-making but a good appetite for risk on the right project. On a picture-by-picture basis, we [may] collaborate with other equity, but the initial greenlight comes internally.”

The Voltage greenlight committee comprises Chartier, Deckter, Flores and Voltage Pictures president of production Zev Foreman. It runs projects by president of international sales and distribution John Fremes and his team. If the numbers work, they swing into action.

Strong producer voices at the company help shape an eclectic roster. Mike De Luca’s former production lieutenant Alissa Phillips recently came on board and the team includes Voltage Pictures senior vice-president of production Dominic Rustam. “The idea is to get different tastes and different sensibilities,” says

Voltage put up a minimum guarantee against international for Jim Sheridan’s The Secret Scripture

‘We strive to make cast-driven, upmarket movies’ Jonathan Deckter, Voltage Pictures

Chartier. “If two people like this movie, maybe they’re right and if somebody else doesn’t like it, maybe they’re wrong.”

The terminal decline of DVD and the leisurely pace at which VoD is filling that gap, combined with the allure of TV and the wide array of entertainment options

Sales title LBJ, directed by Rob Reiner

22 Screen International at Toronto September 9, 2016

available to consumers, means diversity is key. “It’s difficult,” says Deckter, a sales veteran who understands the need to be proactive in a rapidly evolving climate.

“Buyers are more and more looking for theatrical guarantees up-front, which is nothing new. There’s a downturn on the sales side based on all the local productions, which we’re competing against, but at the same time these distribution companies still need product.”

Busy production slate So the production mandate remains urgent. “We shot four movies in July,” says Chartier, “and we have two in August and another two or three in September.

It’s busy between the ones we finance and

co-finance and sell because we’re trying to be open in genre and find the gems.”

The July shoots included Henry Rollins action film The Last Heist, Toni Collette comedy Fun Mom Dinner and Mermaid’s Tale, while future productions will include The Professor And The Madman.

The latter is an example of the kind of project Voltage wants to board. Icon is producing the $20m-$30m feature and brought it to Voltage to fully finance. Mel Gibson and Sean Penn will star, and Gibson’s Apocalypto screenwriter Farhad Safinia adapted the script from Simon Winchester’s book about the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary; Safinia will also make his directorial debut. “I’ve worked on this for three years,” says Foreman. “It’s not your average British costume drama.”

Voltage’s swift response time and capital ties proved advantageous. Once Penn signed on in July, schedules were aligned and cameras are set to roll on September 26 in Ireland. Voltage will launch sales in Toronto. Looking ahead, there are new frontiers to cross. Voltage’s young international television division can fully finance or co-finance original material or license the company’s film properties. It will start sales in MIPCOM on the sixepisode Age Of The Living Dead.

The core business, though, remains film and the core message will encourage buyers feeling the pressure from Netflix and Amazon Studios, both of which Chartier and Deckter view as important buyers that are here to stay. “There will always be a place for movies,” says Deckter. “Going to the movies has always been a social experience that can’t be recreated inside your home. No matter how big s your television is, it can’t be replaced.” n

www.screendaily.com

TORONTO 2016

NORWEGIAN FILMS

PYROMANIAC

DIRECTOR Erik Skjoldbjærg

09/08/16 09/09/16 09/10/16 09/16/16

08:15PM 08:30PM 03:45PM 09:15AM

SCOTIABANK 10 (P & I) SCOTIABANK 1 SCOTIABANK 3 BELL LIGHTBOX 2

HUNTING FLIES

DIRECTOR Izer Aliu

09/10/16 09/10/16 09/12/16 09/15/16 09/18/16

11:30AM 06:30PM 09:00AM 07:00PM 02:45PM

SCOTIABANK 5 (P & I) SCOTIABANK 10 BELL LIGHTBOX 4 SCOTIABANK 5 (P & I) SCOTIABANK 10

CONTACTS IN TORONTO HUNTING FLIES

International Sales: LevelK, tine@levelk.dk Production company: Storyline Pictures

PYROMANIAC

International Sales: TrustNordisk, susan@trustnordisk.com Production company: Glør Film AS

FESTIVALS Norwegian Film Institute, so@nfi.no PRESS Norwegian Film Institute, jakob.berg@nfi.no

norwegianfilms.no

PRODUCTION FOCUS LADY MACBETH

Portrait of a Lady The team behind TIFF’s Platform premiere Lady Macbeth, touted as one of the hottest discoveries of the year, tell Wendy Mitchell about their unique approach to a period film

F

irst things first: this isn’t Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth. Also, it isn’t like any period drama you’ve seen, thanks to a talented trio of first-timers who tell one headstrong woman’s story in a unique way.

Director William Oldroyd, writer Alice Birch and producer Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly each make their feature film debut with Lady Macbeth, adapted from Nikolai Leskov’s 1865 Russian novella Lady Macbeth Of The Mtsensk District.

Birch, who has written frequently for theatre with work performed at London’s Royal Court Theatre, says she was drawn to Leskov’s novella because of its central character, a young woman trapped in a loveless marriage who takes her destiny into her own hands. “She should have been incredibly unlikeable but her passion and tenacity made me go with her.

You think it’s a familiar story — a young woman trapped in a loveless marriage — but it turns into this unexpected journey.”

Birch told her agent Giles Smart at United Agents she wanted to move into the film world. He introduced her to another of his clients, Oldroyd, who was a director in residence at London’s Young Vic theatre, and was moving in the same direction. Oldroyd was impressed with Birch’s work and, like the writer, became obsessed with Leskov’s Lady Macbeth.

“In literature of this period, women usually suffered in silence,” he says. “For her to fight back, that was so different.” Oldroyd was especially impressed with Birch’s adaptation of the text. “Alice brought out the psychology of the characters,” he says, noting she also changed the ending to leave the protagonist more empowered.

At the same time, Ireland-born Cronin O’Reilly, a National Film and Television School graduate who was Oscar nominated with Timothy Reckart’s 2012 animated short Head Over Heels, had already set up production company Sixty Six Pictures. She was introduced to Oldroyd by a mutual friend and the trio set out to create a special take on a period film (it went so well they are developing a second feature together).

Lady Macbeth, which is now touted as one of the hottest discoveries of 2016, has its world premiere in Toronto’s Platform section tomorrow before heading to San Sebastian, with further autumn

Florence Pugh stars as Katherine in Lady Macbeth

‘Katherine should have been incredibly unlikeable but her passion and her tenacity made me go with her’ Alice Birch, writer

festivals to be announced. Protagonist Pictures is handling international sales.

In their update of Leskov’s story, Katherine (Florence Pugh) lives in rural England in 1865. She contends with an overbearing husband (Paul Hilton) and a disapproving father-in-law (Christopher Fairbank), before embarking on an affair with handsome farmhand Sebastian (Cosmo Jarvis), with dangerous consequences.

Lady Macbeth is notable as one of the first micro-budget period films to be made in the UK. It was brought to life under the iFeatures scheme, run by Creative England, BFI, BBC Films and Creative Skillset to work with films with a base budget of $455,000 (£350,000), though this can be topped up with other finance as it was for Lady Macbeth. All the other iFeatures projects have been contemporary, but Cronin O’Reilly knew the scheme’s executives were looking for ambitious applications. “A lot of people thought we were crazy [making a lowbudget period film], but we knew iFeatures asked for bold, audacious projects,” she recalls.

Cronin O’Reilly says the iFeatures structure was great for giving feedback and advice in development and pre-production yet not smothering the team during the shoot. “They allowed us to get on with it,” she says. The tight

24 Screen International at Toronto September 9, 2016

Producer Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly, writer Alice Birch and director William Oldroyd

budget actually helped with the intimacy of the story; as Birch says, “There is a distance in some period films — this is more human.”

One key location That the team was able to stick to its budget was thanks to using one location — Lambton Castle stately home in Northumberland, north-east England — for 22 of the shoot’s 24 days. A single location allowed more time to prepare and work, and “not wasting time moving around”, says Cronin O’Reilly. They had key cast for 10 days of rehearsals in situ before starting to shoot, enabling them to map out everything beforehand.

Rising UK actress Pugh, so far best

known for Carol Morley’s The Falling, shines assuredly in her first leading role.

“We met quite a few actors who you think, ‘You’re the Lady Macbeth we already have in our mind, with the icy glare.’ But [our character] had to start softer than that,” Oldroyd says. “Florence can come across as youthful and then become more hardened. Underneath, she is kick-ass.”

The film also stars former Screen Star of Tomorrow Jarvis, who impressed the team with his commitment to the role.

He slept on the estate’s floor one night in preparation for a difficult scene, and worked with horses and dogs to understand life as a groom. “He was dedicated s to the process,” Oldroyd praises. n

www.screendaily.com

TIFF_2016_UKF_Screenad_FP_335x245_2.indd 2

05/09/2016 15:52

SCREENINGS

FURTHER COVERAGE, SEE SCREENDAILY.COM

Edited by Jamie McLeish » Screening times and venues are correct at the time of going to press but subject to alteration

PUBLIC

Music Group (US).

Dir: John Scheinfeld.

Cast: Antonia Andrews, Bill Clinton, Michelle Coltrane.

Veteran documentarian John Scheinfeld (The U.S. Vs. John Lennon) explores the life and work of jazz legend John Coltrane, with commentary and appreciations from such diverse devotees as Denzel Washington, Carlos Santana, Common, Cornell West and Bill Clinton.

SCREENINGS

9:00AM HEAVEN WILL WAIT

(France) 104mins.

Gaumont (int’l). Dir: Marie-Castille MentionSchaar. Cast: Noémie Merlant, Naomi Amarger, Clotilde Courau.

Director Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar parallels the stories of two teenage girls — one a would-be jihadist, the other a model student who strikes up an online relationship with a young Muslim man — in this penetrating study about how terrorism takes root in contemporary European youth.

