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Shirin Neshat with Matt Dillon and cinematographer Ghasem Ebrahimian on the set of Land Of Dreams, co-directed with Shoja Azari, screenplay by Jean-Claude Carrière and Azari Photo: Giulia Theodoli

In the second instalment with Shirin Neshat we discuss the Sam Shepard look for Matt Dillon as Alan, Sheila Vand’s compulsive obsessive traits for Simin, Isabella Rossellini’s love of animals and her peacock screeches as Jane. Anna Gunn’s Betty and Nancy, William Moseley’s Mark, Luis Buñuel films, and the Jean-Claude Carrière narrative of how and why they are collecting dreams also came up. When music producer and 99 Records founder Ed Bahlman joined us, he inquired about Land of Dreams composer Michael Brook, the story about Little Pedro, the paintings in the film, and remarked on a Site Santa Fe Patti Smith concert.

Shirin Neshat with Ed Bahlman and Anne-Katrin Titze: “When we were doing the costume for Matt Dillon,...

Exclusive: Maria Bello has signed with Gersh for representation in all areas. For the past three seasons, Bello has been starring opposite Mark Harmon on CBS’ long-running procedural drama series NCIS. The actress, who joined at the start of Season 15 with a three-year contract, will be leaving the show during the upcoming eighteenth season. She is set to appear in eight episodes to wrap the storyline of her character, Jacqueline “Jack” Sloane.

Like most broadcast series, NCIS had its most recent 17th season cut short by the coronavirus pandemic-related shutdown.

ER alumna Bello co-starred opposite Billy Bob Thornton on the first season of the Amazon drama series Goliath. She also has been active as a producer. Bello executive produced and co-starred in award-winning Ya drama Giant Little Ones, from writer/director Keith Behrman, which premiered at the 2018 Toronto Film Festival.

She also produces alongside Cathy Schulman and Viola Davis and Julius Tennon The Woman King,...

As 2019 draws to a close, the busy cinephile can mostly be found in his or her natural habitat, the theater. However, there are lots of books to catch up with once Oscar season is finished—or, at least, dies down. Let’s start with two killer eBooks.

Read Also: The Film Stage’s 2019 Holiday Gift Gide

Tour of Memories: The Creative Process Behind Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir and The 2019 Canadian Cinema Yearbook (Seventh Row)

One of the finest film-related texts of 2019 was the Seventh Row team’s analysis of Mike Leigh’s Peterloo, and this series of deep cinema exploration continues with Tour of Memories: The Creative Process Behind Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir and The 2019 Canadian Cinema Yearbook. Both eBooks are once again edited by two of the smartest, most readable writers on film art, Orla Smith and Alex Heeney. In Tour of Memories, Smith and Heeney study...

Out to lunch with Giant Little Ones - Darren Mann, Josh Wiggins, Kyle MacLachlan, and Keith Behrman Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

In Keith Behrman's intimate and universal Giant Little Ones, which will open the Canada Now festival in London, Ray Winter (Kyle MacLachlan) is divorced from Carly (Maria Bello), the mother of their son Franky (Josh Wiggins), whose life at high school and the relationship with his childhood pal Ballas (Darren Mann) is growing more and more complicated. Taylor Hickson plays Natasha, Ballas's sister and Kiana Madeira is Jess, his girlfriend. Niamh Wilson as Mouse lends an ear to Franky and is always available to offer advice to the young man who is trying his best to find a way back in. Ray is living an openly gay life with his partner and does his best against all odds to reconnect with his estranged son.

Over lunch with Kyle MacLachlan, Josh Wiggins,...

An inaugural showcase in Mexico of Canadian cinema involving Telefilm Canada, Nueva Era Films and Cinépolis has kicked off in Mexico City.

An inaugural showcase in Mexico of Canadian cinema involving Telefilm Canada, Nueva Era Films and Cinépolis has kicked off in Mexico City.

Over the course of the event seven films are screening in 14 cities and 27 theatres in the Semana de Cine Canadiense (Canadian Film Week). All are Mexican premieres.

The selections are: Cardinals by Grayson Moore and Aidan Shipley; Clara by Akash Sherman; The Fireflies Are Gone (Disparition Des Lucioles) by Sébastien Pilote; Giant Little Ones by Keith Behrman...

Exclusive: Vertical Entertainment has secured the North American distribution rights to director Luke Jaden’s horror film, Boo!, with plans to release the pic in limited theaters April 12 as well as a digital rollout on platforms including iTunes and Amazon and through local cable providers.

Co-written by Jaden and Diane Michelle, the Midland Entertainment and Bardha Productions film stars Aurora Perrinea, Jaden Piner, Jill Marie Jones, Rob Zabrecky, and Charley Palmer Rothwell. The plot centers around a torn suburban family who refuses to heed the warning of an innocent prank left upon them which causes an unknown supernatural force to wreak havoc.

Phil Wurtzel and Ele Bardha produced, while Jaden, Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, Bradley Pilz, Nicolas Chartier, and Jonathan Deckter served as exec producers. Voltage is handling international rights.

