TIFF 2010: First Big List of Titles Announced!

The first big slew of titles has been announced for TIFF 2010 from the Gala, Special Presentations and Master programmes and there are so many films to get excited about but the one that literally made me jump for joy is Never Let Me Go, directed by Mark Romanek (One Hour Photo) and starring Carey Mulligan (An Education), Andrew Garfield (Boy A, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus), Keira Knightly, Sally Hawkins and Charlotte Rampling, and is based on the book by Kazuo Ishiguro (see book review here). I highly recommend reading the book as soon as you can, not only because it's one of the best books I've read in years but also because it's such a great story that the less you know the better and the film trailer show way to much. The writing style of the book takes a bit getting used to, but it's well worth it reading.

Some of the other titles that jumped off the screen at me were In A Better World directed by Susanne Bier (After the Wedding / Efter brylluppet) and starring Ulrich Thomsen (Fear Me Not / Den du frygter), Buried from directed Rodrigo Cortés and starring Ryan Reynolds and L'Amour Fou a documentary on Yves Saint Laurent from director Pierre Thoretton.

The Gala announced have some heavy hitters with Black Swan from director Darren Aronofsky (The Wrestler, The Fountain, Pi) and starring Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel, Mila Kunis, Barbara Hershey & Winona Ryder and Philip Seymour Hoffman's feature film directorial debut Jack Goes Boating starrring John Ortiz, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Amy Ryan & Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Acclaimed directors that are hitting the festival this year include Woody Allen with You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger, Stephen Frears with Tamara Drewe, Michael Winterbottom with The Trip, Alejandro González Iñárritu (Amores Perros, 21 Grams, Babel) with Biutiful and Mike Leigh with Another Year, all a part of the Special Presentations program.

Several actors with multiple titles in the line up including Catherine Deneuve (Potiche, The Big Picture) and Rachelle Lefevre (Casino Jack and Barney's Visions) and Twi-fans will know Barney's Vision as the film that was the source of the schedulling issues and therefore led to her role of Victoria in Twilight and New Moon being recast as Bryce Dallas Howard for Eclipse.

I know we are all getting excited about the titles and want to get into planning mode, and although it really will all come down to the schedule there are a few things to consider when making your choices. Remember that the new premium screenings status is in are in effect this year and may apply to World or North American Premieres and to jog your memory, premium screenings are described as follows: "We have refined our definition of a premium screening around the experience you will have. These are screenings that are World or North American premieres and offer a premium experience including a red carpet event." Another consideration is that several titles have release dates for during the festival including Easy A, The Town, Jack Goes Boating which are currently slated to be released Friday September 17, 2010.

Here is a list of the most recently released titles:

Galas

The Bang Bang Club
Dir: Steven Silver
Cast: Ryan Phillippe, Malin Akerman, Taylor Kitsch, Neels Van Jaarsveld, Frank Rautenbach
Canada/South Africa
World Premiere

Barney's Version
Dir: Richard J. Lewis
Cast: Paul Giamatti, Dustin Hoffman, Rosamund Pike, Minnie Driver, Rachelle Lefevre, Scott Speedman
Canada/Italy
North American Premiere

Black Swan
Dir: Darren Aronofsky (The Wrestler, The Fountain, Pi)
Cast: Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel, Mila Kunis, Barbara Hershey, Winona Ryder
USA
North American Premiere

Casino Jack
Dir: George Hickenlooper
Cast: Kevin Spacey, Barry Pepper, Kelly Preston, Rachelle Lefevre, Jon Lovitz
Canada
World Premiere

The Conspirator
Dir: Robert Redford
Cast: James McAvoy, Robin Wright, Kevin Kline, Evan Rachel Wood, Tom Wilkinson
USA
World Premiere

The Debt
Dir: John Madden
Cast: Helen Mirren, Jessica Chastain, Sam Worthington
USA
North American Premiere

The Housemaid
Dir: Im Sang-Soo
South Korea
North American Premiere

Janie Jones
Dir: David M. Rosenthal
USA
World Premiere

The King's Speech
Dir: Tom Hooper
Cast: Colin Firth, Geoffrey Rush
United Kingdom/Australia
North American Premiere

Little White Lies
Dir: Guillaume Canet (Tell No One)
Cast: François Cluzet, Marion Cotillard, Benoît Magimel, Gilles Lellouche, Jean Dujardin, Laurent Lafitte, Valérie Bonneton, Pascale Arbillot
France
World Premiere

Peep World
Dir: Barry Blaustein
USA
World Premiere

Potiche
Dir: François Ozon,
Cast: Catherine Deneuve, Gerard Depardieu
France
North American Premiere

The Town
Dir: Ben Affleck
Cast: Ben Affleck, Rebecca Hall, Jeremy Renner, Chris Cooper
USA
North American Premiere

The Way
Dir: Emilio Estevez
Cast: Martin Sheen
USA
World Premiere

West is West
Dir: Andy De Emmony
United Kingdom
World Premiere

Special Presentations

Another Year
Dir: Mike Leigh
Cast: Jim Broadbent, Lesley Manville, Ruth Sheen, Peter Wight, Oliver Maltman, David Bradley, Karina Fernandez, Martin Savage
United Kingdom
North American Premiere

