The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has announced today the first round of programming for its 42nd edition, which includes some titles by Latin American filmmakers Guillermo del Toro, Sebastián Lelio, and U.S. Latino director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon.
Chilean filmmaker Lelio will have two titles at this year's Canadian festival. TIFF will host the world premiere of the romantic drama Disobedience (a British production), starring Academy Award winner Rachel Weisz, Academy Award nominee Rachel McAdams and Alessandro Nivola. Based on Naomi Alderman's novel of the same, the film revolves around Ronit, the estranged daughter of a rabbi, who returns from New York to the Orthodox Jewish neighborhood she grew up in North London, following her father’s death. Her arrival causes upheaval in the quiet community.
The other Lelio title at TIFF is the Berlinale selection A Fantastic Woman / Una mujer fantástica, having its Canadian premiere. The film stars Daniela Vega as a transsexual woman coping with her boyfriend’s death. As she tries to maintain a civil relationship with her dead lovers’ relatives, she’s confronted with the restrictive social norms that put her own livelihood in danger.
Also having its Canadian premiere is del Toro's The Shape of Water, an other-worldly fairy tale set against the backdrop of Cold War era America circa 1963. In the hidden high-security government laboratory where she works, lonely Elisa is trapped in a life of silence and isolation. Elisa’s life is changed forever when she and co-worker Zelda discover a secret classified experiment. The film stars Sally Hawkins, Octavia Spencer, Michael Shannon, Richard Jenkins, Michael Stuhlbarg and Doug Jones.
And having its world premiere is The Current War, the second film by Gomez-Rejon (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl). The American biographical historical film starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Shannon, revolves around the race to own light in the late 1800s. Edison and Westinghouse were embroiled in an intense rivalry to invent the defining mode of producing electric power and light.
The 42nd edition of the Toronto International Film Festival will take place September 7-17 in Canada.
