Screen Toronto Day 4

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TODAY

SCREENINGS

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by Anahi BernerÍ Screenings: Tue, 09th at 11h00 @ Scotiabank 8 (Press & Industry) Sun, 14th at 21h30 @ Scotiabank 10

Manuel and Lucia are married and find an excuse to live separated. The unspoken rupture begins to affect the one person they want to protect: their son.

From the producers of „Whisky“ and „Giant“. The director of „A Year Without Love“ (Teddy Award), „Encarnación“ (Innovation Award in Toronto Film Festival). Starring Leonardo Sbaraglia (Wild Tales).

Drama / 102 min / Spanish with English subtitles / Argentina 2014

by Dave McKean Screenings: Mon, 8th at 9h00 @ Jackman Hall Mon, 8th at 13h15 @ Scotiabank 5 (Press & Industry) Thu, 11th at 19h15 @ in Scotiabank 6 (Press & Industry) Sun, 14th at 20h45 @ Scotiabank 9

Grant and Christine visit a friend in the seaside.

Secrets are revealed and the life of their dead child is lived out in fantastical dreams that become an opportunity for spiritual healing.

The director Dave McKean is a celebrated illustrator of graphic novels and concept artist for films such as „Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.“ He produced the image that launched the Sony PlayStation; and contributed with films like „Blade“, „Alien“, „Resurrection“ and „Sleepy Hollow“.

Fantasy, Drama / 104 min / English / UK 2014

by Ken Kwek Screenings: Thu, 11th at 21h15 @ Scotiabank 10 (Press & Industry) Fri, 12th at 19h45 @ Scotiabank 13

Sky has a debt to the mafia and hopes to convince his wife to sell her flat. Looking for a way out, she rents the flat to an evicted single father while unintentionally setting into motion a series of unfortunate events.

Ken Kwek‘s previous compilation of short films „Sex.Violence.

FamilyValues“ was banned by the Singapore and Malaysia government in 2012.

Thriller, Dark Comedy / 122 min / English, Tagalog / Singapore 2014

Visit us! www.medialuna.biz

media luna new films @ German Films Stand (Hyatt; Ballroom; Mezzanine Level) In Toronto: Ida Martins: + 49 170 966 7900 • Mariel Maciá: +49 173 249 4949 info@medialuna.biz • www.medialuna.biz

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TODAY Black Souls

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IFFR Live! kicks off with Atlantic.

Bloom unlocks Apted thriller

BY WENDY MITCHELL

Bloom has introduced international buyers here to the upcoming Michael Apted thriller Unlocked starring Michael Douglas, Orlando Bloom and Noomi Rapace.

Principal photography is scheduled to begin November 3 in London and Prague on the story of a CIA interrogator who races to thwart a biological warfare attack in London. Peter O’Brien wrote the screenplay.

Lorenzo Di Bonaventura pro-

International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) has confirmed JanWillem van Ewijk’s Atlantic. as the first title for its series of cinema and VoD screenings across Europe.

The IFFR Live! Series is created with Fortissimo Films, TrustNordisk and Doc & Film. Five film premieres will be held during IFFR in January and screen simultaneously in select European cinemas and on VoD platforms.

IFFR director Rutger Wolfson said: “The way films are viewed is constantly evolving in the 21st century. IFFR, together with Fortissimo Films, TrustNordisk and Doc & Film, are committed to finding innovative ways to bring great films from talented film-makers to as wide an audience as possible. Innovation and commitment to world cinema are cornerstones of IFFR, and IFFR Live! exemplifies this.”

Atlantic., which premieres at TIFF today, will screen as a European premiere during Rotterdam and the film’s team will participate in a live Q&A via Twitter.

Thekla Reuten and Fettah Lamara star in Atlantic., which was first pitched at Rotterdam’s CinéMart in 2010. The story is about a Moroccan fisherman who falls for a Dutch woman while becoming obsessed with windsurfing.

BY JEREMY KAY

Michael Douglas

duces Unlocked alongside Georgina Townsley and Erik Howsam.

Silver Reel will finance and produce alongside Di Bonaventura.

Hubert Boesl

Rai has closed US deals with DistriB Films for Roberto Ando’s Viva La Liberta, starring Toni Servillo, and Pif ’s Mafia dark-comedy The Mafia Only Kills In The Summer.

Mattia Odone, Rai’s head of international sales, cinema and TV, commented: “We are very happy to see the increasing commercial interest in Italian films internationally. In DistriB Films and Francois Scippa-Kohn, we have found a partner with a great track record of positioning quality European films in the challenging US market.”

Mafia drama Black Souls starts selling for Rai Com » Page 4

PROFILE Game on Big Game director Jalmari Helander talks about his ’80s influences » Page 6

REVIEW Inconvenient youth Noah Baumbach delivers one of his most accessible movies with While We’re Young » Page 8

SCREENINGS

» Page 18

Buyers primp Films Boutique duo

BY ANDREAS WISEMAN

Berlin-based Films Boutique has seen a run on recently acquired duo Short Skin and Life In A Fishbowl.

Duccio Chiarini’s debut, bittersweet comedy Short Skin, which premiered in Venice and stars Matteo Creatini, has sold to France (Epicenter), UK (Peccadillo Pictures), Italy (Good Films), Norway (Fidalgo) and Hong Kong (Sundream Motion Pictures).

Deals are in advanced stages for Germany, Greece and Taiwan.

Baldvin Z’s Icelandic box-office hit Life In A Fishbowl has sold to Canada (Raven Banner), Denmark (41 Shadows) and Norway (Europa Films) while negotiations are underway for the US, Germany, Switzerland and Japan.

Film Boutique’s comedy-drama El Cinco, from Argentinian director Adrian Biniez, also has a market screening in Toronto.

Zübert sings with Water Music

BY MARTIN BLANEY

Rai signs up for US double

BY ANDREAS WISEMAN

Last week Bloom, led by Ken Kao and Walton, boarded Shane Black’s detective thriller The Nice Guys starring Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling. It is arguably the hottest title in the international sales space and has sparked a strong response from leading independents and studios here.

The Bloom slate also includes Gus Van Sant’s The Sea Of Trees starring Matthew McConaughey and Naomi Watts, currently in production.

NEWS Mob-handed

Director Liv Ullmann and star Jessica Chastain celebrate the world premiere of Miss Julie yesterday. The August Strindberg adaptation also stars Colin Farrell and Samantha Norton.

Konchalovsky’s Postman travels Fledgling Russian sales house Antipode Sales & Distribution has inked Toronto deals on Andrei Konchalovsky’s Venice Silver Lion winner The Postman’s White Nights.

ASC Distribution has snapped up French rights, while Leopardo

Filmes will distribute the title in Portugal. Further deals are pending.

Antipode has booked in a Toronto market screening on Wednesday for the Russian auteur’s well-received drama.

Andreas Wiseman

Tour De Force director Christian Zübert will make his English-language directorial debut with an adaptation of TC Boyle’s cult novel Water Music.

He is now writing the screenplay for Munich-based production company Lieblingsfilm.

Boyle’s semi-fictional historical adventure novel is set in the late 18th and early 19th century, following the parallel adventures of fictional petty criminal Ned Rise and the famous Scotland-born explorer Mungo Park.

Zübert told Screen that Water Music is “a combination of Indiana Jones in Africa and an 18th century Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels.

It’s really off-the-wall and very emotional. I think now would be the time where one could make this film thanks to the possibilities of digital technology.”

Before that, Zübert will shoot drama Ein Atem this autumn; the producer is Ulf Israel at Senator Film’s Cologne-based production arm, Senator Filmproduktion.

Meanwhile, Florian Gallenberger, who is a producer on Tour De Force, is also preparing his own English-language directorial debut with the escape thriller Colonia Dignidad, his first feature film since the China-based John Rabe.

Christian Zübert

news

Buyers look deep into munzi’s Black Souls obra

Cinema do Brasil hits TIFF

By Jeremy Kay

Cinema do Brasil is in town promoting two titles in the festival — Gregorio Graziosi’s Discovery entry Obra and Fernanda Salloum and Carolina Markowicz’s Short Cuts International selection Tatuapé Mahal Tower.

Superfilmes produced Obra and FiGa/Br represents international sales, while Fulano Filmes produced Tatuapé Mahal Tower.

Representatives from Claraluz Filmes, FM Producoes, Fulano Filmes, Mixer, Superfilmes, FiGa/ Br, Rio Film Commission and International Short Film Festival of Sao Paulo are attending Toronto.

Cinema do Brasil has the support of Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency Apex-Brasil and Brazilian National Film Agency Ancine.

“The [festival] is also a gateway into the North American market and presents an excellent opportunity to do business and meet potential partners, both in sales or co-productions,” said Cinema do Brasil CEO Andre Sturm.

By GeoFFrey maCnaB

Francesco Munzi’s Black Souls (Anime Nere), the Venice Competition title that starts screening at TIFF today, has now sold to Xenix for Switzerland.

Rai Com is in advanced negotiations with UK, Australia, Greece and Scandinavia and reporting interest from the US, Germany and Benelux.

Black Souls, about a farmer’s three sons who all become involved in crime, offers a detailed insight into the inner workings of the Calabrian Mafia.

The film is based on the novel

by Gioacchino Criaco. Although this is a fictional piece, Munzi says the film is deeply rooted in fact.

It was shot in Calabria, which he notes “has the reputation of being the most Mafia infested place in the country”, with a cast of locals working alongside professionals actors The director did not have direct contact with Mafia members.

“Obviously, working there, I met all sorts of people with all sorts of pasts,” he recalls. “Certainly, I didn’t search out convicts — but there is a background there to some people.”

Munzi did extensive research.

“I started out almost doing a doc-

Jamie Rosenthal

eOne held a private dinner on Saturday evening to welcome the team behind the forthcoming Trumbo, a biopic about blacklisted writer Dalton Trumbo. The film starts shooting on September 15 in New Orleans. Pictured (from left) are eOne’s Patrice Theroux, producer Michael London, eOne’s Darren Throop, actor Bryan Cranston, director Jay Roach and eOne’s Harold Van Lier.

4 Screen International at Toronto September 8, 2014

Search engine Films finds Guidance John Bain’s Search Engine Films has acquired Canadian rights from Edyson Entertainment to Discovery selection Guidance following its world premiere on Friday.

rats gets its close-up Dakota Group and Submarine have optioned the rights to Robert Sullivan’s bestseller Rats: Observations On The History And Habitat Of The City’s Most Unwanted Inhabitants. A feature documentary is planned to start production in 2015.

arclight plans Party

Black Souls

umentary,” the director tells Screen. “We went down [to southern Italy] and captured interviews with local people.

“Unlike in Gomorrah, I didn’t focus on the sociological aspect. I focused instead on the story of a family.

“Calabria is a place that has its own identity and it sits apart from the rest of Italy. Right from the beginning, it was clear that dialect was an important part of putting that across.”

The local actors were heavily involved in tailoring the dialogue to make it authentic. The fact he was making a fictional film enabled them “to talk freely… the fact that everybody is acting, even if they’re playing a part not that dif-

ferent from their own experiences, had something anarchic and liberating about it. Even if you have a dark past, if you play a role, you can let that out.”

Munzi denies the film in any way glamorises violence. The aim is simply to present the world of the Mafia in an honest, precise and matter-of-fact way.

The director acknowledges that it may provoke different responses in Italian and international audiences. “But it is focusing on this particular family and their story. I think there’s a certain universality to the topic. It’s a criminal family in very particular circumstances but it’s a family with many of the same dynamics you would find anywhere.”

massini, Dion join Bron squad

By Jeremy Kay

Trumbo team minds the lines

ToronTo briefs

Aaron L Gilbert and Brenda Gilbert’s Vancouver-based Bron Studios, in town with Kristen Wiig starrer Welcome To Me, has announced two key hires.

Lori Massini arrives as vicepresident of business and legal affairs while Garrick Dion has been hired as head of development.

Massini has worked almost exclusively in the field of entertainment law, most recently with Chandler Fogden Law Corporation. She will work from Bron’s Vancouver offices.

