2017 Toronto Film Festival News

Nico, 1988, which opened the  2017 Venice Horizons section and also played in Toronto, is not the first documentary about Christa Paffgen, better known as Nico, the superstar of Andy Warhol’s famous Factory and later lead singer of The Velvet Underground. In 1995, another female director, Susanne Ofteringer, chronicled in Nico Icon the self-destructive lifestyle of the German singer, actress, and model, but it was a too broad documentary that tried to encompass a whole life in the frame of one hour.

Stressors that cause fear are something that, in real life, most of us try to avoid. Humans, after all, instinctively seek out that which offers them comfort.

With the Venice and Telluride film festivals failing to produce a La La Land, a Birdman or a 12 Years A Slave this year, the pressure was on Toronto International Film festival (TIFF) to come up with frontrunners for the Fall season. Festivalgoers and film critics flocked to the multitude of screenings, searching for that elusive picture like gold diggers.

Although he is one Hollywood’s biggest stars, some of Ben Stiller’s greatest achievements are related to his work as a director, since he debuted in 1994 with Reality Bites. He was never personally nominated for the Golden Globes, but his film Tropic Thunder put Robert Downey Jr.

Most films take at least a couple years to go from idea to the big screen, so trying to plot a release of something that aligns almost perfectly with current headlines of the moment is typically a fool’s game. But with the slow-drip revelations of high-level corruption, obstruction, lying and possibly other criminal behavior from another American presidential administration seemingly leasing a long-term parking spot in the news, writer-director Peter Landesman’s new film arrives at a particularly ripe moment, which no doubt accounts for the project’s full, pointed title.

Seven years ago, Carey Mulligan’s talent was recognized with a Golden Globe nomination for her impressive work in Lone Scherfig's An Education. Since then, she has been a regular presence in quality films.

Year after year Jake Gyllenhaal makes the Toronto Film Festival a regular stop in his calendar -that's because he's not an actor that chooses the easy path. He didn't hesitate to lose a lot of weight to portray a human vulture that preys on other people's misery in director Dan Gilroy’s Nightcrawler - which earned him his second Golden Globe nomination- just to gain it back and a few pounds more to play a failing boxer in Antoine Fuqua's Southpaw.

Idris Elba hasn’t been wasting much time this year, packed with performances in  The Dark Tower, Thor: Ragnarok, The Mountain Between Us and Molly’s Game, the latter films both premiering back to back in Toronto. In Molly’s Game, Aaron Sorkin’s directorial debut, he is defense lawyer to Jessica Chastain’s Molly Bloom (the film is the based on the life Olympic skier turned high stakes poker player).

Paolo Virzì’s The Leisure Seeker is among the several films which world premiered at the Venice Film Festival before bowing in North America in Toronto. Virzì is less known than Italian compatriots like Paolo Sorrentino, Matteo Garrone or Nanni Moretti but he has been a solid chronicler of his generation, with personal stories mostly centered around his native Tuscan city of Livorno.