A movie awards season that's shaping up to be about diversity will get a fitting kickoff at this year's Toronto International Film Festival.
The early Oscar bellwether will feature a number of stories by and about underrepresented voices. Most notably that means women, with 7 of its 19 galas directed by female filmmakers, a festival record.
Beginning Sept. 8, TIFF will also feature films by and about people of color. This includes the world premieres of "The Magnificent Seven," Antoine's Fuqua's race-themed remake of the John Sturges classic that now stars Denzel Washington (and opens the festival); Mira Nair's Ugandan chess tale "Queen of Katwe" starring Lupita Nyong'o and David Oyelowo; George Nolfi's "Birth of the Dragon," about the origins of Bruce Lee, and "Barry," Vikram Gandhi's look at the formative Columbia University years of Barack Obama.
"The whole industry is talking about inclusion in a way it hasn't in a long time," Toronto artistic programmer Cameron Bailey said in an interview. "We never want to say 'diversity is the goal' because I don't think that's the right way to do it. But we do want to make sure we're paying attention and maybe looking more deeply for stories that will help continue that conversation."
Toronto is one of North America's largest festivals and, with key post-Labor Day positioning, one of its most influential. The arrival of the festival marks the end of the summer tent-pole season and begins Hollywood's all-important fall moviegoing period.
This year, in addition to "Katwe," the female-directed films in the high-profile galas section include the French director Rebecca Zlotowski's "Planetarium" a supernatural picture starring Natalie Portman and Lily-Rose Depp set in 1930's France; Bronwen Hughes' "The Journey Is the Destination," about slain photojournalist Dan Eldon; "The Edge of Seventeen," Kelly Fremon Craig's teen dramedy that will close the fest; and Lone Scherfig's "Their Finest," aptly about a WWII-era female screenwriter (Gemma Arterton) trying to get a movie made.
In the special-presentations category, Susan Johnson's teen-prodigy dramedy "Carrie Pilby" will screen; the film stars Bel Powley as a character who's very much the opposite of her libertine heroine in breakout "The Diary of a Teenage Girl."
Race will also makes its presence felt in a host of period pics, including a world premiere for Rob Reiner's "LBJ," which focuses in part on the 36th president's effort to pass the Civil Rights Act.
And Toronto will bring the reprise of two fact-based race-themed dramas likely to dominate the conversation this coming season: Nate Parker's "The Birth of a Nation," which premiered at Sundance, and Jeff Nichols' "Loving," which debuted at Cannes.
The presence of so many movies about and starring people of color will likely give Toronto and the season that follows a different feel than last year, when the 20 acting nominees did not include any ethnic minorities.
Films about charged modern news events along the lines of last year's Toronto breakout "Spotlight" are also on the docket this year.
They include world premieres of Oliver Stone's much-anticipated "Snowden," starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the controversial NSA contractor; "Denial," Mick Jackson's look at the fight between historian Deborah Lipstadt and Holocaust denier David Irving; and Pete Berg's "Deepwater Horizon," about the corporate intrigue behind the 2010 oil-spill disaster.
As usual at Toronto, splashy celeb-centric pictures will be in play. Among them are "Arrival," "Sicario" director Denis Villeneuve's foray into sci-fi with the help of Amy Adams (it is expected to be at Telluride); Ben Younger's boxing drama "Bleed for This" starring Miles Teller as the embattled former champion Vinny Pazienza (ditto); Tom Ford's sophomore film effort "Nocturnal Animals" starring Adams and Jake Gyllenhaal (a world premiere); and Venice opener "La La Land," in which Damien Chazelle directs a musical with Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone.
And celebrities of a different sort will reunite when Fred Willard, Parker Posey, Bob Balaban and the rest of Christopher Guest's crew will reunite for the filmmaker's "Mascots," a world premiere about competition among a group of sports mascots.
Not on Tuesday's list are buzzy movies from two Oscar-winning directors: Martin Scorsese's Catholic-missionary tale "Silence" and Ang Lee's 3-D U.S. soldier drama "Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk."
Toronto is a key linchpin in Hollywood's annual awards season, with eight of the past nine best picture winners playing the fest. But it has faced increased competition from several festivals, both Telluride preceding it and New York that follows.
Two years ago, organizers enacted a policy in which films that play Telluride won't be eligible for a spot in the first four days of the fest, a policy that remains in place this year. Last year distributors behind what would be two of the bigger seasonal breakouts, "Room" and eventual best pic winner "Spotlight," opted to screen at Telluride and take a post-weekend slot.
Meanwhile, some films, such as Steven Spielberg's "Bridge of Spies" choose to sit out all early fests so as not to peak too soon; "Spies" debuted at New York in October.
"The weekend means a lot but so do the other slots, which you saw from 'Spotlight' and 'Room' last year," TIFF's Bailey said, noting their warm and agenda-defining receptions. "I don't think there's a formula anymore for a movie to go on to award success. We just want to program the best films and bring the public, the media and the industry together in a way I don't think you see at any other festival."
