The world premiere of Siân Heder’s Being Heumann will open the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) on September 10, positioning the Apple Original Film for an awards season run.
Heder’s feature is her follow-up to the feel-good drama Coda, which Apple took all the way to the best picture Oscar in 2022. It stars Ruth Madeley as accessibility advocate Judy Heumann, who led a weeks-long sit-in at San Francisco’s Federal Building in 1977. Mark Ruffalo also stars.
UK director Susanna White’s legal drama Prima Facie, which Suzie Miller adapted from her own Tony- and Olivier award-winning stage play, has also been confirmed to world premiere.
Cynthia Erivo stars as a barrister who defends men accused of sexual assault and must face an entirely new battle after she is assaulted by a male colleague.
Australia’s Bunya Productions produces with the UK’s Embankment Films in association with Story Works Studios. Embankment is handling sales alongside US representatives UTA Independent Film Group and CAA Media Finance. Anita Verma-Lallian’s Camelback Productions is co-producer and co-financier.
Hur Jin-ho’s The Assassin(s) will also receive its world premiere in Toronto. The South Korean director returns after the world premiere of his drama A Normal Family in 2023. Hive Media Corp produced the political thriller set in 1974 that centres on a detective, a newspaper editor and a rookie reporter in the aftermath of the attempted assassination of the country’s leader Park Chung-lee.
Yoo Hae-jin fron this year’s blockbuster The King’s Warden stars alongside Park Hae-il from Decision To Leave, and Lee Min-ho from Pachinko. KT Studio Genie handles sales.
All three selections are Gala Presentations.
TIFF will announce its full Gala & Special Presentations line-up on July 20, Platform on July 21, Discovery on July 22, and Primetime on July 23. The second wave of takeover announcements centres on Centrepiece, Wavelengths & Classics programmes (August 4), Docs & Short Cuts programmes (August 5), and Midnight Madness (August 6).
For the first time this year, a non-English-language winner of the Platform Award will be eligible for the Academy’s best international feature film category. TIFF will announce its award winners on the last day including the influential People’s Choice Awards, which honoured Chloe Zhao’s Hamnet last year. The eighth edition of the TIFF Tribute Awards gala fundraiser takes place on September 13 at Fairmont Royal York Hotel.
The inaugural TIFF: The Market runs at Metro Toronto Convention Centre from September 10-16, and festival highlights include post-screening Q&As, the In Conversation With… series, and Festival Street outside TIFF Lightbox.
The John Bassett Theatre at Metro Toronto Convention Centre joins the roster of official screening venues alongside TIFF Lightbox, Roy Thomson Hall, the Visa Screening Room at the Princess of Wales Theatre, Cineplex’s Scotiabank Theatre Toronto, Cinema Park, and Royal Alexandra Theatre.
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