Dion previously served as senior vice-president of development for Bold Films and will continue to be based in Los Angeles. He worked

Lori massini

Arclight Films has taken on worldwide rights to the Chinese psychological crime thriller The Deathday Party. Head of Asian sales and acquisitions Elliot Tong has licensed Hong Kong rights to My Way Films.

Kier promoted at Sierra/affinity Sierra/Affinity has promoted Jonathan Kier to president of sales and distribution. Kier most recently served as executive vicepresident of sales.

Coogan takes on Boswell Steve Coogan will play the title role of James Boswell in an adaptation of the stage play Boswell For The Defence. Highland Film Group is here in Toronto handling international sales.

Shanghai hub sets incentives D’Hive, the media hub set up in the Songjiang district of Shanghai by Singapore’s Cubix International and China’s Bestlinkage Group, has set incentives for incoming businesses.

According to organisers, any foreign companies setting up in the zone will see the local district company tax waived for the first two years on incorporation and 50% of taxes payable in the third year. There will also be a 50% subsidy in the incorporation fee.

Directors spin Carousel Garrick Dion

on the development and production of Damien Chazelle’s Toronto selection and double Sundance winner Whiplash, among others.

Petersburg: Category Of Feelings, the Russian omnibus film that has attracted a host of acclaimed directors, has been renamed Petersburg Carousel.

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From the acclaimed screenwriter of “SO YOUNG”

LI QIANG

From the award-winning director of “A SIMPLE LIFE”

ANN HUI Starring “LUST, CAUTION”

TANG WEI

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PUBLIC SCREENINGS

Tue. 9th 9:00PM TIFF Bell Lightbox 1 Wed. 10th 9:30PM Isabel Bader Theatre Sun. 14th 11:45AM TIFF Bell Lightbox 1

PRESS & INDUSTRY SCREENINGS Mon. 8th Thu. 11th

8:30AM 9:00AM

Scotiabank 13 Scotiabank 10

Contact in Toronto JULIAN CHIU +852 9739 8628 chiujulian@edkofilm.com.hk

ProfiLeS

ScreeNiNgS, pAge 18

Jalmari helander and onni tommila Big Game Why did you film in Germany instead of Finland?

Helander Finland is flat and boring. We filmed in the Black Forest and the Alps.

I’ve always loved mountains and I think filming on location is something every director should take seriously… It gives you an authentic feel, like something big is happening. And the helicopter shoots were great. I could do that every day.

By DANieL horowitz

Finnish director Jalmari Helander follows his hit genre film Rare Exports with action thriller Big Game, starring Samuel L Jackson as a US president who has to depend on a local boy (Onni Tommila) to survive in the Finnish wilderness when Air Force One is shot down. The film premiered on Friday in Midnight Madness/Next Wave; Altitude handles international sales and co-represents US rights with WME. Onni is your nephew, so what was it like directing him?

Helander I wrote the movie for him.

Tommila I think it’s easier to talk about everything every day because he’s my uncle.

Helander We did Rare Exports together.

There’s been lots of things we’ve done.

watching a movie because it’s real actors just speaking English.

how was it to make your first englishlanguage film?

Helander I don’t see the difference. The feel was quite interesting because when I was watching the tapes and directing and sitting by the monitor, I felt like I’m

What inspired you to make this movie?

Helander Most of the inspiration, as you probably noticed, is from the 1980s and the movies I love, like E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. There’s a bit of Cliffhanger in it and Indiana Jones.

Jalmari Helander with nephew and star, Onni Tommila

What did you want audiences to take away from this film?

Helander I’m happy it’s so honest and a lot of fun. I don’t want to watch movies where people are in the kitchen and fighting and there’s divorces. It’s important to give people something worth experiencing. Something you can’t see in normal life.

Usually Samuel L Jackson is the one dispensing the kick-ass, but he’s much more vulnerable in this film.

Helander When we were choreographing the fight sequences, the stunt co-ordinator offered Sam some cool things to do but he didn’t want to take any of those. He wanted to look like a girl who’s trying to fight. How the hell would a president know how to fight? He really wanted to be kicked and hit in the face and it was important for the role. But he had one wish, to kick the terrorist in the balls.

What’s next for you?

Tommila I’m going to school on Monday.

Naji Abu Nowar Theeb been in 1916, which was the beginning of the end for their totally nomadic lifestyle.

So it was important that we accurately captured that time and their way of life is not forgotten.

By Liz ShAckLetoN

Naji Abu Nowar’s debut feature, Theeb, is a coming-of-age story about a young Bedouin boy who is forced to grow up fast following the death of his father and the arrival of a British army officer on a mysterious mission. After winning the best director prize at Venice Orizzonti, Theeb starts screening today in Toronto’s Discovery programme; Fortissimo Films handles international sales.

Where did the story come from?

I’d always wanted to make a Western and in 2003 started writing a kind of Sergio Leone, Arabic Western, which I didn’t think was very good. Then in 2010, Bassel Ghandour [producer/co-writer] sent me a short film script about two Bedouin brothers that he wanted notes on. I loved it, and was in the desert driving around, when it occurred to me this could be a feature film. That was the initial concept for the story, but the real story we developed

Naji Abu Nowar

in collaboration with the Bedouin. Just sitting there listening to these old men’s stories — the themes, the ideas and characters — really shaped the final script. how did you make contact with the Bedouin?

Through a friend who worked as a fixer

6 Screen International at Toronto September 8, 2014

Theeb

in the region. I told him we were looking for a tribe that was one of the last to settle, so had been born as nomads and grown up as nomads. Most of the Bedouin had been forced to settle by the late 1990s.

I felt it was very important to understand their way of life, as it would have

Wasn’t it expensive shooting in remote locations in Jordan?

Yes, we had to bring in equipment from Europe, and all I can say is that we had a great team and producers who could make it happen.

It was tough because I was rewriting at night to merge scenes, as we couldn’t hang around if we missed any shots. And some locations we had to miss entirely because it was impossible to get in, even though we had brought very light equipment. But we were lucky because we had the Bedouin helping us. They know how to deal with that environment and are great trackers, which is useful when you get lost. We kept getting stuck in the sand and they had to rescue us.

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REVIEWS

Reviews edited by Mark Adams mark.adams@screendaily.com

» While We’re Young p8 » X + Y p10 » Top Five p10

» Men, Women & Children p12 » Out Of Nature p14 » This Is Where I Leave You p12 » Welcome To Me p15 » St. Vincent p14

While We’re Young Reviewed by Allan Hunter Youth is more intoxicating and dangerously alluring the second time around in While We’re Young, a cautionary comedy that touches on the regrets and anxieties that come with growing older. Writer/director Noah Baumbach’s first film since Frances Ha (2012) mines some sharp culture-clash capers from an unexpected meeting of the generations, but the breezy tone of the early stages deepens into something more profound by the film’s conclusion. The subject matter of middle-age melancholy should resonate with sophisticated, upscale crowds and the appealing cast will also help to position While We’re Young as one of Baumbach’s most accessible and commercial films to date.

The film-maker may start with a quote from Ibsen’s The Master Builder on the perils of letting a younger generation into your life, but you have to assume there are strong autobiographical elements in a story that revolves around a 44-year-old film-maker. Josh (Stiller) has reached the age when his eyesight is failing, his memory is unreliable and he probably has fewer years ahead of him than he has behind

8 Screen International at Toronto September 8, 2014

SpECIAL pRESENtAtIoNS US. 2014. 94mins Director/screenplay Noah Baumbach Production company IACF International sales FilmNation Entertainment info@filmnation.com Producers Scott Rudin, Noah Baumbach, Lila Yacoub, Eli Bush Cinematography Sam Levy Editor Jennifer Lame Production designer Adam Stockhausen Music James Murphy Main cast Ben Stiller, Naomi Watts, Adam Driver, Amanda Seyfried, Charles Grodin

him. He has a comfortable, contented life with wife Cornelia (Watts) but has ground to a halt on the documentary project that has occupied him for the past eight years.

Everything changes when Josh is approached by aspiring film-maker Jamie (Driver) and his wife Darby (Seyfried). Josh is flattered by the attention and attracted to the energy and passion of this much younger, freespirited bohemian duo. They are soon the best of friends and Baumbach finds some surprisingly broad comedy in what unites and separates the two couples. Jamie and Darby love vinyl, use typewriters, watch VHS tapes and have very eclectic tastes in music. “Their apartment is full of everything that we threw out,” observes Cornelia.

Having assumed his life was all about managing decline, Josh is reinvigorated by this new friendship; it feels like a second chance to relive his youth. Cornelia is a good sport about everything, even joining Darby at her energetic hiphop exercise class. Naomi Watts has a real talent for physical comedy that shines through in this performance.

Inevitably, nothing is quite as it seems and

both Josh and Cornelia are forced to confront who they really are, what matters most to them in life and whether it is too late for them to have a family.

While We’re Young is often very funny although occasionally there is a sense that some of the material would not have seemed out of place in a Swinging Sixties generation gap comedy, especially a group session with a shaman that involves consuming hallucinogenic drugs and the vomiting of demons.

Generally, this is a mellow, well-observed study of a loving couple and what it takes to make them count their blessings and embrace the future. Baumbach is well-served by his cast.

There is a welcome appearance from Charles Grodin as Cornelia’s father, Leslie, an old-school documentarian. Adam Driver gives a wickedly accurate performance as a conceited, conniving chancer. Watts brings warmth to her character and Stiller underplays his character’s neuroses and frustrations. It is one of his most appealing performances in recent years and should ensure that While We’re Young is a more commercial proposition than his previous collaboration with Baumbach on Greenberg.

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CORRECTIONS CLASS Drama/ Romance, 100 min NEW PEOPLE FILM COMPANY

TEST Drama, 95 min ANTIPODE SALES & DISTRIBUTION

THE IRON IVAN Drama, 120 min RUSSIA TELEVISION AND RADIO

THE KITCHEN IN PARIS Comedy, 106 min ALL MEDIA COMPANY

REVIEWS

X+Y Reviewed by Allan Hunter Bafta-winning documentary director Morgan Matthews proves to be just as adept with drama in X + Y. His assured fiction-feature debut delicately brings out all the emotions in a heartwarming story that celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the way love can change even the most complex of lives. Graced by a string of excellent performances, this has real potential to become a crowdpleasing mainstream UK hit and also to travel.

Matthews directed the 2007 documentary Beautiful Young Minds, which followed a group of young prodigies competing in the International Mathematical Olympiad. James Graham’s screenplay fictionalises some of those events to focus on the story of Nathan (Butterfield), a mathematical teenage genius diagnosed with a form of autism.

Disconcertingly candid, socially awkward and emotionally aloof, Nathan has always been a handful for his loving mother Julie (Hawkins). The rational purity of mathematics is the one thing that allows Nathan to make sense of the world. Julie encourages him to develop his strength and welcomes the willingness of teacher Mr Humphreys (Spall) to provide Nathan with extra tuition. Humphreys prepares him to try for a place in the British team at the International Mathematics Olympiad.

DISCovERY UK. 2014. 111mins Director Morgan Matthews Production companies origin Pictures, Minnow Films International sales Bankside Films, alice@ bankside-films.com Producers Laura Hastings-Smith, David M Thompson, Ed Rubin Executive producers Christine Langan, Joe oppenheimer, Lizzie Francke, Phil Hunt, Compton Ross, Hugo Heppell, Norman Merry, Peter Hampden Screenplay James Graham Cinematography Danny Cohen Editor Peter Lambert Production designer Richard Bullock Main cast Asa Butterfield, Rafe Spall, Sally Hawkins, Eddie Marsan, Jo Yang

X + Y might have been pitched as something like Spellbound meets A Beautiful Mind. It could so easily have tugged at the heartstrings and poured on the suffering. Instead, it is nicely understated and takes a thoughtful, measured approach to a story in which all the emotional highs are obtained honestly.

Flashbacks paint a warmhearted picture of the special bond that once existed between the young Nathan and his devoted father.

The cast is impeccable. Rafe Spall breaks your heart as the schoolteacher battling both multiple sclerosis and the disappointments of his youth. His Humphreys is a witty, self-depre-

cating joker. Sally Hawkins captures a real sense of the frustrations and loneliness of a loving mother who has devoted herself to a son whose very nature demands endless reserves of patience and promises little in return.

