The Toronto International Film Fest kicks off its 2019 edition today! We've already taken quick tours of the world premieres and the hits from past fests. Today we span both categories but pay particular attention to films that skew towards genre and international fare. Enjoy the fest!
Synchronic
We've long been fans of Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead around these parts. The Spring, The Endless, and Resolution directors return with this genre-bender about New Orleans paramedics dealing with drug related deaths. It stars Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan.
Special Presentations
Gundala
Screen Anarchy fave Joko Anwar's (Satan's Slaves, A Copy of My Mind, Ritual) latest is this awesome looking Indonesian comic book actioner.
Midnight Madness
Guns Akimbo
Deathgasm director Jason Lei Howden returns with this Daniel Radcliffe starring sci-fi thriller about an illegal live-streamed death match gone wrong. Sign us up!
Special Presentations
A Girl Missing
Harmonium director Koji Fukada's latest is the story of a home-care nurse whose nephew is arrested for kidnapping the child of the nurse's employer.
Contemporary World Cinema
Blood Quantum
Jeff Barnaby (Rhymes for Young Ghouls) gets the coveted Midnight Madness opener slot for this indigenous community-set zombie thriller.
Midnight Madness
Sea Fever
TV director Neasa Hardiman (Jessica Jones) makes her feature debut with this Irish creature feature.
Discovery
Color Out of Space
Richard Stanley may be best known for the film he didn't direct. Here he directs Nicolas Cage in a Lovecraftian epic about a meteor falling to Earth.
Midnight Madness
The Wild Goose Lake
Black Coal Thin Ice and Night Train director Diao Yinan returns with this Chinese crime drama about a gangster on the run.
Contemporary World Cinema
Bombay Rose
This Indian animated drama from first-timer Gitanjali Rao made its debut at Venice.
Contemporary World Cinema
First Love
Miike's latest, which premiered at Cannes, can really be best summed up by the TIFF blurb: "A doomed boxer and a haunted drug addict find themselves inadvertently caught in the crosshairs of two warring gangs." Cool.
Midnight Madness
Dogs Don't Wear Pants
Finnish director J-P Valkeapää's Cannes debuter is a black comedy about a man turning to a dominatrix after losing his wife in a drowning.
Contemporary World Cinema
Proxima
Alice Winocour's (Disorder, Augustine) latest is this buzz-worthy Eva Green and Matt Dillon starrer about an Astronaut.
Platform
Bring Me Home
This feature debut from South Korean director Kim Seung-woo is the tale of a mother searching for her missing son.
Discovery
Jallikattu
Ee. Ma. Yau director Lijo Jose Pellissery returns with this portrait of an Indian village on the occasion of a great buffalo escape.
Contemporary World Cinema
The Platform
This Spanish midnighter from debut director Galder Gaztelu-Urrutia asks what would happen if a table of food appeared in your room once a day, continuously ravaged by those higher on the social ladder.
Midnight Madness
So Long, My Son
This decades-spanning story of a Chinese couple losing their son is directed by Red Amnesia helmer Wang Xiaoshuai.
Contemporary World Cinema
Knuckle City
This tale of a South African boxer and his no good brother trying for one more score is directed by Sew the Winter to my Skin director Jahmil X.T. Qubeka.
Contemporary World Cinema