Screens/Festivals

Gala Presentations

Director Leigh Brooks
World Premiere
Canada | 2023 | 90 mins. | English

Screenings:
Fri., Sept. 8, Roy Thomson Hall, 2 pm.
Sat., Sept. 9, Scotiabank Theatre, 11:30 am
Fri., Sept. 15, Scotiabank Theatre, 12:05 pm

The multiplatinum Canadian rock band, who have sold over 50 million albums worldwide, have always had a sense of humour about the extreme response people have to their music. The recent Canadian Music Hall of Fame inductees — who also have an exhibit at Calgary’s National Music Centre celebrating their 30-plus years as a band, and are currently touring behind their latest album, Get Rollin’ — also have the opening night gala film for TIFF. “Hate to Love: Nickelback doesn’t shy away from the band’s topsy-turvy legacy, but it also finds enthusiastic advocates in the likes of actor Ryan Reynolds and Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan,” the synopsis reads. The band is also playing a free show on Sept. 8 outside Bell TIFf Lightbox from 7–8 p.m.

Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero (Courtesy of TIFF)

Gala Presentations

Directors Carlos López Estrada, Zac Manuel
World Premiere
United States of America | 2023 | 95 mins. | English

Screenings:
Sat., Sept. 9, Roy Thomson Hall, 10 pm
Thurs., Sept. 14, Visa Screening Room at the Princess of Wales Theatre, 9:30 pm
Sat., Sept. 16, Visa Screening Room at the Princess of Wales Theatre, 12 pm
Sun., Sept. 17, Scotiabank Theatre, 7 pm

From the get-go, this boundary-breaking artist, born Montero Lamar Hill, bravely busted through some rigid genres, fusing country and hip hop on his first single, Old Town Road, and he’s still just 24 years old. This documentary explores the phenomenal rise of this Black, gay superstar — or is that gay, Black superstar … or, hopefully, one day, just superstar. “The resultant film features spectacular tour footage and fascinating glimpses of life backstage, interwoven with Montero pre-fame — even then, his vision and ambition were clear,” reads the synopsis.

Special Presentations

Director Alex Gibney
World Premiere
United States of America | 2023 | 209 mins. | English

Screenings:
Sun., Sept. 10, Visa Screening Room at the Princess of Wales Theatre, 11 am
Tue., Sept. 12, Scotiabank Theatre (closed captioning), 3 pm
Sat., Sept. 16, Scotiabank Theatre (closed captioning), 8:55 am
Sun., ept. 17, TIFF Bell Lightbox, 7 pm

The 81-year-old is documented, by Academy Award-winning director Alex Gibney, in the studio making his latest album, Seven Psalms, which also includes a duet with his wife of 30 years, Edie Brickell. The film naturally reflects on his 60-plus years in the business, which began in school when he linked up with Art Garfunkel to become the legendary duo behind such classics as The Sound of Silence and Mrs. Robinson. Simon went on to enormous solo success with his ground-breaking Graceland album, for which he travelled to South Africa to work with musicians like Ladysmith Black Mambazo, ignoring the cultural boycott against the apartheid country.

Special Presentations

Director Atom Egoyan
World Premiere
Canada | 2023 | 107 mins. | English

Screenings:
Sun., Sept. 10, Visa Screening Room at the Princess of Wales Theatre

Before the official presentation at TIFF, on Fri,. Sept. 8 at 7 pm., in partnership with TIFF, the Canadian Opera Company presents an “avant-première” screening of Atom Egoyan’s Seven Veils at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.

“Bequeathed a job remounting a Canadian Opera Company production of Salome after the death of its revered creator, her mentor, a young director (Amanda Seyfried) is forced to re-examine her tangled personal history with the project, the deceased man, and her own family,” the synopsis by Norm Wilner reads, adding, “This project lets Egoyan indulge his long-time love of opera, incorporating this year’s COC production of Salome, which he directed, into the film, and casting stars Kupfer-Radecky and Ambur Braid as fictional performers. And his reunion with Seyfried — who played the eponymous role in his drama Chloe (TIFF ’09) — lets the star demonstrate a range she rarely gets the chance to explore.”