Beginners
Dir: Mike Mills (Thumbsucker)
Cast: Christopher Plummer, Ewan McGregor
USA
World Premiere

The Big Picture
Dir: Eric Lartigau
Cast: Romain Duris, Marina Foïs, Niels Arestrup, Catherine Deneuve
France
World Premiere

Biutiful
Dir: Alejandro González Iñárritu (Amores Perros, 21 Grams, Babel)
Cast: Javier Bardem
Spain/Mexico
North American Premiere

Blue Valentine
Dir: Derek Cianfrance
Cast: Michelle Williams, Ryan Gosling
USA
Canadian Premiere

Brighton Rock
Dri: Rowan Joffe
United Kingdom
World Premiere

Buried
Dir: Rodrigo Cortés
Cast: Ryan Reynolds
Spain/USA
Canadian Premiere

Conviction
Dir: Tony Goldwyn
Cast: Hilary Swank, Sam Rockwell
USA
World Premiere

Cirkus Columbia
Dir: Danis Tanovic
Bosnia and Herzegovina
International Premiere

Dhobi Ghat
Dir: Kiran Rao
India
World Premiere

Easy A
Dir: Will Gluck
Cast: Emma Stone
USA
World Premiere

Henry's Crime
Dir: Malcolm Venville
Cast: Keanu Reeves, Vera Farmiga, James Caan, Fisher Stevens, Peter Stormare, Danny Hoch, Bill Duke
USA
World Premiere

The Illusionist
Dir: Sylvain Chomet (The Triplets of Belleville)
United Kingdom
North American Premiere

In A Better World
Dir: Susanne Bier (After the Wedding / Efter brylluppet, Open Hearts)
Cast: Ulrich Thomsen, Mikael Persbrandt
Denmark/Sweden
International Premiere

I Saw the Devil
Dir: Kim Jee-woon (A Tale of Two Sisters, The Good, The Bad, The Weird)
South Korea
North American Premiere

It's Kind of a Funny Story
Dirs: Ryan Fleck, Anna Boden,
Cast: Keir Gilchrist, Emma Roberts, Zach Galifianakis
USA
World Premiere

Jack Goes Boating
Dir: Philip Seymour Hoffman,
Cast: John Ortiz, Daphne Rubin-Vega, Amy Ryan, Philip Seymour Hoffman
USA
International Premiere

L'Amour Fou
Dir: Pierre Thoretton
Documentary on Yves Saint Laurent
France
World Premiere

The Legend of the Fist: The Return of Chen Zhen
Dir: Andrew Lau
Hong Kong
North American Premiere

Lope
Dir: Andrucha Waddington
Brazil/Spain
World Premiere

Love Crime
Dir: Alain Corneau
Cast: Kristin Scott Thomas, Ludivine Sagnier
France
International Premiere

Made in Dagenham
Dir: Nigel Cole
Cast: Sally Hawkins, Bob Hoskins, Miranda Richardson, Geraldine James, Rosamund Pike United Kingdom
World Premiere

Miral
Dir: Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly)
United Kingdom/Israel/France
North American Premiere

Never Let Me Go
Dir: Mark Romanek (One Hour Photo)
Cast: Carey Mulligan, Andrew Garfield, Keira Knightly, Sally Hawkins, Charlotte Rampling
United Kingdom
World Premiere

Norwegian Wood
Dir: Tran Anh Hung
Cast: Kenichi Matsuyama, Rinko Kikuchi, Kiko Mizuhara
Japan
North American Premiere

Outside the Law
Dir: Rachid Bouchareb
France/Algeria/Tunisia/Italy/Belgium
North American Premiere

Rabbit Hole
Dir: John Cameron Mitchell
Cast: David Lindsay-Abaire. Nicole Kidman, Aaron Eckhart
USA
World Premiere

A Screaming Man
Dir: Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
France/Belgium/Chad
North American Premiere

Stone
Dir: John Curran
Cast: Robert De Niro, Edward Norton, Milla Jovovich, Frances Conroy
USA
World Premiere

Submarine
Dir: Richard Ayoade
United Kingdom
World Premiere

That Girl in Yellow Boots
Dir: Anurag Kashyap
India
North American Premiere

Tamara Drewe
Dir: Stephen Frears
United Kingdom
North American Premiere

The Trip
Dir: Michael Winterbottom
Cat: Steve Coogan, Rob Brydon
United Kingdom
World Premiere

Trust
Dir: David Schwimmer
Cast: Clive Owen, Catherine Keener, Tom McCarthy
USA
World Premiere

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger
Dir: Woody Allen
Cast: Antonio Banderas, Josh Brolin, Anthony Hopkins, Gemma Jones, Lucy Punch, Naomi Watts
United Kingdom/USA/Spain
North American Premiere

Masters

Mysteries of Lisbon
Dir: Raul Ruiz
Portugal/France
World Premiere

See Press Release: Celebrated Actors And Filmmakers Take Centre Stage As TIFF Announces Stellar Lineup Of Galas And Special Presentations

The Toronto International Film Festival 2010 runs from September 9 - 19, 2010 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.