Contemporary World Cinema TIFF Bell Lightbox 4

I AM NOT MADAME BOVARY

(China) 128mins. Wild Bunch, Golden Network Asia (int’l). Dir: Feng Xiaogang. Cast: Fan Bingbing, Guo Tao. A café proprietor spends a decade petitioning the Chinese legal system after being swindled by her ex-husband, in this caustically comic contemporary fable from superstar director Feng Xiaogang (Aftershock).

Special Presentations TIFF Bell Lightbox 1

MESSAGE FROM THE KING See box, above

9:15AM KARL MARX CITY

(US/Germany) 89mins. Cinetic Media, Submarine Entertainment (int’l and US). Dir: Petra Epperlein.

Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker (Gunner Palace, The Prisoner or: How I Planned to Kill Tony Blair) take a personal journey through the former East Germany, as Epperlein investigates her father’s 1999 suicide and the possibility he may have worked as a spy for the Stasi security service.

TIFF Docs TIFF Bell Lightbox 3

TIFF Docs TIFF Bell Lightbox 2

1:00PM THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN

PUBLIC SCREENING 9:00AM MESSAGE FROM THE KING

(UK/France/Belgium) 102mins. Sierra/ Affinity (int’l). William Morris Endeavor Entertainment (US).

Dir: Fabrice Du Welz. Cast: Chadwick Boseman, Teresa Palmer, Luke Evans.

Chadwick Boseman, Teresa Palmer and

NOCTURAMA

(France/Germany/ Belgium) 130mins.

Wild Bunch (int’l). Dir: Bertrand Bonello. Cast: Finnegan Oldfield, Vincent Rottiers, Hamza Meziani.

Bertrand Bonello (House Of Tolerance, Saint Laurent) directs this provocative account of a group of young multiracial radicals whose terrorist attacks on Paris lead to a massive manhunt.

Platform TIFF Bell Lightbox 2

10:15AM WASTELAND

(Czech Republic) 449mins. Dir: Ivan Zacharias, Alice Nellis.

Cast: Zuzana Stivinova, Jaroslav Dusek, Eliska Krenkova.

26 Screen International at Toronto September 9, 2016

Luke Evans star in this atmospheric revenge thriller from Fabrice du Welz (Vinyan), about a mysterious traveller from South Africa combing the Los Angeles underworld for those responsible for the death of his sister.

a manic, bullet-riddled stand-off inside an abandoned warehouse.

Midnight Madness Ryerson Theatre

11:45AM THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS

Already struggling to survive in the modern economy, a small Czech town is hit by tragedy in this sprawling mystery miniseries from the team behind Agnieszka Holland’s Burning Bush.

(Algeria/Italy) 123mins.

Dir: Gillo Pontecorvo.

Cast: Saadi Yacef, Brahim Haggiag, Jean Martin.

Gillo Pontecorvo’s gritty, stirring and unabashedly anti-colonialist account of the urban war between battle-hardened French paratroopers and Algerian resistance fighters. The film became an instant flashpoint for controversy and was banned in France until 1971.

Primetime Jackman Hall (AGO)

TIFF Cinematheque TIFF Bell Lightbox 4

Vanguard Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema

11:30AM

12:00PM

FREE FIRE

THE SIXTH BEATLE

(UK) 90mins.

Protagonist Pictures (int’l). Dir: Ben Wheatley.

Cast: Sharlto Copley, Armie Hammer, Cillian Murphy.

Brie Larson, Armie Hammer and Cillian Murphy star in the hotly anticipated new film

by Ben Wheatley (Kill List, High-Rise), about a weapons deal gone wrong that escalates into

(US/UK/Germany) 100mins. Submarine (int’l and US). Dir: Tony Guma.

Liverpool concert promoter and rock ‘n’ roll true believer Sam Leach offers a rollicking account of his role in raising the profile of The Beatles during the band’s hardscrabble early years on the club circuit.

TIFF Docs Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema

WE ARE NEVER ALONE

(Czech Republic/France) 105mins. Wide (int’l). Dir: Petr Vaclav. Cast: Karel Roden, Lenka Vlasakova, Miroslav Hanus.

The unhappy lives of a shop clerk, a bouncer, a stripper and a prison guard intersect in this nihilistic black comedy set in an isolated central European town.

Contemporary World Cinema TIFF Bell Lightbox 3

12:15PM TONI ERDMANN

(US) 133mins. Dir: Antoine Fuqua. Cast: Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke.

An all-star cast — including Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D’Onofrio, Lee Byung-hun and Peter Sarsgaard — saddles up for this blazing remake of the 1960 western classic from director Antoine Fuqua (The Equalizer), about seven gunslinging mercenaries protecting a small community from a rapacious robber baron.

Gala Presentations Roy Thomson Hall

2:00PM

(Germany) 162mins. The Match Factory (int’l).

Dir: Maren Ade. Cast: Peter Simonischek, Sandra Hüller, Michael Wittenborn.

One of the most talkedabout films at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, the new film from Maren Ade is an alternately hilarious and mortifying comedy about the fraught relationship between a repressed corporate consultant and her incessantly prank-playing dad.

(US) 98mins. Radiant Films International (int’l). ICM Partners, United Talent Agency (US). Dir: Susan Johnson.

Cast: Bel Powley, Nathan Lane, Gabriel Byrne.

Awkward, isolated and disapproving of most of the people around her, a precocious 19-year-old genius is challenged to put her convictions to the test by venturing out on the NYC dating scene, in this adaptation of Caren Lissner’s bestselling novel.

Special Presentations TIFF Bell Lightbox 1

Special Presentations Ryerson Theatre

12:30PM

CARRIE PILBY

2:45PM

CHASING TRANE: THE JOHN COLTRANE DOCUMENTARY

CITIZEN JANE: BATTLE FOR THE CITY

(US) 99mins. Concord

(US) 92mins. Submarine » www.screendaily.com

Fury_ScreenDaily3.indd 1

6/9/16 13:59

SCREENINGS

(int’l and US). Dir: Matt Tyrnauer.

This timely and inspirational documentary chronicles legendary writer and urban activist Jane Jacobs’ battle to save historic NYC neighbourhoods from the draconian redevelopment plans of ruthless power broker Robert Moses in the 1960s.

5:45PM THE EMPTY BOX

(France/Mexico) 101mins. Pyramide International (int’l). Dir: Claudia Sainte-Luce.

Cast: Jimmy Jean-Louis, Claudia Sainte-Luce, Pablo Sigal.

Mexican film-maker Claudia Sainte-Luce (The Amazing Catfish) directs and stars in her touching second feature, about a young woman in Mexico City who is forced to care for her estranged father as he descends into senile dementia.

TIFF Docs Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema

ONE SINGS, THE OTHER DOESN’T

(France) 120mins. Ciné Tamaris (int’l). Dir: Agnes Varda. Cast: Valérie Mairesse, Thérese Liotard, Robert Dadies.

Agnes Varda’s 1977 masterwork is simultaneously a musical, a protest film, a portrait of a generation and, most importantly, a tender and insightful exploration of female friendship.

TIFF Cinematheque TIFF Bell Lightbox 3

3:15PM BEFORE THE FLOOD

(US) 93mins. Cinetic Media (US). Dir: Fisher Stevens. Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Fisher Stevens, Brett Ratner.

Fisher Stevens’ latest documentary (formerly titled The Turning Point) chronicles Leonardo DiCaprio’s campaign to raise global awareness about the dangers of climate change in his role as a UN Ambassador of Peace.

TIFF Docs Princess of Wales Theatre

3:30PM VAYA

(South Africa) 110mins.

Dir: Akin Omotoso. Cast: Mncedisi Shabangu, Zimkhitha Nyoka, Nomonde Mbusi.

Director Akin Omotoso weaves together three separate stories to create a gripping yet compassionate portrait of small-town characters immersed in the intimidating, alluring and dangerous world of big-city Johannesburg and Soweto.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 2

Discovery TIFF Bell Lightbox 3

3:45PM

4:15PM

GODLESS

FIRE AT SEA

(Bulgaria/Denmark/ France) 99mins. Heretic Outreach (int’l). Dir: Ralitza Petrova. Cast: Irena Ivanova, Ivan Nalbantov, Ventzislav Konstantinov.

A young physiotherapist struggling to survive in an economically depressed mountain town in postCommunist Bulgaria forms an unlikely friendship with one of her elderly patients, in this sublime morality play about the corruptibility of the human spirit and the possibility of atonement.

(Italy/France) 108mins.

Doc & Film International (int’l). Dir: Gianfranco Rosi. Cast: Samuele Pucillo, Mattias Cucina, Samuele Caruana.

Winner of the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, the new documentary from Gianfranco Rosi (El Sicario, Room 164) is a startling, on-the-spot document of the European migrant crisis.

Discovery TIFF Bell Lightbox 4

4:00PM TAMARA AND THE LADYBUG See box, above

ZACMA: BLINDNESS

(Poland) 110mins. The Society for Arts/Society Films (US). Dir: Ryszard Bugajski. Cast: Maria Mamona, Malgorzata Zajaczkowska, Janusz Gajos.

Haunted by her ruthless past, a former highranking security officer in Poland’s communist government seeks an audience with the Primate of the Polish Catholic Church, in this compelling drama from Ryszard Bugajski (Interrogation).

Contemporary World Cinema, Contemporary World Speakers Scotiabank 3

28 Screen International at Toronto September 9, 2016

Masters TIFF Bell Lightbox 1

LADY MACBETH

(UK) 89mins.

Protagonist Pictures (int’l and US). Dir: William Oldroyd. Cast: Florence Pugh, Cosmo Jarvis, Paul Hilton.

Acclaimed theatre director William Oldroyd relocates Nikolai Leskov’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk to 19th-century England, in this Gothic tale about a young woman trapped in a marriage of convenience whose passionate affair unleashes a maelstrom of murder and mayhem on a country estate.

Platform Winter Garden Theatre

ZOOLOGY

(Russia/France/ Germany) 87mins.

New Europe Film Sales (int’l and US). Dir: Ivan I Tverdovsky. Cast: Natalia Pavlenkova, Dmitry Groshev, Irina Chipizhenko.