The deal was brokered by Peter Jarowey and Josh Spector at Vertical and Jonathan Deckter at Voltage on behalf of the filmmakers.

From writer/director Keith Behrman, the indie drama Giant Little Ones is a heartfelt coming-of-age story that follows Franky Winter (Josh Wiggins), a teenager whose own journey of self-discovery helps him to understand what it means to love without labels. When an unexpected incident occurs between the 17-year-old and his best friend Ballas (Darren Mann), his life is turned upside down in a way that forces him to look at his relationships with his family and friends, and to re-evaluate what matters most. During this 1-on-1 interview with Collider, actor Kyle MacLachlan (…...

Exclusive: Storyboard Entertainment has secured the rights to the book To Offer Compassion: A History of the Clergy Consultation Service on Abortion which was co-authored by Doris Andrea Dirks and Patricia A. Relf who will serve as co-producers on the project. Hired on to adapt the feature project is Mr. Robot writer/producer Kor Adana.

The project will center around the true story of church administrator Arlene Carmen, who in 1967, started the Clergy Consultation Service (Ccs), an underground, illegal abortion counseling program that used a network of 1,500 ministers and rabbis from all over the country to help 500,000 women receive safe abortions.

The book will be released in paperback this summer. Dirks and Relf said they have “spent hours talking about the details of the clergy’s work” and “have been glad to share … resources and original interview tapes.”

“I live in Ohio, where the state legislature has passed a law...

Kyle MacLachlan with Anne-Katrin Titze in Batsheva on his role in Giant Little Ones: "It's the language and I think a perspective that is one that we don't necessarily hear that often." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

Keith Behrman's perceptive Giant Little Ones stars Josh Wiggins as teenager Franky, Kyle MacLachlan and Maria Bello as his parents, Darren Mann as best friend Ballas, plus Taylor Hickson, Peter Outerbridge, Stephanie Moore, Olivia Scriven, Kiana Madeira, Hailey Kittle, and Niamh Wilson.

In David Lynch's Twin Peaks, Kyle MacLachlan eerily transformed from Agent Dale Cooper to Dougie Jones and in last year's highly successful The House With A Clock In Its Walls, starring Cate Blanchett and Jack Black, Kyle morphed into a fantastically eldritch warlock, a role he enjoyed playing very much, he told me when we met. In high school he performed in Cole Porter's Anything Goes, Oscar Hammerstein II and Richard Rodgers' Oklahoma!

One of my favorite things about going to the Toronto International Film Festival is finding the time to see the smaller movies that aren’t on everyone’s must-see lists. While the gamble sometimes turns out to be a dud, the risk is easily justified when you’re able to discover a work as genuinely memorable as Keith Behrman’s Giant Little Ones in the process.

A film about adolescence that isn’t afraid to delve into sexuality’s ever-broadening landscape of experimentation and fluidity with still violent repercussions, this story of two best friends falling prey to the social implications of such puts toxic masculinity in the spotlight. Behrman looks at the herd culture of kids desperate to conform to some archaic ideal before then bullying those who don’t in order to uphold their sense of superiority. And while he focuses mostly upon a boy who’s bearing the brunt of that backlash,...

With the elongated awards season behind us, it’s time to turn our attention to the 2019 cinematic offerings and this month is a doozy. Featuring some of the greatest films we saw on the festival circuit in the last year as well as a few hugely promising new releases, it’s a varied, impressive slate. There’s also one film that I full-heartedly despised and couldn’t bear to mention, but other writers here feel on the other end of the spectrum, so it should at least provoke some heated discussion this month.

Matinees to See: Greta (3/1), The Hole in the Ground (3/1), Woman at War (3/1), The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (3/1), Leaving Neverland (3/3 & 3/4), Triple Frontier (3/6), Gloria Bell (3/8) Two Plains & a Fancy (3/8), The Mustang (3/15), The Eyes of Orson Welles (3/15), The Aftermath (3/15), The Hummingbird Project (3/15), Ramen Shop (3/22), Hotel Mumbai (3/22), The Highwaymen (3/29)

15. Giant Little Ones (Keith Behrman; March 1)

Considering the breadth of films...

Considering the breadth of films that arrive at the Toronto International Film Festival, a few gems can get lost in the shuffle. One to highlight as it opens this spring is Keith Behrman’s Giant Little Ones, which affectingly explores the damage of homophobia in a small town community. Starring Josh Wiggins, Maria Bello, Kyle MacLachlan, Darren Mann, and Taylor Hickson, the first trailer (which includes a few quotes from our outlet) and poster have arrived.

Jared Mobarak said in his review, “Writer/director Keith Behrman knows exactly what he’s doing when introducing a variety of people along the sexuality spectrum in his latest film Giant Little Ones. He’s intentionally flooding his canvas so that we have no choice but to accept them all rather than turn our focus onto just one. There’s no room for token characters anymore, the real-life disparity between heterosexuals and homosexuals closing as each year passes.

