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Toronto Announces Its 2015 Selection

A key stop in the festival circuit and an important element in shaping the fall season, the Toronto International Film Festival has some of the year’s most anticipated pictures on its 2015 program.

Demolition, directed by Canadian Jean-Marc Vallée (Wild, Dallas Buyers Club) and starring Jake Gyllenhaal, will open this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, on September 10. Toronto’s Fall event is one of the key dates of both the festival circuit and the awards season, thanks to a concentrated presence of high-profile pictures, deemed likely contenders. Biopics and movies exploring different aspects of the struggle for LGBT rights dominate a slate that includes, among others, Ridley Scott’s sci-fi epic The Martian, starring Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain and Kristen Wiig; director Jay Roach’s Trumbo, a biopic of blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, starring Bryan Cranston, Diane Lane and Elle Fanning; Stephen Frears’ Lance Armstrong biopic The Program, with Ben Foster, Lee Pace and Dustin Hoffman; Roland Emmerich gay-rights saga Stonewall, with Ron Perlman and Jonathan Rhys Meyers; Brian Helgeland’s crime drama LEGEND, with Tom Hardy playing both murderous Kray twins; Peter Sollett’s bio-drama Freeheld, with Julianne Moore and Elliot Page as a couple struggling for their rights; Jonas Cuarón Mexican production Desierto, about the plight of undocumented immigrants; Denis Villeneuve’s Sicario, with Emily Blunt and Benicio Del Toro; Cary Fukunaga’s war drama Beasts of No Nation, recently acquired by Netflix as its first original feature film; Tom Hooper’s The Danish Girl, with Eddie Redmayne in full transgender mode as the “girl” in the title; and Scott Hooper’s Black Mass, with an unrecognizable Johnny Depp as gangster Bill “Whitey” Bulger. Several buzz-worthy films from Sundance and Cannes will also be present in Toronto, including Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Lobster, Laszlo Nemes’ Son of SaulDheepan, John Crowley’s Brooklyn, Paolo Sorrentino’s Youth and Pablo Larraín’s The Club. The Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 10 to 20. The Hollywood Foreign Press, as it did in the past, will be attending the festival and covering it extensively. Ana Maria Bahiana Here is the list:

GALAS:

Demolition, director Jean-Marc Vallée (World Premiere) The Dressmaker, director Jocelyn Moorhouse, Australia (World Premiere) Eye in the Sky, director Gavin Hood, United Kingdom (World Premiere) Forsaken, director Jon Cassar, Canada (World Premiere) Freeheld, director Peter Sollett, USA (World Premiere) Hyena Road, director Paul Gross, Canada (World Premiere) LEGEND, director Brian Helgeland, United Kingdom (International Premiere) Lolo, director Julie Delpy, France (World Premiere) The Man Who Knew Infinity, director Matt Brown, United Kingdom (World Premiere) The Martian, director Ridley Scott, USA (World Premiere) The Program director Stephen Frears, United Kingdom (World Premiere) Remember, director Atom Egoyan, Canada (North American Premiere) Septembers of Shiraz, director Wayne Blair, USA (World Premiere) Stonewall, director Roland Emmerich, USA (World Premiere)

SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS:

Anomalisa, directors Charlie Kaufman, Duke Johnson, USA (Canadian Premiere) Beasts of No Nation, director Cary Fukunaga, Ghana (Canadian Premiere) Beeba Boys, director Deepa Mehta, Canada (World Premiere) Black Mass, director Scott Cooper, USA (Canadian Premiere) Brooklyn, director John Crowley, the United Kingdom/Ireland/Canada (Canadian Premiere) The Club, director Pablo Larraín, Chile (North American Premiere) Colonia, director Florian Gallenberger, Germany/Luxembourg/France (World Premiere) The Danish Girl, director Tom Hooper, the United Kingdom/Sweden (North American Premiere) The Daughter, director Simon Stone, Australia (North American Premiere) Desierto, director Jonás Cuarón, Mexico (World Premiere) Dheepan, director Jacques Audiard, France (North American Premiere) Families, director Jean-Paul Rappeneau, France (World Premiere) The Family Fang, director Jason Bateman, USA (World Premiere) Guilty, director Meghna Gulzar, India (World Premiere) I Smile Back, director Adam Salky, USA (Canadian Premiere) The Idol, director Hany Abu-Assad, United Kingdom/Palestine (World Premiere) The Lady in the Van, director Nicolas Hytner, USA (World Premiere) Len and Company, director Tim Godsall, USA (North American Premiere) The Lobster, director Yorgos Lanthimos, Ireland/ United Kingdom/ Greece/ France/ Netherlands (North American Premiere) Louder than Bombs, director Joachim Trier, Norway/France/Denmark (North American Premiere) Maggie’s Plan, director Rebecca Miller, USA (World Premiere) Mountains May Depart, director Jia Zhang-ke, China/France/Japan (North American Premiere) Office, director Johnnie To, China/Hong Kong (International Premiere) Parched, director Leena Yadav, India/USA (World Premiere) Room, director Lenny Abrahamson, Ireland/Canada (Canadian Premiere) Sicario, director Denis Villeneuve, USA (North American Premiere) Son of Saul, director László Nemes, Hungary (Canadian Premiere) Spotlight, director Tom McCarthy, USA (Canadian Premiere) Summertime, director Catherine Corsini, France (North American Premiere) Sunset Song, director Terence Davies, United Kingdom/Luxembourg (World Premiere) Trumbo, director Jay Roach, USA (World Premiere) Un plus une, director Claude Lelouch, France (World Premiere) Victoria, director Sebastian Schipper, Germany (Canadian Premiere) Where To Invade Next, director Michael Moore, USA (World Premiere) Youth, director Paolo Sorrentino, Italy/France/United Kingdom/Switzerland (North American Premiere)