TIFF Lineup 2014
Wednesday, July 23, 2014 at 10:00AM 
There's been a snafu with my TIFF credentials so I'm currently in limbo. Therefore today's listing is not an 'OMG Look What Prezzies I Get in September' humble brag, merely today's listing. Which of these 46 films hitting Toronto (not a complete list) are you most excited for? If I do go to Toronto I may well use you readers as film-picking guide.
TIFF Lineup So Far
100s more films to come
(If we've already covered the film somehow, it's linked up)
I demand custody of... your Oscar!
Black and White (Mike Binder) - Kevin Costner reunites with his Upside of Anger helmer for a racial custody battle drama. Octavia Spencer co-stars
Breakup Buddies (Ning Hao) - a "raunchy romantic comedy"
Cake (Daniel Branz) directs Jennifer Aniston and other stars in this drama about a depression support group
Coming Home (Zhang Yimou) - Gong Li doesn't remember her husband, returned from mail, in this drama
Dearest (Peter Ho-sun Chan)
The Dead Lands (Toa Frazer) a New Zealand action epic. You don't hear that every day.
You'll let Viggo act in every language, or he'll shoot
The Drop (Michael R Roskman) - the director of Bullhead returns with Matthias Schoenaerts and Tom Hardy in tow for a crime drama
Eden (Mia Hansen Løve) - Greta Gerwig and Brady Corbet star in a movie about the French electronic music boom?
Far From Men (David Oelhoffen) - Viggo Mortensen and Reda Kateb (Un prophete) star in this Algerian war drama adapted from an Albert Camus story
Foxcatcher (Bennett Miller) - you know about this one. Debuted at Cannes
Force Majeure (Rüben Östlund) a husband and a wife squabble in this vacation provocation. Debuted at Cannes
The French looker Raphaël Personnaz can't see in this still from The Gate
The Gate (Regis Wargnier) wars longlasting repercussions for France and Cambodia from the director of Indochine
Good Kill (Andrew Niccol) Ethan Hawke stars in this military drama about drone strikes
The Good Lie (Philippe Falardeau) Reese Witherspoon helps Sudanese refugees
The Humbling (Barry Levinson) Barry Levinson back from film limbo??? Al Pacino has an affair with Greta Gerwig in this Philip Roth adaptation
Haemoo (Shim Sung-bo) - a tense adventure about smuggling illegal Chinese to Korea
Contemplating the Unbearable Lightness of Being the token animated prestige film
Hector and the Search For Happiness (Peter Chelsom) - Psychiatrist Simon Pegg globe trots in this all star comedy
Hungry Hearts (Saverio Costanzo) a suspense film from Italy about a couple and their newborn
The Judge (David Dobkin) RDJ returns home to find his father (Robert Duvall) accused of murder
The Keeping Room (Daniel Barber) Civil war drama about women trying to survive while attacked by Yankees. With Brit Marling
Kahlil Gibrna's The Prophet (Roger Allers) -this is an animated omnibus film about a girl attempting to free a poet from prison
When I grow up I want to be... John Cusack
A Little Chaos (Alan Rickman) -Kate Winslet tries to design a royal fountain while the king's architect (Matthias Schoenaerts) gets in the way
Love & Mercy (Bill Pohlad) -biopic of Beach Boys Brian Wilson and his struggle with addiction. With Paul Dano and John Cusack as the man in question.
Learning to Drive (Isabel Coixet) - Patricia Clarkson gets driving lessons from Ben Kingsley
The Last Five Years (Richard LaGravenese) - an adaptation of the awesome but very theatrically-bound musical by Jason Robert Brown. With Anna Kendrick
Men Women and Children (Jason Reitman) -all star dramedy. Adapted from the book.
I vote for you every year at the Emmys and you won't do me this one simple favor?
Mr Turner (Mike Leigh) a biopic of the landscape artist with Timothy Spall. Premiered at Cannes
My Old Lady (Israel Horovitz) Kevin Kline wants so sell his Parisian apartment but the tenant Maggie Smith won't leave. Adapted from the stage play.
Maps to the Stars (David Cronenberg) Julianne Moore and her assistant Mia Wasikowska in this satire of Tinseltown. Julianne won Best Actress at Cannes
Miss Julie (Liv Ullman) Jessica Chastain and Colin Farrell star in this adaptation of the Strindberg classic
The New Girlfriend (François Ozon) - a woman discovers that a friend is a closet transvestite
Cold War. Chess Wars.
