2018 Toronto Film Festival

Debuting in Venice and screening at TIFF, Vox Lux is writer-director’s Brady Corbet‘s musical tale of the rise of a pop Diva from accidental 90s child prodigy to bona fide superstar and fame addict. In Venice, the film was a symmetrical counterpoint of sorts to A Star Is Born which preceded it on the Lido by a few days.

Six emerging filmmakers from diverse nationalities are the recipients of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s first Residency Grant, in partnership with Film Independent. From the TIFF’s Filmmaker Lab, the USA’s Georgia Fu and Cynthia Kao, and Georgia’s Rati Tsiteladze were the winners.

The women went pale; the men were interesting.

With one day between them, the two pillars of the international Fall circuit announced similar line-ups, establishing the trends and names that will be on the industry’s minds for the next busy months of prestige releases. Present in the line-up of both Venice and Toronto are Damien Chazelle’s astronaut saga First Man, starring Ryan Gosling (opening and in competition in Venice); Bradley Cooper’s take on the much-filmed A Star is Born, starring Lady Gaga (out of competition in Venice); and Roma, Alfonso Cuarón’s return to Spanish-language filmmaking (a special presentation in Toronto, in competition in Venice).