TORONTO — Montreal director Jean-Marc Vallée’s Demolition, starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Naomi Watts, will have its world premiere at the opening night gala of the 40th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in September.
Organizers announced 15 galas and 34 special presentations on Tuesday.
In Demolition, Gyllenhaal plays an investment banker whose life spirals out of control after the death of his wife. He forms an unlikely relationship with Watts’ character and her son (Judah Lewis). It is scheduled to open in cinemas next April.
Demolition is the third film Gyllenhaal has made with a Canadian director — the actor starred in both Prisoners and Enemy for Dennis Villeneuve.
Villeneuve’s Sicario, which debuted at Cannes in May, will have its North American premiere at TIFF. The film stars Emily Blunt, Benicio Del Toro and Josh Brolin.
TIFF will also host the world premieres of Beeba Boys from Canadian director Deepa Mehta; Hyena Road from Canada’s Paul Gross; and Forsaken from Canadian director Jon Cassar. The latter stars Donald Sutherland, Kiefer Sutherland and Demi Moore.
Other world premieres include The Dressmaker starring Kate Winslet and Liam Hemsworth; Eye in the Sky starring Helen Mirren and Aaron Paul; Freeheld with Julianne Moore and Canada’s Ellen Page; The Man Who Knew Infinity starring Dev Patel and Jeremy Irons; the Lance Armstrong biopic The Program starring Ben Foster and Dustin Hoffman; Septembers of Shiraz with Salma Hayek and Adrien Brody; and Desierto starring Gael Garcia Bernal and Jeffrey Dean Morgan.
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One of the biggest world premieres at TIFF will be Ridley Scott’s The Martian, which boasts a cast that includes Matt Damon, Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, Jeff Daniels, Michael Pena, Kate Mara, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Donald Glover.
Also having its world premiere is the made-in-Montreal gay rights drama Stonewall from director Roland Emmerich. It stars Jeremy Irvine, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Ron Perlman. The movie is due in cinemas on Sept. 25.
Hometown filmmaker Atom Egoyan will be back at TIFF, this time with Remember starring Christopher Plummer and Martin Landau. Eddie Redmayne stars as transgender artist Lili Elbe in The Danish Girl, which has its North American debut at the fest.
Black Mass, starring Johnny Depp, Benedict Cumberbatch, Kevin Bacon, Joel Edgerton, Julianne Nicholson, Corey Stoll and Peter Sarsgaard will have its Canadian premiere at TIFF.
Films starring Tom Hardy, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Idris Elba, Emma Watson, Geoffrey Rush, Nicole Kidman, Sarah Silverman, Maggie Smith, Rachel Weisz, Rhys Ifans, Colin Farrell, Jesse Eisenberg, Ethan Hawke, William H. Macy, Mark Ruffalo, Michael Keaton, Liev Schreiber, Bryan Cranston, Michael Caine, and Jane Fonda were also announced as TIFF presentations.
TIFF runs Sept. 10 to 20.
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