A lonely and seemingly

6:00PM

PUBLIC SCREENING 4:00PM TAMARA AND THE LADYBUG

(Mexico/Spain) 107mins. Indie Sales (int’l). Dir: Lucia Carreras. Cast: Angeles Cruz, Angelina Pelaez, Mercedes Pascual.

Two women, living on the margins of society,

unremarkable middleaged zoo worker redefines her life after discovering she has grown a tail, in a film that is part comedy of errors, part social satire and part tender love story.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 4

4:30PM BLESSED BENEFIT

(Jordan/Germany/ Netherlands) 83mins.

Beta Cinema (int’l). Dir: Mahmoud al Massad.

Cast: Ahmad Thaher, Maher Khammash, Odai Hijazi.

Imprisoned on an unfair charge of fraud, a mildmannered Jordanian contractor discovers that prison has its own rhythms, rules and economies — and he soon begins to carve out a position for himself in this place where fraud is not a crime so much as a way of life.

Discovery Scotiabank 14

5:30PM ELLE

(France) 131mins. SBS

INDIA IN A DAY

become the unlikely guardians for a lost baby, in director Lucia Carreras’ compelling and heartfelt exploration of loneliness, female friendship and the social ills afflicting contemporary Mexico.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 13

Productions (int’l). Dir: Paul Verhoeven. Cast: Isabelle Huppert, Laurent Lafitte, Anne Consigny.

Isabelle Huppert stars in the daring new film from perennial provocateur Paul Verhoeven, about a high-powered businesswoman whose brutal sexual assault elicits both erotic fantasies and dreams of revenge.

Special Presentations VISA Screening Room (Elgin Theatre)

GRADUATION

(Romania) 128mins.

Wild Bunch (int’l). Dir: Cristian Mungiu. Cast: Vlad Ivanov, MariaVictoria Dragus, Adrian Titieni.

Cristian Mungiu (4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days) won the best director prize at Cannes for this terse, percolating drama about a Cluj physician who goes to highly questionable lengths to ensure his daughter’s academic success.

Masters TIFF Bell Lightbox 2

(India/UK) 86mins. Scott Free Films Limited (int’l and US). Dir: Richie Mehta.

Directed by Richie Mehta, executive produced by Ridley Scott and powered

by Google, India In A Day is a form of non-fiction film-making that uses footage shot by millions of people in India on one single day to assemble a lyrical portrait of modern India.

TIFF Docs, Next Wave Scotiabank 1

LITTLE WING

(Finland/Denmark) 100mins. Media Luna New Films (int’l). Dir: Selma Vilhunen. Cast: Linnea Skog, Paula Vesala, Lauri Maijala.

Frustrated by her mother’s erratic behaviour, a 12-year-old girl sets out on an impromptu quest to find her birth father, in this sharp and touching portrait of adolescence from Oscar-nominated Finnish film-maker Selma Vilhunen.

Discovery Scotiabank 8

NELLY

(Canada) 101mins. Seville International (int’l).

Dir: Anne Emond. Cast: Mylene Mackay, Mylia Corbeil-Gavreau, Mickaël Gouin.

Award-winning filmmaker Anne Emond (Nuit #1, Les êtres chers) returns to TIFF with this creatively imagined biopic »

www.screendaily.com

TIFF . 2016 H y a t t R e g e n c y To r o n t o , S u i t e 1 8 0 3

SCREENINGS

in this wild romcom produced by media mogul Mo Abudu.

City to City Scotiabank 11

6:45PM MARIE CURIE, THE COURAGE OF KNOWLEDGE

PUBLIC SCREENING 6:15PM GAZA SURF CLUB

(Germany) 87mins.

XYZ Films (US). Dir: Philip Gnadt. Cast: Sabah Abu Ghanem, Mohammed Abu Jayab, Ibrahim Arafat.

This handsome and

of controversial Quebec writer Nelly Arcan, who scandalised the French literary world with her semi-autobiographical novel based on her experiences as a sex worker.

Vanguard Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema

6:15PM CATFIGHT

(US) 96mins. MPI Media Group (int’l). Dir: Onur Tukel. Cast: Sandra Oh, Anne Heche, Alicia Silverstone.

A reunion between two old school friends (Sandra Oh and Anne Heche) sparks a no-holds-barred war of attrition, in this outrageously madcap black comedy.

Special Presentations Ryerson Theatre

GAZA SURF CLUB See box, above

6:30PM

(UK) 105mins. Pathé International (int’l).

William Morris Endeavor Entertainment (US).

Dir: Amma Asante.

Cast: David Oyelowo, Rosamund Pike, Jack Davenport.

Amma Asante (Belle)

AMERICAN PASTORAL

heartfelt documentary takes us into the world of the Gaza Strip’s surfing enthusiasts, and reveals a formidable resilience pulsing within a beleaguered population.

TIFF Docs Scotiabank 9

helms this biopic of Seretse Khama (David Oyelowo), the former African royal who courted controversy with his interracial marriage to Englishwoman Ruth Williams (Rosamund Pike) and later led his nation to independence from the British Empire as the first president of Botswana.

Gala Presentations Roy Thomson Hall

ALL GOVERNMENTS LIE: TRUTH, DECEPTION, AND THE SPIRIT OF I.F. STONE

(Canada) 91mins. Films Transit (int’l). Dir: Fred Peabody. Cast: Amy Goodman, Nermeen Shaikh, Matt Taibbi.

Film-maker and TV news veteran Fred Peabody explores the life and legacy of the maverick American journalist I.F. Stone, whose long oneman crusade against government deception lives on in the work of such contemporary film-makers and journalists as Laura Poitras, Glenn Greenwald, David Corn and Matt Taibbi.

TIFF Docs Isabel Bader Theatre

30 Screen International at Toronto September 9, 2016

(US) 126mins. Lakeshore Entertainment (int’l).

Dir: Ewan McGregor.

Cast: Ewan McGregor, Jennifer Connelly, Dakota Fanning.

Ewan McGregor makes his directing debut and stars alongside Oscar winner Jennifer Connelly and Dakota Fanning in this ambitious adaptation of Philip Roth’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, about a ‘perfect’ American family that is torn apart by the social and political upheavals of the 1960s.

Special Presentations Princess of Wales Theatre

GUILTY MEN

(Germany/France/Poland) 95mins. Films Boutique (int’l). Dir: Marie Noelle.

Cast: Karolina Gruszka, Arieh Worthalter, Charles Berling.

Karolina Gruszka stars in this sweeping biography of the legendary, Nobel Prize-winning physicist and chemist, who courted controversy both by challenging France’s male-dominated academic establishment and through her unconventional romantic life.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 10

NOCES

(Belgium/France/ Luxembourg/Pakistan) 95mins. Jour2fête (int’l).

Dir: Stephan Streker.

Cast: Lina El Arabi, Sébastien Houbani, Babak Karimi.

A teenage girl attempts to juggle the weighty expectations of her traditional Pakistani parents, an unexpected pregnancy and her own idea about where her life should lead, in this touching and intimate

film about obligations and their consequences.

WAVELENGTHS 1: THE FIRE WITHIN

Discovery, Next Wave Scotiabank 13

63mins.

Wavelengths TIFF Bell Lightbox 4

THE LEVELLING

(UK) 83mins. Mongrel International. Dir: Hope Dickson Leach.

Cast: Ellie Kendrick, David Troughton, Jack Holden.

After her brother’s suicide, a woman returns to her family farm to confront her brooding and embittered father, in the beautifully controlled and emotionally precise feature debut by Hope Dickson Leach.

WEIRDOS

See box, below

(Canada) 89mins. Dir: Bruce McDonald. Cast: Dylan Authors, Julia Sarah Stone, Molly Parker.

Canadian master Bruce McDonald (Hard Core Logo, The Tracey Fragments) teams with veteran playwright and screenwriter Daniel MacIvor for this offbeat coming-of-age comedydrama about two Nova Scotian teens who hit the road in July 1976 accompanied by the laconic ghost of the — still living — Andy Warhol.

THE REHEARSAL

Special Presentations TIFF Bell Lightbox 1

Discovery Scotiabank 4

7:00PM THE GIANT

(New Zealand) 102mins.

Mongrel International Dir: Alison Maclean.

Cast: Kerry Fox, James Rolleston, Alice Englert.

A young student at a drama school faces a moral conundrum when his budding romance becomes fodder for a final-year performance, in director Alison Maclean’s (Jesus’ Son) adaptation of the novel by Booker Prizewinning author Eleanor Catton.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 3

7:15PM

BY THE TIME IT GETS DARK

(Thailand/Netherlands/ France/Qatar) 105mins. Luxbox (int’l). Dir: Anocha Suwichakornpong. Cast: Arak Amornsupasiri, Atchara Suwan, Visra Vichit-Vadakan.

The delicately poetic second feature by Thai director Anocha Suwichakornpong weaves together multiple stories and characters to create a portrait of a beautiful

(Colombia) 115mins.

Films Boutique (int’l).

Dir: Ivan D Gaona. Cast: Willington Gordillo, Heriberto Palacio Santamaria, Rene Diaz.

A town leader in rural Colombia plays a risky game with the local rightwing paramilitaries with a cache of cash at stake, in this gripping crime story about ordinary people caught in a situation that slips rapidly out of their control.

Discovery Scotiabank 2

THE WEDDING PARTY

(Nigeria) 110mins.

Talking Drum Entertainment (int’l).

Dir: Kemi Adetiba.

Cast: Banky Wellington, Adesua Etomi, Richard Mofe-Damijo.

A lavish wedding escalates into pure Lagosian chaos,

PUBLIC SCREENING 7:00PM THE GIANT

(Sweden/Denmark) 90mins. Indie Sales (int’l). Dir: Johannes Nyholm.

Cast: Johan Kylén.

A young man born with a deformity that impedes his ability to communicate finds freedom in his fantasies,

in the touching feature debut from Swedish director Johannes Nyholm.

Discovery Scotiabank 14

»

www.screendaily.com

TIFF . 2016 H y a t t R e g e n c y To r o n t o , S u i t e 1 8 0 3

SCREENINGS

country haunted by its troubled history.

