Toronto Film Festival Adds International Films, Talks With Angelina Jolie and Javier Bardem

Final TIFF additions bring the festival’s total to 255 feature films from 74 different countries, screening from Sept. 7-17

I Kill Giants
"I Kill Giants"

The 2017 Toronto International Film Festival completed its lineup on Tuesday with about 40 new films, plus conversations with Angelina Jolie, Helen Mirren, Javier Bardem and Gael Garcia Bernal.

The new additions are the last for this year’s festival, which will screen 255 features and 84 shorts, a deliberate cut of about 20 percent over last year’s figures. The films were selected from among 7,299 submissions and come from 74 different countries. More than half the features, 147, will be world premieres.

Most of the new additions were in the festival’s TIFF Discovery program, which consists of international films from first-time and second-time directors. The section will open with the Argentinian film “Tigre” and close with Rungano Nyoni’s Cannes hit “I Am Not a Witch.”

Discovery will also include Australian director Stephen McCallum’s “1%,” a drama set in the world of motorcycle gangs; Anders Walter’s “I Kill Giants,” an adaptation of the graphic novel by Joe Kelly and Ken Niimura; and two films whose titles play off each other, Huang Hsin-Yao’s “The Great Buddha+” and Ian Lagarde’s “All You Can Eat Buddha.”

Overall, the section will consist of 45 films from 35 different countries, some of them previously announced. This is the largest Discovery section ever in Toronto.

Past directors whose early films had been featured in Discovery include Christopher Nolan (“Dunkirk”), Barry Jenkins (“Moonlight”) and Maren Ade (“Toni Erdmann”).

The festival’s In Conversation With … program, which consists of onstage discussions with celebrated artists, will feature Jolie, who will be at TIFF with her Cambodian-language drama “First They Killed My Father”; Bardem, who stars in the festival films “Loving Pablo” and “Mother!”; Mirren, in Toronto with “The Leisure Seeker”; and Garcia Bernal, who appears at TIFF in “If You Saw His Heart.”

The TIFF Speaker Series will consist of five films, including “The Journey” and “Catch the Wind,” followed by conversations with scholars from Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs.

Toronto organizers also announced the films that will be placed in its TIFF Kids and TIFF Next Wave programs. Those films had been announced over the last month, but have now been placed in the Kids and Next Wave sections.

The 2017 Toronto International Film Festival will kick off on Sept. 7 with the world premiere of “Borg/McEnroe” and will close on Sept. 17. The schedule is slated to be announced on Tuesday.

The additions:

