Toronto 2019 preview: Screen’s guide to the Platform titles

Platform - world premieres

Anne At 13,000 Ft (Can-US) - dir. Kazik Radwanski
The lone Canadian director in the Platform line-up, Radwanski returns to Toronto with Anne At 13,000 Ft — following TIFF selections for his previous two features Tower (2012) and How Heavy This Hammer (a 2015 Locarno premiere). An overwhelming skydiving trip for a Toronto daycare worker (TIFF 2015 Rising Star Deragh Campbell) sets off changes in her life, and she soon finds herself pushing the limits of social acceptance.
Contact: Cercamon

The Moneychanger (Uru-Arg-Ger) - dir. Federico Veiroj
After his previous two films, Belmonte and The Apostate, both premiered as part of Toronto’s Contemporary World Cinema section in 2015 and 2018 respectively, and his debut feature Acné played in Toronto in 2008 after premiering in Cannes, Veiroj returns to the festival with a period thriller about a money launderer in 1970s Uruguay. Daniel Hendler, Dolores Fonzi and Luis Machin star. Uruguay’s Oriental Features, Argentina’s Rizoma Films and Germany’s Pandora Film Produktion produced in association with Veiroj’s Cinekdoque and Film Factory Entertainment.
Contact: Film Factory Entertainment 

My Zoe (Ger-Fr) - Dir. Julie Delpy
Starring Richard Armitage and Daniel Brühl alongside Delpy herself, My Zoe tells the story of a single mother struck by grief after the loss of her only daughter. The film sees Delpy’s return to Toronto after her previous film as writer and director, Lolo, received a Gala presentation in 2015. Produced by Metalwork Pictures, Warner Bros, Amusement Park Film, Baby Cow Productions, Electrick Films and Magnolia Mae Films, My Zoe is set to be released in Germany by Warner Bros in November.
Contact: Protagonist Pictures

Proxima (Fr-Ger) - dir. Alice Winocour
In 2015, Winocour prospered at Cannes as both the co-writer of Deniz Gamze Erguven’s Mustang and the writer/director of Disorder (aka Mary­land) — with both films later landing TIFF slots. Now she skips Cannes to premiere Proxima in Toronto. Eva Green and Matt Dillon star in this drama about an astronaut preparing for a one-year mission aboard the International Space Station. France’s Dharamsala produces with Germany’s Pandora Film Produktion.
Contact: Pathé Films

Rocks (UK) - dir. Sarah Gavron
Platform opens this year with the third feature from UK filmmaker Gavron, following Telluride bows for her earlier Bricks (2007) and period political drama Suffragette (2015). This contemporary east London drama follows 15-year-old Rocks who is determined to avoid being taken into care with her younger brother after the disappearance of their mother — turning to her friendship group for help. Fable Pictures’ Faye Ward produces alongside Ameenah Ayub Allen, with backing from the BFI, Film4, Altitude Film Entertainment, and the Wellcome Trust, in association with Head Gear Films, Kreo Films, and Metrol Technology. Theresa Ikoko and Claire Wilson wrote the screenplay.
Contact: Altitude Film Sales

The Sleepwalkers (Arg-Uru) - dir. Paula Hernandez
One of four female filmmakers in Platform’s 2019 line-up of 10 titles, Hernandez makes her Toronto debut with her fourth feature, before it moves on to San Sebastian’s Horizontes Latinos competition. The family drama stars Erica Rivas (Wild Tales, The Summit) as a mother who attends a tense New Year’s family celebration with her adolescent sleepwalking daughter, as suppressed issues rise to the fore. Argentina’s Tarea Fina and Uruguay’s Oriental Features produce.
Contact: Meikincine Entertainment

Sound Of Metal (US) - dir. Darius Marder
A documentary editor who took a joint screenplay credit on Derek Cianfrance’s The Place Beyond The Pines, Marder makes his fiction directing debut following his 2008 documentary Loot. Riz Ahmed stars — alongside Olivia Cooke and Mathieu Amalric — as a professional drummer whose life goes into freefall when he begins to lose his hearing. Caviar’s Sacha Ben Harroche and Bert Hamelinck (who both earned producer credits on Chloé Zhao’sThe Rider) produce.
Contact: Protagonist Pictures

Wet Season (Sing-Tai) - dir. Anthony Chen
Chen returns to Toronto after Ilo Ilo, his 2013 feature debut as writer, director, and producer, played TIFF’s Discovery section after his Camera d’Or win at Cannes. Here, the filmmaker reunites the Ilo Ilo cast of Yeo Yann Yann and Koh Jia Ler to present the struggle of a teacher trying to conceive a child. Chen produces alongside Huang Wenhong and Tan Si En for Giraffe Pictures with backing from Singapore Film Commission and Taipei Film Commission.
Contact: Memento Films International 

Workforce (Mex) - dir. David Zonana
Celebrated Mexican filmmaker Michel Franco (After Lucia, Chronic) produces Zonana’s feature directing debut about a construction worker seeking justice when his widowed sister-in-law is told she will not receive compensation for her husband’s death on a luxury home site. Franco’s Lucia Films produces the neorealist social drama, and Wild Bunch launched sales in Cannes.
Contact: Wild Bunch

Further titles

Martin Eden (It-Fr) - dir. Pietro Marcello
Italian director Marcello has a cult reputation, based on a couple of unclassifiable, dreamlike films that hover between documentary and narrative — most recently 2015 Locarno entry Lost And Beautiful. Updating the 1909 bildungsroman by Jack London about a struggling writer to a present-day setting, Marcello’s potential breakout title is produced by the director’s own Avventurosa with IBC, Rai Cinema, France’s Shellac Sud and Germany’s The Match Factory.
Contact: The Match Factory

Profiles by Nikki Baughan, Ben Dalton, Nancy Epton, Charles Gant, Jeremy Kay, Orlando Parfitt, Lisa Wehrstedt, Silvia Wong 

More Toronto 2019 previews:

• Galas

• Special Presentations

• Discovery