Toronto International Film Festival Lineup: ‘Beautiful Boy’, ‘First Man’, ‘Widows’ Among World Premieres

The Toronto International Film Festival has unveiled its roster of Gala and Special Presentations screenings for the 2018 edition which runs September 6-16. Among the world premieres are Felix Van Groeningen’s Beautiful Boy starring Steve Carell and Timothée Chalamet; Steve McQueen’s Widows and Peter Hedges’ Julia Roberts-starrer Ben Is Back and Damien Chazelle’s space epic First Man.

A key pillar in the launch of awards season, it’s the first of the three early fall shows to reveal — although it kicks off after both Venice and Telluride (Venice announces tomorrow and Telluride does not officially announce its lineup until the Friday before its Labor Day weekend run). As ever, there’s a lot to sink one’s teeth into here, and we’re updating the list below.

The full list of titles announced today is being updated below:

GALAS 2018:

Beautiful Boy, Felix van Groeningen, USA World Premiere

Everybody Knows, Asghar Farhadi, Spain/France/Italy North American Premiere

First Man, Damien Chazelle, USA Canadian Premiere

Galveston, Mélanie Laurent, USA Canadian Premiere

The Hate U Give, George Tillman, Jr., USA World Premiere

Hidden Man, Jiang Wen, China International Premiere

High Life Claire Denis, Germany/France/Poland/United Kingdom World Premiere

Husband Material, Anurag Kashyap, India World Premiere

The Kindergarten Teacher, Sara Colangelo, USA Canadian Premiere

The Land of Steady Habits, Nicole Holofcener, USA World Premiere

Life Itself, Dan Fogelman, USA World Premiere

The Public, Emilio Estevez, USA World Premiere

Red Joan, Sir Trevor Nunn, United Kingdom World Premiere

Shadow, Zhang Yimou, China North American Premiere

A Star is Born, Bradley Cooper, USA North American Premiere

What They Had, Elizabeth Chomko, USA International Premiere

Widows, Steve McQueen, United Kingdom/USA World Premiere

Elsewhere, in the special presentations sidebar, TIFF officials booked Olivier Assayas’ Non-Fiction drama, which stars Juliette Binoche and Guillaume Canet; Laszlo Nemes’ Sunset, the follow-up to the Hungarian director’s Oscar-winning debut Son of Saul; Jacques Audiard’s The Sisters Brothers, starring Joaquin Phoenix and John C. Reilly and likely to compete first in Venice; Belle and A United Kingdom director Amma Asante’s next film, the WWII drama Where Hands Touch; the Julia Roberts-starrer Ben is Black, from director Peter Hedges; and Jason Reitman’s Gary Hart biopic, The Front Runner, starring Hugh Jackman as the disgraced presidential candidate, and Vera Farmiga and J.K. Simmons co-starring.

Other titles set for special presentations screenings include Anthony Maras’ Hotel Mumbai, starring Armie Hammer; Kim Nguyen’s thriller The Hummingbird Project, featuring Salma Hayek, Alexander Skarsgard and Jesse Eisenberg; David Lowery’s Old Man & The Gun, top-lined by Elisabeth Moss and Robert Redford; and Wash Westmoreland’s Colette, featuring Keira Knightley and Dominic West.

The high-profile Toronto sidebar will also screen Mia Hansen-Love’s Maya, starring Juliet Binoche; writer-director Reinaldo Marcus Green’s first feature, Monsters and Men, and Paul Dano’s Jake Gyllenhaal-starrer Wildlife, both of which debuted in Sundance; Alfonso Cuaron’s ROMA, from the Oscar-winning director of Gravity; and the Stella Meghie comedy The Weekend.

Other special presentations titles include Yann Demange’s White Boy Rick; Don McKellar’s Through Black Spruce; Hirokazu Kore-ada’s Shoplifters; Marielle Heller’s Can You Ever Forgive Me?, starring Melissa McCarthy; Nadine Labaki’s Capernaum; Matteo Garrone’s Dogman; Patricia Rozema’s Mouthpiece; and Keith Behrman’s Giant Little Ones, which stars Maria Bello and Kyle MacLachlan.