The Toronto International Film Festival has unveiled its official lineup for 2019. Easily the biggest and most talked-about annual international movie festival that's held in North America, TIFF is also the perfect launching pad for studios to start generating hype for their awards contenders every year. Back in 2018, for example, future Best Picture winner Green Book debuted at the festival along with fellow eventual Oscar-winners like A Star is Born and Roma, ahead of their theatrical runs (and, in the latter's case, premiere on Netflix).
Point being, it's long been expected that many of the more promising Fall 2019 releases - ranging from Todd Phillips' a premiere at the Venice Film Festival back in June. As it turns out, though, the studio has decided to unveil the movie at another prestigious festival instead.
Just Mercy (featuring Michael B. Jordan and Brie Larson).
Meanwhile, this year's TIFF Special Presentations will include Taika Waititi's WWII satire Honey Boy (which debuted at Sundance earlier this year).
As a whole, TIFF 2019 will feature some potential Oscar-contending Netflix Originals (like The Laundromat and Dolemite Is My Name), in addition to big studio projects like Joker and Ford V Ferrari (which are also gunning for the Academy's top prizes), and a whole lot of smaller independent films that could really benefit from a strong showing at the festival. And although there are a number of buzzed-about fall releases (like James Gray's The Irishman) that didn't land a spot at the festival, there's a good chance that many, if not most, of them will premiere at the Venice Film Festival around the same time. However things play out on the festival circuit, though, the main takeaway is that there's a whole lot to watch out for over the next five months, and just in of movies alone.
The 2019 Toronto International Film Festival will run from September 5-15.
Source: TIFF
