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For most of the past 15 years, I have made the pilgrimage to the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in the hopes of seeing films and having the opportunity to participate in the generation of buzz for films during awards season. TIFF, along with Telluride and Venice, serve as the triumvirate of festivals that kicks off the stampede that ends with the crowning of the best films of the year. These three events jockey for pole position when it comes to offering premieres of the titles that will be major players in that conversation. While they are closely followed by the New York Film Festival and others, like the Middleburg Film Festival, these three occupy prime spots in the calendar, right before Labor Day (both Telluride and Venice start around Labor Day weekend) or immediately after (TIFF always starts the Thursday after Labor Day).
Thanks to the industry trade magazines (Variety and The Hollywood Reporter), insiders have access to reviews from the premieres and, for critics like me who only attend TIFF, are able to use that knowledge to reconfigure our festival schedules to seek out highly touted favorites and the potential sleepers in the mix.
Getting to the films themselves, attendance at any one of these festivals guarantees little more than an opportunity to catch a mere sample of the amazing films that will emerge either during awards season or beyond, since a number of strong titles might not get distribution deals in time for the current season. A great example of this is Sing Sing, an independently produced film starring Colman Domingo that played at TIFF last year. The film attracted attention, but likely due to his Academy Award-nominated turn in Rustin, failed to get over the hump, but is now starting to build steam this year thanks to bring picked up by A24 and getting released in the United States in early August.
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As full as my TIFF '24 slate was, there was what felt like a whole alternative lineup of films that I wasn’t able to see during my eight-day stay. I can only hope to catch them at my next festival stop (Chicago) or with thanks to awards season screeners.
Editor's note: Official trailers are included if available. A warning: Some trailers include language some may find offensive.
The Brutalist – (Venice & TIFF)
Who knew a three-plus hour film about a driven architect and Holocaust survivor would become one of the most talked about and hardest tickets to secure during the festival? With Academy Award winner Adrien Brody (The Pianist) headlining a strong cast featuring Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, and Alessandro Nivola, that should have been an indication of the power and appeal of this film from co-writer and director Brady Corbet (Vox Lux).
Queer – (Venice & TIFF)
I’m not sure when Luca Guadagnino sleeps, but the prolific Academy Award-nominated director (as part of the Best Motion Picture team for Call Me By Your Name) who already had a new release earlier this year (Challengers) is back with this highly sensual biographical drama based on the writings of William Burroughs. It tracks the life of an expatriate named Lee (Daniel Craig) as he wanders among other expats and students in Mexico City. Apparently, this story has been a passion project for Guadagnino for quite some time and he’s found a partner in Craig who is more than willing to push boundaries.
The Room Next Door – (Venice & TIFF)
I find it astonishing that The Room Next Door marks the first feature film Pedro Almodóvar has directed in English. His work is such a seminal part of my movie-going experiences over the years that I feel like we have merely been conversing in the same universal language. With The Room Next Door, he’s joined by Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton for a masterclass. The pair play friends and former co-workers who reconnect years later in an extremely unusual circumstance. The story sounds novelistic, but audiences should count on Almodóvar and his two leads to infuse every frame with an open-hearted sense of life beyond the drama in any given moment.
The Life of Chuck / Anora
These two films are paired together since Mike Flanagan’s adaptation of Stephen King’s novella about three chapters in the life of Charles Krantz won the prestigious audience prize (People’s Choice) at TIFF with Sean Baker’s Anora — the Cinderella story of a sex worker from Brooklyn who marries the son of a Russian oligarch as the second runner-up. (I was able to see the first runner-up Emilia Perez, which was a mesmerizing musical about a Mexican drug lord who decides to transition from male to female.) Talk about a wild and somewhat wacky collection of films, spotlighting the tastes of Toronto’s taste-setting crowds.
Saturday Night – (Telluride & TIFF)
Jason Reitman’s return to form (if you will) captures the manic story behind the 90-minutes leading up to the premiere of Saturday Night Live 50 years ago. At the time, NBC was quite happy to air reruns of the Johnny Carson Tonight Show in that time slot, but a daring crew of misfits aimed to start a revolution that still has legs. With an eclectic cast (Willem Dafoe, JK Simmons, Finn Wolfhard, Matthew Rhys, and newly anointed Emmy winner Lamorne Morris), the buzz lauds the ensemble, but anticipates awards contention for the film, writing, and direction, which means Reitman might be on the way back Up (in the Air).
The films that rank as the best of my fall festival season thus far
Hard Truths (TIFF)
Mike Leigh is back and partnering once again with Marianne Jean-Baptiste (Secrets & Lies back in 1996) for an acerbic look at a woman that can’t seem to handle daily interactions with any degree of grace. Easily one of the most unlikeable characters ever committed to screen, and yet Jean-Baptiste makes her a companion that you just can’t seem to shake. The story itself doesn’t pretend to be profound or universally meaningful, but the lead performance makes the whole affair worth every awkward moment.
Conclave (Telluride & TIFF)
I was able to settle in for two Ralph Fiennes films at TIFF this year and while the first one I caught (The Return) sneakily upended my understanding of Homer’s The Odyssey by focusing only on Odysseus as he seeks to reclaim his throne, kingdom and his place in the lives of his wife Penelope (Julliette Binoche) and son (Charlie Plummer), it was Conclave that will be remembered as the more impactful appearance. Playing the Cardinal in charge of the process to select a new pope, Fiennes masterfully manages a treacherous process full of intrigue and conspiratorial dangers capable of shaking the Church to its core.
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The Order (Venice & TIFF)
Homegrown terrorism is not a new political scenario and director Justin Kurzel (Macbeth, Assassin’s Creed) takes audiences on a tightly wound thrill ride that has the gritty feel of a 1970s epic crime drama. Jude Law stars as a lone wolf FBI agent whose dogged conviction leads him to consider a string of bank robberies and car heists committed across the Pacific Northwest as something more than typical gang banging, pitting him opposite a dangerous white nationalist true believer (Nicholas Hoult) with dreams of revolution in his heart and mind. The action here has an even more stripped-down realism than Heat, but with disturbing contemporary links to domestic terrorist acts like Jan. 6.
The Piano Lesson (Telluride & TIFF)
As the third adaptation (following Fences and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom) of August Wilson’s seismic theatrical explorations of the American experience seen through the lens of Black Americans, The Piano Lesson arrives as if it was a snapshot from the Washington family album. Denzel Washington serves as the executive producer (and designated caretaker of the Wilson adaptation legacy) and is joined here by his son Malcolm who has crafted an astonishing directorial debut. His other son, John David, sinks into the role of Boy Willie, one of two siblings fighting over a cursed family heirloom. In addition, daughter Katia executive produced along with onscreen appearances from wife Pauletta and daughter Olivia. Dealing with the aftermath of slavery and the powerful ghosts of the past that Black folks can’t seem to shake, The Piano Lesson employs music and supernatural elements that wouldn’t seem out of place in a Blumhouse production to transcend all of the individual genre and narrative pieces to make the history on display feel more real than any academic recitation could dare.
