Tina Kakadelis
The 2024 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is right around the corner. The festival kicks off on September 5 and runs through September 15. During the festival’s eleven-day run, 278 feature films and 48 short films. Film Obsessive’s News Editor, Tina Kakadelis, will be covering TIFF24 from the streets of Toronto alongside Contributor Isobel Grieve. Ahead of the festival, here are some of Tina Kakadelis’ top picks to watch out for.
The Cannes Catch-Up
As the first big North American fest of the fall festival season, TIFF tends to have quite a few selections that I like to call “The Cannes Catch-Up.” It’s a way for critics and fans alike to catch a glimpse of the Cannes favorites before their awards season theatrical runs. Here are a few flicks that made a big splash on the French Riviera.
Anora
Sean Baker’s latest picked up the Palme d’Or at Cannes this year and seems to be a potential runaway awards favorite. Any buzzy film out of Cannes always creates long Rush lines for TIFF-goers, so make sure to pack some snacks and get there early. Anora follows the whirlwind romance of a stripper (Mikey Madison) and a Russian oligarch (Mark Eydelshteyn). Like much of Baker’s other work, Anora looks to be a humorous, but sincere look at sex work as a means of removing the commonly associated stigma.
The Seed of the Sacred Fig
The Seed of the Sacred Fig picked up a Special Award from the Cannes jury. Writer/director Mohammad Rasoulof was sentenced to eight years in prison by the Iranian government before the film’s premiere at Cannes, but Rasoulof was able to escape and attend the screening. The Seed of the Sacred Fig blends a fictional narrative with real images of the nationwide protests that began in September 2022 to critique the current regime in Iran. Filming was done in private over the course of 70 days and smuggled out to Germany to be edited. Rasoulof’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig will likely not be an easy watch, but one that speaks to the power of film as an art.
Emilia Pérez
Emilia Pérez‘s Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez, Adriana Paz, and Karla Sofía Gascón collectively took home Cannes’ Best Actress Award this year. The film is described as an audacious blend of “pop opera, narco thriller, and gender affirmation drama.” Saldaña plays a lawyer who helps a kingpin secretly transition and create a plan for a new life. Emilia Pérez also features singing, dancing, and rapping scenes to weave an interesting tapestry of gender affirmations.
The Glitzy Stars
It’s no secret that the stars love coming to Toronto. Part of the excitement of the festival is the red carpet on King Street with stars flitting across traffic to take a selfie with fans. The 2024 will have its fair share of big names coming through which is a stark contrast to last year where many films were impacted by the WGA and SAG strikes.
Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band
Bruce Springsteen is a one-of-a-kind musician, but he becomes even more miraculous of a performer when The E Street Band is by his side. When one thinks of a film festival, Springsteen’s name might not be front of mind, but this road documentary will surely show that his appeal transcends the music world. Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band is a behind-the-scenes look at a rock band who still hasn’t missed a beat. Those who have already fallen under the magic spell of Bruce will love the up-close look the documentary will offer and those who haven’t heard the heart-stopping, pants-dropping, house-rocking, earth-quaking, booty-shaking E Street Band will be introduced to a living legend.
Saturday Night
Last year, it seemed like everyone in Hollywood was either in Oppenheimer or Barbie. This year, all the young talent has found their way into director Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night. The film chronicles the lead-up to Saturday Night Live‘s first episode in 1975. Some of the new wave of Hollywood actors that will play now-famous, then-unknown comedians are Rachel Sennott, Gabriel LaBelle, Ella Hunt, Cooper Hoffman, and more.
Nightbitch
Will Nightbitch finally be what secures Amy Adams her first Oscar? She has been nominated six times for an Academy Award, but still has not received that coveted statue. The last time she was nominated was back in 2013 for American Hustle and it’s criminal that she wasn’t even nominated for Arrival in 2017. Now, with Nightbitch and Marielle Heller in the director’s chair, Adams might finally have her moment. We can only hope the film lives up to the expectations set by the critical success of the book of the same name by Rachel Yoder.
The Heavy Hitters
When I’m at TIFF, I rely almost entirely on a website called tiffr. The festival went away with paper schedules a few years ago and while the official festival website has a nice schedule, tiffr allows anyone to shortlist their favorite films and build a tentative schedule based on what they’d like to see. tiffr also keeps a leaderboard of the films that have been shortlisted by the most users. Here are some of the public’s highly anticipated films.