Best of all is Asa Butterfield (Ender’s Game) who is emerging as one of the most versatile young actors around. He expertly inhabits the physicality of a boy bewildered by the world and convinced his differences make him an oddity. His distant expressions, mumbled words, the way he flinches at contact and retreats into himself all convey what it is like to be Nathan.

machine-gun toting bear), but has recently put all of his efforts into Uprize, the dramatic story of a hero of the Haitian revolution. He is due to spend the day in New York promoting the film, and is set to marry his reality TV star fiancée, Erica Long (Union), the following day.

His agent forces him to be interviewed by journalist Chelsea Brown (the always wonderful Rosario Dawson) for a profile piece in The New York Times — he hates the idea because his work has been constantly savaged by the paper

— and the two spend time wandering through New York as he does press interviews, chatting about his life, comedy, alcoholism, his roots and his upcoming marriage.

There are some wonderful — and often delightfully cringe-worthy — comedy moments to relish, though perhaps best, and most revealing of all, is at his bachelor party where he sits down with Jerry Seinfeld, Whoopi Goldberg and Adam Sandler to discuss life, marriage and comedy.

Top Five Reviewed by Mark Adams Chris Rock is at his rude, ribald and raucous best in the laugh-out-loud Top Five, a deliriously funny film that looks destined to be a boxoffice hit. Written, directed and starring Rock, the film mines similar territory to Woody Allen at his younger best — sex, comedy, paranoia, insecurity and more sex — but with a more raw and uncensored edge.

Playing a successful comedian and movie star who is trying to prove to the world there is more to him than the laughs, Rock naturally treads a fine line between performance and real life, and while the structure is pretty straightforward, the film very much reflects Rock’s personality — smart, savvy, insightful, rude and constantly on the move. Brimming with cameo performances and wonderfully explicit gags, it could have the ability to really break out, and certainly shows that after his debut as documentary film-maker (Good Hair) he has the ability to succeed as a features director.

The film follows a day in the life of New York stand-up comedian turned movie star Andre Allen (Rock) as he heads into a vital period. A recovering alcoholic, he is a big star thanks to his comedy-action film series (he played a

10 Screen International at Toronto September 8, 2014

SPECIAL PRESENTATIoNS US. 2014. 101mins Director/screenplay Chris Rock Production company IACF International sales FilmNation, www. filmnation.com Producers Scott Rudin, Eli Bush Executive producer Tony Hernandez, Lila Yacoub Co-producers Shawn ‘Jay Z’ Carter, Kanye West Cinematography Manuel Alberto Claro Main cast Chris Rock, Rosario Dawson, Gabrielle Union, Kevin Hart, Tracy Morgan, Cedric the Entertainer, JB Smoove, Sherri Shepherd, Anders Holm, Romany Malco, Leslie Jones, Michael Che, Jay Pharoah

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REVIEWS

This Is Where I Leave You Reviewed by John Hazelton

Men, Women & Children Reviewed by Tim Grierson Men, Women & Children has sincere things to say about the insidious ability of social media and the internet to infiltrate our lives, robbing us of our ability to feel connected to others and even our true selves. That has the potential to be a compelling thesis for a film, but director Jason Reitman’s ensemble drama tends to be too selfconsciously mournful in its approach, overselling its message with far too much handwringing.

Reitman’s commercial and critical track record with Up In The Air and Juno will be a major selling point, and a cast that includes Adam Sandler in a rare dramatic role and The Fault In Our Stars’ Ansel Elgort could attract different demographics. Additionally, the movie’s zeitgeist-targeting theme will probably strike a chord for some, especially concerned parents.

Adapting Chad Kultgen’s book with co-writer Erin Cressida Wilson, Reitman looks at several Austin families who, in one form or another, are being impacted by the internet. Don (Sandler) and Helen Truby (Dewitt) are a married couple who have lost their spark, prompting him to find an escort online and her to seek out an affair through a cheating website. Hyper-vigilant mother Patricia (Garner) monitors the web and phone activity of her teen daughter Brandy (Dever), deleting messages from guys before the girl can see them. And Donna (Greer) wants her pretty high-school daughter Hannah (Crocicchia) to get the film career that she never had — so much so, in fact, that the two of them have created a provocative website to sell alluring pictures of Hannah.

While there is no doubt social media and the internet have profoundly changed how we live, a movie like Men, Women & Children looks at the topic in such a glum, tsktsk manner that it may inspire viewers to defend our hyper-connected times so as to push back against Reitman’s stacked-deck supposition.

To be sure, Reitman is correct that, in our modern era, parents often feel powerless to safeguard their kids.

However, Men, Women & Children broadly paints these new technologies as destructive instruments that distract us from what really matters: family, friendships, love.

Once it is apparent that, in the film’s view, the internet is the cause of most of the characters’ problems, Men, Women & Children quickly turns into an earnest issuesdriven drama in which almost everybody on screen needs to be healed so they can see the errors in their behaviour.

12 Screen International at Toronto September 8, 2014

SPeCial PReSenTaTionS US. 2014. 119mins Director Jason Reitman Production companies Right of Way Films, Chocolate Milk Distribution Paramount Pictures Producers Jason Reitman, Helen estabrook Executive producers Michael Beugg, Mason novick Screenplay Jason Reitman & erin Cressida Wilson, based on the novel

by Chad Kultgen Cinematography eric Steelberg Production designer Bruce Curtis Editor Dana e Glauberman Music Bibio Main cast Rosemarie Dewitt, Jennifer Garner, Judy Greer, Dean norris, adam Sandler, emma Thompson, Timothée Chalamet, olivia Crocicchia, Kaitlyn Dever, ansel elgort, Katherine Hughes, elena Kampouris, Travis Tope, David Denman, Jason Douglas, Dennis Haysbert, Shane lynch, Will Peltz, JK Simmons

There are enough mildly raunchy moments to string into a fun trailer, but for the most part This Is Where I Leave You is a bland dramatic comedy that makes limited use of the combined talents of Jason Bateman, Tina Fey and Jane Fonda. With less mainstream commercial potential than director Shawn Levy’s previous outings, this big screen take on Jonathan Tropper’s bestselling 2009 novel risks being too edgy for some audiences and too safe for others.

After a premiere here at TIFF, worldwide distributor Warner will need to leverage the strong cast when it opens the film in the US — with an R rating — on September 19 (a fortnight after the limited release of Bateman comedy The Longest Week). Given Bateman and Fey’s domestically skewed track records, the cast probably will not have as much pulling power when the film rolls out internationally through the autumn.

Tropper (who in addition to his six novels is also a cocreator of cable series Banshee) adapted the book and his script takes Levy, best known for broad family comedies such as Night At The Museum and its sequels, into new territory.

The central character is Judd Altman (Jason Bateman, last seen in his directing debut Bad Words), a nice-guy radio producer struggling to cope with his wife’s recent infidelity. When his father dies, Judd and his three siblings — played by Fey (from Levy’s Date Night), Adam Driver (Girls) and Corey Stoll (House Of Cards) — are summoned home by their uninhibited psychologist mother (Fonda) to sit shiva.

Over the seven-day Jewish mourning period, the Altmans, together with various spouses, lovers and kids, confront old animosities and attempt to get back on track, with each other and with their messy pre-middle age lives.

The snappy feel of the novel is preserved in the occasional sex talk and some amusingly snarky banter. But those elements are outweighed by the film’s tendency to move quickly past any real conflict between characters and wrap up each scene with a conciliatory moment.

In a part that recalls his role in cult sitcom Arrested Development, Bateman is likeable in a hangdog sort of way. Fey, though, never seems comfortable in what is, for her, a relatively straight role. And the rest of the cast sometimes feels as if it is being pushed into a performance style more suited to Levy’s broader comedies.

Gala US. 2014. 104mins Director Shawn levy Production companies Spring Creek Productions, 21 laps International distribution Warner Bros Pictures Producers Paula Weinstein, Shawn levy, Jeffrey levine Executive producers Mary Mclaglen, Jonathan Tropper Screenplay Jonathan Tropper Cinematography Terry Stacey Editor Dean Zimmerman Production designer Ford Wheeler Music Michael Giacchino Main cast Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Jane Fonda, adam Driver, Rose Byrne, Corey Stoll, Kathryn Hahn

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REVIEWS

St. Vincent Reviewed by David D’Arcy With St. Vincent, Bill Murray has achieved curmudgeon canonisation with this hymn to coarse geriatric idiosyncrasy set in deep Brooklyn. The dream team cast seems calculated to attract the whole family, yet St. Vincent’s script never gets past the level of tired television laughs. Murray fans, however — and there are many — are likely to give the film a try, as is the audience for Melissa McCarthy who tones down the bombast in the role of a single mom who moves in next door with her young son.

The film’s story comes right off the retread shelf, echoing Bad Santa and Gran Torino in its depiction of a neighbourhood grouch who, if you haven’t guessed, turns out to have a heart of gold. Vincent is a Vietnam vet living and drinking in a working class neighbourhood with his cat and car, when Maggie (McCarthy) and son Oliver (Lieberher) rent the house one door away.

Slaving in a medical lab to put food on the table, boilerplate struggling mom Maggie needs a baby sitter, a job that grumpy Vincent performs for a stiff fee. He teaches young Oliver lots of lessons in rudeness and self-assertion, and the timid boy, bullied at his Catholic school,

Out Of Nature Reviewed by Mark Adams A Walter Mitty-esque comedy drama set against the stunning backdrop of the Norwegian great outdoors, Out Of Nature (Mot Naturen) is an engaging delve into one man’s troubled subconscious as he tries to tackle the issues — mainly sexually orientated — haunting his life.

Notable thanks to a rather distinctive naked jogging scene, the film has a dry wit to balance its off-beat story, with co-director Ole Giaever also going in front of the camera and impressive as protagonist Martin (that self-same naked runner) who carries pretty much the entire storyline. It is a physically demanding role — with most of the dialogue internal — that he handles pretty impressively.

Mild-mannered Martin is a put-upon worker who is ill at ease with his co-workers, unhappy with his wife and young son and imagines sexual relationships with other women. He also imagines making love to his wife, but given they barely have any form of communication, that seems highly unlikely to him.

In a bid for some sort of spiritual renewal — or at least escape from his monotonous life — he tells his wife he is going off for a run in the nearby mountains, planning to commune with nature and sleep there for a couple of nights.

In his own mind he is a dynamic individual,

14 Screen International at Toronto September 8, 2014

SpECiAL pRESENtAtiONS US. 2014. 102mins Director/screenplay theodore Melfi Production company Chernin Entertainment International sales the Weinstein Company, michael.rothstein@ weinsteinco.com Producers peter Chernin, Jenno topping, theodore Melfi, Fred Roos Co-producer ivana Lombardi Executive producers Bob Weinstein, Harvey Weinstein, Don Cheadle, G Mac Brown Cinematography John Lindley Production designer inbal Weinberg Main cast Bill Murray, Melissa McCarthy, Naomi Watts, Chris O’Dowd, terrence Howard, Jaeden Lieberher

CONtEMpORARy WORLD CiNEMA Nor. 2014. 80mins Directors Ole Giaever, Marte Vold Production company Mer Film International sales NDM, mantarraya.com Producer Maria Ekerhovd Screenplay Ole Giaever Cinematography Oystein Mamen Editor Frida Eggum Michaelsen Production designer Julie Lozach Asskildt Music Ola Flottum Main cast Ole Giaever, Marte Magnusdotter Solem, Sivert Giaever Solem, Rebekka Nystabakk, Ellen Birgitte Winther

learns how to use his fists and face the world. It is Parenting 101 from an improbable source in the earnest comedy that tries too hard to tweak the heartstrings.

Theodore Melfi’s warmed-over script has another noble character who is a walking taboo in heels — Vincent’s Russian girlfriend, Daka (Watts). The actress finds her inner funny lady as a pregnant prostitute who also dances in a strip club. Her improbable accent, which can turn weak lines into punchlines, makes the toofew scenes in which she appears worth waiting

for. Inside the spandex, of course, is another heart of gold. Watts’ performance, in larger doses, would have been the divine miracle needed to make St. Vincent work, and it is sure to fuel the VoD market.