"There's nothing you can't tell me." Vertical Entertainment has debuted the first official trailer for an indie teen drama titled Giant Little Ones, which first premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last year and played at a few other international festivals in the fall. The story is about childhood best friends, Franky and Ballas, who are now handsome high school royalty, living the perfect teenage life - until an unexpected event changes everything. This is described as a "heartfelt and intimate coming-of-age story about friendship, self-discovery and the power of love without labels." Starring Josh Wiggins (who you may recognize from indie films including Walking Out), with Maria Bello, Kyle MacLachlan, Taylor Hickson, Darren Mann, Kiana Madeira, Peter Outerbridge, and Niamh Wilson. Looks like a thrilling sexual awakening film. Here's the first official trailer (+ posters) for Keith Behrman's Giant Little Ones, direct from YouTube: Franky Winter (Josh Wiggins...

Other winners include Transnistra, Lucky One, Season

May el-Toukhy’s Danish drama Queen Of Hearts has won Goteborg’s Dragon Award for Best Nordic Film.

The cash award of $110,000 (1m Sek) makes it the world’s most lucrative film prize. The prize is financed by Presenting partner Volvo Car Group alongsie Region Västra Götaland and the City Council of Gothenburg.

The jury included directors Adina Pintilie, Jyoti Mistry and Dominga Sotomayor, author Hanne-Vibeke Holst and Nick James, editor of Sight & Sound.

They said Queen Of Hearts “is a many-layered film that challenges our preconceptions about the moral ad sexual forces...

Goteborg — Danish helmer May el-Toukhy’s second feature, the provocative melodrama “Queen Of Hearts,” about a successful attorney starting an affair with her teenage step-son, came away the biggest winner at Sweden’s 42nd Göteborg Film Festival, scoring the generously endowed Best Nordic Film kudo. The film also received the Audience Award for Best Nordic Film and the star, Trine Dyrholm, nabbed the fest’s new award for Best Acting.

El-Toukhy’s feature earlier screened in the World Cinema competition of the Sundance Film Festival where Variety reviewer Guy Lodge wrote, “Trine Dyrholm is tremendous as an unlikely sexual predator in May el-Toukhy’s chilly, question mark-laden provocation.”

Swedish helmer Anna Eborn captured the Best Nordic Documentary title and a purse of approx. $12,585 for “Transnistra,” a remarkable look at youth, love and friendship in the breakaway republic Transnistra. It marks the second prestigious prize of the weekend for the film,...

The $34,000 prize is aimed at promoting gender equality.

The Goteborg Film Festival will open with Miia Tervo’s Aurora from Finland, about a party animal Finnish woman in Lapland who meets an Iranian asylum seeker, on January 26.

The festival will close with the world premiere of Swedish directors’ Måns Mårlind and Björn Stein’s Swoon on February 4. The period romance is about two young lovers from families who own rival amusement parks.

The festival will screen 376 films from 83 countries.

Full lists of the films in the festival’s five competitions below.

The festival will host Eurimages’ Audentia Award competition for...

Kenneth Branagh’s Shakespeare tale All Is True has been selected to open the Palm Springs Film Festival, which Friday unveiled its full lineup of films for the 30th edition that runs January 3-14. The fest also said that Bruce Bereford’s Ladies in Black will be the closing-night film, with the director and cast members expected to be in attendance.

In all, the fest will screen 223 films from 78 countries, and as usual will screen a slew of Oscar Foreign Language Film entries, this year numbering 43 of the 87 official submissions. Also on the docket: a 30-film retrospective of past fest selections, dubbed the Palm Springs Canon; special focuses on cinema from France, India and Mexico, and Jewish and queer cinema; and the new Ricky Jay Magic of Cinema Award, named for actor and magician Ricky Jay who died last month.

In addition to the film lineup, the opening awards gala...

The Palm Springs International Film Festival has announced its 2019 lineup, and it’s prodigious: 223 films from 78 countries, four of them world premieres. Though well known for celebrating future Oscar nominees (and winners) each year, the festival also boasts a deceptively robust world-cinema slate; among the upcoming offerings are Jia Zhangke’s “Ash Is Purest White,” Sergey Loznitsa’s “Donbass,” Cristina Gallego and Ciro Guerra’s “Birds of Passage,” and Ryūsuke Hamaguchi’s “Asako I & II,” to name just a few.

A number of post-screening Q&As will also be held, including with “Black Klansman” author Ron Stallworth and “Support the Girls” star Regina Hall, in addition to a new section celebrating the best films to screen at Psiff throughout its first three decades.

World premieres:

Buck Run (USA), Director Nick Frangione

Carlos Almaraz Playing With Fire (USA), Directors Elsa Flores Almaraz, Richard Montoya (Schlesinger Documentary Competition)

The Last Color...

The Toronto Film Festival has revealed its annual list of top ten Canadian films. Compiled by Tiff’s team of programmers in collaboration with Canadian critics, the ‘Canada’s Top Ten’ list includes Tiff titles Freaks, which scored a significant deal with Well Go, and Giant Little Ones. Scroll down for the full list.