Wavelengths Jackman Hall (AGO)

8:00PM THE BIRTH OF A NATION

(US) 120mins. Dir: Nate Parker. Cast: Nate Parker, Armie Hammer, Mark Boone Jr. Writer-director Nate Parker reclaims the title of D.W. Griffith’s KKK-boosting 1916 milestone for this epic chronicle of the life of Nat Turner, who led a slave rebellion against white plantation owners in 1831 Virginia.

Special Presentations Winter Garden Theatre

8:30PM EMBER

(Turkey/Germany) 115mins. Dir: Zeki Demirkubuz. Cast: Aslihan Gurbuz, Caner Cindoruk, Taner Birsel.

In this slow-burning psychological drama from Zeki Demirkubuz, an Istanbul seamstress struggling with the debts left behind by her vanished husband rekindles an old friendship that escalates into an affair.

Contemporary World Cinema TIFF Bell Lightbox 3

PYROMANIAC

(Norway) 98mins.

TrustNordisk (int’l). Dir: Erik Skjoldbjaerg. Cast: Trond Hjort Nilssen, Per Frisch, Liv Bernhoft Osa. Erik Skjoldbjaerg (Insomnia) returns with this slow-burning psychological study about a young arsonist terrorising a rural community.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 1

THE DUELIST See box, above

8:45PM HISSEIN HABRÉ, A CHADIAN TRAGEDY

(France/Chad) 82mins.

Doc & Film International (int’l). Dir: MahamatSaleh Haroun. Cast: Clément Abaifouta.

One of the most important contemporary African film-makers, MahamatSaleh Haroun (A Screaming Man) makes his debut non-fiction

PUBLIC SCREENING 8:30PM THE DUELIST

(Russia) 110mins. Sony Pictures International Productions (US). Dir: Alexey Mizgirev. Cast: Petr Fedorov, Vladimir Mashkov, Martin Wuttke.

A professional duellist in

feature with this chronicle of the former Chadian dictator who in 2016 was tried and convicted in an African court of sexual slavery, torture and the ordered killing of 40,000 people.

Masters TIFF Bell Lightbox 2

19th-century Russia has second thoughts about his profession when he meets the beautiful sister of a future opponent, in this handsome historical epic spectacularly shot in Imax.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 12

Anne Hathaway, Jason Sudeikis, Dan Stevens.

A going-nowhere party girl (Anne Hathaway) discovers a mysterious connection between herself and a giant monster wreaking havoc on the other side of the globe.

Vanguard Ryerson Theatre

WEREWOLF

(Canada) 78mins. Dir: Ashley McKenzie. Cast: Andrew Gillis, Bhreagh MacNeil.

The hardscrabble existence of two homeless, twentysomething drug addicts is portrayed with sensitivity and brutal honesty in the debut feature by Ashley McKenzie.

Discovery Scotiabank 9

9:00PM

DIVINES

(France/Qatar) 106mins.

Films Boutique (int’l).

Dir: Houda Benyamina.

Cast: Oulaya Amamra, Jisca Kalvanda.

Girlhood meets Scarface in Houda Benyamina’s Cannes prize-winning debut feature, about two young women who become embroiled in the criminal world of the Parisian banlieues.

Henson. Cast: Jennifer Connelly, David Bowie.

Muppet maestro Jim Henson collaborated with George Lucas and fantasy artist Brian Froud on this cult fantasy epic, about a teenage girl (Jennifer Connelly) who ventures into the otherworldly maze of the Goblin King (David Bowie) to rescue her infant brother.

Festival Street Slaight Music Stage

THE BIRTH OF A NATION

(US) 120mins. Dir: Nate Parker. Cast: Nate Parker, Armie Hammer, Mark Boone Jr. Writer-director Nate Parker reclaims the title of D.W. Griffith’s KKK-boosting 1916 milestone for this epic chronicle of the life of Nat Turner, who led a slave rebellion against white

plantation owners in 1831 Virginia.

Special Presentations VISA Screening Room (Elgin Theatre)

9:15PM ARQ

(US/Canada) 88mins.

Dir: Tony Elliott. Cast: Robbie Amell, Rachael Taylor.

Orphan Black screenwriter Tony Elliott makes his feature directorial debut

with this brain-twisting sci-fi thriller, about a husband and wife (The Flash’s Robbie Amell and Jessica Jones’ Rachael Taylor) living in a dystopic future who become trapped in a time loop — one that may have something to do with an ongoing battle between an omnipotent corporation and a ragtag band of rebels.

Discovery Scotiabank 4

PUBLIC SCREENING 9:00PM JEFFREY

(Dominican Republic/ France) 78mins. Dir: Yanillys Perez. Cast: ‘Jeffrey’ Joselito de la Cruz, Jeyson de la Cruz, Junior de la Cruz.

This feature documentary focuses on a 12-year-old street windshield washer

in Santo Domingo who yearns to become a reggaeton singer, and with the help of his older brother composes and records songs about his life, his neighbourhood and his dreams for the future.

Discovery Scotiabank 8

Discovery, Next Wave Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema

COLOSSAL

(Canada) 110mins.

Voltage Pictures (int’l). Creative Artists Agency (US). Dir: Nacho Vigalondo. Cast:

32 Screen International at Toronto September 9, 2016

JEFFREY See box, right

LABYRINTH

101mins. Dir: Jim

»

www.screendaily.com

TIFF . 2016 H y a t t R e g e n c y To r o n t o , S u i t e 1 8 0 3

SCREENINGS

MAD WORLD

(Hong Kong) 101mins.

Golden Scene Company Limited (int’l). Dir: Wong Chun. Cast: Shawn Yue, Eric Tsang, Elaine Jin. Top Hong Kong stars Shawn Yue and Eric Tsang star in this daring independent drama about a former financial analyst suffering from severe bipolar disorder, who is released from a mentalhealth facility into the unwilling custody of his truck-driver father.

Discovery TIFF Bell Lightbox 4

9:30PM 93 DAYS

(Nigeria) 124mins.

FilmOne Distribution (int’l). Dir: Steve Gukas.

Cast: Danny Glover, Bimbo Akintola, Somkele Idhalama.

Bimbo Akintola, Danny Glover and TIFF Rising Star Somkele IyamahIdhalama star in Steve Gukas’s riveting real-life thriller about courageous healthcare workers in Lagos battling the Ebola outbreak of 2014.

City to City Isabel Bader Theatre

AMANDA KNOX

(US/Denmark) 92mins.

Dir: Brian McGinn.

This gripping documentary recounts the infamous trial, conviction and eventual acquittal of Seattle native Amanda Knox for the 2007 murder of British exchange student Meredith Kercher in Italy.

TIFF Docs TIFF Bell Lightbox 1

INTERCHANGE

(Malaysia/Indonesia) 103mins. Reel Suspects (int’l). XYZ Films (US).

Dir: Dain Iskandar Said.

Cast: Shaheizy Sam, Nicholas Saputra, Prisia Nasution.

A shell-shocked forensics photographer is drawn into a supernatural murder mystery that reveals Kuala Lampur’s underworld of ancient magic and sinister ritual.

PUBLIC SCREENING

Greece/Colombia) 86mins. Premium Films (int’l). Dir: Fernando Guzzoni. Cast: Nicolas Duran, Alejandro Goic.

The volatile relationship between a wayward teen and his disapproving father (Alejandro Goic, star of Pablo Larrain’s The Club) comes to a head when the boy seeks shelter from the police, in the new feature from Chilean

writer-director Fernando Guzzoni (Dog Flesh).

real-life political thriller from Oliver Stone.

Discovery Scotiabank 14

Gala Presentations Roy Thomson Hall

SNOWDEN

THE FIXER

(Germany/US) 134mins.

Wild Bunch (int’l).

Dir: Oliver Stone. Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Shailene Woodley.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden in this

(Romania/France) 98mins. MPM Film (int’l). Dir: Adrian Sitaru.

Cast: Tudor Aaron Istodor, Mehdi Nebbou, Nicolas Wanczycki.

A headline-grabbing sex scandal gives a Romanian trainee at a French news network an opportunity for his big break.

charm, he sets out on a magical, picaresque odyssey across Italy to find ‘Mister Universo’, the former circus strongman who gifted it to him.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 10

PUBLIC SCREENING 9:45PM MISTER UNIVERSO

(Austria/Italy) 90mins.

Be for Films (int’l). Dir: Tizza Covi. Cast: Tairo Caroli, Wendy Weber, Arthur Robin.

After a superstitious lion tamer loses his good-luck

Vanguard Scotiabank 2

JESUS

(France/Chile/Germany/ 34 Screen International at Toronto September 9, 2016

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 11

9:45PM BROOKS, MEADOWS AND LOVELY FACES

(Egypt) 115mins.

Pyramide International (int’l). Dir: Yousry

11:59PM HEADSHOT

(Indonesia) 117mins.

XYZ Films (US). Dir: Timo Tjahjanto. Cast: Iko Uwais, Chelsea Islan, Sunny Pang.

The indomitable Iko Uwais (The Raid) stars

in this fast and furious actioner as an amnesiac whose mysterious past as a killing machine comes to the fore when he takes on the henchmen of a vengeful drug lord.

Midnight Madness Ryerson Theatre

Nasrallah. Cast: Laila Eloui, Menna Shalaby, Bassem Samra.

A family of caterers in an Egyptian village prepares for a big wedding feast while balancing sibling rivalry, romantic entanglements and culinary ambitions in this charming comedy from veteran Yousry Nasrallah.

Stranded along a sublime river fjord in northern Portugal, a hunky ornithologist is subjected to a series of brutal and erotic Stations-of-theCross-style tests, in the daring film from Joao Pedro Rodrigues.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 3

TRESPASS AGAINST US

MISTER UNIVERSO See box, left

SHORT CUTS PROGRAMME 02

93mins.

