TIFF Galas & Special Presentations Announced

by Nathaniel R

TIFF is around the corner y'all. Excited we are since it means the prestige film season and another round of Oscar madness is about to begin. For the first time TIFF has allowed The Film Experience two press passes so Chris Feil and Nathaniel R (that's me) will both be covering in real time for the whole fest from September 6th through the 16th. Today TIFF has announced the 47 films that will be featured in their Galas and Special Presentations sections. These are the two sections wherein you'll usually find the mainstream awards hopefuls shoulder-to-shoulder with more traditional festival fare and world cinema premieres. TIFF usually has hundreds of films so this is just the first announcement. 

The full list containing masterpieces and duds and everything inbetween (though we won't know which-is-which-is-which until we see them) is after the jump!

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Tweetweek: Hathaway Tea, Princess Thor, Cooper Snatched, and More

The journey of this tweet. ❤️ 

pic.twitter.com/bYZNqVF92W

— Ray Lewis (@RayLewis1997) June 5, 2018

After the jump, Barry Jenkins reacts to Steve McQueen's Widows, Marc Sneticker reminds us of the existence of Shark Tale, Thor is revealed to be a true Disney Princess, and lots of other pop culture quips and bits feat. Bradley Cooper, Anne Hathaway, Reese Witherspoon, Samuel L Jackson, Zhang Ziyi, and more...

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YNMS: "Suspiria" Teaser Kills, Making Lots of "Widows"

Chris here, reeling from the trailer feast happening this Monday. As teased in previous days, we get our first look at Luca Guadagnino's grisly Suspiria rehash and Steve McQueen's heist thriller adaptation Widows. Both films have a host of elements to bring our anticipation to a fever pitch (Suspiria: intriguing director/genre pairing, Widows: the powers of McQueen matched with author Gillain Flynn on writing duties) but that doesn't mean they don't also have their question marks. Do both films find the auteurs reaching for mainstream sensibilities? Is there any Oscar play here? And what of the sizeable female ensembles in both?

Both films are heavily speculated to launch at the Venice Film Festival, since both filmmakers have previously debuted films there. If you haven't already gorged on both (or need a second watch, third, fourth, etc). check out the two fantastic trailers after the jump and we'll break down the Yes No Maybe So)...

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New Images: "Widows" and "Boy Erased"

by Nathaniel R

Liam Neeson and Viola Davis in "Widows"

Given the samey-sameness of summer movie season when 75% of everything is BIG FRANCHISE, little morsels about fall movie season taste especially delicious. The gay conversion camp drama Boy Erased starring Lucas Hedges released images that we forgot to share last week and now Steve McQueen's crime drama Widows with Viola Davis as the widow of a gangster (we assume Liam Neeson given the photo) has released a few of its own. They're all after the jump...

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Elizabeth Debicki Joins Viola Davis in Steve McQueen's Heist Thriller

Thus far in her career, actress Elizabeth Debicki has stolen so many scenes – spectacularly – from such a small handful of projects that we should go ahead and award her the Crown Jewels before she sneaks in and takes them herself. Either way, her electric turns in The Great Gatsby, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., and especially her surreptitiously sharp performance at the heart of The Night Manager have already earned Elizabeth the status of a young queen on the silver and small screens - and the announcement of her most recent project promises she'll keep on stealing. Per Variety, she’s to lend her elemental femme fatale flair to Steve McQueen’s newest film Widows and join a verifiable dream team behind and in front of the camera. Before reading onward I must implore you to beware at your own pleasure.

Four years have passed since his formalist masterpiece 12 Years a Slave won the Academy Award for Best Picture, marking Widows as McQueen’s eagerly awaited return to motion pictures; HBO pulled the plug on his would-be television series Codes of Conduct in the interim before making it to air. Debicki will star in the heist thriller alongside the incomparable Viola Davis as two of four eponymous widows who set out to finish the job that their deceased husbands began in vain. As if the thought of these two icons cracking safes or donning disguises wasn’t enough to take your breath away, two of 2016’s most revelatory, swoon-inducing actors round out the cast list thus far: Moonlight’s Andre Holland and Tony Award winner Cynthia Erivo of The Color Purple. McQueen and Gone Girl maestro Gillian Flynn will co-pen the film’s screenplay, to add onto the glut of top tier talent.

Widows won’t hit theaters until 2018 so this tease can’t help but feel a bit excruciating. How do you plan to best appreciate Elizabeth Debicki in the meantime?