Toronto Film Festival Boasts Record Number of Women Directors, Nears Gender Parity

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaAnthony Hopkins, Chloé Zhao, and Mira Nair will be honored at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival.Hopkins, an Oscar winner for “The Silence of the Lambs,” will receive a TIFF Tribute Actor Award. Zhao, the director of “The Rider,” will receive the TIFF Ebert Director Award.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaAzazel Jacobs’s “French Exit,” the story of a New York socialite who jettisons her old life for a new one in Paris, has been selected as the closing night feature of the 58th New York Film Festival.The film, which stars Oscar-nominees Michelle Pfeiffer and Lucas Hedges, will make its world premiere at the festival, which is expected to be a mixture of physical and virtual events due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Toronto Film Festival has unveiled plans for drive-in and "open air cinema" screenings on the city's waterfront to offset reduced capacity at its only two indoor movie theaters set for the Sept. 10-19 event.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaForget it, Ben. It’s Chinatown.Ben Affleck will dig deep into Hollywood history with an upcoming adaptation of “The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood,” an inside look at the making of the film noir classic.

was forced to scrub this year’s edition due to the coronavirus pandemic, the Tribeca Film Festival has announced it will return in 2021.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaNext year’s Sundance Film Festival will be significantly shorter than previous editions of the annual celebration of the best in indie cinema.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaBradley Cooper is poised to team up with Paul Thomas Anderson, a meeting of the mega-talents that should please film lovers.The “American Sniper” star is in talks to appear in Anderson’s next, deeply secretive venture, which is being described as a coming-of-age story set in 1970s San Fernando Valley.

Ever since its announcement as part of this year’s Cannes Film Festival Official Selections, Steve McQueen’s “Small Axe” anthology series from Amazon has been positioned as one of the 2020 fall festival darlings. And it appears that is playing out at this year’s New York Film Festival, which will not only debut a feature-length episode of the anthology as its Opening Night film but will also showcase two additional episodes as part of the main slate.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaSteve McQueen, the Oscar-winning director of “12 Years a Slave” and “Shame,” is best known for his searing big-screen work. So it is fitting that the New York Film Festival would turn to the British auteur to kick off its 58th edition with his new work “Lovers Rock.

After unveiling a few of the works that would be at the fest, the Toronto International Film Festival has today releases their full lineup for 2020. Obviously, this comes in the wake of COVID-19 and the coronavirus pandemic changing what film festivals will be like this year.

The Toronto International Film Festival has unveiled a line-up including the directorial debut of Regina King and the latest documentaries from Frederick Wiseman and Werner Herzog.

Also Read: 'The French Dispatch,' 'Soul' Make the Cannes 2020 Lineup As Festival Reveals the Movies It Would Have ShownAs previously announced, Spike Lee’s film “David Byrne’s American Utopia,” a document of Byrne’s Broadway show, will be the opening-night film on Sept. 10.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentVenice Film Festival artistic director Alberto Barbera has been through a rollercoaster ever since the coronavirus crisis struck.But he never stopped working, and on Tuesday unveiled a 60-title lineup which, while a bit thin on Hollywood glitz, represents the core essence of Venice any year.

Le Sorelle Macaluso, dir: Emma Dante The World To Come, dir: Mona Fastvold Nuevo Orden, dir: Michel Franco Lovers, dir: Nicole Garcia Laila in Haifa, dir: Amos Gitai Dear Comrades, dir: Andrei Konchalovsky Wife Of A Spy, dir: Kiyoshi Kurosawa Sun Children, dir: Majid Majidi Pieces Of A Woman, dir: Kornel Mundruczo Miss Marx, dir: Susanna Nicchiarelli Padrenostro, dir: Claudio Noce Notturno, dir: Gianfranco Rosi Never Gonna Snow Again, dirs: Malgorzata Szumowska, Michal Englert The Disciple,

Guy Lodge Film CriticIn a normal year, the announcement of the Venice Film Festival lineup — often coming on the heels of its Toronto counterpart across the pond — triggers the first whisperings of awards season.

Also Read: Fall Film Festivals Venice, Telluride, Toronto and New York Team Up With 'United Platform'Based on journalist Jessica Bruder’s 2017 nonfiction book “Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century,” the film follows Fern (McDormand), a woman who, after the economic collapse of a company town in rural Nevada, packs her van and sets off on the road exploring a life outside of conventional society as a modern-day nomad.

Richard Kuipers “A Life Turned Upside Down: My Dad’s an Alcoholic” casts a damning eye on the pernicious role alcohol plays in the working careers and social lives of Japanese men. Narrated by the innermost thoughts of a daughter during the 25 years she spends watching her father drink himself to death, Kenji Katagari’s second feature cleverly plays like a quirky little TV sitcom about an ordinary middle-class family before moving into darker territory.

Brent Lang Executive Editor of Film and MediaAmazon Studios is in final negotiations to buy worldwide rights to “Without Remorse” from Paramount Pictures, Variety has learned.The Tom Clancy thriller stars Michael B. Jordan as U.S.

Andreas Wiseman International EditorThe Toronto Film Festival has revealed further details about its 2020 edition, which will be a hybrid physical and digital event with a streamlined lineup.All industry engagement will be online, including press and industry screenings and the festival’s Industry Conference, taking place September 10–15.The online screenings will be hosted on a professional version of TIFF’s digital screening platform, developed by Shift72.

Patrick Hipes Executive Managing EditorThe Bentonville Film Festival set the lineup for its sixth edition Tuesday, with the festival co-founded by Geena Davis unveiling its spotlight and competition program of indie feature films, shorts and episodic titles.The fest is set to run August 10-16 in the Arkansas city and is being engineered as a hybrid event because of coronavirus concerns, with digital screenings, panels and events to run alongside some on-the-ground premieres and