Short Cuts Scotiabank 13

10:00PM THE ORNITHOLOGIST

(Portugal/France/Brazil) 118mins. Films Boutique (int’l). Dir: Joao Pedro Rodrigues. Cast: Paul Hamy, Xelo Cagiao, Joao Pedro Rodrigues.

Wavelengths Jackman Hall (AGO)

(UK) 94mins. Protagonist Pictures (int’l). Dir: Adam Smith. Cast: Michael Fassbender, Brendan Gleeson, Lyndsey Marshal.

The son and presumptive heir of a criminal clan (Michael Fassbender) comes into conflict with the family patriarch (Brendan Gleeson) when he tries to leave the outlaw life.

Special Presentations Princess of Wales Theatre

11:59PM HEADSHOT See box, above

www.screendaily.com

»

I AM NOT

YOURNEGRO A FILM BY

RAOUL PECK

BASED ON THE WORDS OF JAMES BALDWIN WITH THE VOICE OF SAMUEL L. JACKSON WIDE HOUSE prESEntS I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO a fIlm by raOUl pECK WrIttEn by JAMES BALDWIN WItH tHE vOICE Of SAMUEL L. JACKSON prODUCED by RÉMI GRELLETY, RAOUL PECK, HÉBERT PECK COprODUCED by PATRICK QUINET, JOËLLE BERTOSSA WItH tHE fUll SUppOrt anD COllabOratIOn Of tHE JAMES BALDWIN ESTATE EDItIng ALEXANDRA STRAUSS CInEmatOgrapHEr HENRY ADEBONOJO, BILL ROSS, TURNER ROSS anImatOr MICHEL BLUSTEIN SOUnD vALÉRIE LE DOCTE, DAVID GILLAIN mUSIC ALEXEI AIGUI arCHIval rESEarCH MARIE-HÉLÈNE BARBÉRIS aSSIStED by NOLWENN GOUAULT prODUCED by VELVET FILM, INC. (USA), VELVET FILM (FRANCE), ARTÉMIS PRODUCTIONS, CLOSE UP FILMS In COprODUCtIOn WItH ARTE FRANCE, INDEPENDENT TELEVISION SERVICE (ITVS)

WITH FUNDING PROVIDED BY CORPORATION FOR PUBLIC BROADCASTING (CPB), RTS RADIO TÉLÉVISION SUISSE, RTBF (TÉLÉVISION BELGE), SHELTER PROD WItH tHE SUppOrt Of CENTRE NATIONAL DU CINÉMA ET DE L’IMAGE ANIMÉE, MEDIA PROGRAMME OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, SUNDANCE INSTITUTE DOCUMENTARY FILM PROGRAM,

NATIONAL BLACK PROGRAMMING CONSORTIUM (NBPC), CINEREACH, PROCIREP – SOCIÉTÉ DES PRODUCTEURS, ANGOA, TAXSHELTER.BE, ING, TAX SHELTER INCENTIVE OF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT OF BELGIUM, CINÉFOROM , LOTERIE ROMANDE ARTEMIS PRODUCTIONS

10.09 9PM TIFF Bell LB Cin. 2 (Official screening)

11.09 2PM Scotiabank 3 (Press & Industry)

12.09 3.30PM Scotiabank 3 (Official screening)

14.09 1.45PM Scotiabank 8 (Press & Industry)

16.09 9PM Scotiabank 1 (Official screening)

ATTENDING TIFF 2016: ELISE COCHIN +33 6 70 00 56 46 ec@widehouse.org North American Sales: ICM Partners | PR: MPRM Communications

TIFF2016_DailyWideHouse_245x335_CMJN.indd 1

31/08/2016 12:35

SCREENINGS

KARL MARX CITY

PRESS AND Midnight Madness INDUSTRY Ryerson Theatre

(US/Germany) 89mins. Cinetic Media, Submarine Entertainment (int’l and US). Dir: Petra Epperlein.

Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker (Gunner Palace, The Prisoner or: How I Planned To Kill Tony Blair) take a powerful personal journey through the former East Germany, as Epperlein investigates her father’s 1999 suicide and the possibility that he may have worked as a spy for the dreaded Stasi security service.

8:30AM BURN YOUR MAPS

(US) 102mins. Creative Artists Agency (US).

Dir: Jordan Roberts.

Cast: Vera Farmiga, Jacob Tremblay, Marton Csokas.

In this charming and moving adventure story, an eight-year-old boy (Room’s Jacob Tremblay) becomes convinced he actually hails from the steppes of Mongolia, leading his troubled parents (Vera Farmiga and Martin Csokas) to undertake an incredible family voyage.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 2

TIFF Docs Scotiabank 11

9:30AM PARK

PRESS AND INDUSTRY 9:00AM

THE LONG EXCUSE

THE AGE OF SHADOWS

(Japan) 124mins.

Asmik Ace, Inc. Dir: Miwa Nishikawa. Cast: Masahiro Motoki, Pistol Takehara, Sousuke Ikematsu.

A recently widowed writer whose wife died in a bus crash (Departures’ Masahiro Motoki) impulsively offers to care for the children of a working man who lost his wife in the same accident, in this gently humorous drama from Japanese writer-director Miwa Nishikawa (Dreams For Sale).

(South Korea) 139mins.

Finecut Co. Ltd (int’l).

Dir: Kim Jee-woon.

Cast: Song Kang-ho, Gong Yoo, Han Ji-min.

Korean superstars Song Kang-ho, Han Ji-min, and Gong Yoo headline the latest from cutting-

Special Presentations Scotiabank 13

8:45AM

TIFF Docs Scotiabank 3

EMBER

VAYA

(South Africa) 110mins.

Dir: Akin Omotoso. Cast: Mncedisi Shabangu, Zimkhitha Nyoka, Nomonde Mbusi.

Director Akin Omotoso weaves together three separate stories to create a gripping yet compassionate portrait of small-town characters immersed in the intimidating, alluring and dangerous world of Johannesburg and Soweto.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 8

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 10

(US/UK/Germany) 100mins. Submarine

confront the demons of her past as she is drawn into the world of a thriller novel written by her ex-husband.

Special Presentations Princess of Wales Theatre

SHORT CUTS PROGRAMME 01

Special Presentations Scotiabank 1

94mins.

104mins. Films Distribution (int’l).

Dir: Katell Quillévéré.

Cast: Tahar Rahim, Emmanuelle Seigner, Anne Dorval.

Ivory Coast-born filmmaker Katell Quillévére adapts Maylis de Kerangal’s Booker Prizelonglisted novel for this elegant and affecting film that draws three seemingly unrelated stories together into a tale about the moment when tragedy meets hope.

THE AGE OF SHADOWS

Short Cuts Scotiabank 6

and family man who disappears from his own life and observes his baffled loved ones from a hiding place in the attic, in writer-director Robin Swicord’s adaptation of the short story by EL Doctorow.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 4

9:15AM AMANDA KNOX

(int’l and US). Dir: Tony Guma.

Liverpool concert promoter and rock ‘n’ roller Sam Leach offers a rollicking account of his role in raising the profile of The Beatles during the band’s hardscrabble early years.

(Turkey/Germany) 115mins. Dir: Zeki Demirkubuz. Cast: Aslihan Gurbuz, Caner Cindoruk, Taner Birsel.

In this slow-burning psychological drama from Turkish director Zeki Demirkubuz, an Istanbul seamstress struggling with the debts left behind by her vanished husband rekindles an old friendship that escalates into an affair.

THE SIXTH BEATLE

edge director Kim Jeewoon (The Good, The Bad, The Weird), an epic-scale period thriller about a double agent sent to infiltrate a band of freedom fighters during the Japanese occupation of Korea in the 1920s.

9:00AM HEAL THE LIVING

(France/Belgium)

36 Screen International at Toronto September 9, 2016

See box, above

WAKEFIELD

(US) 106mins. Red Granite International (int’l). United Talent Agency (US). Dir: Robin Swicord. Cast: Bryan Cranston, Jennifer Garner.

Bryan Cranston stars as a successful lawyer

See box, below

(Greece/Poland) 100mins. Stray Dogs (int’l). Dir: Sofia Exarchou. Cast: Dimitris Kitsos, Dimitra Valgkopoulou, Enuki Gvenatadze.

Young love blossoms among a group of Athenian teenagers during a boisterous summertime idyll, in the raw, romantic and anarchic feature debut from Greek New Wave director Sofia Exarchou.

Discovery Scotiabank 7

PRESS AND INDUSTRY 9:15AM AMANDA KNOX

(US/Denmark) 92mins.

Dir: Brian McGinn.

This gripping documentary recounts the infamous trial, conviction and eventual

acquittal of Seattle native Amanda Knox for the 2007 murder of British exchange student Meredith Kercher in Italy.

TIFF Docs Scotiabank 14

Platform Scotiabank 9

NOCTURNAL ANIMALS

(US/UK) 116mins.

Universal Pictures International (int’l). Dir: Tom Ford. Cast: Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal, Michael Shannon.

Amy Adams, Jake Gyllenhaal and Armie Hammer headline the second feature from director Tom Ford (A Single Man), about a woman who is forced to

»

www.screendaily.com

SCREENINGS

Asia (int’l). Dir: Feng Xiaogang. Cast: Fan Bingbing, Guo Tao, Da Peng.

A café proprietor spends a decade petitioning the Chinese legal system after being swindled by her ex-husband, in this caustically comic contemporary fable from superstar director Feng Xiaogang (Aftershock).

9:45AM FREE FIRE

(UK) 90mins. Protagonist Pictures (int’l). Dir: Ben Wheatley. Cast: Sharlto Copley, Armie Hammer, Cillian Murphy.

Brie Larson, Armie Hammer and Cillian Murphy star in the hotly anticipated new film by Ben Wheatley, about a weapons deal gone wrong that escalates into a manic, bullet-riddled stand-off inside an abandoned warehouse.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 3

NOCTURAMA See box, left

Midnight Madness Scotiabank 12

11:15AM

PRESS AND INDUSTRY

10:30AM MISTER UNIVERSO

(Austria/Italy) 90mins.