Production values are typical for a commercial comedy — the production design looks like a few extra ashtrays and a longhaired white cat were added to the pro forma old-guy’s den. A favourite gag is to cut away, after a laugh line, to the scowling cat. The feline deserves a sainthood for its honesty.

attractive to women and a powerhouse at work, but alone in the mountains, reality clashes with his imagination.

An ‘accident’ while sleeping rough (which harks back to bet-wetting memories as a child) sees him disrobe and run bottomless for a while and while masturbating behind a tree he is almost caught by a fellow rambler. But things really hit home in an unexpected way when he finds two young women sleeping in the same hikers’ hut in which he planned to stay. Against all the odds, one of them takes a shine to him and they are set for a sexual liaison, before his imagination kicks in and he finds himself unable to respond to this long-held fantasy.

At heart Martin is simply a rather childlike and selfish man who is yet to get to grips with the realities of his life, and it takes the tangible possibility of acting through with his fantasies to spur him to return home with a slightly different mindset.

The clever balance that co-directors Ole Giaever and Marte Vold achieve is to make Martin a rather endearing character despite his lusty longings, with his demanding — yet clumsy — run through the mountains offering up an engaging series of problems and opportunities. Martin may escape the worries of society for a while but he still carries a certain amount of angst with him.

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Welcome To Me

SPECiAL PRESEnTATionS

Reviewed by Jason Bechervaise

duction company head (Marsden) agrees, despite reservations from the team.

After some initial bumps, Alice gives the company more money when she realises the show is not as polished as Oprah. And as the broadcast becomes more eccentric and wild, the ratings go up. Problems do arise, however, when the lawsuits come piling in after she slanders individuals on air, while her relationship with best friend Gina (Cardellini) becomes increasingly strained when Alice focuses more on herself than those around her.

Director Shira Piven and scriptwriter Eliot Laurence handle the film’s theme effectively, utilising the dark humour to increase awareness of Borderline Personality Disorder without ever making it inappropriate or insensitive.

However, this feature is all about Wiig’s energetic and courageous delivery, that at one point sees her walk through a casino wearing no clothes. To some this might be a step too far, but to others it is emblematic of a carefully thoughtout performance that few could pull off with such dignity and eccentricity.

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Finding that right balance between amusement and addressing the issues at hand, Kristen Wiig’s virtuoso portrayal in Welcome To Me — as a lottery winner suffering from Borderline Personality Disorder — is as refreshing as it is amusing. The film’s bizarre plot — she uses her winnings to host a TV show about herself — may put off some viewers. Nevertheless, if handled smartly (and with Will Ferrell as one of the film’s producers giving it that extra push) this could be a sleeper hit.

Wiig plays Alice Klieg, who is diagnosed with manic depression in her teens but is later told by her doctor she suffers from Borderline Personality Disorder. Alice has a strict routine that includes watching Oprah on VHS at home and reading off pieces of paper. She also plays the lottery, and becomes a multi-millionaire overnight when she wins $86m.

After being cut off from reading a statement on live TV following her win, Alice approaches a different media outlet and proposes she hosts a show that for two hours will be focused on her life including her high-protein diet, and among other things, her personal grudges. Once she writes a cheque for $15m, the struggling pro-

US. 2014. 88mins Director Shira Piven Production companies Bron Studios, Gary Sanchez Productions International sales Cargo Entertainment, www. cargoentertainment.com Producers Aaron L Gilbert, Kristen Wiig, Jessica Elbaum, Will Ferrell, Adam McKay, Marina Grasic Executive producers Margot Hand, Robyn Wholley Screenplay Eliot Laurence Cinematography Eric Alan Edwards Editors Josh Salzberg, Kevin Tent Music David Robbins Production designer Clayton Hartley Main cast Kristen Wiig, James Marsden, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Wes Bentley, Tim Robbins, Joan Cusack, Linda Cardellini

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September 8, 2014 Screen International at Toronto 15

T

he leadership at Participant Media prefers a low profile, but heading into Toronto with three films in selection and a 10th anniversary party scheduled, it is difficult to look away.

Premieres of animation Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet and professional sceptics documentary Merchants Of Doubt illustrate the broad reach of Participant’s film ambitions and hint at what is to come. (Sony Pictures Classics acquired world rights to Merchants Of Doubt in the run-up to its world premiere in Telluride and the Toronto screening.)

CEO Jim Berk, tall and wiry-haired, meets Screen in the lobby of the company’s Beverly Hills headquarters. A former educator, CEO of Hard Rock Cafe International and head of publicly traded resort specialists Fairfield Communities among other posts, he is outgoing and professorial.

Berk is the man whom Jeff Skoll, the Participant founder, eBay billionaire and philanthropist, hired in 2006 to take the company to the next level. Berk’s is the face that Hollywood sees. At a party in Cannes earlier this year, it was Berk who greeted guests warmly while Skoll stayed back slightly, smiling.

As he leads the way to his office he mentions early August release The Hundred-Foot Journey. The film stars Helen Mirren and marks the company’s 55th film. It shot in India, like Participant hit The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and its 2015 sequel, The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, hinting at a bright future.

Participant has forged relationships with every major studio, launched a finance fund with Image Nation Abu Dhabi, nurtured thriving divisions such as the Pivot TV network, TakePart online portal and social action team and set its sights on global expansion.

On the last point, Screen understands a second major international initiative after Participant Pan America is about to be unveiled. “This year alone we’ll greenlight a dozen narrative and documentary films and we expect that pace to continue and expand as we look into international territories,” says Berk.

“What we want to do is replicate what we do in the United States in other parts of the world,” he continues. “We’ve started to tiptoe in with the establishment of Participant Pan America, which was born out of our success on [Chilean Oscar nominee] No and we looked at the Spanish-speaking market and recognised there was an opportunity to support a film-making community that was very robust.

“The first slate we’ve committed to over the next five years is 12-15 films.” The first title to emerge from the alliance with Mexico’s Canana, Colombia’s Dynamo and Chile’s Fabula — Berk calls it a “United Artists approach of production” — was Cannes selection El Ardor. They expect to announce the second shortly.

Laurie Sparham

Feature ParticiPant Media

The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

Game changers As Participant Media celebrates 10 years and 55 films, Jeremy Kay talks to CEO Jim Berk about the company’s growth and further global expansion For a company that employs about 250 people across offices in Los Angeles, New York and Washington DC, Participant packs a punch. Skoll’s deep pockets and the leadership expertise of Berk and an executive roster that includes documentary guru Diane Weyermann and narrative films head Jonathan King provides know-how and enables flexibility.

“Every film is different,” says Berk.

“We’ve taken 100% of films; we’ve taken 25% of films. We’ve been the lead production entity; we’ve been just a financing entity. We’ve been a co-distribution partner like we did on Middle Of Nowhere or [acquisition titles] Internet’s Own Boy or Ivory Tower. It’s a mix.”

Simple P&A plays are rare but not out of the question. The chief goal is to invest early in projects. “We come from a viewpoint that we’re willing to put our money side-by-side with others. This idea of everybody having skin in the game is worthwhile and applies to us too.”

16 Screen International at Toronto September 8, 2014

‘This year alone we’ll greenlight a dozen narrative and doc films and we expect that pace to continue’ Jim Berk, Participant

On Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet, for example, Participant is one of the financiers, along with Doha Film Institute, Code Red Productions, FFA Private Bank, mygroup, and Financiere Pinault, whose director FrancoisHenri Pinault is married to the film’s producer Salma Hayek.

“Participant was founded on the basis of the double bottom line, which is financial success like any other for-profit media company and social impact,” he says. “We look at things through a dual lens so if a movie is successful and has social impact, that’s the highest level success.

“But a movie can also have social impact and not be as successful — sometimes documentaries spark policy changes at the federal level but they might not have been big box-office hits, like Last Call At The Oasis or A Place At The Table, which were seen by the right people and led to national change.”

A Place At The Table inspired the West Virginia Feed To Achieve Act, which changed policy on school breakfasts. Middle Of

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The Hundred-Foot Journey

‘The media business, more than many others, deals in cycles. There’s a low threshold for not having a financial success’ Jim Berk, Participant

UPCOMING SLATE ■ Misconception Jessica

Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet

A Place At The Table

Nowhere spurred the Federal Communications Commission to issue new guidelines on exorbitant ‘predatory phone rates’ in US prisons.

“We greenlight films that are really good stories,” says Berk. “Without that it doesn’t matter what the issue is — we’re not doing the film… We just have that additional filter of saying, ‘OK can this film in success create a conversation, change personal behaviour, raise awareness?’

“Jeff ’s interest is in creating a sustainable asset and creating value in that piece, so it’s allowed us to be bolder, to be innovative and take what we call ‘smart chances’.”

Lincoln and The Help are cases in point.

“Virtually every studio passed [on The Help].

DreamWorks was kind of the last stop.

Nobody saw a movie like that would have international appeal for a lot of good reasons — African-American film, period piece, not starring one of the half-a-dozen bankable big stars and a first-time director for a film of that size.”

Lincoln garnered two Oscars including best actor for Daniel Day-Lewis and grossed $275m worldwide, while The Help finished on $216m worldwide and scored a best supporting actress Oscar for Octavia Spencer.

A growing remit Berk thinks and speaks quickly, rattling off titles and deal points as his enthusiasm for a subject takes hold. Participant’s defiance of the risk-averse Hollywood zeitgeist really

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gets him going and he hoists himself up in his chair, sitting cross-legged.

He says that Skoll’s role as a hands-off yet involved benefactor creates a culture devoid of insecurity.

“The media business, more than many others, deals in cycles, seasons, box-office years. There’s a fairly low threshold for not having a financial success.

“When you have private ownership in a company with no debt, no bankers, you’re in a very clear alignment with the mission of the person who is the owner of the company, you’re in a very unique position. He’s dealing in decades… It’s about building towards a larger goal.”

He first met Skoll in 2006 after a headhunter came knocking. “I came out and met him and in the first 10 minutes I thought, ‘This guy’s real.’ In the second 20 minutes I thought, ‘I love this guy.’

He’s a very unassuming guy and I realised he really wanted to do this, to create something.”

Participant Productions, as it was called (the change to Participant Media would come in Participant co-distributed Middle Of Nowhere

Yu’s population-growth documentary ■ A Most Violent Year JC Chandor’s crime drama (US release November 12 by A24) ■ The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel John Madden’s sequel will be released by Fox Searchlight on March 6, 2015 ■ El Ardor Pablo Fendrik’s Argentinian dramatic thriller premiered in Cannes; Gael Garcia Bernal stars ■ Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet Producer Salma Hayek presented the animated omnibus film as a work in progress at Cannes; it plays as a Special Presentation in Toronto ■ Beasts Of No Nation Cary Fukunaga’s childsoldier drama stars Idris Elba; Focus Features will release in 2015 ■ Malala Davis Guggenheim documentary about Pakistani schoolgirl Malala Yousafzai ■ A Monster Calls JA Bayona’s fantasy film starring Liam Neeson; Focus Features will release in 2016 ■ Deepwater Horizon JC Chandor is to direct the oil-rig explosion story; Summit/ Lionsgate to release

January 2008) had been going for 18 months and burst out of the gates with Good Night, And Good Luck; Syriana; North Country and An Inconvenient Truth.

“It started in the back of [now Focus Features CEO] Peter Schlessel’s office and when I came on I was the 17th employee. Jeff had this mission and said he was an entrepreneur who starts things and brings in professional management to grow them and he focuses on the big picture.

“He wanted it to be the most successful media company in the world, focused on entertainment that inspires and compels social change.”

The company’s first iteration was as a financier. With Berk on board, the remit grew. “Over the years we kept expanding the film piece of it,” he says. “We started our own productions, we launched our digital portal, we formed a social impact and marketing group and we started investing in businesses that could drive our strategy.”

One such move came in April 2007 when Participant Media became the largest individual equity investor in Summit Entertainment. The vampires of Twilight served them well and it was only the very favourable terms of the Lionsgate takeover in 2012 that convinced Skoll, Berk and co to relinquish their stake.

Participant moved into television last year with the Pivot network and has been an active media investor, acquiring positions in Canada’s Cineflix Media and tech mogul Oliver Luckett’s social media start-up theAudience.

