7/24/2012

'Looper' to Open TIFF 2012

The first set of titles have been announced for the 2012 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival. Looper, by Rian Johnson (Brick) and starring Bruce Willis, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Emily Blunt, will serve as the Opening Night Gala for the fest, which begins September 6.
Looper
The rest of the line-up is quite impressive, and boasts a pretty heavy roster of big names, auteurs, and prestige pics.

Among the other films set for a Gala screening are:
World Premieres:
-Argo: USA, directed by Ben Affleck, starring Ben Affleck, Bryan Cranston, and John Goodman.
-Love, Marilyn: USA, directed by Liz Garbus, documentary
-Free Angela and All Political Prisoners: directed by Shola Lynch's, documentary
-Silver Linings Playbook: USA, directed by David O’Russell, starring Robert De Niro, Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper.
-Midnight’s Children: Canada/UK, directed by Deepa Mehta, starring Satya Babha and Seema Biswas
-Hyde Park on the Hudson: UK, directed by Roger Mitchell, starring Bill Murray, Laura Linney, and Olivia Colman.
-Great Expectations: UK, directed by Mike Newell, starring  Ralph Fiennes
-Inescapable: Canada, dir. Rubba Nadda (Winner of the City of Toronto Award for Best Canadian Film for Cairo Time at TIFF 2009), starring Joshua Jackson, Marisa Tomei, and Alexander Siddig.
-Twice Born: Italy/Spain, dir. Sergio Castellitto, starring Penelope Cruz
-English Vinglish: India, dir Gauri Shinde

North American Premieres:
-Jayne Mansfield's Car: USA/Russia, directed by Billy Bob Thornton, starring Robert Duvall, John Hurt, Kevin Bacon
-The Reluctant Fundamentalist: USA, dir Mira Nair, starring Kate Hudson, Kiefer Sutherland, and Liev Schriber. (it opens Venice)
-Company You Keep: USA, dir Robert Redford, starring Shia LeBeouf
-A Royal Affair: Denmark/Sweden, dir Nikolai Arcel
-Dangerous Liaisons: China/South Korea, dir.  Hur Jin-Ho starring Ziyi Zhang 
-Thermae Romae: Japan, dir Hideki Takeuchi

Special Presentations (After the jump)
World Premieres:
-Cloud Atlas, dir Tom Twyker and Andy and Lana Wachowski, starring Tom Hanks, Halle Berry and Hugh Grant.
-The Perks of Being a Wallflower: USA, dir Stephen Chbosky, starring Emma Roberts and Ezra Miller
-Thanks for Sharing: USA, dir Stuart Blumberg, starring Mark Ruffalo, Tim Robbins, Gwyneth Paltrow
-End of Watch: USA, dir. David Ayer, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Michael Pena.
-Imogen: USA, dir. Robert Puccini and Shari Spring Berman, starring Annette Bening, Matt Damon, Kristen Wiig
- A Late Quartet: USA, dir. Yaron Zilberman, starring Phillip Seymour Hoffman
-Much Ado About Nothing: USA, dir Joss Whedon
-Frances Ha: USA, dir. Noah Baumbach, starring Greta Gerwig
-Time Being: USA, dir. Nenad Cicin-Sain's, starring Wes Bentley, Frank Langella
-Writers: USA, dir Josh Boone, starring Jennifer Connelly, Greg Kinnear, Kristen Bell.
-At Any Price: USA, dir. Ramin Bahrani, starring Dennis Quaid, Zac Efron
-Venus and Serena: USA, Maiken Baird, documentary
-Byzantium: UK, dir Neil Jordan, starring Gemma Atherton and Saoirse Ronan
-Quartet: UK, dir Dustin Hoffman, starring Maggie Smith
-Ginger and Rosa: UK, dir Sally Potter, starring Elle Fanning, Christina Hendricks, Annette Bening
-A Liar's Autobiography: UK, dir Ben Timlett, Bill Jones and Jeff Simpson, documentary.
-Foxfire: France, dir Laurent Cantet, starring Ali Liebert and Michelle Noldan
-In the House: France, dir. Francois Ozon, starring Kristin Scott Thomas
-The Impossible: Spain/USA, dir. J.A. Bayona, starring Naomi Watts, Ewan McGregor
-Hannah Arendt: Germany, dir. Margarethe von Trotta's, starring Janet McTeer
-Mr. Pip: Australia/New Zealand, Dir. Andrew Adamson, starring Hugh Laurie
-Capital: France, dir. Costa-Gavras, starring Gabriel Byrne
-The Attack: Lebanon/France, dir. Ziad Doueiri
-Zaytoun: UK/Israel, dir Eran Riklis, starring Stephen Dorff
-The Deep: Baltasar Kormakur
-Dreams for Sale: Japan, dir. Nishikawa Miwa
-The Last Supper: China, dir. Lu Chuan

International Premieres:
-Anna Karenina: UK, dir. Joe Wright, starring Keira Knightley, Jude Law
-Caught in the Web: Chian, dir Chen Kaige
-Dormant Beauty: ItlayéFrance, dir Marco Bellocchio, starring Isabelle Huppert
-Everybody Has a Plan: Argentina/Spain, dir. Ana Piterbarg, starring Viggo Mortensen
-Kon-Tiki: Denmark/Norway, dir Joachim Roenning and Espen Sandberg

North American Premieres:
-To the Wonder: USA, dir Terrence Malick, starring Ben Affleck, Javier Bardem, Rachel McAdams
 -Reality: Italy, dir. Matteo Garrone
-Rust and Bone: France, dir Jacquest Audiard, starring Marion Cotillard
-The Place Beyond the Pines: USA, dir. Derek Cianfrance, starring Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper

Canadian Premiere:
-The Sessions: USA, dir. Ben Lewis, starring John Hawkes and Helen Hunt

The announcement leaked a bit earlier, following a few early leaks of Argo, Midnight's Children, and Inescapable. More films are set to be announced in the future. The press conference for Canadian films is set for August . Please see http://tiff.net/thefestival for tickets and film info

What films are you excited to see?