Be for Films (int’l). Dir: Tizza Covi. Cast: Tairo Caroli, Wendy Weber, Arthur Robin.

After a superstitious lion tamer loses his good-luck charm, he sets out on a magical, picaresque

odyssey across Italy to find ‘Mister Universo’, the former circus strongman who gifted it to him.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 5

11:00AM I AM NOT MADAME BOVARY

(China) 128mins. Wild Bunch, Golden Network

11:00AM NOCTURAMA

(France/Germany/ Belgium) 130mins.

Wild Bunch (int’l). Dir: Bertrand Bonello. Cast: Finnegan Oldfield, Vincent Rottiers, Hamza Meziani.

BLESSED BENEFIT

Bertrand Bonello directs this provocative account of a group of young multiracial radicals whose terrorist attacks on Paris lead to a massive manhunt.

Platform Scotiabank 13

(Jordan/Germany/ Netherlands) 83mins.

Beta Cinema (int’l). Dir: Mahmoud al Massad.

Cast: Ahmad Thaher, Maher Khammash, Odai Hijazi.

Imprisoned on an unfair charge of fraud, a mildmannered Jordanian contractor discovers

that prison has its own rhythms, rules and economies — and he soon begins to carve out a position for himself in this place where fraud is not a crime so much as a way of life.

Discovery Scotiabank 10

THE GIANT

(Sweden/Denmark) 90mins. Indie Sales (int’l). Dir: Johannes Nyholm. Cast: Johan Kylén.

A young man born with a deformity that impedes his ability to communicate finds freedom in his fantasies, in the touching feature debut from Swedish director Johannes Nyholm.

Discovery Scotiabank 8

THE WEDDING PARTY

(Nigeria) 110mins.

Talking Drum Entertainment (int’l).

media luna @ TIFF LITTLE WING

by Academy Award ® nominee Selma Vilhunen Public Screenings: Friday, 9th: 18:00h Saturday, 10th: 11:30h Sunday, 18th: 15:00h Press & Industry Screening: Friday, 16th: 11:15h

Varpu is a child turned into adult by force. In a stolen car she goes on her quest for love. Imperfect people learning to be merciful towards the others and themselves.

From the Golden Globe® nominated producers Kai Nordberg and Kaarle Aho.

Visit us! www.medialuna.biz

38 Screen International at Toronto September 9, 2016

media luna new films @ German Films Umbrella Stand Ida Martins • idamartins@medialuna.biz • mobile: +49 170 966 7900 Floriano Buono • floriano@medialuna.biz • mobile: +49 173 804 6153

www.screendaily.com

»

I nd u st r y Con fe re n ce | Se p te m b e r 9 –1 5

BUSI NESS CONN ECTI O N S DISCOV ERI ES Register now T I F F. N E T/ I N D U S T R Y

SCREENINGS

Dir: Kemi Adetiba.

Cast: Banky Wellington, Adesua Etomi, Richard Mofe-Damijo.

A lavish wedding escalates into pure Lagosian chaos, in this wild romcom produced by media mogul Mo Abudu.

City to City Scotiabank 6

11:30AM BARAKAH MEETS BARAKAH

(Saudi Arabia) 88mins.

MPM Film (int’l). Dir: Mahmoud Sabbagh.

Cast: Hisham Fageeh, Fatima Al Banawi.

Saudi Arabia’s first romcom features comedian and social-media superstar Hisham Fageeh as a mildmannered civil servant who runs up against his society’s strict mores when he sets out to romance the outspoken daughter of a wealthy couple.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 9

FRANTZ

(France/Germany) 113mins. Films Distribution (int’l). Dir: Francois Ozon. Cast: Paula Beer, Pierre Niney, Marie Gruber.

Director Francois Ozon’s elegiac tale of love and remembrance is set in a small German town in the aftermath of the First World War, where a young woman mourning the death of her fiancé forms a bond with a mysterious Frenchman who has arrived to lay flowers on her beloved’s grave.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 14

WINDOW HORSES (THE POETIC PERSIAN EPIPHANY OF ROSIE MING)

(Canada) 88mins.

National Film Board of Canada (int’l). National Film Board of Canada (US). Dir: Ann Marie Fleming. Cast: Sandra Oh, Ellen Page, Shohreh Aghdashloo.

Sandra Oh, Ellen Page and Don McKellar lend their voices to this warm and witty animated feature by Ann Marie Fleming (The Magical Life Of Long Tack Sam), about a young Canadian

PRESS AND INDUSTRY 12:15PM VOYAGE OF TIME: LIFE’S JOURNEY

(Germany) 90mins.

Wild Bunch (int’l). Dir: Terrence Malick.

The debut documentary poet who undergoes a life-changing experience when she attends a poetry festival in Iran.

Special Presentations, Next Wave Scotiabank 11

11:45AM SAFARI

(Austria) 90mins.

Coproduction Office (int’l). Dir: Ulrich Seidl.

Cast: Gerald Eichinger, Eva Hofmann, Manuel Eichinger.

Austrian provocateur Ulrich Seidl returns to Africa for this raw, grimly humourous portrait of European tourists hunting animals for sport.

Masters Scotiabank 7

THE AUTOPSY OF JANE DOE

(US) 99mins. IM Global (int’l). Dir: Andre Ovredal.

Cast: Emile Hirsch, Brian Cox, Olwen Kelly.

Father-and-son coroners (Brian Cox and Emile

40 Screen International at Toronto September 9, 2016

from visionary filmmaker Terrence Malick (Tree Of Life) chronicles nothing less than the history of the universe.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 1

Hirsch) enter a world of terror while conducting a late-night autopsy on a murdered young woman, in the English-language debut of Norwegian fearmonger Andre Ovredal (Troll Hunter).

Midnight Madness Scotiabank 4

12:00PM ARRIVAL

(US) 116mins. FilmNation Entertainment (int’l).

Dir: Denis Villeneuve.

Cast: Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker.

Visionary Quebecois auteur Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners, Enemy, Sicario) directs Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker in this sci-fi drama about the panic that follows a wave of mysterious spacecraft landings across the globe.

Gala Presentations Princess of Wales Theatre

12:15PM VOYAGE OF TIME: LIFE’S JOURNEY See box, left

12:30PM TWO LOVERS AND A BEAR

(Canada) 96mins. TF1 International (int’l).

TAJJ Media (US). Dir: Kim Nguyen. Cast: Dane DeHaan, Tatiana Maslany.

Montreal-born director Kim Nguyen’s first fiction film following his Oscarnominated ‘Rebelle’ is a hypnotic romance about two star-crossed lovers (Tatiana Maslany and Dane DeHaan) who find that even the icy expanses of the Arctic offer little refuge from their pasts.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 12

12:45PM AUSTERLITZ

(Germany) 94mins.

Imperativ Film (int’l).

Dir: Sergei Loznitsa.

The new film from Sergei Loznitsa (Maidan, The Event) is a stark yet rich and complex portrait of tourists visiting the grounds of former Nazi extermination camps, and a sometimes sardonic study of the

relationship — or the clash — between contemporary culture and the sanctity of the site.

Wavelengths Scotiabank 5

1:00PM THE JOURNEY IS THE DESTINATION

(UK/South Africa/ Canada) 119mins.

Voltage Pictures (int’l).

Gersh Agency (US).

Dir: Bronwen Hughes.

Cast: Ben Schnetzer, Kelly Macdonald, Sam Hazeldine.

Director Bronwen Hughes (Stander) and screenwriter Jan Sardi (Shine) recreate the inspiring life story of the late photojournalist, artist and activist Dan Eldon, who documented the struggle, heartbreak and hope of a war-torn and famine-ridden region of Africa.

Gala Presentations Scotiabank 2

1:15PM TAMARA AND THE LADYBUG

(Mexico/Spain) 107mins.

Indie Sales (int’l). Dir: Lucia Carreras. Cast: Angeles Cruz, Angelina Pelaez, Mercedes Pascual.

Two women, living on the margins of their society,

become the unlikely guardians for a lost baby, in director Lucia Carreras’ compelling and heartfelt exploration of loneliness, female friendship, and the social ills afflicting contemporary Mexico.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 8

THE NET

(South Korea) 114mins.

Finecut Co. Ltd (int’l).

Dir: Kim Ki-duk. Cast: Ryoo Seung-bum, Lee Won-gun, Kim Youngmin.

In the new film from provocative Korean auteur Kim Ki-duk (Pieta), a poor North Korean fisherman finds himself defecting accidentally, and is groomed to be a spy by an ambitious South Korean military officer.

Masters Scotiabank 10

1:30PM A DEATH IN THE GUNJ

(India) 110mins. Dir: Konkona Sensharma.

Cast: Vikrant Massey, Ranvir Shorey, Kalki Koechlin.

Actor Konkona Sensharma makes her feature debut as a writer-director with this coming-of-age story about a shy young Indian

www.screendaily.com

BEFORE THE FLOOD

Midnight Madness Scotiabank 12

POLIT

POLITICS,

POLITICS, INSTRUCTIONS MANUAL a documentary by

FERNANDO LEÓN DE ARANOA

3:30PM

TIFF Bell Lightbox 7

(US/Spain) 108mins.

Lionsgate International (int’l). Dir: JA Bayona.

Cast: Sigourney Weaver, Felicity Jones, Toby Kebbell.

Liam Neeson, Sigourney Weaver and Felicity Jones star in this adaptation of the children’s book by Patrick Ness, about a lonely boy struggling with the imminent death of his terminally ill mother who is befriended by a friendly, shambling monster that arrives in his room nightly to tell him stories.

(Taiwan) 111mins.

MandarinVision (int’l).

Dir: Chung Mong-Hong.

Cast: Michael Hui, Na Dow, Leon Dai. A Taiwanese drug mule has his foolproof smuggling method thrown out of whack when he catches a ride with the wrong cab driver, in this entertaining caper starring Hong Kong comedy legend Michael Hui.

Gala Presentations Scotiabank 1

Vanguard Scotiabank 10

3:45PM GODSPEED

»

500 hours of recording.