The feature list was curated by Cameron Bailey, Kerri Craddock, Steve Gravestock, Danis Goulet, Ming-Jenn Lim, and Kathleen Drumm, in collaboration with the Vancouver Film Critics Circle and the Association Québécoise des Critiques de Cinéma.

“Tiff is thrilled to present its uniquely Canadian list that offers a richness of voices, perspectives, and insights into adolescent identity,” said Cameron Bailey, Artistic Director and Co-Head of Tiff. “These films expertly examine heritage, family, the fragility of friendships, and the importance of challenging the current state of our world, and are testament to the fact that our Canadian filmmakers...

Exclusive: Vertical Entertainment has acquired U.S. distribution rights to Giant Little Ones, the coming-of-age drama from Canadian director Keith Behrman that had its world premiere earlier this fall as a Toronto Film Festival special presentation. The plan is for a March 2019 platform theatrical release.

Josh Wiggins, Darren Mann, Taylor Hickson, Maria Bello and Kyle MacLachlan star in the pic, which centers on Franky Winter (Wiggins) and Ballas Kohl (Mann) who have been best friends since childhood. They are high school royalty – handsome, stars of the swim team and popular with girls. They live the perfect teenage life, until the night of Franky’s epic 17th birthday party when Franky and Ballas are involved in an unexpected incident that changes their lives forever.

Allison Black produced, with Patrice Theroux, Bello, Nathan Morlando, Ricky Blumenstein, Jason Potash, Paul Finkel, Hussain Amarshi, Daniel Bekerman, Mark Gingras and John Laing as executive producers.

Canadian director Keith Behrman sat down with TheWrap at the Toronto International Film Festival and discussed the dream that inspired his second feature.

“Five years ago in Canada, there was a series of high school kids committing suicide because they were gay and they were being harassed,” said Behrman. “I had a dream when I heard a voice of a young man talking to his mother in the kitchen and I woke up the next morning and I wrote it down.”

“As time passed, these voices just stayed and I kept writing and pretty soon I realized that there was a film there and it was a worthwhile film,” added Behrman.

Also Read: Dev Patel and 'The Wedding Guest' Co-Star Radhika Apte Feel Fortunate for Diversity Shift in Hollywood (Video)

“Giant Little Ones” stars Kyle MacLachlan and Maria Bello as divorced parents whose teenage son Franky (Josh Wiggins) faces seismic...

Amiable “Giant Little Ones” treads familiar ground in the teenage coming-out narrative subgenre, from the protagonist’s suddenly confused Bff relationship to photogenic swim-team participation and the usual array of seriocomic support types. But Canadian writer-director Keith Behrman’s first big-screen feature since debut “Flower & Garnet” in 2002 is also polished and lively, with just enough fresh angles to avoid feeling like a rote recycling of gay cinema tropes. It has decent potential to attract niche offshore theatrical exposure in addition to digital-format sales.

Floppy-haired Franky (Josh Wiggins) is a popular high-schooler just turning 16, inseparable from longtime best bud Ballas (Darren Mann). Both have girlfriends, though Ballas claims to have done the deed — a lot — with his, while Franky remains a virgin. Landing in the same bed at the end of Franky’s drunken birthday celebration, the two boys “experiment.” The morning after, both are discomfited by their interlude, Franky in...

Writer/director Keith Behrman knows exactly what he’s doing when introducing a variety of people along the sexuality spectrum in his latest film Giant Little Ones. He’s intentionally flooding his canvas so that we have no choice but to accept them all rather than turn our focus onto just one. There’s no room for token characters anymore, the real-life disparity between heterosexuals and homosexuals closing as each year passes. So Behrman looks to represent that change on the big screen by giving his lead (Josh Wiggins’ Franky Winter) a trans friend (Niamh Wilson’s Mouse), a gay father (Kyle MacLachlan’s Ray), and a gay teammate on the swim team (Carson MacCormac’s Michael). He surrounds Franky with non-cisgender characters to love, resent, and accept each for different reasons that transcend compassion.

All the while he clouds this boy’s own sexuality with a girlfriend (Hailey Kittle...

A Canadian teenager’s life is turned radically upside down after an unanticipated sexual encounter in Giant Little Ones, the second feature from director Keith Behrman (Flower & Garnet). Going from being a popular guy to a much-gossiped-about outcast is almost the least of the protagonist’s problems, as 17-year-old Franky has to figure out things about himself as well as his relationships with his best friend since childhood and his father, who recently left the family to go live with a man. This is a confidently shot and beautifully acted story that manages to transcend quite a few — ...

A Canadian teenager’s life is turned radically upside down after an unanticipated sexual encounter in Giant Little Ones, the second feature from director Keith Behrman (Flower & Garnet). Going from being a popular guy to a much-gossiped-about outcast is almost the least of the protagonist’s problems, as 17-year-old Franky has to figure out things about himself as well as his relationships with his best friend since childhood and his father, who recently left the family to go live with a man. This is a confidently shot and beautifully acted story that manages to transcend quite a few — ...

