TIFF 2019: Full Lineup Revealed!

Joker, Knives Out, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, The Lighthouse and more make up a huge festival lineup!

by RT Staff | July 23, 2019 | Comments

(Photo by Warner Bros)

Toronto International Film Festival just announced the lineup for their 2019 fest and looks like it’s going to be a banner year. Running September 5 – 15, these 10 days kick off awards seasons, with TIFF in recent years ascending as one of the premier tastemakers in gold trophies, while maintaining its cool, upstart cred and internet hype-friendly selections. Here are some notable entries for 2019, followed by the full festival list.

Joker is probably the highest-profile selection, a standalone supervillain story starring Joaquin Phoenix as he tracks the origins of Batman’s greatest foe. Knives Out is Rian Johnson’s post-Last Jedi flick, a contempo murder mystery with a decked-out cast. The Lighthouse is the latest from The Witch‘s Robert Eggers, a black-and-white fantasy/horror film starring Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe and set in the 1890s. Jojo Rabbit is from director Taika Waititi (who also stars as Adolf Hitler), returning to his indie roots before he’ll be back for Thor: Love and Thunder.

Women are staying in the picture with multiple major films. The festival will be closing with Radioactive, Marjane Satrapi’s biopic of Marie Curie starring Rosamund Pike. Marielle Heller follows the Best Actor and Actress-nominated Can You Ever Forgive Me? with promise of another major performance with Tom Hanks in A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, all about the legendary Fred Rogers. Kasi Lemmons is putting out Harriet, starring Cynthia Erivo as Harriet Tubman, who led hundreds of American slaves to freedom on the Underground Railroad. Hustlers was made by Lorene Scafaria, and that one depicts the true story of strippers who ripped off Wall Street brokers, echoing the female-driven heist flick Widows. Meanwhile, the animated Abominable was co-directed by Jill Culton, bringing a little breezy levity to the fest.

Gala

Opening night: Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band, directed by Daniel Roher
Closing night: Radioactive, directed by Marjane Satrapi
A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, directed by Marielle Heller
Abominable, directed by Jill Culton
American Woman, directed by Semi Chellas
Blackbird, directed by Roger Michell
Clemency, directed by Chinonye Chukwu
Ford v Ferrari, directed by James Mangold
Harriet, directed by Kasi Lemmons
Hustlers, directed by Lorene Scafaria
Joker, directed by Todd Phillips
Just Mercy, directed by Destin Daniel Cretton
Ordinary Love, directed by Lisa Barros D’Sa, Glenn Leyburn
The Goldfinch, directed by John Crowley
The Sky Is Pink, directed by Shonali Bose
The Song of Names, directed by François Girard
True History of the Kelly Gang, directed by Justin Kurzel
Western Stars, directed by Thom Zimny, Bruce Springsteen