Francis Ford Coppola’s ‘Megalopolis,’ Films From Pedro Almodovar and Max Minghella Join Toronto Film Fest

The Toronto Film Festival has made its final lineup announcement for its 2024 edition, to include a North American premiere of Francis Ford Coppola’s dystopian epic Megalopolis and a world bow for Driven director Nick Hamm’s medieval action drama William Tell.

Both movies, including the Cannes-bowing Megalopolis, will get a Gala premiere at Roy Thomson Hall. William Tell, set in 1307 and adapting Friedrich Schiller’s play, stars Danish actor Claes Bang as huntsman Tell, Ben Kingsley as King Albrecht, Rafe Spall as Stauffacher and Jonathan Pryce as Attinghausen.

Toronto, which will feature in all 278 films for its 49th edition, has also booked Special Presentations slots for another 12 titles. That includes world premieres for Daniel Minahan’s period drama On Swift Horses, to star Daisy Edgar-Jones, Jacob Elordi and Will Poulter; John Maggio’s Paul Anka: His Way; Max Minghella’s dark comedy Shell, starring Elisabeth Moss, Kate Hudson and Kaia Gerber; and Marianne Elliott’s The Salt Path, featuring Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs in the true story about a husband and wife hiking rugged British coastline.

There’s also world bows for Hold Your Breath, the feature directorial debut of writer-directors Will Joines and Karrie Crous and starring Sarah Paulson; and Bad Lucky Goat director Samir Oliveros returning to Toronto with The Luckiest Man in America.

Elsewhere, there’s North American premieres for a host of titles to first bow in Venice. That includes Luca Guadagnino’s Queer, starring Daniel Craig; A24’s Halina Reijn’s erotic thriller Babygirl, led by Nicole Kidman, Antonio Banderas and Sophie Wilde and portraying a high-powered CEO putting her career at risk by having an affair with an intern; Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist, top-lined by Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones and Guy Pearce; Pedro Almodóvar’s The Room Next Door, starring Julianne Moore and Tilda Swinton; and Maura Delpero’s Vermiglio.

With its final formal film announcement, Toronto will be banking on a mix of titles for its 2024 edition that debuted at Cannes and Venice as it returns to its early Festival of Festival roots, in addition to high-profile world premieres to screen in front of mainstream audiences, before jostling for position during the upcoming Hollywood awards season.

There’s a North American premiere for Mati Diop’s Dahomey, which earned Berlin’s Golden Bear for best film, and an international premiere for Shemi Zarhin’s Bliss. Toronto is also giving a Canadian premiere to Jason Reitman’s Saturday night, his upcoming movie about the NBC sketch show’s origins to be released by Sony Pictures theatrically on Oct. 11.

Reitman helmed the feature, likely to bow first in Telluride, that focuses on the behind-the-scenes moments leading up to Saturday Night Live‘s premiere broadcast that aired Oct. 11, 1975.

Toronto also booked into the Discovery program a world bow for Karen Chapman’s domestic violence drama Village Keeper, starring Oyin Oladejo, Olunike Adeliyi and Zahra Bentham; and You Are Not Alone, a sci-fi rom com directed by Marie-Hélène Viens and Philippe Lupien. 

TIFF organizers will also be looking to Hollywood stars to return this year after the Los Angeles labor disputes left Toronto’s 2023 edition short of celebrity talent on its red carpets, even as big-name filmmakers still made the journey. That will roll out the red carpet in Toronto for the major studios and independents to get their star-driven movies in front of ordinary film fans, and get seen or redeemed after world premieres at Telluride, Venice or Cannes.

The Toronto Film Festival will open on Sept. 5 with Nutcrackers, David Gordon Green’s comedy starring Ben Stiller, and the 2024 edition will close with The Deb, Rebel Wilson‘s directorial debut and adapted from the original hit musical of the same name in Australia.