You may be disappointed, even angry, that Kyle MacLachlan didn’t receive an Emmy nomination for his masterful work on “Twin Peaks: The Return,” but the actor himself is handling the snub with all the grace you’d expect of one Special Agent Dale Cooper.

“It’d be disingenuous to say I wasn’t disappointed, but the best thing about it is that the role and the work is out there for people to see,” MacLachlan told IndieWire from Tiff, where his new film “Giant Little Ones” just had its world premiere in the Special Presentations section. “I’m proud of it, so that’s what’s most important, I guess. And there were a lot of nominations for the show in other categories.”

“Giant Little Ones” was MacLachlan’s first project following the completion of “Twin Peaks,” but what he looks for in a role hasn’t changed even...

Bringing his first feature to the Toronto Film Festival in 2002, Keith Behrman is back this year with Giant Little Ones, a film inspired by tragic events in recent Canadian history.

“About five years ago in Canada, kind of in a month, there were about three or four kids who committed suicide because they were being harassed at school for being gay, or being perceived as gay,” Behrman recalled, sitting down today at Deadline’s Toronto Studio. “I was talking to a friend of mine about that and we were both just really concerned about it, and he suggested we make a film about it.”

Behrman’s approach to this film wasn’t a direct one—he didn’t want to take on a film specifically about a person who takes his own life. Emerging from a dream the director had involving “this boy talking to his mother in the kitchen,...

This year’s Canadian feature slate — 25 in all — can be seen in six Tiff sections including Discovery, Tiff Docs and Wavelengths.

Among the selected features are highly anticipated films from fest alumni including Denys Arcand, Barry Avrich and the late Rob Stewart.

Arcand’s “The Fall of the American Empire” stars Alexandre Landry as Pierre-Paul Daoust, who faces a moral dilemma after discovering two bags of money. Sony Classics bought the North American rights to the film during the Cannes Film Festival in May. The film, which will play in Tiff’s special presentations section, is a thematic cousin to Arcand’s Oscar-nominated “The Decline of the American Empire” and the Oscar-winning “The Barbarian Invasions” (2003).

Avrich returns to Tiff’s docu section with “Prosecuting Evil: The Extraordinary World of Ben Ferencz,” a portrait of the United States’ chief prosecutor during the Nuremberg trial. Stewart’s final film, “Sharkwater Extinction” will...

Co-written with Claire Barre, this is Berthaud’s fourth feature after Frankie, Lily Sometimes and Sky.

Celluloid Dreams has released a first image of Belgian actress Cécile de France in the role of a woman who discovers she has shamanistic abilities during a trip to Mongolia in French filmmaker Fabienne Berthaud’s upcoming feature A Bigger World (Un Monde Plus Grand).

The feature is based on the real-life experiences of Corine Sombrun, a French musician and composer who made a similar discovery while on assignment as a sound recordist for the BBC World Service in Mongolia in 2001.

Sombrun’s abilities...

Tunisian horror tale to close Venice Critics’ Week.

Celluloid Dreams has acquired international rights to Tunisian director Abdelhamid Bouchnak’s horror picture Dachra ahead of its world premiere as the closing night film of Venice Critics’ Week, running Aug 29 to Sept 8 this year.

Set against the backdrop of contemporary Tunisia, the feature revolves around female journalism student Yasmin and two male classmates who set out on a university assignment to solve the cold case of Mongia, a woman found mutilated 25 years ago and now imprisoned in an asylum, suspected of witchcraft.

As they pursue their investigation, the three friends stumble...

Coming-of-age drama stars Josh Wiggins and Darren Mann, with Kyle MacLachlan, Maria Bello.

Celluloid Dreams has come on board to handle international territories on the hotly anticipated Canadian coming-of-age drama Giant Little Ones ahead of its world premiere in Toronto next month.

UTA Independent Film Group will be on the ground in Toronto and represents Us rights, while Mongrel Media will distribute in Canada.

Giant Little Ones will screen in Special Presentations and centres on Franky Winter (Josh Wiggins) and Ballas Kohl (Darren Mann), best friends since childhood and loved by all until an unexpected incident on Franky’s 17th birthday changes everything.

The Toronto International Film Festival​ has added another 19 new titles to its 2018 festival lineup, comprised entirely of features directed by Canadian filmmakers. Each year, Tiff highlights the films that hail from its own shores in a standalone announcement, and this year it includes nine new films from female directors, six debut features, a number of titles from fixtures of the Canadian film scene, and the world premiere of three films that showcase some of the country’s Indigenous talent.

The festival will also play home to a special event world premiere and tribute dedicated to the late filmmaker and conservationist Rob Stewart, centered around his final film, “Sharkwater Extinction.” Stewart passed away in 2017 while working on the film, a followup to his 2006 documentary “Sharkwater.”

“We’re especially proud to present such a diverse group of films,” said Steve Gravestock, Tiff Senior Programmer, in an official statement. “Ranging from science fiction to fantasy,...