One year of coverage.

PODEMOS, from the street to the movie theater.

a

MEDIAPRO

and

REPOSADO

production

WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY FERNANDO LEÓN DE ARANOA PRODUCED BY JAUME ROURES FERNANDO LEÓN DE ARANOA EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS JAVIER MÉNDEZ PATRICIA DE MUNS FILMING AND PHOTOGRAPHY JORDI ABUSADA EDITING YAGO MUÑIZ MUSIC ANTONIO SÁNCHEZ SOUND DANIEL DE ZAYAS DANIEL PEÑA ALFONSO RAPOSO PRODUCTION DIRECTOR LUIS MORALES

A L

HOUNDS OF LOVE

(Australia) Urban Distribution International (int’l). Dir: Ben Young. Cast: Emma Booth, Stephen Curry, Ashleigh Cummings.

One steamy night in Perth in 1987, a murderous couple abduct a teenager.

September 9, 2016 Screen International at Toronto 41

IN

www.screendaily.com

ST

R U

(US) 93mins. Cinetic Media (US). Dir: Fisher Stevens. Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Fisher Stevens, Brett Ratner.

A MONSTER CALLS

(UK) 110mins. Altitude Film Sales (int’l). Dir: Colm McCarthy. Cast: Gemma Arterton, Paddy Considine, Glenn Close, Sennia Nanua.

A sweet little girl who may hold the key to a cure for the zombie virus that has decimated most of the world’s population escapes from a military compound and sets out to find her place in the world.

International Sales – Cinetic Media Jason Ishikawa jason@cineticmedia.com (212) 204-7979

S, POLITICS,

2:00PM

2:45PM

THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS

U

Vanguard Scotiabank 13

Vanguard Scotiabank 14

3:15PM

A N

(Mexico/Denmark/ France/Germany/ Norway/Switzerland) 100mins. The Match Factory (int’l). Dir: Amat Escalante. Cast: Ruth Ramos, Simone Bucio, Jesus Meza.

Cannes prize-winning director Amat Escalante (Heli) combines family drama and social commentary with sci-fi and horror in this hypnotic and enthralling tale, about an unhappily married couple whose life is turned upside down when they encounter a mysterious creature that is both a source of pleasure and a force of destruction.

(UK/France/Belgium) 102mins. Sierra/Affinity (int’l). William Morris Endeavor Entertainment (US). Dir: Fabrice Du Welz. Cast: Chadwick Boseman, Teresa Palmer, Luke Evans.

Chadwick Boseman, Teresa Palmer and Luke Evans star in this atmospheric revenge thriller from Fabrice du Welz, about a mysterious traveller from South Africa combing the LA underworld for those responsible for the death of his sister.

TIFF Docs Scotiabank 5

M

THE UNTAMED

MESSAGE FROM THE KING

OFFICIAL SCREENINGS Sat 10 Sep – 4:15 pm / Scotiabank 2 Sun 11 Sep – 11:00 am / Jackman Hall Sun 18 Sep – 8:30 pm / Scotiabank 3

IC

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 6

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 7

PRESS & MARKET SCREENING Saturday 10 Sep – 12:00 pm / Scotiabank 8

S

(Taiwan/Myanmar/ France/Germany) 108mins. UDI — Urban Distribution International (int’l).

Dir: Midi Z. Cast: Ko Kai, Wu Ke-Xi. Two illegal Burmese migrants fleeing their country’s civil war find love with each other while struggling to survive in the bustling cities of Thailand.

(Egypt) 115mins.

Pyramide International (int’l). Dir: Yousry Nasrallah. Cast: Laila Eloui, Menna Shalaby, Bassem Samra.

A family of caterers in an Egyptian village prepares for a big wedding feast while balancing sibling rivalry, romantic entanglements and culinary ambitions.

N

THE ROAD TO MANDALAY

BROOKS, MEADOWS AND LOVELY FACES

O

Vanguard Scotiabank 11

TIFF Docs Scotiabank 4

RELATIONS)

(Latvia/Germany/ Estonia/Ukraine) 112mins. Deckert Distribution (int’l).

Dir: Vitaly Mansky.

Vitaly Mansky’s intimate and insightful new documentary finds him crisscrossing Ukraine in the wake of the Maidan uprising, which has left his relatives scattered on both sides of a highly charged and dizzyingly complex political situation.

TI

INTERCHANGE

(Malaysia/Indonesia) 103mins. Reel Suspects (int’l). XYZ Films (US).

Dir: Dain Iskandar Said.

Cast: Shaheizy Sam , Nicholas Saputra, Prisia Nasution.

A shell-shocked forensics photographer is drawn into a supernatural murder mystery that reveals Kuala Lumpur’s underworld of ancient magic and sinister ritual.

3:00PM

C

1:45PM

AN INSTRUCTIONS M

MANUAL S N CTIO INSTRURODNYE (CLOSE

Fisher Stevens’ latest documentary (formerly titled The Turning Point) chronicles Leonardo DiCaprio’s campaign to raise global awareness about the dangers of climate change in his role as a UN Ambassador of Peace.

LI T

Special Presentations Scotiabank 9

POLITICS,

PO

student who quietly and fatefully unravels during a family road trip.

POLITIC

SCREENINGS

Screen office Meeting room 12, fifth floor, TIFF Bell Lightbox, 350 King Street West, Toronto, ON, M5V 3X5 Editorial Tel +1 416 599 8433 ext 2512 Editor Matt Mueller, matt.mueller@screendaily.com, +44 7880 526 547 US editor Jeremy Kay, jeremykay67@gmail.com, +1 310 922 5908 Chief critic & reviews editor Finn Halligan, finn.halligan@ screendaily.com, +44 7798 571 270 Group head of production & art Mark Mowbray, mark.mowbray@screendaily.com, +44 7710 124 065 Reporter Tom Grater, tom.grater@screendaily.com, +44 7436 096 420

PRESS AND INDUSTRY THE BEAUTIFUL DAYS OF ARANJUEZ

(France/Germany) 97mins. Alfama Films Production — France (int’l). Dir: Wim Wenders. Cast: Reda Kateb, Sophie Semin, Jens Harzer.

Wim Wenders adapts long-time collaborator Peter Handke’s play for this engrossing two-handed (and 3D) conversation piece.

Masters Scotiabank 8

4:00PM MARIE CURIE, THE COURAGE OF KNOWLEDGE

(Germany/France/ Poland) 95mins. Films Boutique (int’l). Dir: Marie Noelle. Cast: Karolina Gruszka, Arieh Worthalter, Charles Berling.

Karolina Gruszka stars in this sweeping biography of the legendary Nobel Prize-winning physicist and chemist, who courted controversy both by challenging France’s male-dominated academic establishment and through her unconventional romantic life.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 9

4:15PM THE FURY OF A PATIENT MAN See box, above

THE WOMAN WHO LEFT

(Philippines) 227mins.

Films Boutique (int’l).

Dir: Lav Diaz. Cast: Charo Santos-Concio, John Lloyd Cruz.

Director Lav Diaz’s drama examines economic disparity in modern Filipino society through the eyes of a woman released from prison 30 years after being framed and wrongly convicted.

Wavelengths Scotiabank 6

4:30PM THE WEDDING RING

(Niger/Burkina Faso/ France) 96mins. Dir: Rahmatou Keita. Cast: Magaajyia Silberfeld, Aichatou Moussa, Aïchatou Lamine Fofana.

Recently returned to her home in the Sultanate of Zinder after completing her degree abroad, a young woman suffering from the pain of a lost love finds renewal while awaiting the mystical promise of a new moon.

Contemporary World Cinema, Next Wave Scotiabank 7

5:30PM HERMIA & HELENA

(US/Argentina) 86mins.

Dir: Matias Pineiro. Cast: Agustina Muñoz, Maria Villar, Mati Diop.

The endlessly imaginative Matias Piñeiro continues his multi-film meditation

42 Screen International at Toronto September 9, 2016

4:15PM THE FURY OF A PATIENT MAN

(Spain) 92mins. Film Factory Entertainment (int’l). Dir: Raul Arevalo. Cast: Antonio de la Torre, Luis Callejo, Ruth Diaz.

The tentative romance between a gentle Madrid labourer and a working

on Shakespeare’s comedies with this marvellous riff on A Midsummer Night’s Dream centred on an Argentinian theatre director’s sojourn in New York City.

Wavelengths Scotiabank 5

5:45PM THE DUELIST

(Russia) 110mins. Sony Pictures International Productions (US).

Dir: Alexey Mizgirev.

Cast: Petr Fedorov, Vladimir Mashkov, Martin Wuttke.

A professional duellist in 19th-century Russia has second thoughts about his profession when he meets the beautiful sister of a future opponent.

9:00PM

single mother becomes a struggle for survival when the woman’s violent boyfriend returns from prison, in the gritty, suspenseful debut feature from popular Spanish actor Raul Arevalo (Ghost Graduation, DarkBlueAlmostBlack).

Discovery Scotiabank 11

86mins. Premium Films (int’l). Dir: Fernando Guzzoni. Cast: Nicolas Duran, Alejandro Goic.

The volatile relationship between a wayward teen and his disapproving father comes to a head when the boy seeks shelter from the police.

Discovery Scotiabank 7

7:30PM KEKSZAKALLU

BLIND SUN

(France/Greece) 87mins.

Reel Suspects (int’l). Dir: Joyce A Nashawati. Cast: Ziad Bakri, Louis-Do de Lencquesaing, Yannis Stankoglou.

During a scorching Greek summer, a stranded foreigner finds himself in a bureaucratic purgatory as he tries to retrieve his residence permit.

Vanguard Scotiabank 6

9:15PM MOSTLY SUNNY

(Canada) 90mins.

Mongrel International (int’l). Dir: Dilip Mehta.

Cast: Sunny Leone, Daniel Weber.

A fascinating documentary portrait of porn actress turned Bollywood starlet Sunny Leone.

TIFF Docs Scotiabank 7

JESUS

(Argentina) 72mins.