At the start of the summer, Participant joined a $350m fund backed by TPG Growth and Evolution Media Capital to make strategic investments in global entities.

Global reach International expansion is a priority. “One thing we always do in international markets is look for partners because we have no expectation that we have the expertise, sensitivity from a cultural standpoint or business and operations standpoint to be able to understand what a market’s like.

“We expect that Pan America is also going to be Pan Europe and Pan Arabia and Pan Asia and again the idea that these are films from and for those areas.” When pressed on timelines, Berk says he hopes to be in a new territory “in the next two years”.

He declines to go into detail but offers tantalising commentary along the way. “Could I envision we have offices in Mexico City and China? Absolutely?” Later he adds: “I could easily see us doing eight, 10 films a year across all of Europe. I could easily see us doing two or three Indian films a year, I could see us doing the same in the Middle East, Asia.”

Will there be an imminent announcement? For the first time, Berk is tongue-tied, his silence as eloquent as anything he has s said all day. ■

September 8, 2014 Screen International at Toronto 17

ScreeningS

Further coverage, see screendaily.com

edited by Jamie Mcleish

12:30 PM

Public

The gooD lie

screenings

(US) 112mins. Black Label Media (US). Dir: Philippe Falardeau. Cast: Reese Witherspoon, Arnold Oceng.

An American woman takes four Sudanese refugees under her wing.

8:30 AM The Valley Below

(Canada) 87mins. North Country Cinema (int’l).

Dir: Kyle Thomas. Cast: Stephen Bogaert, Kris Demeanor, Mikaela Cochrane.

A Raymond Carver-esque portrait of life in the Alberta Badlands.

Special presentations roy Thomson hall 1:30 PM Breakup BuDDieS

(China) 116mins. Injo Films Limited (int’l). Dir: Ning Hao. Cast: Huang Bo, Xu Zheng, Zhou Dongyu.

A hapless former singer hits the road — and the bar — with his best buddy.

Discovery TiFF Bell lightbox cinema 2 9:00 AM luna

(United Kingdom) 104mins. Simon Moorhead (int’l). Dir: Dave McKean. Cast: Ben Daniels, Dervla Kirwan, Stephanie Leonidas.

A weekend idyll in an isolated seaside home becomes an opportunity for spiritual healing.

Vanguard Jackman hall The greaT Man

(France) 107mins. Bac Films (int’l/US). Dir: Sarah Leonor. Cast: Jérémie Renier, Surho Sugaipov, Ramzan Idiev.

A French Foreign Legion soldier is reunited with the man who saved his life.

Discovery TiFF Bell lightbox cinema 3 9:15 AM epiSoDe oF The Sea

(Netherlands) 63mins.

Van Brummelen & De Haan (int’l). Dir: Lonnie van Brummelen, Siebren de Haan, the inhabitants of Urk. Cast: Femmy Brands, Hennie De Bruijne, Tinie De Boer.

A portrait of a remote Dutch fishing community. wavelengths TiFF Bell lightbox cinema 4 — paul & leah atkinson Family cinema My olD laDy

(US) 107mins.

Protagonist Pictures (int’l). Dir: Israel Horovitz. Cast: Kevin Kline, Kristin Scott Thomas, Maggie Smith.

Special presentations TiFF Bell lightbox cinema 2 2:00 PM

Public screening 11:30 AM MarDan

(Kurdistan) 110mins.

Mijfilm Production (int’l). Dir: Batin Ghobadi. Cast: Hossein Hassan, Helan Abdullah, Ismail Zagros.

A police officer finds himself haunted by a traumatic childhood memory in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Discovery TiFF Bell lightbox cinema 4 — paul & leah atkinson Family cinema

Dir: Shawn Levy. Cast: Jason Bateman, Tina Fey, Jane Fonda.

A death in the family brings together a far-flung clan for a weekend of mourning and bonding. gala presentations Visa Screening room (elgin) 11:30 AM

A New Yorker trying to sell his late father’s apartment runs up against its current occupants — a spirited elderly woman and her acid-tongued daughter.

Special presentations TiFF Bell lightbox cinema 1 9:30 AM who aM i – no SySTeM iS SaFe

(Germany) 105mins.

TrustNordisk (int’l). Dir: Baran bo Odar. Cast: Tom Schilling, Wotan Wilke Moehring.

A computer geek becomes a wanted man after he joins a crew of hackers. contemporary world cinema The Bloor hot Docs cinema 10:45 AM loVe & Mercy

(US) 120mins. Creative Artists Agency (US).

Lionsgate (int’l). Dir: Bill Pohlad. Cast: John Cusack, Paul Dano,

18 Screen International at Toronto September 8, 2014

Elizabeth Banks.

A chronicle of the Beach Boys founder’s struggles with his mental health.

MarDan See box, above

Special presentations winter garden Theatre

Don’T BreaThe

11:00 AM SanD DollarS

(Dominican Republic/ Argentina/Mexico) 80mins. FiGa Films (int’l). Dirs: Laura Amelia Guzman, Israel Cardenas. Cast: Geraldine Chaplin, Yanet Mojica, Ricardo Ariel Toribio.

The relationship between a beautiful Dominican woman and her wealthy European lover is put to the test by issues of class. contemporary world cinema TiFF Bell lightbox cinema 2 ThiS iS where i leaVe you

(US) 103mins. Warner Bros Pictures (int’l/US).

11:45 AM

(France) 86mins. Deckert Distribution (int’l). Dir: Nino Kirtadzé. Cast: Levan Murtazashvili, Irma Inaridze.

A middle-aged married couple deal with the fallout from a potentially fatal prognosis. contemporary world cinema Jackman hall 12:00 PM

hiding from the police.

The laST FiVe yearS

contemporary world cinema TiFF Bell lightbox cinema 3

(US) 94mins. Creative Artists Agency (US). The Exchange (int’l). Dir: Richard LaGravenese.

Cast: Anna Kendrick, Jeremy Jordan.

A couple look back on their relationship from very different viewpoints.

The equalizer

(US) 128mins. Columbia Pictures (int’l). Dir: Antoine Fuqua. Cast: Denzel Washington, Chloe Grace Moretz.

An ex-CIA agent tries to protect a woman from the Russian mob. gala presentations ryerson Theatre 12:15 PM aliVe

(South Korea) 175mins.

Finecut Co. Ltd (int’l).

Dir: Park Jung-bum.

Cast: Park Jung-bum, Lee Seung-yeon.

A labourer is driven to desperate measures to provide for the women in his life. city to city The Bloor hot Docs cinema

reD roSe

The Face oF an angel

(France/Greece/ Iran) 87mins.

Urban Distribution International (int’l).

Dir: Sepideh Farsi. Cast: Mina Kavani, Vassilis Koukalani.

A middle-aged man and a young pro-democracy activist debate the future of their country while

(United Kingdom) 100mins. WestEnd Films (int’l/US). Dir: Michael Winterbottom.

Cast: Daniel Brühl, Kate Beckinsale.

A fiction feature inspired by the notorious Amanda Knox murder case.

Masters TiFF Bell lightbox cinema 1

Special presentations winter garden Theatre TiMe ouT oF MinD

(US) 117mins. Paradigm, William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, ICM Partners (US). QED International (int’l).

Dir: Oren Moverman.

Cast: Richard Gere, Ben Vereen, Jena Malone.

A New York man tries to reconnect with his estranged daughter.

Special presentations Scotiabank 2 Two ShoTS FireD

(Argentina/Chile/ Germany/Netherlands) 104mins. Ruda Cine (int’l). Dir: Martin Rejtman. Cast: Susana Pampin, Rafael Federman.

A teenager finds his life hampered after he impulsively attempts to shoot himself. contemporary world cinema Jackman hall www.screendaily.com

»

7 days 200 guest speakers 5,000 attendees All-inclusive for registered Industry delegates Highlights: Days 4 – 7 Featured Sessions:

Telefilm Canada PITCH THIS! 1pm – 2pm glenn gould studio

Spotlight: South Korea 2:30pm – 3:15pm glenn gould studio

pitch this! presented by

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 9 Co-producing/ Doc Conference/ Asian Film Summit

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10 Digital Media/ Doc Conference

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 11 Future of Cinema

Featured Sessions:

Featured Sessions:

Keynote Conversation with Joshua Oppenheimer 10am – 11am

State of: Future of Cinema with Fabien Riggall, Secret Cinema 10am – 10:30am

glenn gould studio

glenn gould studio

Unpacking the Bundle 10:30am – 11:30am

Lightning Talks: International Funding Agencies vimeo industry convergence centre 2pm – 3pm

Ad Infinitum: Bigger, Faster, Brighter Movies with Douglas Trumbull 2pm – 3:30pm

vimeo industry convergence centre

tiff bell lightbox cinema 2

Keynote Conversation with Michael Moore 10am – 11am glenn gould studio

doc conference sponsored by

doc conference sponsored by

asian film summit presenting partner

/TIFF

/TIFF_NET

/TIFF

/TIFF

/TIFF_NET

/TIFF

/TIFFINDUSTRY

Featured Sessions:

official digital projection partner

™Toronto International Film Festival Inc.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 8 Marketing

/TIFF_INDUSTRY

/TIFF_NET

SCReenIngS

experimental approaches to explore the fragility of family connections.

Short Cuts Canada Scotiabank 9 4:30 PM RetuRn to IthaCa

(France) 95mins. Funny Balloons (int’l/US). Dir: Laurent Cantet. Cast: Isabel Santos, Jorge Peugorria, Fernando Hechevarria.

Five old friends in Havana reflect on their lives and unrealised dreams.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 13 WaSte Land

Public screening 4:00 PM heaRtBeat

(Canada) 93mins.

Northeast Films (int’l).

Dir: Andrea Dorfman.

Cast: Tanya Davis, Stephanie Clattenburg, Stewart Legere.

2:30 PM Cake

(US) 98mins. William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, Creative Artists Agency (US).

Dir: Daniel Barnz. Cast: Jennifer Aniston, Anna Kendrick, William H Macy.

A woman in a chronicpain support group investigates the suicide of a fellow group member.

Special Presentations Visa Screening Room (elgin) ShoRt CutS Canada PRogRamme 2

WhIPLaSh

Stuck in a deadend job, a Halifax twentysomething finds salvation by returning to her musical roots.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 8

Silent screen legend Ruan Lingyu gives a stunning performance as a wronged prostitute in this classic.

Cinematheque tIFF Bell Lightbox cinema 3 3:00 PM the theoRy oF eVeRythIng

(United Kingdom/USA) 123mins. Focus Features (US). Universal Pictures International (int’l). Dir: James Marsh. Cast: Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, Charlie Cox. The story of one of the world’s greatest living minds, Stephen Hawking.

117mins. Dirs: various.

Programme exploring our connection to our environment and to each other.

Special Presentations Princess of Wales

Short Cuts Canada tIFF Bell Lightbox cinema 4 — Paul & Leah atkinson Family Cinema

(United Kingdom) 101mins. Protagonist Pictures (int’l). Dir: Peter Strickland. Cast: Sidse Babett Knudsen, Chiara D’Anna.

An amateur butterfly expert’s wayward desires test her lover’s patience.

2:45 PM the goddeSS

(China) 85mins. Dir: Yonggang Wu. Cast: Ruan Lingyu, Keng Li, Zhang Zhizhi.

3:15 PM the duke oF BuRgundy

Vanguard Scotiabank 12

20 Screen International at Toronto September 8, 2014

(US) 106mins. Sierra/ Affinity (int’l). Dir: Damien Chazelle. Cast: Miles Teller, JK Simmons, Melissa Benoist.

An ambitious young drummer at a prestigious music academy clashes with his teacher.

Special Presentations Ryerson theatre 3:30 PM PReggoLand

(Canada) 106mins.

Titlecard Pictures Inc. (int’l). Dir: Jacob Tierney.

Cast: Sonja Bennett, Danny Trejo, Laura Harris.

A boozing thirtysomething finds her world turned upside down when she lies about being pregnant.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 3 3:45 PM

(US). Gaumont (int’l).

Dir: Olivier Nakache, Eric Toledano. Cast: Charlotte Gainsbourg, Omar Sy, Tahar Rahim.