Beautiful Boy

Piers Handling, CEO and Director of Tiff, and Cameron Bailey, Artistic Director of Tiff, today unveiled the first round of titles premiering in the Gala and Special Presentation programmes of the 43rd Toronto International Film Festival.

Of the 17 Galas and 30 Special Presentations, this first announcement includes 21 World Premieres, 7 International Premieres, 8 North American Premieres and 11 Canadian Premieres. The selection announced today includes 13 features directed by women.

“We have an exceptional selection of films this year that will excite Festival audiences from all walks of life,” said Handling. “Today’s lineup showcases beloved auteurs alongside fresh voices in filmmaking, including numerous female powerhouses. The sweeping range in cinematic storytelling from around the world is a testament to the uniqueness of the films that are being made.”

“Every September we invite the whole film world to Toronto, one of the most diverse, movie-mad cities in the world. I’m thrilled that...

High LifeA selection of films from the 2018 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival has been unveiled, with new films by Claire Denis, Barry Jenkins, Mia Hansen-Løve, Steve McQueen, and many more.Special PRESENTATIONSOpening Night: Mouthpiece (Patricia Rozema)Closing Night: Shoplifters (Hirokazu Kore-eda)Ben is Back (Peter Hedges)Burning (Lee Chang-dong)Can You Ever Forgive Me? (Marielle Heller)Capernaum (Nadine Labaki)Cold War (Paweł Pawlikowski)Colette (Wash Westmoreland)Dogman (Matteo Garrone)The Front Runner (Jason Reitman)Giant Little Ones (Keith Behrman)Girls of the Sun (Eva Husson)Hotel Mumbai (Anthony Maras)The Hummingbird Project (Kim Nguyen)If Beale Street Could Talk (Barry Jenkins)Manto (Nandita Das)Maya (Mia Hansen-Løve)Monsters and Men (Reinaldo Marcus Green)Non-Fiction (Olivier Assayas)The Old Man & The Gun (David Lowery)Papi Chulo (John Butler)Roma (Alfonso Cuarón)The Sisters Brothers (Jacques Audiard)Sunset (László Nemes)Through Black Spruce (Don McKellar)The Wedding Guest (Michael Winterbottom...

Updated with full list, more detail: The Toronto Film Festival has unveiled a rich roster of Gala and Special Presentations screenings for the 2018 edition that runs September 6-16. Among the world premieres are Felix Van Groeningen’s addiction drama Beautiful Boy from Amazon and based on the memoirs of David and Nic Sheff, with Steve Carell and Timothée Chalamet starring.

Also in the world premiere mix are Steve McQueen’s female-fronted thriller Widows from Fox; Peter Hedges’ mother-son story and Julia Roberts-starrer Ben Is Back, which Ld Entertainment, Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions are releasing domestically December 7; Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight follow-up If Beale Street Could Talk from Annapurna; Dan Fogelman’s romantic drama Life Itself; and Claire Denis’ High Life.

A key pillar in the launch of awards season, Toronto is the first of the three early fall shows to reveal — although it kicks off after both Venice and Telluride.

Of the 17 Galas and 30 Special Presentations unveiled today, this first announcement includes 21 world premieres, seven international premieres, eight North American premieres and 11 Canadian premieres.

International premieres, whose billing suggests they could turn up in Telluride, include Jason Reitman’s Gary Hart story The Front Runner starring Hugh Jackman as the 1980s presidential candidate.

Two films already confirmed for Venice, Damien Chazelle’s First Man and Bradley Cooper’s A Star Is Born, will travel from the Lido to Canada.

There are also a handful of titles that bowed in Cannes including Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Shoplifters, Nadine Labaki’s Capernaum, Eva Husson’s Girls of the Sun and Matteo Garrone’s Dogman.

The selection announced today includes 13 features directed by women.

Piers Handling, CEO and director of Tiff, said, “We have an exceptional selection of films this year that will excite festival audiences from all walks of life. Today’s lineup showcases beloved auteurs alongside fresh voices in filmmaking, including numerous female powerhouses. The sweeping range in cinematic storytelling from around the world is a testament to the uniqueness of the films that are being made.”

He added, “Every September we invite the whole film world to Toronto, one of the most diverse, movie-mad cities in the world. I’m thrilled that we’ve been able to put together a lineup of Galas and Special Presentations that reflects Toronto’s spirit of inclusive, passionate engagement with film. We can’t wait to unveil these films for our audience.”

Toronto yesterday canceled its planned press conference for this morning in the wake of Sunday night’s shooting in the city that killed two and wounded at least 13, and said it stands “with our fellow Torontonians in condemnation of this violence.”

Deadline’s Pete Hammond will be back later with analysis.