Dir: Gaston Solnicki.

Cast: Laila Maltz, Katia Szechtman, Lara Tarlowski.

The beguiling third feature from Argentinian writer-director Gaston Solnicki (Papirosen) takes inspiration from Bela Bartok’s opera Bluebeard’s Castle for this charming tale about young women attempting to make their way into adulthood.

(Hong Kong/France) 147mins. Asian Shadows (int’l). Dir: Wang Bing.

The urgent documentary from acclaimed Chinese film-maker Wang Bing (West Of The Tracks, Three Sisters) takes us into the refugee camps on the Chinese border populated by those fleeing the ongoing civil war in Myanmar.

(France/Chile/Germany/ Greece/Colombia)

Wavelengths Scotiabank 5

Wavelengths Scotiabank 5

Special Presentations Scotiabank 12

7:00PM

9:30PM TA’ANG

Sid Adilman mentorship programme Aaditya Aggarwal, aadiaggarwal@gmail.com Advertising and publishing Publishing director Nadia Romdhani, nadia. romdhani@screendaily.com Senior sales manager Scott Benfold, scott.benfold@ screendaily.com, +44 7765 257 260 International account managers Ingrid Hammond +39 05 7829 8768, ingridhammond@mac.com Pierre-Louis Manes, pierre-louis. manes@screendaily.com, +44 7768 237 487 Gunter Zerbich, gunter.zerbich@ screendaily.com, +44 7768 237 487 VP business development, North America Nigel Daly, nigeldalymail@gmail.com, +1 213 447 5120 US sales and business development executive Nikki Tilmouth, nikki.screeninternational@gmail. com +1 323 868 7633 Production manager Jonathon Cooke, jonathon.cooke@mb-insight.com, +44 7584 335 148 Chief executive, MBI Conor Dignam Printer Big Bark Graphics, S/B — 68 Healey Road, Units 1-3, Bolton, ON L7E 5A4 Screen International, London MBI, Zetland House, 5-25 Scrutton Street, London EC2A 4HJ, United Kingdom Subscription enquiries help.subscribe@screendaily.com +44 (0) 330 333 9414

www.screendaily.com

The voice of the international film industry Magazine and special supplements • In-depth analysis, company profiles, interviews and expert insight into the global film industry • Annual showcases: Future Leaders and Stars of Tomorrow • Special supplements including World of Locations, and guides for all the key international film markets and festivals

Online resources • ScreenDaily.com: All the latest industry news and reviews • 15 years of searchable archives • Production and financing information for key international territories

WEDN

Y 11 20 Y, MA ESDA

Y TODA

16

DA Y1

L

FILM

VA FESTI

8495 9706 +33 4 tising Adver

NNES

AT CA

com Daily. creen www.S

Buzz

24

us Scham NEWS rises with a’s and Chin re Dawn ng featu Schamus James join Thai boxi Meridian 2 Page

ay, Rams rings o Cannes ers b Insid ven titles t Ergu 58 06 84 3 4 97 rial +3 Edito

page titles,

»

ES FEATUR the Buzz? the hottest of some What’s profiles market Screen the here in titles 24 Page

»

INGS val SCREENsee at the festi y

to yet ket toda What rest has the mar love inte and in 50 ur and real-life » Page neighbo . e has of d on the five chilS eOn cast rescuer e. to be e is base her NG NEW to Maxine ck lance Westgat edy her and or atta BREAKI ht UK rights sex trad a a free man com of a mot in the terr mall in is now into the from pre-boug Martin Free Moviehouse. g story who up trafficked of a girl and ng, caught aker shoppin from Peake women extraction goes wro - dren W tgate ican film-m om y Cow LLO Wes Funn the will star a con thel man enDaily.c dram on the 2013. Mex Of Grace) When GOODFE signed to an bro powers y on Scre Andreas Wise er e) ANIE in ys e Nev Full stor Kenya o Gout (Da (Green Zon Manhattand corrupt

BY MEL Phoenix has You Wer riven ted in s uin . ent rard t. say’ him viol Joaq d Lev er-d suppor , Eve o Gou ne Ram a charact against the BFI teux ct. Lloy Leopold ll’s Under Man a torspire in Lyn Army and Cauche - dire uces with Here, around Swiss Mitche rew GarFilm4 Pascal Wilson pro ert t. prod Really revolving Rob And men es the David Lake stars into develop b and Jam uctions. thriller war veteran. -profile proer le nged the high a Atta y Not Prod Kings, set The Silv a man plu mented eles whi ders — y Ros of four as for Wh also selling riot s Los Ang girlfriend.

It is one slate of Insi s compan duce field is side of sing sale Ang elesting of ing on the Insiders Los co-chief seedier g for his mis is produc e jects -based bea ch the eles ce is a Bun Jak inst poli e Los ibert ETON on John searchin l De Luc Los Ang by Wild der, nced alongsid cted aga rked by the irrles Gill SHACKL as a hae is Ben i. headed Maraval —

BY LIZ USA has pou Three, acqu g. Cha gs, dire u- spa will star tral Mic ide Chrle Romansk a Kin UK, ney Kin g. Berry terricent Erg Cen alo ngs Well Go crime thriller America, Ade its first riots dram iz Gamze con- Rod producin the South d Vin EMY KAY th ner and ances ry, in Den . lead

BY JER announced Sasha Lloy l Angeles nie To’s ts for Nor le Ber e Wei living disturb er stang’s ng Zealand g sales. mother where the a white mal A24 has s since hiri internationa - by Mu starring Hal er The Silv ing righ a and New of uchandlin Wallace see district The role tory sale to over iness develop ven and ary noir Und reconstr , Australi Asia is ck ia ary off. on is Koo and ed por bus ls atta Janu Med Lou or s kick in tem Wei, tion and a raft of dea Zhao Go lm star and terr veteran Wel l distribu Lake The fi and Vicki tgate. play a war cutting . th ction.

Scheinin Nor ment, tion Wes Chung t-produ Man will Daniel movie pos Army release China Phoenix Swiss Kwan and is in theatrical buddy as a e with a dance Dan — -and-dat plans cliffe ky Sun a day yin , Milk ert’s quir Daniel Rad o screens Americ 24. ia Asia e Dan run day, and starring and Paul

by Med nghai Hai a on Jun ed Mon — duc tige nd Sha Pro corpse ket today and l of pres ge and lves arou g dfu inment the mar ed a han way Ima Three revo l involvin TV, pita Enterta Man in & land head, hos a has Film Madman Army et in his wn in a, ia buyers. ase Swiss showdo with a bull eon. Med Americ inal surg Latin s in doc and a will releia, Sun in a crim a Film nt inute , Volg ceman a 45-m ing of the Austral in Canada a poli and Fro ening s is scre ut the mak is being Baltics, D Film Asia the ch y abo and uEast. , whi Russia umentar Marché programme.

Middle n Sachs exec the A24 in the also Row film in standalone nes slate Goldma the deals. e a ller Former otiated y Man wid sold as Asia’s Can action thri d neg k to Arm Media Woo’s . tive Lloy ase Swiss will wor eduled John race sch and s ns 1 is emb paig . will rele on July include nt, which in an ding to e ng cam US summer Vikander in’s EFM inclu with Neu in the on marketi l partners.

Manhu oting this Alicia e Berl uctions the voy and s sinc closely internationa rt won start sho 9th Prod ia. es McA territorie eine s Jam ugh Lila s and U Med 30 award with its and Sch show g thro cting e than gence d on to mor b is producin Morena Film atic dire mer Kwan ler nde Sub thril are a ce dram a man stra ders’ antic eron Lam roducers help of of Sundan Wim Wen the rom here. Cam Co-p story sts the e. pse of h has sold ncing. film glim for the d who enli fina the A first way hom ldwide ller ent, whic is selling which is also s thri an islan make his ia, Embankme for the UK, sed wor comto cted BS Film kup Med corpse also licen divorce sgate/C , to be dire Lionsgat ie and Bac A24 has zel Jacobs’ with Debra Mov the Lion Assassin Road , uting to Aza starerican Cuesta. rights Lovers, shoo t production as exec riots Day - Am hael . serve Ma a Patr , and fire

by Mic ona will edy The and its firs ht, in post dram re title erg nlig from JA Bay er on gen by Sergio G bombing rk Wahlb Winger, ins’ Moo Exi t s duc Jenk cted Ma Josh r No tive pro to be dire Roberts star ring Barry thr ille el starring off Three bone, blay in Julia kicks s figh ter /Black Lab er. e row chez, and Jacob Trem EMY KAY rnational mit Tell sale voic JER es m’s BY up the My San te Inte biggest s Sumlin and Mil e Roo Wonder. heads opposit of-age tale Bro Lionsga ket with its mence talk bro’s Blunt 3D com ingate/Has vie, and Emily the com nsg the mar and will and yet for Lio The Mo lead in Me 3 al’s enture cast slate h Seg s the You See asy adv Pon y: and Noa Elevation Litt le l Keaton play on Now capture fant May tor te/ hae Laurie n distribu co-financmotion- .

Lionsga on Mic a udes Canadia has struck rath L.O.R.D er incl s a year Ma film rost 5 ton old The Pictures l for 20-2 s’ Bos ch Har Film ing dea on Corp, whi partner.

CBS as with Ant has joined van Lier

ps o swoo Well G’s Three on To

ores A24 scArmy Swiss als Man de

es n scor Elevationce deal co-fina

up njures ate co Lionsg

Essential festival daily editions and awards season coverage

ever ggest its bi

slate

• Festival dailies for Berlin, Cannes, Toronto, Jerusalem, Zurich, Busan, Dubai, AFM, Hong Kong FILMART, Rotterdam & Film Bazaar • On-the-pulse coverage of key international deals + Special awards issues featuring exclusive interviews with the talent behind the nominated films

SPECIAL TIFF OFFER Subscribe for as little as $99 a year* www.screendaily.com/TIFF2016 *VAT not included. Offer available to new subscribers only, ends 1 October, 2016