A migrant to France fights to stay in the country with the help of a rookie immigration worker. gala Presentations Scotiabank 1 4:15 PM heCtoR and the SeaRCh FoR haPPIneSS

(Germany/Canada) 114mins. Bankside Films (int’l). Dir: Peter Chelsom. Cast: Simon Pegg, Toni Collette, Rosamund Pike.

A London psychiatrist embarks on a continentcrossing trip to discover the secret of happiness.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 4

(Belgium) 97mins. Be for Films (int’l). Dir: Pieter Van Hees. Cast: Jérémie Renier, Natali Broods, Babetida Sadjo.

A cop begins to lose control of his life as he tries to solve a bizarre murder.

Vanguard tIFF Bell Lightbox cinema 2 4:45 PM PImenta / de oLIVeIRa / aBRanteS

Kris Elgstrand. Cast: Arabella Bushnell, Brad Dryborough, Ross Smith.

A timid office worker becomes both pariah and Pied Piper when she unleashes her scathingly honest pop songs upon friends and co-workers. discovery tIFF Bell Lightbox cinema 4 — Paul & Leah atkinson Family Cinema StILL aLICe

(USA ) 99mins. Creative Artists Agency (US).

Memento Films (int’l).

Dir: Richard Glatzer, Wash Westmoreland.

Cast: Julianne Moore, Kristen Stewart, Alec Baldwin.

A successful professor struggles to maintain her composure after being diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s.

Special Presentations Winter garden theatre 5:30 PM the kIngdom oF dReamS and madneSS

89mins. Dirs: various.

A film by Manoel de Oliveira provides the centrepiece for this trio dealing with questions of historical legacy.

(Japan) 118mins. Wild Bunch (int’l). Dir: Mami Sunada.

A documentary taking us inside Studio Ghibli, the renowned Japanese animation studio.

Wavelengths tIFF Bell Lightbox cinema 3

tIFF docs Scotiabank 2

5:00 PM a mIdSummeR nIght’S dReam

(US) 144mins. LOH, Inc (int’l). Dir: Julie Taymor.

Cast: Tina Benko, Max Casella, David Harewood.

A cinematic record of Julie Taymor’s production of Shakespeare’s fantasy. mavericks Isabel Bader theatre

5:45 PM mR. tuRneR

(United Kingdom) 149mins. Thin Man Films (int’l). Dir: Mike Leigh. Cast: Timothy Spall, Dorothy Atkinson, Marion Bailey.

A gorgeously rendered biopic of the famed British landscape painter.

Special Presentations Visa Screening Room (elgin)

may aLLah BLeSS FRanCe!

LoS hongoS

(France) 96mins. Films Distribution (int’l). Dir: Abd Al Malik. Cast: Marc Zinga, Sabrina Ouazani, Larouci Didi.

French rapper Abd Al Malik adapts his 2004 autobiography, chronicling his upbringing on the streets of Strasbourg.

(Colombia/Argentina/ France/Germany) 103mins. FiGa Films (int’l/US). Dir: Oscar Ruiz Navia. Cast: Calvin Buenaventura Tascon, Atala Estrada.

Two street artists explore the director’s hometown of Cali.

discovery the Bloor hot docs Cinema

discovery Jackman hall

SamBa

ShoRt CutS Canada PRogRamme 3

SongS She WRote aBout PeoPLe She knoWS

(US) 133mins.

Annapurna Pictures (int’l). Dir: Bennett Miller. Cast: Steve Carell, Channing Tatum, Mark Ruffalo.

Two brothers, both former Olympic wrestling champions, become involved in a fateful and fatal friendship with a neurotic millionaire.

(France) 115mins.

Creative Artists Agency

117mins. Dirs: various.

These films employ

(Canada) 80mins. A Blue Car Films (int’l). Dir:

gala Presentations Roy thomson hall

VILLa touma

87mins. Bailasan (int’l).

Dir: Suha Arraf. Cast: Nisreen Faour, Ula Tabari, Cherien Dabis.

The story of an orphan, whose arrival at the home of her aunts unleashes a torrent of family secrets. discovery Scotiabank 14 4:00 PM heaRtBeat See box, above

6:00 PM FoxCatCheR

www.screendaily.com

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10,000 FILMS HAVE BEEN LAUNCHED AT AFM 速

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Mike Hatton

Jeff Cook

Stefano Dammico ACTOR. PRODUCER. AFM ATTENDEE.

PRODUCER. DISTRIBUTOR. AFM BUYER.

Sara Elizabeth Timmins DEDICATED BANJOIST. DIE-HARD GOURMET. AFM BUYER.

AVIATION ENTHUSIAST. DOG LOVER. AFM BUYER.

PRODUCER. CREATIVE DIRECTOR. AFM ATTENDEE.

AMERICAN FILM MARKET & CONFERENCES

Nov. 5-12, 2014 | Santa Monica AFM PARTNER EVENTS AFI FEST presented by Audi, November 6-13 | The World Animation & VFX Summit, November 2-5 US-China Film Summit, November 5 | The Britannia Awards, October 30 Details at www.AmericanFilmMarket.com/partner-events

Everyone is here. Register today at www.AmericanFilmMarket.com

速

strip toronto-5 8-9-14_Opmaak 1 05-09-14 13:11

FROM THE NETHERLANDS

SCreeningS

MONDAY SEP 8

DISCOVERY

ATLANTIC. Dir: Jan-Willem van Ewijk Prod: Augustus Film Sales: Fortissimo Films (feature, 94’)

Public screening 6:00 PM Margarita, with a Straw

21:45 Cinema 2

(India) 100mins. Ishan Talkies (int’l). Dir: Shonali Bose. Cast: Kalki Koechlin, Revathy, William Moseley.

A Delhi student with cerebral palsy leaves India for New York, where she falls for a fiery young activist.

Contemporary world Cinema tiFF Bell lightbox cinema 1

Koschitz, Jürgen Vogel.

A group of friends must deal with one of their members’ decision to end his life with dignity.

Contemporary world Cinema Scotiabank 3 7:00 PM BlaCk SoulS

Margarita, with a Straw See box, above 6:15 PM adult BeginnerS

(US) 90mins. William Morris Endeavor Entertainment (int’l/US).

Dir: Ross Katz. Cast: Rose Byrne, Bobby Cannavale.

A yuppie retreats to his suburban childhood home. discovery ryerson theatre

TIFF KIDS

SECRETS OF WAR Dir: Dennis Bots Prod: Rinkel Film, Bijker Film & TV Sales: Sola Media (feature, 94’)

Short CutS Canada PrograMMe 4

109mins. Dirs: various.

Films addressing questions of culture and generational clashes, death and rebirth.

Short Cuts Canada Scotiabank 14 6:30 PM

14:30 Scotiabank 7 (press & industry)

your Dutch film connection

international@eyefilm.nl www.international.eyefilm.nl 22 Screen International at Toronto September 8, 2014

high SoCiety

(France) 95mins. Pyramide International (int’l). Dir: Julie Lopes Curval. Cast: Ana Girardot, Bastien Bouillon, Baptiste Lecaplain.

Class barriers threaten the budding romance of two young lovers.

Contemporary world Cinema Scotiabank 8

roSewater

(US) 103mins. Sierra/ Affinity (int’l). Dir: Jon Stewart. Cast: Gael Garcia Bernal, Kim Bodnia, Haluk Bilginer.

The true story of an Iranian man’s five-month imprisonment after his appearance on a satirical US TV show.

Special Presentations Princess of wales 6:45 PM the dark horSe

(New Zealand) 124mins.

Seville International (int’l). Dir: James Napier Robertson. Cast: Cliff Curtis, James Rolleston, Kirk Torrance.

A former speed-chess champion struggling with bipolar disorder takes over as coach of a chess team for at-risk youth, in the true story of New Zealand chess legend Genesis Potini.

Contemporary world Cinema Scotiabank 9 tour de ForCe

(Germany) 95mins.

Beta Cinema (int’l). Dir: Christian Zübert. Cast: Florian David Fitz, Julia

(Italy) 103mins. Rai Com (int’l). Dir: Francesco Munzi.

Cast: Fabrizio Ferracane, Marco Leonardi, Peppino Mazzotta.

A former narcotics trafficker now living peaceably in the Calabrian hills is drawn back into his family’s drugtrade operations.

Contemporary world Cinema Scotiabank 1

7:15 PM a Pigeon Sat on a BranCh reFleCting on exiStenCe

(Sweden/Norway/France/ Germany) 100mins.

Coproduction Office (int’l).

Dir: Roy Andersson.

A comedy musing on man’s inhumanity to man.

Masters tiFF Bell lightbox cinema 2 Bang Bang BaBy

(Canada) 85mins. Scythia Films (int’l). Dir: Jeffrey St. Jules. Cast: Jane Levy, Justin Chatwin, Peter Stormare.

A surreal, fever-dream fusion of small-town musical and 1950s sci-fi. discovery Scotiabank 4

goodnight MoMMy

(Austria) 100mins. Films Distribution (int’l). Dirs: Veronika Franz, Severin Fiala. Cast: Susanne Wuest, Elias Schwarz, Lukas Schwarz.

Two young twins transform their resentment towards their mother into a fatal illusion about her identity.

theeB

Vanguard the Bloor hot docs Cinema

discovery Scotiabank 13

natural reSiStanCe

(Jordan/Qatar/United Arab Emirates/United Kingdom) 100mins. Fortissimo Films, MAD Solutions (int’l). Dir: Naji Abu Nowar. Cast: Jacir Eid, Hassan Mutlag.

During World War I, a young Bedouin boy embarks on a perilous desert journey.

7:45 PM

(Italy/France) 86mins.

Rezo (int’l). Dir: Jonathan Nossiter.

A profile of four radical vineyard proprietors in Italy, who are striving to produce all-natural wines.

waVelengthS 4: night noon

tiFF docs tiFF Bell lightbox cinema 3

don’t go Breaking My heart 2

110mins. Dirs: various. wavelengths Jackman hall 8:00 PM

(Hong Kong/China) www.screendaily.com

strip toronto-6 8-9-14_Opmaak 1 05-09-14 13:07

FROM THE NETHERLANDS MONDAY SEP 8 113mins. Media Asia Film Distribtuion (HK) Limited (int’l). Dir: Johnnie To. Cast: Louis Koo, Miriam Yeung, Yuanyuan Gao. Two former lovers find themselves drawn back together — despite the fact that each is now engaged to someone else.

Special Presentations Winter Garden Theatre 8:45 PM Senza neSSuna PieTa

(Italy) 93mins. Indie Sales (int’l). Dir: Michele Alhaique. Cast: Greta Scarano, Pierfrancesco Favino.

A loyal Mafia enforcer becomes a hunted man when he protects a beautiful escort from his boss’s sadistic son.

Discovery Scotiabank 14 9:00 PM BackcounTry

(Canada) 91mins. Cinetic Media (US). Event Film (int’l). Dir: Adam MacDonald. Cast: Missy Peregrym, Jeff Roop, Eric Balfour.

A busy executive and her boyfriend take a trip into the woods and find themselves at the mercy of nature.

Discovery Scotiabank 12 ForeiGn BoDy

(Poland/Italy/Russia) 117mins. Tor Film Production (int’l). Dir: Krzysztof Zanussi. Cast: Riccardo Leonelli, Agata Buzek.

A young Italian in Poland finds himself caught between two women.

Masters isabel Bader Theatre GeTT, The Trial oF ViViane aMSaleM

(France/Germany/Israel) 116mins. Films Distribution (int’l). Dir: Ronit Elkabetz, Shlomi Elkabetz. Cast: Ronit Elkabetz, Menashe Noy, Simon Abkarian,.

An Israeli woman seeking to finalise her divorce from her cruel husband finds herself caught up in the country’s strict marriage laws. contemporary World cinema Scotiabank 2 PaSolini

(France/Italy/Belgium) 87mins. Funny Balloons (int’l/US). Dir: Abel www.screendaily.com

Ferrara. Cast: Willem Dafoe, Ninetto Davoli, Riccardo Scarmacio.

Biopic of the last hours of director Pier Paolo Pasolini.

Special Presentations TiFF Bell lightbox cinema 1 roGer & Me

(US) 91mins. Warner Bros.