Gala Presentations 

Director John Carney
International Premiere
Ireland, United States of America | 2023 | 94 mins. | English

Screenings:
Tue., Sept. 12, Roy Thomson Hall, 9:30 pm
Wed., Sept. 13, Scotiabank Theatre, 9 pm
Sat., Sept. 16, Scotiabank Theatre, 2:45 pm

Writer-director John Carney has made two music-centred films, Once and Sing Street. The latest features Eve Hewson (Bad Sisters, Behind Her Eyes)  — Bono’s daughter — as a young mom (described as a “hot mess”) using music to bond with her 14-year-old son (played by Orén Kinlan). She gives him a guitar, but it gathers dust, so she picks it up, taking online lessons herself from a musician overseas (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt), who introduces her to the work of Joni Mitchell. Naturally, she falls for him, according to the synopsis.

Dicks: The Musical (Courtesy of TIFF)

Midnight Madness

Director Larry Charles
World Premiere
United States of America | 2023 | 86 mins. | English

Screenings:
Thurs., Sept. 7, Royal Alexandra, 11:59 pm
Fri., Sept. 8 Scotiabank Theatre, 8 pm
Sat., Sept. 16, Visa Screening Room at Princess of Wales, 9:30 pm

The Borat director takes on this wacky musical, based on a musical stage play originally called  F***ing Identical Twins: The Musical by Aaron Jackson and Josh Sharp. According to the description, the plot goes like this: “Two self-obsessed businessmen (Jackson and Sharp) discover they’re long-lost identical twins and come together to plot the reunion of their eccentric divorced parents, in this riotously funny and depraved musical from comedy icon Larry Charles (Seinfeld, Borat) also starring Megan Thee Stallion, Nathan Lane, Megan Mullally, and Bowen Yang as God.”

Director Chris Wilcha
World Premiere
United States of America | 2023 | 92 mins. | English

Screenings:
Sun., Sept. 10, Scotiabank Theatre, 3:45 pm
Wed., Sept. 13, Scotiabank Theatre 9:30 pm

Who hasn’t wanted to save a local record shop? In this documentary, Chris Wilcha, who helped adapt the popular radio show and podcast This American Life to television, tries to save a New Jersey record store. TIFF’s documentary programmer Thom Power describes the film as a “comic yet deeply moving reflection on opportunities lost and gained.”

They Shot the Piano Player (Courtesy of TIFF)

Centrepiece

Directors Fernando Trueba, Javier Mariscal
Canadian Premiere
Spain, France | 2023 | 103 mins. | English, Portuguese, Spanish

Screenings:
Fri., Sept. 8, TIFF Bell Lightbox, 3 pm
Sat., Sept. 9, Scotiabank, 4:30 pm

In this animated film, a New York music journalist, voiced by Jeff Goldblum, embarks on a mission to find out the truth behind disappearance of Brazilian piano virtuoso, Francisco Tenório Júnior. The 34-year-old went missing in Argentina in 1976 while on tour and is presumed dead. It was thought he was rounded up by a dictatorship, thrown in jail and then executed, but the mystery has not been solved.

Special Presentations

Director Chloé Robichaud
World Premiere
Canada | 2023 | 118m | French

Screenings:
Sat., Sept. 9, TIFF Bell Lightbox, 6 pm
Sun., Sept. 10, Scotiabank Theatre, 8 pm

Montreal-based writer-director Chloé Robichaud helms this story, described as “an emotionally complex, visually assured drama about a young orchestra conductor who finds herself at a crossroads in her life and career.”  Emma (played by Sophie Desmarais) is on her way to fame in the Quebec classical music scene. Her controlling father, Patrick (played by Sylvain Marcel) is her agent. Enter a cellist and single mother Naëlle (played Nour Belkhiria) “offering her the chance to experience an entirely different type of family dynamic.”

Centrepiece

Director Janis Pugh
International Premiere
United Kingdom | 2023 | 101 mins. | English

Screenings:
Fri., Sept. 8, Scotiabank Theatre, 3:15 pm
Sun., Sept. 10, Scotiabank Theatre, 6:45 pm
Sat., Sept. 16, Scotiabank Theatre, 8: 45 pm

Music seems to play a part somehow, as the TIFF intro calls it “a film of love, loss, music and female friendship,” set in a chicken-processing plant in Wales. Writes TIFF’s Jane Schoettle: “Helen (Louise Brealey), a reserved, gentle woman, is slowly collapsing under the weight of her inexplicable life. She lives with her torpid husband and his much younger girlfriend (and their new colicky baby), working nights at the local chicken processing plant. There are two things that keep her hanging on: music, and her dear elderly mother-in-law Gwen (Sorcha Cusack), whom she cares for.”