TIFF DISCOVERY
“1%,” Stephen McCallum, Australia
“3/4” (“Three Quarters), Ilian Metev, Germany/Bulgaria
“A Fish Out Of Water,” Lai Kuo-An, Taiwan
*”A Worthy Companion,” Carlos Sanchez, Jason Sanchez, Canada
*”All You Can Eat Buddha,” Ian Lagarde, Canada
“Apostasy,” Daniel Kokotajlo, United Kingdom
*”AVA,” Sadaf Foroughi, Iran/Canada/Qatar
*”Black Cop,” Cory Bowles, Canada
“The Butterfly Tree,” Priscilla Cameron, Australia
*”Cardinals,” Grayson Moore, Aidan Shipley, Canada
“Disappearance” (“Napadid Shodan”), Ali Asgari, Iran/Qatar
“Five Fingers For Marseilles” (“Menoana e Mehlano ea Marseilles”), Michael Matthews, South Africa
“The Future Ahead” (“El futuro que viene”), Constanza Novick, Argentina
“The Garden” (“Sommerhäuser”), Sonja Maria Kröner, Germany
“The Great Buddha+,” Huang Hsin-Yao, Taiwan
“The Lady From Holland,” Marleen Jonkman, Netherlands/Germany
“Gutland,” Govinda Van Maele, Luxembourg/Germany/Belgium
“High Fantasy,” Jenna Bass, South Africa
“Human Traces,” Nic Gorman, New Zealand
“I am not a Witch,” Rungano Nyoni, United Kingdom/France (closing film)
“I Kill Giants,” Anders Walter, United Kingdom
“Indian Horse,” Stephen Campanelli, Canada
“Killing Jesus” (“Matar a Jesús”) Laura Mora, Colombia/Argentina
“Kissing Candice,” Aoife McArdle, Ireland
*”Luk’Luk’I,” Wayne Wapeemukwa, Canada
*”Mary Goes Round,” Molly McGlynn, Canada
“Miracle” (“Stebuklas”), Egle Vertelyte, Lithuania/Bulgaria/Poland
“Montana,” Limor Shmila, Israel
*”Never Steady, Never Still,” Kathleen Hepburn, Canada
“Oblivion Verses” (“Los Versos del Olvido”), Alireza Khatami, France/Germany/Netherlands/Chile
“Oh Lucy!,” Atsuko Hirayanagi, USA/Japan
“The Poet and the Boy” (“Si-e-nui Sa-rang”), Kim Yang-hee, South Korea
“Princesita,” Marialy Rivas, Chile/Argentina/Spain
“Ravens,” Jens Assur, Sweden
“Scaffolding” (“Pigumim”) Matan Yair, Israel/Poland
“Shuttle Life,” Tan Seng Kiat, Malaysia
“Simulation,” Abed Abest, Iran
“Soldiers. Story from Ferentari” (“Soldaţii. Poveste din Ferentari”), Ivana Mladenovic, Romania/Serbia/Belgium
“Suleiman Mountain,” Elizaveta Stishova, Kyrgyzstan/Russia
“The Swan” (“Svanurinn”), Ása Helga Hjörleifsdóttir, Iceland (opening film)
“Tigre,” Silvina Schnicer, Ulises Porra Guardiola, Argentina
“Valley of Shadows” (“Skyggenes Dal”), Jonas Matzow Gulbrandsen, Norway
“Village Rockstars,” Rima Das, India
“Waru,” Briar Grace-Smith, Ainsley Gardiner, Renae Maihi, Casey Kaa, Awanui Simich-Pene, Chelsea Cohen, Katie Wolfe, Paula Jones, New Zealand
“Winter Brothers” (“Vinterbrødre”), Hlynur Pálmason, Denmark/Iceland

*previously announced films

TIFF KIDS
“The Big Bad Fox & Other Tales” (“Le Grand Méchant Renard et autres contes”), Benjamin Renner, Patrick Imbert, France
“The Breadwinner,” Nora Twomey, Canada/Ireland/Luxembourg
“I Kill Giants,” Anders Walter, United Kingdom

TIFF NEXT WAVE
“AVA,” Sadaf Foroughi, Iran/Canada/Qatar
“Call Me By Your Name,” Luca Guadagnino, Italy/France
“Dark Germany,” 2 episodes
Showrunners: Baran bo Odar, Jantje Friese
Director: Baran bo Odar
“High Fantasy,” Jenna Bass, South Africa
“Killing Jesus” (“Matar a Jesús”) Laura Mora, Colombia/Argentina
“Lady Bird,” Greta Gerwig, USA
“Scaffolding” (“Pigumim”), Matan Yair, Israel/Poland
“Sheikh Jackson” (“Al Sheikh Jackson”), Amr Salama, Egypt
“The Rider,” Chloé Zhao, USA
“Unicorn Store,” Brie Larson, USA
“What Will People Say” (“Hva vil folk si”), Iram Haq, Norway/Germany/Sweden
“Youth” (“Fāng Huá”), Feng Xiaogang, China

TIFF SPEAKER SERIES
“The Journey,” Mohamed Jabarah Al-daradji
Followed by a conversation with Aisha Ahmad

“The Legend of the Ugly King,” Hüseyin Tabak
Followed by a conversation with Robert Austin

“Catch the Wind” (“Prendre le large”), Gaël Morel
Followed by a conversation with Joseph Wong

“Silas,” Anjali Nayar and Hawa Essuman
Followed by a conversation with Teresa Kramarz

“Scaffolding,” Matan Yair
Followed by a conversation with Janice Gross Stein

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