In his first career appearance at TIFF, Steven Spielberg brought the world premiere of The Fabelmans to the festival and if the prolonged standing ovation was anything to go by, not even he and writing partner Tony Kushner could have scripted a better debut.
The line of ticket holders stretched two blocks from Princess Of Wales Theatre and the screening started around 15 minutes behind schedule because the venue had just hosted the world premiere of Netflix’s Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery – which also brought the audience to its feet.
“I’m so happy to be in Toronto,” Spielberg told the audience after the credits to his semi-autobiographical tale ended. Standing beside him on stage were Kushner and the lead cast comprising relative newcomer Gabriel LaBelle (who can next be seen in Showtime’s American Gigolo series adaptation), Michelle Williams, Paul Dano, Seth Rogen and Judd Hirsch.
The Oscar-winning director said he began to discuss the long-gestating idea of The Fabelmans with Kushner while they worked on Lincoln. In the end what accelerated things was the pandemic. Spielberg said the fear of the times compelled him to make the film he “wanted to leave behind” about his family, adding later: “This film is for me a way of bringing my mom and dad back.”
However he was adamant his latest and most overtly personal film not be seen as a swan song and insisted he is not about to retire.
LaBelle plays avid young fictitious filmmaker Sammy Fabelman who comes of age in the 1960s in a home of three sisters, a passionate, complicated mother (Williams) and reserved computer engineer father (Dano).
Universal will release the Amblin Entertainment and Reliance Entertainment film on November 23.
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