Chris Rock’s Misty Green; Lauren Miller Rogen’s comedy drama Babies, starring Seth Rogen, Anna Kendrick, Issa Rae, Dan Stevens, Zach Cherry and Kate Berlant; and Courteney Cox’s true crime thriller Evil Genius are set for world premieres at the Toronto Film Festival as part of its high-profile Gala sidebar of possible future Oscar contenders.
Peter Farrelly’s I Play Rocky, where Anthony Ippolito plays Sylvester Stallone in Amazon MGM’s feature about the making of the classic boxing film, will world premiere as part of the Special Presentations sidebar, as will the Annie Murphy and Cooper Raiff-starring romantic comedy All She Wants from directors Scarlette Bermingham and Andrew Rhymer.
Rock is bringing to Roy Thomson Hall Misty Green, based on a script he wrote and directs about a talented actress, played by Rosalind Eleazar,whose career has been stifled by her vices. Also in the sidebar is Wayne Wang’s Diary of a Mad Old Man, starring Gabriel Byrne and Fan Bingbing; and Rebel Wilson’s Girl Group comedy starring Jennifer Coolidge and Nicole Scherzinger.
There’s also first looks as part of the Gala program for John Madden’s Onwards and Sideways, a BBC film where the Laura Linney and Rhys Ifans Star duo confront Parkinson’s diagnoses; Sue Kim’s Always Lalisa, where K-Pop superstar Lisa of Blackpink gets a documentary treatment; and Joss Crowley’s Pretenders.
Other Gala world bows in a lineup filled as much by international auteurs as Hollywood stars include Anton Corbijn’s A Talent For Murder, starring Helen Mirren as author Patricia Highsmith, alongside Alden Ehrenreich and Olivia Cooke; Trudie Styler’s romantic comedy Up Against It, starring Antonio Banderas and Eva Birthistle; Adrian Buitenhuis’ Man in Motion: The Rick Hansen Story; Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo from director Takashi Miike; Paul Andrew Williams’ supernatural drama thriller Faith, starring Erin Doherty and James McAvoy; and Yan Lanouette’s Villeneuve: The Rise of a Legend, a biopic about the latest race car legend Gilles Villeneuve, which will close TIFF’s 2026 edition.
The gala sidebar has an international premiere for Nguyen Phan Quang Binh’s Spirit Guardians: The Last Secret of the First Emperor; and North American premieres for earlier Cannes world bows like Florian Zeller’s Bunker, where Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem play a married couple navigating rough terrain; Call My Agent! director Marc Fitoussi’s All About Corrine, starring Isabelle Huppert, Emmanuelle Bercot and Diane Kruger; Reed Van Dyk’s Iraq war drama Atonement.
The Special Presentation program has booked world bows for Niki Byrne’s coming of age drama The Julia Set, starring Chase Infiniti, Christopher Briney, Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs; Jonathan Schey’s Everybody Wants to F*** Me, the dark comedy thriller starring Taron Egerton; Hans Petter Moland’s Growth of the Soil; Happily Ever After, by director Feng-I Fiona Roan; Jaap van Heusden and Vinnie Karetak’s In Alaska; Michael R. Roskam’s Le Faux Soir; Yeon Sang-ho’s Paradise Lost; Richie Mehta’s Phoolan; Mina Shum’s Whatcha Want; Michael Dowse’s The Stunt Driver; and Edmund Yeo’s The Age of Goodbyes.
There’s also an international premiere for Jesse Eisenberg’s The Debut, which stars Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti; and North American premieres for Cannes premiere titles like Ira Sach’s The Man I Love, an 1980s-set drama starring Rami Malek; Pedro Almodovar’s melodrama Bitter Christmas as the Spanish auteur returns to his cinema roots; Arthur Harari’s The Unknown, starring Léa Seydoux and Niels Schneider; and Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beloved, which features Javier Bardem and Victoria Luengo as an estranged father and daughter.
There’s also North American debuts for Lukas Dhont’s Coward; Gael Garcia Bernal’s Hombre al agua; Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Look Back; Shinya Tsukamoto’s Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People?; Lee Chang-dong’s Possible Love; and Canadian premieres for Everest: The Other Side, by Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, the Oscar-winning team behind Free Solo, and exploring a historic ski descent; Mike Leigh’s Tender Loving Care, toplined by Marion Bailey and Kate O’Flynn; and Josephine, the Sundance award winner written and directed by Beth de Araujo and starring Mason Reeves, Channing Tatum and Gemma Chan.
Toronto earlier announced Oscar-winning CODA filmmaker Sian Heder’s upcoming feature Being Heumann will open its 51st edition, and other world bows like Prima Facie from British director Susanna White and The Assassin(s) from Korean auteur Hur Jin-ho. TIFF also unveiled earlier berths for movies by Rachel Morrison, the Zellner Brothers, Ben Shirinian, Bassam Tariq and Benjamín Naishtat.
The Toronto Film Festival will run from Sept. 10-20. More lineup announcements will be made in the coming weeks.
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