The Platform lineup for the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) has been unveiled, along with its jury.
The festival’s competitive program dedicated to strong, singular visions includes 10 films from 17 countries, with Canadian staple Atom Egoyan serving as the jury head. Hur Jin-ho, whose “A Normal Family” had its world premiere at TIFF 2023, is also on the jury along with “I Saw the TV Glow” writer/director Jane Schoenbrun.
The Platform program has awarded past prizes to films such as Barry Jenkins’ “Moonlight,” which won the Academy Award for Best Picture, and Darius Marder’s “Sound of Metal,” which received multiple Oscar nominations and won Best Sound and Best Film Editing.
This year, “Colossal” director Nacho Vigalondo will open the program with his latest film, “Daniela Forever,” starring Henry Golding as a grieving man who reunites with his lost love. Highlights include Tallulah H. Schwab’s sophomore film “Mr. K” with Crispin Glover and “Twisted Strings” director Huang Xi’s “Daughter’s Daughter.”
The Platform section awards a prize of $20,000 to the selected top film. The festival will take place from September 5 through 15.
Check out the full Program lineup below, and head here for the 2024 TIFF Galas and Special Presentations lineup. Descriptions come courtesy of the festival.
“Daniela Forever”Nacho Vigalondo | Spain/Belgium World Premiere | Opening Film
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Henry Golding (Crazy Rich Asians) soulfully portrays a bereaved man who enrolls in a clinical trial for a drug that allows him to reunite with his lost lover, played by Beatrice Grannò (The White Lotus) through lucid dreams.
“Daughter’s Daughter”Huang Xi | Taiwan World Premiere
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Taiwanese filmmaker Huang Xi, known for her debut feature, Missing Johnny, and HBO series Twisted Strings, brings her latest work, Daughter’s Daughter, to TIFF 2024. After a terrible accident takes the life of her youngest, a mother must confront her eldest daughter who she gave up after a teenage pregnancy.
“Mr. K”Tallulah H. Schwab | Netherlands/Belgium/Norway World Premiere
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This is a second feature by Amsterdam-based director Tallulah H. Schwab (Confetti Harvest). Mr. K star Crispin Glover brings his best to Schwab’s delightfully Kafkaesque tale of a travelling magician who finds himself in a hotel full of unusual guests — with no way out.
“Paying For It” Sook-Yin Lee | Canada World Premiere
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Canadian filmmaker, musician, and actor Sook-Yin Lee connects the past with the present, bringing together Canadian underground artists and innovative cross-generational musicians in a cultural snapshot of turn-of-the-millennium Toronto in Paying For It. With subtle comic energy and a great cast, this adaptation of Chester Brown’s autobiographical 2011 graphic novel is a movie only Lee could make… because it’s her story, too.
“Pedro Páramo”Rodrigo Prieto | Mexico World Premiere
Unfolding in a seemingly abandoned Mexican town where past and present beguilingly coexist, the feature directorial debut of legendary cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto (Killers of the Flower Moon) is a mesmerizing story of desire, corruption, and inheritance.
“The Wolves Always Come at Night”Gabrielle Brady | Australia/Mongolia/Germany World Premiere
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Australian director and screenwriter Gabrielle Brady (Hungry Ghosts) lays bare the emotional ruptures of climate change and urban migration on Mongolian herders, told through the experiences of one family. After a devastating storm wrought by climate change forces them from their home in the Mongolian countryside to the city, a young couple are forced to adapt to a new way of life in this breathtaking and heartbreaking hybrid film.
“They Will Be Dust”(Polvo serán) Carlos Marqués-Marcet | Spain/Italy/Switzerland World Premiere
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Spanish film director, screenwriter, and film editor Carlos Marqués-Marcet, whose 2014 film 10.000 KM won the Goya for best new director, treats the audience to a unique, daring, and rewarding look at our unavoidable death. Unequal parts contemporary dance-musical and ensemble drama, They Will Be Dust reaches for the raw emotional core of humanity in all its inherent messiness.
“Triumph”Petar Valchanov, Kristina Grozeva | Bulgaria/Greece World Premiere
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This latest work from co-directors Petar Valchanov and Kristina Grozeva, combined with their previous films The Lesson (TIFF ’14) and Glory (2016), forms a trilogy inspired by sensationalist news stories from their homeland that prove once and for all that truth is stranger than fiction.
“Viktor”Olivier Sarbil | Ukraine/USA World Premiere
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This bold documentary from filmmaker and veteran war photographer Olivier Sarbil offers a deeply personal perspective on the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Crafting an audiovisual experience carefully designed to match that of its subject, Viktor is an intimate portrait of a Deaf person navigating chaos and violence.
“Winter in Sokcho”Koya Kamura | France World Premiere
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In this debut from filmmaker Koya Kamura, a young woman struggling to claim her identity and independence has her routine disrupted when a French artist checks into the small guesthouse in snowy Sokcho where she works.