Here’s the full list of titles announced today:

Galas 2018

Beautiful Boy

Felix van Groeningen

USA

World Premiere

Everybody Knows

Asghar Farhadi

Spain/France/Italy

North American Premiere

First Man

Damien Chazelle

USA

Canadian Premiere

Galveston

Mélanie Laurent

USA

Canadian Premiere

The Hate U Give

George Tillman, Jr

USA

World Premiere

Hidden Man

Jiang Wen

China

International Premiere

High Life

Claire Denis

Germany/France/Poland/United Kingdom

World Premiere

Husband Material

Anurag Kashyap

India

World Premiere

The Kindergarten Teacher

Sara Colangelo

USA

Canadian Premiere

The Land of Steady Habits

Nicole Holofcener

USA

World Premiere

Life Itself

Dan Fogelman

USA

World Premiere

The Public

Emilio Estevez

USA

World Premiere

Red Joan

Sir Trevor Nunn

United Kingdom

World Premiere

Shadow

Zhang Yimou,

China

North American Premiere

A Star is Born

Bradley Cooper

USA

North American Premiere

What They Had

Elizabeth Chomko

USA

International Premiere

Widows

Steve McQueen

United Kingdom/USA

World Premiere

Special Presentations 2018

Mouthpiece (Opening Film)

Patricia Rozema

Canada

World Premiere

Ben Is Back

Peter Hedges

USA

World Premiere

Burning

Lee Chang-dong

South Korea

North American Premiere

Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Marielle Heller

USA

International Premiere

Capernaum

Nadine Labaki

Lebanon

North American Premiere

Cold War

Paweł Pawlikowski

Poland/United Kingdom/France

Canadian Premiere

Colette

Wash Westmoreland

United Kingdom

Canadian Premiere

Dogman

Matteo Garrone

Italy/France

Canadian Premiere

The Front Runner

Jason Reitman

USA

International Premiere

Giant Little Ones

Keith Behrman

Canada

World Premiere

Girls of the Sun

Eva Husson

France

International Premiere

Hotel Mumbai

Anthony Maras

Australia

World Premiere

The Hummingbird Project

Kim Nguyen

Canada

World Premiere

If Beale Street Could Talk

Barry Jenkins

USA

World Premiere

Manto

Nandita Das

India

North American Premiere

Maya

Mia Hansen-Løve

France

World Premiere

Monsters And Men

Reinaldo Marcus Green

USA

Canadian Premiere

Non-Fiction

Olivier Assayas

France

Canadian Premiere

The Old Man & The Gun

David Lowery

USA

International Premiere

Papi Chulo

John Butler

Ireland

World Premiere

Roma

Alfonso Cuarón

Mexico/USA

Canadian Premiere

Shoplifters (Closing Film)

Hirokazu Kore-eda

Japan

Canadian Premiere

The Sisters Brothers

Jacques Audiard

USA/France/Romania/Spain

North American Premiere

Sunset

László Nemes

Hungary/France

North American Premiere

Through Black Spruce

Don McKellar

Canada

World Premiere

The Wedding Guest

Michael Winterbottom

United Kingdom

World Premiere

The Weekend

Stella Meghie

USA

World Premiere...

Tiff artistic director Cameron Bailey says festival “still reeling” from fatal shootings in Toronto.

As the shock of Sunday’s fatal city shootings hung in the air, the Toronto International Film Festival (Tiff) hierarchy cancelled Tuesday’s opening press conference in favour of a more modest platform to unveil a Galas and Special Presentations line-up that includes world premieres for Steve McQueen’s thriller Widows and Claire Denis’ first English-language film, High Life.

Scroll down for full line-up

”Toronto is in the same boat as many other big cities around the world now – that’s become a reality, so we’re dealing with that,...

Mongrel International handles sales outside Us and Canada.

Kyle MacLachlan, star of Showtime’s recently revived Twin Peaks, has joined La and Toronto-based euclid431’s Ya drama Glo, which is currently shooting in and around Sault Ste. Marie in Ontario, Canada.

The star of the recently revived Twin Peaks on Showtime joins previously announced Maria Bello and Josh Wiggins on the Ya drama.

Keith Behrman wrote and directed Glo, also known as The Giant Little Ones, about two popular teenage friends whose lives and families are turned upside-down after an unexpected incident occurs at a 17th birthday party.

Darren Mann, Taylor Hickson, and Peter Outerbridge round out the cast. Production in Ontario is scheduled to continue through August.

Telefilm Canada, Storyboard Entertainment, Omdc, Nohfc, Mongrel Media, CBC, Urban Post, Bell Media’s Harold Greenberg Fund, and Tmn are financing the project.

euclid431 founder Allison Black produces the film, and executive producers are Bello, Patrice Theroux, [link...

Kyle MacLachlan has joined Maria Bello and Josh Wiggins in the new young adult drama Glo from writer/director Keith Behrman (Flower & Garnet). Glo, which is currently shooting in Canada, is also known as The Giant Little Ones and is a drama about the lives of two popular teenage boys and best friends since childhood whose lives and families are surprisingly upended after an unexpected incident occurs on the night of a 17th birthday party. Darren Mann (Let the Right One…...

Twin Peaks star Kyle MacLachlan has boarded G.L.O., joining Maria Bello, Josh Wiggins and Taylor Hickson in the indie high school drama.

Keith Behrman is directing the film now shooting in northern Ontario, which also stars Darren Mann alongside Bello in the lead roles.

