Director Antoine Fuqua’s The Magnificent Seven will have its world premiere at the opening of the Toronto Film Festival, on September 8. Fuqua’s take on the 1960 western directed by John Sturges (which in turn was an American version of Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai, from 1954) stars Cecil B. deMille recipient and Golden Globe winner Denzel Washington, plus Chris Pratt, Golden Globe nominee Ethan Hawke, Peter Sarsgaard and Vicent D’Onofrio. It is the latest high-profile title to be announced as part of the Fall festival circuit that serves as bellwether for awards season.

Other high-visibility films planned for Toronto include Dennis Villeneuve’s alien invasion thriller Arrival, Peter Berg’s oil-platform-disaster drama Deepwater Horizon, Oliver Stone’s biopic Snowden, Tom Ford’s second directorial effort, the psychological drama Nocturnal Animals and Damien Chazelle’s musical valentine to Los Angeles, La La Land. A number of hot Sundance and Cannes titles are also headed to the Great White North: audience favorite Toni Erdmann, directed by Maren Arde; Sundance sensation Birth of a Nation, by Nate Parker; the controversial The Handmaiden (Agassi), by Park Chan-wook and Paul Verhoeven’s Elle.

Some of these pictures will be seen first at the 73rd Venice Film Festival, which opens on August 31. La La Land will be be Venice’s opener, and both Nocturnal Animals and Arrival are scheduled for a Lido jaunt. Other Venice offers will include Golden Globe winner Mel Gibson's war drama Hacksaw Ridge, starring Andrew GrafieldThe Beautiful Days of Aranjuez, Emir Kustirica’ On The Milky Road and Pablo Larrain’s biopic Jackie, starring Golden Globe winner Natalie Portman as Jacqueline Kennedy. Likely to stir the Lido is the out-of-competition preview of two episodes of director Paolo Sorrentino’s TV series The Young Pope, starring Jude Law as conservative, chain-smoking American pontiff Pius XIII.

The Venice Film Festival runs from August 31 to September 10; Toronto runs from September 8 to 18. Another important Fall event, the exclusive Telluride Film Festival, will have its 43^rd edition between September 2 and 5.