Col Needham's Top 20 Toronto Picks for 2021
I am the Founder and CEO of IMDb and these are the 20 movies which I am most looking forward to seeing at the Toronto International Film Festival. The list is in alphabetical order as it hard enough to pick only 20, let alone rank them! Unfortunately due to the pandemic I am unable to travel to Toronto so I will be watching virtually from home again.
The scope of the festival and the quality makes it difficult to select 20 and these are all taken from my longer TIFF Interest List which contains nearly 100 movies.
The scope of the festival and the quality makes it difficult to select 20 and these are all taken from my longer TIFF Interest List which contains nearly 100 movies.
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20 titles
- DirectorClio BarnardStarsAdeel AkhtarClaire RushbrookMacy ShackletonAli and Ava, both lonely for different reasons, meet and sparks fly. Over a lunar month a deep connection begins to grow, despite the legacy of Ava's past relationship, and Ali's emotional turmoil at the breakdown of his marriage.
- DirectorKenneth BranaghStarsJude HillLewis McAskieCaitríona BalfeA young boy and his working-class Belfast family experience the tumultuous late 1960s.
- DirectorMia Hansen-LøveStarsVicky KriepsTim RothMia WasikowskaA couple retreat to the island that inspired Ingmar Bergman to write screenplays for their upcoming films when the lines between reality and fiction start to blur.
- DirectorStephen ChboskyStarsBen PlattJulianne MooreKaitlyn DeverFilm adaptation of the Tony and Grammy Award-winning musical about Evan Hansen, a high-school senior with social anxiety disorder, and his journey of self-discovery and acceptance after a classmate's suicide.
- DirectorDenis VilleneuveStarsTimothée ChalametRebecca FergusonZendayaA noble family becomes embroiled in a war for control over the galaxy's most valuable asset while its heir becomes troubled by visions of a dark future.
- DirectorWill SharpeStarsBenedict CumberbatchClaire FoyAndrea RiseboroughEnglish artist Louis Wain rises to prominence at the end of the 19th century for his surreal cat paintings that seemed to reflect his declining sanity.
- DirectorMichael ShowalterStarsJessica ChastainAndrew GarfieldCherry JonesAn intimate look at the extraordinary rise, fall and redemption of televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker.
- DirectorMichael PearceStarsRiz AhmedOctavia SpencerLucian-River ChauhanTwo brothers embark on a journey with their father, who is trying to protect them from an alien threat.
- DirectorJohn Michael McDonaghStarsAissam TaamartOmar GhazaouiDavid McSavageA fatal accident disrupts the lives of Western visitors to a lavish party in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco, and will ultimately lead to a reckoning in the desert.
- DirectorAntoine FuquaStarsJake GyllenhaalRiley KeoughPeter SarsgaardA demoted police officer assigned to a call dispatch desk is conflicted when he receives an emergency phone call from a kidnapped woman.
- DirectorHany Abu-AssadStarsMaisa Abd ElhadiAli SulimanManal AwadA woman whose visit to a hair salon turns into a nightmare when she is blackmailed by its owner.
- DirectorEdgar WrightStarsThomasin McKenzieAnya Taylor-JoyMatt SmithAspiring fashion designer Eloise is mysteriously able to return to 1960s London, where she encounters dazzling wannabe singer Sandie. But the glamour is not as it seems, and the dreams of the past crack and splinter into something darker.
- DirectorSébastien PiloteStarsSara MontpetitSébastien RicardHélène FlorentMaria, teen of a pioneer family in Québec, is coming of age and a few young men show interest. The «coureur des bois» is her prefered, then the city man, and the neighbour establishing his own farm. Events will help her decide her future.
- DirectorEva HussonStarsOdessa YoungJosh O'ConnorColin FirthJane Fairchild is a maidservant who, between the wars, works for the wealthy Niven family. On Mothering Sunday, Jane is given the day off to spend as she likes. To her surprise, Paul Sheringham, the son of wealthy neighbours, invites her to spend the day with him at his family's house while his parents are out having lunch with the Nivens and the Hobdays.
- DirectorCamille GriffinStarsKeira KnightleyMatthew GoodeRoman Griffin DavisNell, Simon, and their 3 sons are ready to welcome friends and family for what promises to be a perfect Christmas gathering. Perfect except for one thing: everyone is going to die.
- DirectorMichel FrancoStarsTim RothAlbertine Kotting McMillanSamuel BottomleyNeil and Alice Bennett are the core of a wealthy family on vacation in Mexico until a distant emergency cuts their trip short. When one relative disrupts the family's tight-knit order, simmering tensions rise to the fore.
- DirectorPablo LarraínStarsKristen StewartTimothy SpallSally HawkinsDiana Spencer, struggling with mental-health problems during her Christmas holidays with the Royal Family at their Sandringham estate in Norfolk, England, decides to end her decade-long marriage to Prince Charles.
- DirectorJulia DucournauStarsVincent LindonAgathe RousselleGarance MarillierFollowing a series of unexplained crimes, a father is reunited with the son who has been missing for ten years.
- DirectorMaureen FazendeiroMiguel GomesStarsCrista AlfaiateCarloto CottaJoão Nunes MonteiroFollows Crista, Carloto and João who are building an airy greenhouse for butterflies in the garden and share household routines, but they are not the only ones.
- DirectorJoachim TrierStarsRenate ReinsveAnders Danielsen LieHerbert NordrumThe chronicles of four years in the life of Julie, a young woman who navigates the troubled waters of her love life and struggles to find her career path, leading her to take a realistic look at who she really is.