G.L.O., also known as The Giant Little Ones and based on a script by Behrman, follows the lives of two popular teenage boys and best friends since childhood, as their lives and families are surprisingly upended after an unexpected incident during a 17th birthday party.

MacLachlan, Bello and Wiggins are represented by UTA, which is handling...

Today, Montreal's Festival du nouveau cinéma (Fnc), which will take place between October 12 to 23. Here's the complete line-up of feature films according to the press release we received.

Opening and closing

The 40th edition of the Fnc kicks off on Wednesday, October 12, with Declaration of War by Valérie Donzelli (France) at Cinéma Impérial (Centre Sandra & Leo Kolber, Salle Lucie & André Chagnon). This critically-acclaimed second feature by Valérie Donzelli (The Queen of Hearts) tells the love story of Roméo and Juliette who are battling to save their sick child. The director and her producer Edouard Weil will be in attendance.

Ten days later, on Saturday, October 22, Monsieur Lazhar (Quebec/Canada) by Philippe Falardeau will close the Festival. Selected to represent Canada at the Oscars for Best Foreign Language Film, Monsieur Lahzar shows the efforts of an Algerian schoolteacher to help his Grade 6 students come to terms with their teacher’s death.

I will soon post a list of films I have already seen that I highly recommend as well as a list of my most anticipated films screening at this year’s Festival du Nouveau Cinema. For now here is the press release from the festival. Make sure you read carefully because there are a ton of great films to check out.

Montreal, Tuesday September 27, 2011– Montreal’s Festival du nouveau cinéma will be celebrating its 40th edition from October 12 to 23. For the past 40 years, Canada’s oldest film festival has offered film buffs a selection of the year’s most exciting new films — a bold lineup with plenty of whimsical and surprising elements, but one that also turns its lens on social realities and the evolution of film and new technologies. Over the course of this year’s 11-day Festival, audiences of all ages can take in features and shorts, fiction films and documentaries,...

Hot Docs has announced 26 documentary features that will be a part of this year’s Special Presentations program, a high-profile collection of world and international premieres, award-winners from the recent international festival circuit, and works by master filmmakers, and featuring some star subjects.

The full selection of films to screen at Hot Docs 2011 will be announced on March 22, including the 2011 opening night film but here are the special presentation titles, ordered alphabetically:

The Advocate For Fagdom D: Angélique Bosio | Germany | 92 min | North American Premiere

Romantic-Queercore-punk-zombie pornographer, gleeful crusher of cliché, righteousness and repressive politics: Viva Bruce Labruce! Scintillating film clips and fabulous interviews with John Waters, Harmony Korine, and Gus Van Sant reveal Toronto’s gift to the world.

Beats, Rhymes & Life: The Travels Of A Tribe Called Quest D: Michael Rapaport | USA | 98 min | International Premiere

Actor Michael Rapaport’s directorial debut hits the road with Q-Tip, Phife, Ali and Jarobi,...

TORONTO -- Helmers Julia Kwan and Stephane Lapointe will share the Claude Jutra Award at the upcoming Genies, Canada's top film honors, the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television said Wednesday.

The tribute to first-time directorial achievement will go to Vancouver-based Kwan for "Eve and the Fire Horse", which earned the special jury prize at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival, and to Quebec filmmaker Lapointe for "La Vie secrete des gens heureux," (The Secret Life of Happy People).

"Eve and the Fire Horse" portrays a young girl who uses her imagination to change her family's fate, while "La Vie secrete des gens heureux" captures the drama of a university student struggling to live up to his parents' dreams for him.

Past winners of the Claude Jutra Award include Robert Lepage, Thom Fitzgerald, Zacharias Kunuk and Keith Behrman.

The 2007 Claude Jutra Award presentation will take place Feb. 13 in Toronto.

VANCOUVER -- Michael Moore's Bowling for Columbine took the Air Canada People's Choice Award at the 21st Vancouver International Film Festival, which closed Friday night. An estimated 150,000 people attended the 16-day festival, a new record. This year, the festival added new screening rooms and featured a more playful "Hollywood/Bollywood" theme than the political themes of recent years. Other winners included Andrew Cheng's Shanghai Panic (Dragons and Tigers Award for Young Cinema), Lee Chang-Dong's Oasis Chief Dan George Humanitarian Award) and Peter Mettler's Gambling, Gods and L.S.D. (National Film Board Best Documentary). Director Jane McGregor won the Women in Film and Video Artistic Merit Award for her films Flowers & Garnet and Bitten. The Federal Express Award for Most Popular Canadian Film was shared by two films, Deborah Day's Expecting and Fix: The Story of an Addicted City, by Nettie Wild. The Telefilm Canada awards for Best Emerging Western Canadian Director were won by Keith Behrman (feature-length) and Michelle Porter (short). The new Citytv Western Canadian Screenwriter Award went to Nicholas Racz for The Burial Society. The awards were presented before a gala screening of Todd Haynes' Far From Heaven, which closed the festival.