New documentaries on Aretha Franklin’s 1972 gospel classic “Amazing Grace,” the French satirical magazine “Charlie Hebdo” and Moscow’s renowned Bolshoi Ballet were among 67 titles added on Tuesday to the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival’s TIFF Docs, Midnight Madness, Vanguard, Masters and TIFF Cinematheque programs.
Midnight will open with the North American premiere of “Blue Ruin” helmer Jeremy Saulnier’s punk-fueled backwoods shocker “Green Room,” which bowed at Cannes’ Directors’ Fortnight.
U.S. titles world premiering in Midnight include “The Loved Ones” helmer Sean Byrne’s supernatural chiller “The Devil’s Candy”; Nick Simon’s small-town terror tale “The Girl in the Photographs,” starring Kal Penn and exec produced by Wes Craven; Joe Begos’ psychokinetic thriller “The Mind’s Eye”; and the fear-driven intertwined stories of “Southbound,” co-helmed by Roxanne Benjamin, David Bruckner, Patrick Horvath and Radio Silence.
Russian writer-director Ilya Naishuller’s Moscow-set “Hardcore,” billed as the world’s first action-adventure shot completely from the first-person perspective (the person, in this case, is actually a cyborg), also world premieres in Midnight.
In addition to the finished version of the late Sydney Pollack’s long-shelved concert doc “Amazing Grace,” TIFF Docs will screen the world premieres of Nick Read’s “Bolshoi Babylon” (HBO), Emmanuel and Daniel Leconte’s “Je Suis Charlie,” Barbara Kopple’s “Miss Sharon Jones!” (an eventful year in the life of the R&B singer), Kahlil Joseph’s “The Reflektor Tapes” (the making of Arcade Fire’s No. 1 album “Reflektor”) and Morgan Neville’s “The Music of Strangers: Yo-Yo Ma and the Silk Road Ensemble.”
Other world-premiering docs include Danae Elon’s “P.S. Jerusalem” (a personal portrait of the city), Geeta Gandbhir and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s “A Journey of a Thousand Miles: Peacekeepers” (Bangladeshi female police join a U.N. peacekeeping mission), Anthony Wonke’s “Being AP” (the all-time greatest jump jockey chases his final title), Bergur Bernburg and Fridrik Thor Fridriksson’s “Horizon” (profiling the late Icelandic painter Georg Gudni Hauksson), Luis Ospina’s “It All Started at the End” (following Colombia’s El Grupo de Cali artistic collective), German Kral’s “Our Last Tango” (Argentina’s revered dance couple tell their story for the first time) and Mika Taanila and Jussi Eerola’s “Return of the Atom” (life in a Finnish nuclear town).
Vanguard adds 11 films, including the world premieres of Harrison Atkins’ “Lace Crater” (a woman contracts a bizarre disease after a one-night stand with a ghost), Osgood Perkins’ “February” (an evil force terrifies two young women, stranded at prep school) and A.D. Calvo’s “The Missing Girl” (a lonely comic-book shop owner hires a disruptive graphic novelist).
Wim Wenders’ “Every Thing Will Be Fine,” starring James Franco, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Rachel McAdams; Alexander Sokurov’s portrait of the Louvre “Francofonia”; and Hou Hsiao-hsien’s martial-arts epic “The Assassin” are among the 13 recent titles from renowned international directors screening in the Masters section.
Nine new 35mm prints or digital restorations of modern classics — including “Harlan County, USA,” “River of Grass” and “Titicut Follies” — comprise the TIFF Cinematheque program.
The 40th Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 10 to 20.
Midnight Madness
“Baskin,” director Can Evrenol, Turkey (World Premiere)
“The Devil’s Candy,” director Sean Byrne, USA (World Premiere)
“The Final Girls,” director Todd Strauss-Schulson, USA (International Premiere)
“The Girl in the Photographs,” director Nick Simon, USA (World Premiere)
“Green Room,” director Jeremy Saulnier, USA (North American Premiere)
“Hardcore,” director Ilya Naishuller, Russia/USA (World Premiere)
“The Mind’s Eye,” director Joe Begos, USA (World Premiere)
“Southbound,” directors Roxanne Benjamin, David Bruckner, Patrick Horvath and Radio Silence, USA (World Premiere)
“SPL 2 – A Time For Consequences,” director Soi Cheang, Hong Kong (International Premiere)
“Yakuza Apocalypse,” director Takashi Miike, Japan (North American Premiere)
Vanguard
“Collective Invention,” director Kwon Oh-kwang, South Korea (World Premiere)
“Demon,” director Marcin Wrona, Poland/Israel (World Premiere)
“Der Nachtmahr,” director AKIZ, Germany (North American Premiere)
“Evolution,” director Lucile Hadzihalilovic, France (World Premiere)
“February,” director Osgood Perkins, USA/Canada (World Premiere)
“Lace Crater,” director Harrison Atkins, USA (World Premiere)
“Love,” director Gaspar Noe, France (North American Premiere)
“Men & Chicken,” director Anders Thomas Jensen, Denmark (North American Premiere)
“My Big Night,” director Alex de la Iglesia, Spain (World Premiere)
“The Missing Girl,” director A.D. Calvo, USA (World Premiere)
“Veteran,” director Ryoo Seung-wan, South Korea (North American Premiere)
Masters
“11 Minutes,” director Jerzy Skolimowski, Poland/Ireland (North American Premiere)
“The Assassin,” director Hou Hsiao-hsien, Taiwan (North American Premiere)
“Bleak Street,” director Arturo Ripstein, Mexico/Spain (North American Premiere)
“Blood Of My Blood,” director Marco Bellocchio, Italy (International Premiere)
“Cemetery of Splendour,” director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Thailand/United Kingdom/France/Germany/Malaysia (North American Premiere)
“Every Thing Will Be Fine,” director Wim Wenders, Germany/Canada/France/Sweden/Norway (North American Premiere)
“Francofonia,” director Alexander Sokurov, Germany/France/Netherlands (North American Premiere)
“In the Shadow of Women,” director Philippe Garrel, France (North American Premiere)
“Jafar Panahi’s Taxi,” director Jafar Panahi, Iran (Canadian Premiere)
“Our Little Sister,” director Hirokazu Kore-eda, Japan (North American Premiere)
“The Pearl Button,” director Patricio Guzman, Chile/France/Spain (North American Premiere)
“Rabin, The Last Day,” director Amos Gitai, Israel/France (North American Premiere)
“Right Now, Wrong Then,” director Hong Sang-soo, South Korea (North American Premiere)
TIFF Cinematheque (new 35mm prints and digital restorations of classic films)
“Adieu Philippine,” director Jacques Rozier, France/Italy
“Harlan County, USA,” director Barbara Kopple, U.S.
“The Mask (Eyes of Hell),” director Julian Roffman, Canada
“The Memory of Justice,” director Marcel Ophuls, United Kingdom/USA/Germany
“River of Grass,” director Kelly Reichardt, USA
“Rocco and His Brothers,” director Luchino Visconti, Italy
“The Round-Up,” director Miklos Jancso, Hungary
“Titicut Follies,” director Frederick Wiseman, USA
