With over 200 films screening at the Venice, Telluride, Toronto film festivals this year, a majority of them without distributors, there’s a lot of product to go around, with everything from star-studded genre films to under-the-radar indie dramas waiting to be discovered.
We couldn’t touch on everything that sounds exciting, but here are 20 films that we believe could find homes in the coming weeks.
“The Assessment”
Director: Fleur Fortune
Section: TIFF Special Presentations
Domestic Sales: UTA
Fleur Fortune is a first-time feature director coming from the world of music videos, and her debut is a sci-fi parable about a world wreaked by climate change in which couples must pass an exam before they’re allowed to have a child. Alicia Vikander stars as the assessor, and Elizabeth Olsen and Himesh Patel play the hopeful couple.
“The Cut”
Director: Sean Ellis
Section: TIFF Special Presentations
Domestic Sales: UTA and WME
There’s nothing like a boxing movie where the star gets all jacked and bloodied to help spark a career comeback. This time, Orlando Bloom is the retired boxer looking for one last shot in a brutal and intense drama that also stars John Turturro and Caitríona Balfe. Ellis most recently directed “The Cursed” (aka “Eight for Silver”), the nasty werewolf drama that premiered at Sundance 2021.
“Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight”
Director: Embeth Davidtz
Section: TIFF Gala Presentations
Domestic Sales: CAA
“Matilda” and “Schindler’s List” actress Embeth Davidtz is making her directorial debut on this adaptation of the memoir of Alexandra Fuller, a woman as part of a white farming family in the last days of the government of Rhodesia, which is now Zimbabwe. TIFF describes it as a harsh, intense character drama with no one coming out unscathed, and offering a big tie to Davidtz’s own South African roots.
“Friendship”
Director: Andrew De Young
Section: TIFF Midnight Madness
Domestic Sales: UTA and WME
How many people do you think will show up to the TIFF Midnight Madness premiere of “Friendship” dressed as driving crooners? Those in the “I Think You Should Leave” cult should be excited, because word is Andrew De Young’s film has everything Tim Robinson fans have come to expect, but at an elevated level with a real story at its heart rather than a 97-minute sketch. Paul Rudd, Kate Mara, and Jack Dylan Glazer also co-star.
“K-POPS”
Director: Anderson .Paak
Section: TIFF Special Presentations
Domestic Sales: WME
WME believes it has a real multi-hyphenate on its hands with rapper Anderson .Paak, who directed, wrote, and co-stars in this musical comedy that plays like an alternate history of his own career path if he never made it famous. The film follows a struggling session musician who takes a gig on a K-Pop competition series, only to discover he has a 10-year-old son he never knew about who is now competing on the show. The film is said to be in the vein of a John Carney movie, and .Paak “directs the hell out of it.”
“Kill the Jockey”
Director: Luis Ortega
Section: Venice Competition
Domestic Sales: Protagonist Pictures
Fun, sexy, and unusual, Luis Ortega’s absurdist comedy has been compared to some of the offbeat work of other European auteurs like Yorgos Lanthimos and Ruben Östlund. It follows a legendary jockey who on the last and most important race of his career — one that will allow him to pay off his debts to a mobster — has a severe accident and winds up in the hospital as a free man with a new identity, even as the mobster wants him found and killed.
“The Last Republican”
Director: Steve Pink
Section: TIFF Docs
Domestic Sales: Submarine
Fresh off speaking at the Democratic National Convention, former Republican Congressman from Illinois Adam Kinzinger will make his way up north for this profile as directed by the guy who made “Hot Tub Time Machine.” The documentary is described as a humorous portrait of arguably a dead man walking, one of the few Republicans who voted to impeach President Trump and hold him accountable for January 6.
“The Last Showgirl”
Director: Gia Coppola
Section: TIFF Special Presentations
Domestic Sales: CAA
Once Pamela Anderson started to go viral for photos of herself no longer wearing makeup, excitement for Gia Coppola’s third feature went through the roof. “The Last Showgirl” gives an unvarnished, raw, vulnerable, and beautiful look at the “Baywatch” star as a Vegas dancer trying to put her life in order after her long-running show abruptly closes. Producers Pinky Promise have withheld screening it in advance to build buzz, and the film has already fetched enormous interest from buyers sight unseen.
“The Life of Chuck”
Director: Mike Flanagan
Section: TIFF Special Presentations
Domestic Sales: WME
Yes, it has Mike Flanagan directing, and yes, it’s based on a Stephen King book, but “The Life of Chuck” is not a horror movie; in fact most will say this is King channeling his “Shawshank Redemption” or “Green Mile” era. Tom Hiddleston plays the seemingly ordinary accountant Chuck, whose face oddly winds up everywhere Chiwetel Ejiofor’s character turns. The film, which was made independently under a SAG-AFTRA interim agreement, hasn’t screened yet to anyone despite selling some territories in advance, but Flanagan is said to give the film a life-affirming, humanist spin and evokes some great work out of Mark Hamill in a supporting role.