Pictures (int’l/US). Dir: Michael Moore.

A brash and bold documentary that heralded a wave of activist filmmaking.

TiFF Docs ryerson Theatre WilD

(US) 120mins. Pacific Standard (int’l). Dir: Jean-Marc Vallée. Cast: Reese Witherspoon, Bruna Papandera, Bill Pohlad.

A self-destructive woman attempts a solo, 1,000-mile hike.

Gala Presentations roy Thomson hall 9:15 PM The keePinG rooM

(US) 95mins. William Morris Endeavor Entertainment (US). Sierra/ Affinity (int’l). Dir: Daniel Barber. Cast: Brit Marling, Hailee Steinfeld, Sam Worthington.

Three women on an isolated farm during the American Civil War are besieged by a pair of murderous Yankees.

Special Presentations Visa Screening room (elgin)

lulu

(Argentina) 84mins.

Ignacio Sarchi, Luis Ortega (int’l). Dir: Luis Ortega.

Cast: Daniel Melingo, Ailin Salas, Nahuel Perez Bizcayart.

Two young urchins turn the streets of Buenos Aires into their own magical playground. contemporary World cinema TiFF Bell lightbox cinema 4 — Paul & leah atkinson Family cinema run

(France/Ivory Coast) 100mins. Bac Films (int’l).

Dir: Philippe Lacote. Cast: Abdoul Karim Konaté, Isaach De Bankolé, Reine Sali Coulibaly.

The blood-drenched history of the Ivory Coast is refracted through the story of a young man’s journey from country boy to militant to assassin.

Discovery Scotiabank 3 9:45 PM aTlanTic.

(Netherlands/Belgium/ Germany/Morocco) 94mins. Fortissimo Films (int’l). Dir: Jan-Willem van Ewijk. Cast: Fettah Lamara, Thekla Reuten, Mohamed Majd.

A young Moroccan windsurfer undertakes a perilous solo voyage across the ocean to Europe.

Discovery TiFF Bell lightbox cinema 2

The VaniSheD elePhanT

(Peru/Colombia/Spain) 110mins. El calvo films (int’l). Dir: Javier FuentesLeon. Cast: Salvador del Solar, Angie Cepeda, Lucho Caceres.

Mystery in which a crime novelist receives a vital clue to the whereabouts of his long-missing fiancée.

ShorT cuTS inTernaTional ProGraMMe 4

Discovery Scotiabank 8

SWay

9:30 PM a Girl aT My Door

(South Korea) 119mins.

Hawon Kim, CJ Entertainment (int’l).

Dir: Jung July. Cast: Kim Saeron, Bae Doona, Song Saebyuk.

A former star of the Seoul police force finds her maternal instincts awoken when she meets a troubled teenage girl. city to city TiFF Bell lightbox cinema 3

121mins. Dirs: various.

Resilience, faith and humour prove to be powerful weapons in these stories of injustice, retribution and isolation.

Short cuts international Scotiabank 9

(US/France/Thailand) 108mins. Wayward Productions LLC (int’l).

Dir: Rooth Tang. Cast: Matt Wu, Lu Huang, Ananda Everingham.

Three parallel love stories set in three different cities.

Discovery Scotiabank 4 They haVe eScaPeD

(Finland/Netherlands) 101mins. The Yellow Affair (int’l). Dir: JP Valkeapaa.

Cast: Teppo Manner, Roosa Söderholm, Pelle Heikkila.

Two teenage outcasts run away from a halfway house and embark on a rambling cross-country journey.

Vanguard The Bloor hot Docs cinema TiGerS

(India/France/United Kingdom) 90mins. The Match Factory (int’l).

Dir: Danis Tanovic.

Cast: Emraan Hashmi, Geetanjali, Danny Huston.

Devastated when he discovers the effects of the infant formula he’s peddling, a young salesman challenges the powers that be. contemporary World cinema Scotiabank 1

SHORT CUTS INTERNATIONAL

THE LAST DAY OF SUMMER Dir: Feike Santbergen Prod: Filos Productions (short, 19’) 09:00 Scotiabank 5 (press & industry)

10:00 PM 99 hoMeS

(US) 112mins. Creative Artists Agency (US). Hyde Park International (int’l).

Dir: Ramin Bahrani. Cast: Andrew Garfield, Michael Shannon, Laura Dern.

Desperate to save his family home, an unemployed construction worker joins an unscrupulous realtor in the dirty business of foreclosing on the disenfranchised.

SHORT CUTS INTERNATIONAL

A SINGLE LIFE

Special Presentations Princess of Wales

Dir/Prod: Job, Joris & Marieke Sales: SND Films (short, 2’)

laByrinTh oF lieS

(Germany) 122mins. Beta Cinema (int’l). Dir: Giulio Ricciarelli.

A prosecutor in postwar West Germany investigates a massive conspiracy to cover up the Nazi pasts of public figures.

09:00 Scotiabank 5 (press & industry)

contemporary World cinema Scotiabank 13 le Beau DanGer

(Germany) 100mins. Joon Film (int’l). Dir: René Frölke.

Portrait of internationally acclaimed Romanian author Norman Manea.

WAVELENGTHS

EPISODE OF THE SEA

Wavelengths Jackman hall 11:59 PM

Dir: Lonnie van Brummelen, Siebren de Haan Prod: Van Brummelen & De Haan (documentary, 63’)

elecTric BooGaloo: The WilD, unTolD STory oF cannon FilMS

(Australia) 105mins.

Mongrel International (int’l). Dir: Mark Hartley.

Cast: Molly Ringwald, Tobe Hooper, Dolph Lundgren.

Chronicle of the rise and fall of 1980s action-exploitation juggernaut Cannon Films.

Midnight Madness ryerson Theatre

09:15 Cinema 4

your Dutch film connection

international@eyefilm.nl »

www.international.eyefilm.nl

September 8, 2014 Screen International at Toronto 23

SCreeninGS

Press & Industry 8:15 AM the Good lie

(US) 112mins. Black Label Media (US). Dir: Philippe Falardeau. Cast: Reese Witherspoon, Arnold Oceng, Ger Duany.

An American woman takes four Sudanese refugees under her wing.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 3 8:30 AM the Golden era

(China/Hong Kong) 178mins. Edko Films Ltd. (int’l). Dir: Ann Hui. Cast: Tang Wei, Feng Shao Feng.

Portrait of the pioneering 20th-century female novelist Xiao Hong. masters Scotiabank 13 While We’re younG

(US) 94mins. United Talent Agency (US). FilmNation Entertainment (int’l).

Dir: Noah Baumbach.

Cast: Ben Stiller, Naomi Watts, Adam Driver.

A middle-aged couple’s career and marriage are overturned when a disarming young couple enters their lives.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 1 & 4 8:45 AM BiG muddy See box, above leoPardi

(Italy) 137mins. Rai Com (int’l). Dir: Mario Martone. Cast: Elio Germano, Michele Riondino, Massimo Popolizio.

A biopic of the celebrated 18th-century Italian poet and philosopher Giacomo Leopardi.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 10 9:00 AM eleCtriC BooGaloo: the Wild, untold Story oF Cannon FilmS

(Australia) 105mins.

Mongrel International (int’l). Dir: Mark Hartley.

Press & industry 8:45 AM BiG muddy

(Canada) 104mins.

Angel Entertainment (int’l). Dir: Jefferson Moneo. Cast: Nadia Litz, Justin Kelly, Stephen McHattie.

Cast: Molly Ringwald, Tobe Hooper, Dolph Lundgren.

Chronicle of the rise and fall of 1980s actionexploitation juggernaut Cannon Films. midnight madness Scotiabank 11 FoxCatCher

(US) 133mins.

Annapurna Pictures (int’l). Dir: Bennett Miller. Cast: Steve Carell, Channing Tatum, Mark Ruffalo.

Two brothers, both former wrestling champions, become involved in a fateful and fatal friendship with a neurotic millionaire.

Gala Presentations Princess of Wales miSS julie

(Norway/United Kingdom/Ireland/ France) 129mins.

Creative Artists Agency (US). Wild Bunch (int’l).

Dir: Liv Ullmann.

Cast: Jessica Chastain, Colin Farrell, Samantha Morton.

An adaptation of the

24 Screen International at Toronto September 8, 2014

On the run from the cops and a murderous former lover, a sultry outlaw and her young son take refuge with her estranged father. discovery Scotiabank 9

classic August Strindberg play.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 14 Short CutS international ProGramme 3

82mins. Dirs: various Six cautionary tales illustrating how the words we use and the actions we take in daily life can have profound consequences.

Short Cuts international Scotiabank 5 9:15 AM a Girl at my door

(South Korea) 119mins.

Hawon Kim, CJ Entertainment (int’l).

Dir: Jung July. Cast: Kim Saeron, Song Saebyuk.

A former star of the Seoul police force finds her maternal instincts awoken when she meets a troubled teenage girl.

City to City Scotiabank 8 the GueSt

(US) 99mins. HanWay Films (int’l). Dir: Adam Wingard.

Tale of a mysterious

visitor who arrives at the home of a bereaved family claiming to be the best friend of their dead son. midnight madness Scotiabank 7 time out oF mind

(US) 117mins. Paradigm, William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, ICM Partners (US). QED International (int’l).

Dir: Oren Moverman.

Cast: Richard Gere, Ben Vereen, Jena Malone.

A New York man forced into a homeless shelter tries to reconnect with his estranged daughter.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 2 9:45 AM FireS on the Plain

(Japan) 87mins.

Coproduction Office (int’l). Dir: Shinya Tsukamoto. Cast: Shinya Tsukamoto.

A dazed, wounded soldier wanders through the surreal carnage of the Pacific War. Wavelengths Scotiabank 6 10:30 AM Kill me three timeS

(Australia) 90mins.

William Morris Endeavor Entertainment (US).

Cargo Entertainment (int’l). Dir: Kriv Stenders.

Cast: Simon Pegg, Sullivan Stapleton, Alice Braga.

A small Australian town

becomes a hotbed of scheming, scamming, blackmail and murder.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 12 10:45 AM toP Five

(US) 101mins. United Talent Agency (US).

FilmNation (int’l). Dir: Chris Rock. Cast: Chris Rock, Rosario Dawson, JB Smoove.

The story of New York City comedian-turned-film star Andre Allen.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 1 11:00 AM my old lady

(US) 107mins.

Protagonist Pictures (int’l). Dir: Israel Horovitz. Cast: Kevin Kline, Kristin Scott Thomas, Maggie Smith.

A harried New Yorker trying to sell the Parisian apartment he’s inherited from his late father runs up against its current occupants – a spirited elderly woman and her acid-tongued daughter.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 4 the ForGer

(US) 92mins. William Morris Endeavor Entertainment, ICM Partners (US). The Solution (int’l). Dir: Philip Martin. Cast: John Travolta, Christopher

Plummer, Tye Sheridan.

An expert art forger is coerced into participating in a major museum heist.

Gala Presentations Scotiabank 3 11:15 AM Short CutS Canada ProGramme 3

87mins. Dirs: various.

Films exploring the fragility of family connections.

Short Cuts Canada Scotiabank 5 11:30 AM GyeonGju

(South Korea) 145mins.

M-Line Distribution (int’l). Dir: Zhang Lu. Cast: Park Hae-il, Shin Min-a.

A Beijing university professor finds an unexpected connection with the the beautiful owner of a café.

City to City Scotiabank 7 Gomorrah

(Italy/Germany) 120mins. Beta Cinema (int’l). Dir: Stefano Sollima.

The first two episodes of a 12-part television series based on Italian journalist Roberto Saviano’s gripping exposé of the Camorra.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 9 the editor

(Canada) 102mins.

XYZ Films (US). Park www.screendaily.com

Entertainment (int’l).

Dir: Matthew Kennedy, Adam Brooks. Cast: Matthew Kennedy, Adam Brooks, Paz de le Huerta.

A film editor becomes the prime suspect in a series of brutal murders.

Midnight Madness Scotiabank 11 11:45 AM DO I SOunD Gay?

(US) 77mins. Cinetic Media (US). Dir: David Thorpe. Cast: Dan Savage.

A frank and funny documentary about the cultural history of the gay voice.