Pawn Sacrifice (Edward Zwick) - a Bobby Fischer chess drama. Starring Tobey Maguire as Bobby and Liev Schrieber as his Russian rival
Phoenix (Christian Petzold) Nina Hoss stars in this post WWII drama about a concentration camp survivor
Return to Ithaca (Laurent Cantet) the director of The Class returns with a film about friends reminiscing in Havana
The Reach (Jean Baptiste Leonetti) -a thriller with Michael Douglas and Jeremy Irvine in the Mojave desert
Red Amnesia (Wang Xiaoshuai) the director of Beijing Bicycle returns with a thriller about a widow receiving mysterious phone calls
When I said "for better or for worse" I wasn't anticipating "Like Crazy"
Rosewater (Jon Stewart) - Stewart's directorial debut is a political drama about an Iranian Canadian journalist (Gael Garcia Bernal) imprisoned in Iran
Samba (Olivier Nakache & Eric Toledano) the directors of The Intouchables return with another odd couple drama starring Omar Sy and Charlotte Gainsbourg
A Second Chance (Susanne Bier) -Nikolaj Coster-Waldau plays a police offer making a fateful morally complex decision. I love it when Susanne convinces Danish actors to come home. The acting results are usually special.
Time Out of Mind (Oren Moverman) - a father daughter drama about homelessness starring Richard Gere and Jena Malone
The Theory of Everything (James Marsh) - based on Jane Hawking's (Felicity Jones) memoirs about struggling with her astrophysicist husband's (Eddie Redmayne) illness
Is this my ticket back to Oscar?
Top Five (Chris Rock) - Rock directs himself in this comedy about a comic film star who wants to prove he's a serious actor
This is Where I Leave You (Shawn Levy) -an all star comedy about a family reunited at a funeral
While We're Young (Noah Baumbach) -an older couple becomes enamored with a younger couple in this film from the director of Frances Ha and The Squid and the Whale. With Ben Stiller, Naomi Watts, Amanda Seyfried and Adam Driver
Wild Tales (Damian Szifron) - this anecdotal Argentian comedy won many raves at Cannes
Wild (Jean-Marc Vallée) - Vallée's follow up to Dallas Buyers Club also wants Oscars. Following hte death of her mother (Laura Dern) a woman (Reese Witherspoon) hikes for a 1000 miles
TIFF, film festivals
Reader Comments (13)
2015?
THE LAST FIVE YEARS, DUH. I mean, if it isn't first on your list, are you really still Nathaniel, or have you been replaced by an imposter?
Squasher -- goodgod what is wrong with me. Corrected.
Why isn't 99 Homes, the new Ramin Bahrani film, starring Andrew Garfield and Michael Shannon, listed?
The films I'm genuinely excited for are, in order:
Map to the Stars, Pasolini, Force Majeure (Osklund's last film, Play, was one of the highlights of TIFF 2011 for me), 99 Homes, Miss Julie, Phoenix, Wild Tales and Foxcatcher.
I'm also intrigued by:
Coming Home, The Drop, Eden, The Imitation Game, Mr. Turner, The Last Five Years, Ned Rifle, While We're Young, and Wild - though most of those are pretty low priorities as far as festival views).
Gala and Special Presentations are not usually the most exciting sections of the fest for me. Bring on the Masters, Contemporary World Cinema, Vanguard and Wavelengths announcements!
Ostlund, not Osklund. Oy.
You know what? I didn't even know about the existence of this movie, but the last time Kingsley and Clarkson were together in a Coixet movie, they were superb, specially Kingsley.
I had no idea Reitman was even making a new movie. I guess he didn't want Labor Day to be his latest work for that long.
Laura Dern is 9 years older than Reese Witherspoon. I am trying to imagine how that deal happened and all that comes to mind is the Goldie Hawn/Elizabeth Berkley confrontation in First Wives Club.
@Steven....As far as I know, we'll be seeing Laura Dern in flashback.
Roark -- i guess because it didn't have a tag when i was searching by alphabet. I guess TIFF needs to fix that.
Nathaniel, the big news is the premiere of Still Alice. JULIANNE MOORE potential Oscar bait alert!
I have to say, Octavia Spencer has done REALLY well post-Oscar. Maybe because she's always been a supporting player so she can just revel in the new opportunities, whereas someone like Mo'Nique is harder to pin down and Viola is clearly a star Hollywood isn't ready for. I don't know, but I'm pleased to see her doing so well.
A Little Chaos for sure. We all need a little period comedy in our lives, and Rickman seems tailor-made to deliver.