Bang Gang (A Modern Love Story)
There are always a few festival titles which promise to bring the sex on screen. This is certainly this year's entry, from France, naturally. Young people play at dares and mind games with their sexuality set to a pulsing score and likely a busted taboo or two. - Kurt Halfyard
Platform
The Promised Land
He Ping (Warriors of Heaven and Earth) returns with this domestic tale of a small town girl going home after losing her fiancé in Beijing. - Ryland Aldrich
Platform
High-Rise
Ben Wheatley has become one of our absolute favorite directors with just four features in the bag. His fifth headlines TIFF's new "Platform" sidebar and tells the story of a man and his dastardly neighbors. Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Irons, Sienna Miller, Luke Evans, and Elisabeth Moss star - Ryland Aldrich
Platform
We Monsters
The sophomore effort from Ladybug director Sebastian Ko tells the story of separated parents teaming up to cover up a murder committed by their daughter. - Ryland Aldrich
Discovery
Kilo Two Bravo
Paul Katis's feature dramatic directorial debut is this true story of British soldiers trapped in an Afghani minefield. - Ryland Aldrich
City to City: London
Trapped
TIFF is getting into the TV game with their brand new section dubbed "Primetime." One of the notable series making its debut at the fest is this Baltasar Kormákur-directed noir crime thriller set in... you guessed it, Iceland. - Ryland Aldrich
Primetime
Full Contact
Las Vegas and drone warfare are mixed together in this puzzle-box, mind-fuck thriller from Dutch director David Verbeek. The phrase ‘Lynchian’ is used often in programme notes, but we will see… - Kurt Halfyard
Platform
Our Little Sister
The intimate and gentle Japanese auteur, Kore-eda Hirokazu, returns with his latest film. An adaptation of Akimi Yoshida's manga Umimachi Diary, it is a story about three professionally successful sisters who discover they have a step-sister after their father passes. I am preparing myself for another affecting, familial emotional ecosystem, the director’s specialty. - Kurt Halfyard
Masters
The Boy and the Beast (Bakemono no ko)
Hosoda Mamoru is well known as the director of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars, and Wolf Children. His latest follows a boy thorough a portal where he takes on the duties of squiring for a warrior bear. - Ryland Aldrich
TIFF Kids
River
Jamie M. Dagg's feature debut is this Laos-set story of an American doctor-turned fugitive on the run after intervening in a sexual assault. - Ryland Aldrich
Discovery
The Assassin
Hou Hsiao-hsien's big budget Tang dynasty epic actioner starring Shu Qi and Chang Chen. Well Go USA will be distributing the film stateside. - Ryland Aldrich
Masters
Right Now, Wrong Then
Hong Sang-soo explores two sides of the same affair in this drama about a romance between a filmmaker and painter. - Ryland Aldrich
Masters
Five Nights in Maine
David Oyelowo, Rosie Perez, and Dianne Wiest star in this story of a man searching for answers after his wife's death. The film is directed by Maris Curran. - Ryland Aldrich
Discovery
A Patch Of Fog
I imagine that being blackmailed is extremely frustrating and stressful; either you are caught out and embarrassed by your bad behaviour, or you are lying to a lot of close friends and colleagues, while being bankrupted financially. But what if you blackmailer is doing all this just so he can be your friend? The wonderful Conleth Hill, most known to the world playing the Master of Spies, Lord Varys, in HBO's Game of Thrones, plays a celebrity writer caught in his own web of deceit. - Kurt Halfyard
Discovery
London Road
Tom Hardy and Olivia Colman star in Rufus Norris' musical adaptation of the Suffolk Strangler murders in Ipswich. - Ryland Aldrich
City to City: London
Arabian Nights: The Restless One, The Desolate One, The Enchanted One
Miguel Gomes received much praise for his three-part retelling of the classic story when it premiered at Cannes. Kino Lorber will bring it out in the States. - Ryland Aldrich
Wavelengths
Black
Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah's sophomore outing (after their debut Image) is this story of rival gangs and forbidden love. Snap. Snap. Snap. - Ryland Aldrich
Discovery
Francofonia
Alexander Sokurov is probably best known for his tour de force tour of St. Petersburg's Hermitage Museum Russian Ark. Now in his latest film, The Louvre gets the same treatment. - Ryland Aldrich
Masters
