What Does TIFF’s Lineup Tell Us About The Fall Festivals? That Slates Are Looking Strong Despite The Strikes

Given the chaos wrought by the SAG-AFTRA strike, Toronto has just announced a surprisingly strong first-wave lineup.

In recent days, festival regulars have been apprehensive about the prospects of starry English-language movies making it to Venice, Toronto and Telluride, especially after the blow Venice was dealt last week when Zendaya starrer Challengers pulled out of its opening slot and moved to a spring 2024 release.

Despite the challenges, TIFF‘s Cameron Bailey has managed to pull in an impressive lineup of potential awards contenders and acquisition titles. Among the lineup are Emily Blunt starrer Pain Hustlers, Sony’s Dumb Money, Chris Pine’s directorial debut Poolman, Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers, Anthony Hopkins starrer One Life, Kate Winslet drama Lee, and plenty others. This is in addition to some strong arthouse debuts such as Ladj Ly’s new movie and a handful of Cannes holdovers including Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone Of Interest and Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of a Fall.

While we haven’t seen mass flight from studios or independents, there remains plenty of uncertainty over who will be attending with these movies and it’s not impossible that some movies decide to reroute closer to the festival. Some indie titles may get waivers for their talent to promote them at the festivals. Some writer-directors may attend ‘as directors’, as Scorsese and Wes Anderson did at Cannes. If the strike is still raging, some actors may prefer to stay away whatever dispensation comes down.

The premiere designations of each movie going to TIFF — movies are described as world, international or North American premieres by festivals — give us an indication of what is likely to debut at Venice and Telluride.

Among movies already widely tipped for Venice this year are Michael Mann’s Ferrari, Bradley Cooper’s Maestro, Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla and Yorgos Lanthimos’s Poor Things. There is plenty of speculation flying around but the expectation all along has been for these four heavyweights to debut on the Lido and we’ve not definitively heard to the contrary. We hear that Netflix could potentially also be at the event with David Fincher’s The Killer, which would be another real coup. Venice will confirm its lineup tomorrow.

Already confirmed for Venice is Netflix’s J.A.Bayona survival thriller Society Of The Snow as the closing film. The streamer could cap off a typically robust selection if Pablo Larrain’s El Conde plays at the festival. We hear the Spanish language pic could potentially do Venice and Telluride.

As for attendees, we would expect Michael Mann to be on the Lido with passion project Ferrari but it’s uncertain whether Cooper would be in attendance if the strike is ongoing given that he also stars in his Leonard Bernstein movie. There seems a good chance that Sofia Coppola and Yorgos Lanthimos would want to be in Italy to fly the flag for their movies. Priscilla is an A24 charge so cast could potentially get a waiver. Among features we don’t expect to hear called out by Venice chief Alberto Barbera tomorrow are Ken Branagh’s A Haunting In Venice and Ridley Scott’s Napoleon. We already told you that the highly anticipated Dune sequel won’t be at the festival.

As for what we can glean from TIFF’s premiere designations, other movies that are likely to get their world premieres at Venice (which largely takes place before TIFF and coincides with Telluride) include Bertrand Bonello’s The Beast, starring Lea Seydoux; Jessica Chastain starrer Memory; and Richard Linklater’s Hitman.

It looks like Kitty Green’s Royal Hotel and Apple’s Flora And Son could play both Venice and Telluride.

Movies that are likely to debut at Telluride include Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers; Ethan Hawke’s Wildcat; Annette Bening starrer Nyad; Riz Ahmed pic Fingernails; Netflix’s Rustin; and Éric Toledano and Olivier Nakache’s A Difficult Year.

Ferrari, Maestro, Priscilla and Poor Things could potentially also find their ways to Telluride and/or TIFF. That remains to be seen.

New York Film Festival has already announced that it will have the North American premiere of Priscilla as well as Todd Haynes’ Cannes title May, December.

Among other anticipated movies that have been in the festival conversation at one point or another this year are musical The Color Purple, Steve McQueen’s Blitz, Emerald Fennel’s Saltburn, Jeff Nichols’ The Bikeriders, and Lanthimos’ movie AND.