Queer
Luca Guadagnino already sent the world abuzz earlier this year with his love-triangle tennis flick, Challengers. Guadagnino is back with Queer, a historical romance drama that is based on a book of the same name by William S. Burroughs. The film centers on an American (Daniel Craig) falling in love with a younger man (Drew Starkey) in 1940s Mexico City. Queer will premiere a few days before TIFF24 begins at the 81st Venice International Film Festival.
The Life of Chuck
Writer/director Mike Flanagan has made a name for himself in the world of horror. He’s adapted works by Stephen King, Henry James, and Shirley Jackson, but also has a solid track record of creating his own terrifying stories. With The Life of Chuck, Flanagan is adapting a lesser known novella from Stephen King, but it’s not the usual fare of monsters and ghouls. Instead, this film will explore the mundane and the melancholy all while balancing Flanagan’s distinct ability to show the depths of the human condition.
Eden
Ron Howard is one of those directors whose career has touched almost every genre that exists. He returns to the festival with Eden, a Jude Law and Vaness Kirby-led historical thriller that examines the famous Sartre quote: “Hell is other people.” Law and Kirby travel to the previously uninhabited Galapagos Islands for a chance of a life of solitude, but their alone time is quickly ruined by Sydney Sweeney, Ana de Armas, and Daniel Bruehl.
Cloud
Kiyoshi Kurosawa is known for his ambiguous, psychological dramas and Cloud looks to be aligning with those strengths. Cloud is named for the digital storage system that so many of us rely on every single day. Kurosawa is no stranger to looking at the role technology plays in our lives, but it’s been over twenty years since he’s returned to the concept and the digital landscape has significantly changed.
Under the Radar Picks
Just like there are films that tiffr says many people are anticipating, there are others that are debut features or from unknown directors. These are my picks for some films that aren’t cracking the top leaderboard, but sound like they have the potential to be the sleeper hits of the festival.
Don’t Cry, Butterfly
I love drama when it has nothing to do with my personal life. It’s probably why I like movies so much because you get to be nosy without any repercussions. Don’t Cry Butterfly is the feature debut of director Dương Diệu Linh and the film’s inciting incident is a woman catching her husband having an affair on live TV. If that’s not the pinnacle of nosy gossip, I don’t know what is. Don’t Cry Butterfly uses dreamy surrealism to examine the role of women in Vietnamese culture.
Dead Mail
Dead Mail is part of TIFF’s Midnight Madness programming. These are the films that TIFF describes as on “the wild side.” That can mean anything from horror to fantasy to shocking movies you won’t see anywhere else. Dead Mail looks to borrow from a few genres to present a fun, stylish throwback thriller. Silence of the Lambs by way of synth music. When a blood-stained cry for help ends up in the hands of an amateur detective/postman, it’s up to these community investigators to give this unknown person the help they need.
Kill the Jockey
The plot of Kill the Jockey on the festival website is labeled as a “deceptively straightforward” tale of an up-and-coming jockey who ends up on the wrong side of a notorious mobster. Of course, when you throw in dance sequences, a visionary director, and a cat-and-mouse chase, you never know what you’re going to end up with.
For Me, Personally
At the end of the day, moviegoing is based on personal preference and sometimes, even at massive international film festivals, you have to follow your heart and see the movies that you think will bring you joy. These are my picks.
Julie Keeps Quiet
As previously documented on the site, I have been playing tennis for many years. As someone who also loves movies, I always have to see the ones that focus on tennis. They are far and few between, but maybe Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers is turning a new page for the industry. Julie Keeps Quiet comes from Belgium and takes place at a highly competitive tennis academy. Julie’s coach is accused of having an inappropriate relationship with one of the academy’s former players and the effects of these allegations will have a massive ripple effect on Julie and the academy.
M – Son of the Century
I’ll be honest; a biopic of sorts about Benito Mussolini did not instantly grab my attention. However, as soon as I saw it was directed by Joe Wright, I immediately changed my tentative schedule around to accommodate a screening. I grew up on Wright’s version of Pride & Prejudice. I think his take on Anna Karenina is such an inventive use of space. I will start the campaign to #ReleaseTheWrightCut for The Woman in the Window. Cyrano felt like it was tailor made for me. Last year, I caught Widow Clicquot at TIFF which Wright executive produced. Now, I’m ready to see him in the director’s chair again with M – Son of the Century.
Pepe
I love dumb-looking animals and hippos are no exception. Pepe is a bizarre travelogue through the point of view of a hippo. Now, this is not any old hippo that you’d find in a zoo. This is Pepe, a hippopotamus that supposedly belonged to Pablo Escobar. Pepe is a gonzo, imaginative story centered on a beautiful, dumb-looking animal and I can’t wait.
We Live in Time
It’s Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh? Do I have to say anything more?