“The Luckiest Man in America”
Director: Samir Oliveros
Section: TIFF Special Presentations
Domestic Sales: CAA
“The Luckiest Man in America” is the sophomore feature by Samir Oliveros based on the true story of Michael Larson, who won $110,000 on the ’80s game show “Press Your Luck” after he intently studied and discovered the pattern of a seemingly randomized game board — allowing him to avoid the show’s signature “Whammy.” Executives at CBS assumed he must’ve cheated and capped his winnings, stiffing him of thousands of dollars, but the scandal and his legacy changed the way we think about game shows. Paul Walter Hauser plays Larson and makes him a man you really want to root for, despite the film’s framing as a thriller.
“Maria”
Director: Pablo Larraín
Section: Venice Competition
Domestic Sales: FilmNation
If you’re wondering why a movie starring Angelina Jolie in a biopic from the auteur who made “Jackie” and “Spencer” is available to buyers, it’s because “Maria,” based on the life of the original diva Maria Callas, was made under an interim agreement during the SAG-AFTRA strike and is likely not your traditional biopic. Jolie though, whom it’s been a minute since we’ve seen in such a true prestige project, actually sings in the movie while Larraín also incorporates Callas’ own voice.
“Nutcrackers”
Director: David Gordon Greeen
Section: TIFF Gala Presentations
Domestic Sales: UTA
The title makes it sound like a raunchy Christmas comedy from the “Pineapple Express” director in his return to comedy, but Ben Stiller stars in this heartwarming story about a Chicago-based workaholic who, after his sister passes away, has to watch over his four nephews as they all await foster homes. The film is an original dramedy written by Leland Douglas but is inspired by a real family of four children.
“On Swift Horses”
Director: Daniel Minahan
Section: TIFF Special Presentations
Domestic Sales: UTA
It’s absurd that a movie with Jacob Elordi, Daisy Edgar-Jones, Diego Calva, and Will Poulter didn’t already have someone interested in distributing it. But “On Swift Horses” is described as a sexy, beautiful, sad, and heart-wrenching love triangle about discovering love and sexuality, all of it aimed at young audiences, despite its period setting during the Korean War.
“Pavements”
Director: Alex Ross Perry
Section: Venice Orizzonti
Domestic Sales: Utopia
Alex Ross Perry wants to reinvent the rock doc with the band that became the godfather of indie rock. “Pavements” is a hybrid of documentary and a scripted musical featuring both Stephen Malkmus and company reuniting for a 2022 tour while also casting “Stranger Things” star Joe Keery as a young Malkmus.
“Queer”
Director: Luca Guadagnino
Section: Venice Competition
Domestic Sales: CAA
Luca Guadagnino was supposed to be at Venice last year with “Challengers” before the strikes forced it to push into 2024, but his latest could be just as buzzy and steamy, even if it’s based on a William S. Burroughs book rather than a tennis love triangle with Zendaya. Daniel Craig leads the cast, and Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross are also again teaming up with Guadagnino to provide the score.
“Really Happy Someday”
Director: J Stevens
Section: TIFF Discovery
Domestic Sales: UTA
Trans director J Stevens spent a full year with their trans star and co-writer Breton Lalama to authentically show how taking testosterone can reshape your life. The film follows Lalama as Z, who because of the testosterone finds themselves unable to control their voice and bombing a musical theater audition. The time period of the film is the same as the time spent filming Lalama taking testosterone, so the character’s journey accurately matches with Lalama’s own journey.
“Sharp Corner”
Director: Jason Buxton
Section: TIFF Special Presentations
Domestic Sales: Neon
This Canadian psychological thriller starring Ben Foster and Cobie Smulders already has distribution in Canada but is available for the rest of the world, and its Cronenberg-esque premise follows a man who becomes obsessed with rescuing people from car crashes who all get in accidents while trying to make a turn on the sharp corner just outside his home. Neon’s sales arm is handling sales on the project, and while that leaves it open for the taking to the highest bidder, don’t be surprised if Neon winds up with this one themselves.
“Shell”
Director: Max Minghella
Section: TIFF Special Presentations
Domestic Sales: WME and CAA
Max Minghella’s genre-bending throwback to ’80s and ’90s thriller sounds like quite the ride. “The Substance” and Demi Moore may have already filled the void this year for bonkers body horror, but this one has Elisabeth Moss and Kate Hudson as the CEO of a mysterious beauty company. For Minghella, this is his first film since his 2018 debut “Teen Spirit.”
“Sketch”
Director: Seth Worley
Section: TIFF Special Presentations
Domestic Sales: UTA
Seth Worley is a big name commercial director and visual artist, but “Sketch” is his first narrative feature, a family comedy that has the energy and vibe of “The Goonies” or “Gremlins.” Tony Hale star as the father of a young girl whose scribbles in a notebook of monsters and make-believe creatures come to colorful life when it falls in a magical lake.
“Vice Is Broke”
Director: Eddie Huang
Section: TIFF Docs
Domestic Sales: UTA
The multi-hyphenate behind “Fresh Off the Boat” Eddie Huang was the perfect and perhaps only person who could break down what went wrong at the media giant Vice. Huang told IndieWire how he worked for Vice for years without getting paid before he finally started asking questions. Huang got out of an NDA he signed with Vice — something many of his peers have not been lucky enough to do — allowing him to tell this incisive and very personal story that performs its own unique form of investigative journalism. Huang said if the “Super/Man” doc about Christopher Reeve can sell for $15 million, that’s the benchmark he wants to hit.
