Eastwood, De Niro among stars announced for TIFF

Screen legends Clint Eastwood, Robert Redford and Robert De Niro will join hundreds of luminaries, including billionaire Bill Gates and musician Bruce Springsteen, at next month’s Toronto International Film Festival.

On Tuesday, the festival released its much-anticipated guest list of actors and filmmakers expected to visit the city during the 11-day celebration of cinema.

Eastwood, 80, is returning to TIFF for the first time in 20 years to premiere his supernatural thriller, Hereafter, starring Matt Damon, who is also expected to attend.

The festival also announced its Mavericks lineup. The program features discussions with noted panellists.

Philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder Gates appears in Davis Guggenheim’s documentary Waiting for `Superman’ and serves as a panellist following the screening. In the film, Guggenheim, who directed An Inconvenient Truth, explores the crisis in American education.

The Mavericks program also features conversations with NBA All-Star and MVP Steve Nash, actor and director Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Springsteen. Actor Edward Norton will interview Springsteen at the new TIFF Bell Lightbox before the gala premiere of The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town, a documentary about the creation of his 1978 album.

"This is the biggest Mavericks program that we’ve ever had … and we have some of the most prominent names that we’ve ever had," Cameron Bailey, co-director of TIFF, said.

Other guests include:

Â¥ Natalie Portman, who plays a ballerina in Darren Aronofsky’s film, Black Swan

Â¥ James Franco, who stars in Danny Boyle’s film, 127 Hours, about trapped mountain climber Aron Ralston

Â¥ Ryan Reynolds as a kidnapped American truck driver in the thriller, Buried.

Â¥ Will Ferrell, who stars in Everything Must Go, a dramedy about a man who turns his life into a yard sale after his job and family fall apart.

Â¥ Clive Owen and Catherine Keener, who portray parents of a teenager who has been victimized by a sexual predator she meets online in David Schwimmer’s film, Trust.

Nicole Kidman, Colin Firth, Uma Thurman, Kevin Spacey, Keanu Reeves, Hilary Swank, Bill Murray and Woody Harrelson are also among the many anticipated guests for the festival, which runs Sept. 9 to 19.