TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL, THE FILMS YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT!

15th September 2020

Traditionally, September for example, as is the case, kicks off the long-awaited awards season! In Toronto, at the Toronto International Film Festival – aka TIFF – we start off with the first glimpse at this year’s Oscar contenders for the 2021 Academy Awards.

History tells us that there are no losers in Toronto – but the winners, in particular, are often the ones who end up seriously competing in the Best Picture category. It’s safe to say we are hyped and so freaking ready for it –   Here’s your TIFF 2020 intro to not all, maybe not the best (although, some of them, are more than likely to check that box), but 100% the most interesting selections(!):

Bruised

Actors-turning-directors is, somewhat, an ongoing trend in the industry, so it’s really refreshing to finally see a member of two underrepresented groups – an African American who also happens to be a woman – finally get her shot. Halle Berry is making headlines for her debut, which is also a vehicle for her, follows a disgraced MMA fighter, Jackie aka Justice. After a 6-year-old son she walked out on remerges in her life, Jackie returns to the ring to make up for two of her life’s biggest failures. Side note: Berry’s movie just landed a monster Netflix deal, with the streaming giant purchasing it for close to $20 million dollars.

Concrete Cowboy

Western has, for years, been one of the least diverse genres and – in fact – proved discriminating more than it was necessary. So far, films like Django Unchained (2012) had been exceptions to the rule, but ever since it premiered, we have seen a change. Ricky Staub’s debut feature, based on Greg Neri’s novel called ‘Ghetto Cowboy’, is a one of the most praised TIFF premiere – a father & son drama starring Idris Elba in his most intimate role yet. When a teenage boss is sent to be with his estranged father in Philadelphia, he enters a world of horseback riding among urban cowboys.

 Good Joe Bell

Mark Wahlberg is a man who does one movie for himself and one for the mainstream audience. After this year’s ‘Spencer Confidential’ made for Netflix, the actor returns with an award contender that could, perhaps, land him his third Oscar nomination – in ‘Good Joe Bell’, directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green from a screenplay by Oscar-winning duo behind ‘Brokeback Mountain’: Larry McMurty and Diana Ossana. It is a true story of Joe Bell, who walked across the United States in hopes of raising awareness of bullying following the tragic death of his gay son Jaiden, who committed suicide after becoming a victim of his high school peers.

Nomadland

From the early reviews, it seems like Chloe Zhao (‘Mulan’) has the biggest winner of this year’s TIFF. All the while working on one of Disney’s biggest blockbusters, she had a Academy Award-worthy drama on her hands – one that she not only written and directed, but also edited an co-produced! Starring the awesome Frances McDormand in what – if we are to believe the critics – might be a Tour de France performance of her career, set in the time of great recession, the film follows a woman in her sixties who embarks on a journey through the American West in a van, right after losing everything during this difficult climate.

One Night in Miami

 Regina King’s “One Night in Miami”, based on a play of the same name, is one of TIFF’s hottest premieres. The film tells a fictionalised story of Cassius Clay (later known as Muhammad Ali), Malcolm X, Jim Brown and Sam Cooke who get together at a hotel to celebrate Clay’s heavyweight championship over Sonny Liston in February 1964. First screening in Venice, the film was the first-ever to be selected there while directed by an African-American woman.

Limbo

A British entry from Ben Sharrock that’s set in Scotland and follows four asylum seekers who need to attend cultural awareness classes as part of their application process. This dramedy is a befitting, topical film for current uneasy times and deals with issues that are all-too-prevalent in our society, making it one of the most noteworthy movies at the festival.

Shadow in the Cloud

Ever seen a WWII monster movie before? No? Well, Roseanne Liang’s ‘Shadow in the Cloud’ is your chance at jumping on this wild train to a mad as a hatter story that balances between dread terror of war and creatures that don’t have a place in the realm that we live in. It is a woman-empowering flick that sets a female pilot (Chloe Grace Moretz) on a course to deliver top secret documents while encountering evil beasts on board of her plane. This one is one of the most original features at the festival, playing out like a deranged vision and yet pulling you inside strongly enough to make you feel certifiable.

 Pieces of a Woman

Another one from Netflix’s latest acquisition won at this year’s Venice and is going to be a major player this awards season. The English-language debut of a Hungarian filmmaker, Kornél Mundruczó, has been referred to as a harrowing depiction of a botched-up home birth, which takes us on a dark journey inside every parents’ worst nightmare. Starring the fantastic Vanessa Kirby and Shia LaBeouf, the film is a powerful, frightening and cruel experience that may not be for the faint-hearted, but should not be avoided.

 American Utopia

Spike Lee bring’s David Byrne’s rock concert from his newest album, ‘American Utopia’, recorded and prepped for a theatrical release as a documentary. This is a very political film, with Byrne himself referring to the civil unrest in the country amidst Donald Trump’s difficult tenure as the Commander-in-Chief – particularly since his poor handling of the Covid-19 crisis: “At some point I felt that our country here, and lots of other countries, are in danger of rupturing — of being divided, becoming too antagonistic, not being able to work together. We’re really getting to a difficult place (…) It became my obligation, my duty as a citizen, to engage and to respond. I thought, ‘I can’t just be an entertainer now,’ I need to respond to what’s happening. We can’t ignore this anymore. We can’t just go out and have fun. We have to respond, and we can do that in the show, in a way that’s not preachy and not telling people what to think.”