Mavericks Scotiabank 10 OctOber Gale See box, right VenIce

(Cuba/Colombia) 74mins.

Habanero Film Sales (int’l). Dir: Kiki Alvarez.

Cast: Claudia Muniz, Marianela Pupo, Maribel Garcia Garzon.

A portrait of female friendship in Cuba, following three hairsalon employees as they hit the town looking for excitement. contemporary World cinema Scotiabank 8 12:00 PM

Press & industry 11.45 AM OctOber Gale

(Canada) 91mins.

Myriad Pictures, Gersh Agency (US). Myriad Pictures (int’l). Dir: Ruba Nadda. Cast: Patricia Clarkson, Scott (int’l/US). Dirs: Martin Scorsese, David Tedeschi.

A documentary tribute to the New York Review of Books.

Mavericks Scotiabank 13

la SaPIenza

(France/Italy) 100mins.

Mact Productions, La Sarraz Pictures (int’l). Dir: Eugene Green. Cast: Fabrizio Rongione, Christelle Prot Landmann, Ludovico Succio.

A brilliant architect seeks spiritual and artistic renewal during a lifechanging voyage in Italy.

Wavelengths Scotiabank 6 SeyMOur: an IntrODuctIOn

(US) 81mins. Cinetic Media (US). Dir: Ethan Hawke. Cast: Seymour Bernstein.

An intimate documentary portrait of classical pianist Seymour Bernstein. tIFF Docs Scotiabank 2 the 50 year arGuMent

(US) 97mins. Cinephil www.screendaily.com

WIlD

(US) 120mins. Pacific Standard (int’l). Dir: Jean-Marc Vallée. Cast: Reese Witherspoon, Bruna Papandera, Bill Pohlad.

A self-destructive woman attempts to leave behind her years of drug abuse with a 1,000-mile hike.

Gala Presentations Princess of Wales 12:30 PM rOGer WaterS the Wall

(United Kingdom) 133mins. Cinetic Media (US). Mister Smith Entertainment Ltd. (int’l). Dir: Roger Waters, Sean Evans.

Account of the Pink Floyd frontman’s continentcrossing concert tour with his epic stage show The Wall Live.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 12

Speedman, Tim Roth.

A doctor takes in a man with a gunshot wound – and soon discovers his would-be killer is on his way to finish the job.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 14

becomes an opportunity for spiritual healing.

Vanguard Scotiabank 5 1:30 PM

programme with a single, fixed purpose: to kill his father for ruining his mother’s life.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 14

SWay

(US/France/Thailand) 108mins. Wayward Productions LLC (int’l).

Dir: Rooth Tang. Cast: Matt Wu, Lu Huang, Ananda Everingham.

Three parallel love stories set in three different cities.

thIS IS My lanD

(Canada/France/ Lebanon/Qatar/USA) 84mins. Creative Artists Agency (US). Wild Bunch (int’l). Dirs: Roger Allers, Gaetan Brizzi, Paul Brizzi, Joan Gratz, Mohammed Saeed Harib, Tomm Moore, Nina Paley, Bill Plympton, Joann Sfar, Michal Socha. Cast: Liam Neeson, Salma HayekPinault, John Krasinski.

Acclaimed animators realise episodes from the text by the Lebanese poet, which are woven into the tale of a mischievous young girl who attempts to free an imprisoned poet.

Discovery Scotiabank 8

(France) 93mins. Iliade & Films (int’l). Dir: Tamara Erde.

Israeli-born director Tamara Erde visits six independently run Israeli and Palestinian schools to investigate how history is taught.

the IMItatIOn GaMe

tIFF Docs Scotiabank 10

Special Presentations Scotiabank 3

Special Presentations Scotiabank 1 & 4

1:15 PM KahlIl GIbran’S the PrOPhet

luna

(United Kingdom) 104mins. Simon Moorhead (int’l). Dir: Dave McKean. Cast: Ben Daniels, Dervla Kirwan, Stephanie Leonidas.

A tale about four people whose weekend idyll in an English seaside home

(US/United Kingdom) 113mins. FilmNation Entertainment (int’l).

Dir: Morten Tyldum.

Cast: Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode.

Portrait of the brilliant mathematician who spearheaded the Enigma code-breaking operation during World War II and was later persecuted by the British government for his homosexuality.

1:45 PM neD rIFle

(US) 85mins. Fortissimo Films (int’l). Dir: Hal Hartley. Cast: Liam Aiken, Aubrey Plaza, Martin Donovan.

Henry and Fay’s teenage son Ned emerges from a witness protection

2:00 PM lOVe & Mercy

(US) 120mins. Creative Artists Agency (US).

Lionsgate (int’l). Dir: Bill Pohlad. Cast: John Cusack, Paul Dano, Elizabeth Banks.

A chronicle of the Beach Boys founder’s struggles with mental health and substance abuse.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 11 We Were WOlVeS

(Canada) 94mins. Marina Cordoni Entertainment (int’l/US). Dir: Jordan Canning. Cast: Steve Cochrane, Lynda Boyd, Melanie Scrofano.

Two estranged brothers work out their grievances while packing up their late father’s cottage.

Discovery Scotiabank 9

2:15 PM aMerIcan heISt

(US) 94mins. Paradigm (US). Voltage Pictures (int’l). Dir: Sarik Andreasyan. Cast: Adrien Brody, Hayden Christensen, Jordana Brewster.

Two brothers become embroiled in a high-stakes bank robbery.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 13 SOnGS FrOM the nOrth

(US/South Korea/ Portugal) 72mins. Rosa Filmes (int’l). Dir: SoonMi Yoo. A sharp and sensitive essay film about everyday life and ideological distortion in North Korea.

Wavelengths Scotiabank 6 2:30 PM SecretS OF War

(Netherlands/Belgium/ Luxembourg) 94mins.

Sola Media (int’l). Dir: Dennis Bots. Cast: Maas Bronkhuyzen, Joes Brauers, Pippa Allen.

In 1943, two young best friends in the Nazioccupied Netherlands find their bond put to the supreme test. tIFF Kids Scotiabank 7 3:45 PM a harD Day

(South Korea) 111mins.

Showbox (int’l). Dir:

September 8, 2014 Screen International at Toronto 25

»

SCREENINGS

Three orphaned siblings find themselves battling a corrupt local police chief over ownership of their mother’s ancestral home.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 7

Screen office Meeting room 12, fifth floor, TIFF Bell Lightbox, 350 Kind Street West, Toronto, ON, M5V 3X5

9:00 PM foREIGN body

(Poland/Italy/Russia) 117mins. Tor Film Production (int’l). Dir: Krzysztof Zanussi.

Cast: Riccardo Leonelli, Agnieszka Grochowska, Agata Buzek.

A dashing young Italian in Poland finds himself caught between two women – a novitiate nun and a ruthless corporate ladder-climber. masters Scotiabank 6 9:15 PM HumaN HIGHWay (dIRECtoR’S Cut)

Press & industry 4:00 PM PaRtNERS IN CRImE

(Taiwan) 89mins.

Double Edge Entertainment (int’l).

Dir: Chang Jung-chi.

Cast: Wu Chien-ho, Deng Yu-kai, Cheng Kai-yuan.

Kim Seong-hun. Cast: Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Jinwoong.

A luckless police detective becomes the target of blackmail after trying to cover up a hit-and-run.

City to City Scotiabank 5 4:00 PM PaRtNERS IN CRImE See box, above 4:15 PM ESCobaR: PaRadISE LoSt

(France/Spain/Belgium) 120mins. Pathé International (int’l). Dir: Andrea Di Stefano. Cast: Benicio del Toro, Josh Hutcherson, Claudia Traisac.

An American surfer meets the girl of his dreams — but gets a brutalreality check when he discovers that her uncle is the Colombian drug kingpin

Three high school boys discover that there may be more than meets the eye in the apparent suicide of a pretty classmate.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 6

Pablo Escobar.

Gala Presentations Scotiabank 10 4:30 PM Cub

(Belgium) 85mins.

Kinology (int’l/US). Dir: Jonas Govaerts. Cast: Maurice Luijten, Titus De Voogdt, Stef Aerts.

A troupe of young Cub Scouts find themselves stalked by a psychopathic huntsman who has rigged the forest with a series of vicious traps. midnight madness Scotiabank 11 4:45 PM HyENa

(United Kingdom) 112mins. Independent Film Productions (int’l).

Dir: Gerard Johnson.

Cast: Peter Ferdinando, Stephen Graham, Neil Maskell.

26 Screen International at Toronto September 8, 2014

A ruthless undercover cop tries to rescue a young Albanian woman who has been sold into sexual slavery.

Vanguard Scotiabank 7 6:15 PM CaRt

(South Korea) 110mins.

9ers Entertainment (int’l). Dir: Boo Ji-Young.

Cast: Yum Jung-Ah, Moon Jeong-Hee, Kim Young-Ae. The employees of a discount retail store band together when workers are summarily laid off.

City to City Scotiabank 6 6:30 PM EdEN

(France) 131mins.

Kinology (int’l). Dir: Mia Hansen-Love.

Cast: Felix De Givry, Pauline Etienne, Vincent Macaigne.

Traces the rise of the French electronic-music boom in the 1990s.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 11 7:00 PM mEEt mE IN moNtENEGRo

(US/Germany/ Norway) 88mins.

Cinetic Media (US).

Dir: Alex Holdridge, Linnea Saasen. Cast: Alex Holdridge, Linnea Saasen, Rupert Friend.

An independent filmmaker is reinvigorated when he accidentally runs into an old flame while in Berlin – but things are not as simple as that first blush of renewed love would lead the couple to believe.

Contemporary World Cinema Scotiabank 10 7:15 PM aN EyE foR bEauty

(Canada) 102mins. Seville International (int’l).

Dir: Denys Arcand.

Cast: Eric Bruneau, Mélanie Thierry, Melanie Merkosky.

A married architect from Quebec embarks on a torrid love affair with a young Toronto woman.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 5 7:30 PM tHE oWNERS

(Kazakhstan) 93mins.

Urban Distribution International (int’l). Dir: Adilkhan Yerzhanov.

Cast: Yerbolat Yerzhan, Aidyn Sakhaman, Aliya Zainalova.

(US) 80mins.

Abramorama (US). Dir: Bernard Shakey, Dean Stockwell, Neil Young.

Cast: Dean Stockwell, Neil Young, Devo, Russ Tamblyn.

The director’s cut version of Neil Young’s mindbending 1982 postapocalyptic musical comedy.

Special Presentations Scotiabank 11 REVIVRE

(South Korea) 89mins.

Finecut Co. Ltd (int’l).

Dir: Im Kwon-taek.

Cast: Ahn Sung-ki, Kim Qyu-ri, Kim Ho-jung.

A middle-aged man who has recently lost his wife to cancer indulges in fantasies about a young woman at his work. masters Scotiabank 10 9:45 PM HEaVEN KNoWS WHat

(US/France) 93mins.

ICM Partners (US).

Dir: Benny Safdie, Joshua Safdie. Cast: Arielle Holmes, Caleb Landry Jones, Buddy Duress.

Blends fiction, formalism and raw documentary as it follows a young heroin addict who finds love on the streets of New York.

Editorial Tel +1 416 599 8433 ext 2512 Editor Wendy Mitchell, wendy.mitchell@screendaily.com, +44 7889 414 856 uS editor Jeremy Kay, jeremykay67@gmail.com, +1 310 922 5908 Chief reporter Andreas Wiseman, andreas.wiseman@ screendaily.com, +44 7713 086 674 Chief critic & reviews editor Mark Adams, mark.adams@screendaily.com, +44 7834 902 528 Group head of production & art Mark Mowbray, mark.mowbray@screendaily.com, +44 7710 124 065 Sid adilman mentorship programme Daniel Horowitz, daniel.horowitz@mail.utoronto.ca Advertising and publishing Commercial director Andrew Dixon, andrew.dixon@ screendaily.com, +44 7595 646 541 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 Group commercial director Alison Pitchford Chief executive, mbI Conor Dignam Printer Big Bark Graphics, 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 Tel: +44 20 3033 4267 Subscription enquiries help@subscribe.screendaily.com +44 1604 828 706

Wavelengths Scotiabank 7 www.screendaily.com

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