TIFF 2024: Unlock the Festival with Our Guide & Contest
In This Article
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This year’s Toronto International Film Festival® (TIFF) is a particularly exciting one for us here at Toronto Film School because we are the exclusive sponsor of TIFF’s Festival Street Art Market. In addition, we’re also holding a can’t-miss contest that could see you win a free TIFF 2024 access pass worth $570!
For a rundown of TIFF’s most anticipated films, special events, expected celebrities and how you can win exclusive access to the festival, keep reading.
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Visiting Toronto for TIFF
Visitors to Toronto might want to start their TIFF 2024 experience by checking out the festival’s headquarters at the TIFF Lightbox, a film and cultural centre located in the heart of Toronto’s Entertainment District at 350 King Street West.
The TIFF Lightbox is home to film exhibits, a library, two restaurants, rooftop terrace, gift shop and five theatre auditoriums. Some of the surrounding streets will be closed off for cars during the festival to allow for the increased pedestrian traffic. You’ll find that the district has a large number of restaurants to choose from and is a great place to watch for movie stars during TIFF.
Once the festival is concluded, you should consider allowing some extra time to explore—because as Canada’s largest city, Toronto has plenty of attractions to take in. Famous tourist destinations include include Casa Loma, the Royal Ontario Museum, the CN Tower, the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Hockey Hall of Fame (which are all within walking distance of a subway station).
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TIFF 2024 Key Dates
TIFF runs from September 5 – 15, 2024.
The official schedule releases August 13th, and festival tickets go on sale to the general public on August 26th.
For a full list of key dates, check out tiff.net.
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TIFF 2024 Celebrity Roll Call
Drum roll please! This year’s attendees at TIFF 2024 will include Angelina Jolie, Cate Blanchett, Elton John, Alicia Vikander, Amy Adams, Will Ferrell, Bruce Springsteen, Selena Gomez, Andrea Bocelli, and Robbie Williams. However, it’s early days yet, so expect to hear about more celebrity announcements in the coming weeks.
Films We’re Jazzed About Seeing at TIFF 2024
We’re thrilled by the impressive number of TFS alumni involved in this year’s lineup of TIFF 2024 films (as you’ll see in the film descriptions below).
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Nutcrackers
Featuring: Ben Stiller
Genre: Comedy, Drama
What’s It About: A workaholic travels to Ohio to look after his orphaned nephews.
What’s Interesting: This is TIFF 2024’s opening night film, so expectations are high. It’s also Stiller’s first leading role in six years.
The Substance
Featuring: Demi Moore, Dennis Quaid
Genre: Horror, Drama
What’s It About: An aging celebrity uses a black-market drug that makes her appear younger.
What’s Interesting: This film is generating a lot of positive buzz. At the Cannes Film Festival, the film was nominated for the Palme d’Or—the festival’s highest honour.
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Without Blood
Featuring: Salma Hayek, Alessandro Baricco
Genre: Drama, War
What’s It About: Based on Barrico’s novel of the same name, the story takes places in an unnamed country and follows a young girl through the decades as she faces war, trauma, and violence.
What’s Interesting: Angelina Jolie co-wrote and directed the film. Acting for Film, TV and the Theatre Program graduate Juan Carlos Huguenin has a role in the film.
Shook
Featuring: Saamer Usmani, Amar Wala
Genre: Drama
What’s It About: An aspiring writer learns a family secret that will force him to choose between the life he desires and the one he has.
What’s Interesting: Two TFS Film Production Program grads worked on this film: Mark Andrew Sirju as line producer, and Akhil Khithani as 3rd assistant director.
Elton John: Never Too Late
Featuring: Elton John
Genre: Biography
What’s It About: Profiles one of the world’s most famous singers and songwriters, Elton John, on his final concert tour: “Farewell Yellow Brick Road”. The film includes footage of previous concerts, excerpts from his private journals, and stories from his personal life.
What’s Interesting: The tour made close to a billion dollars in revenue.
The Return
Featuring: Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche
Genre: Drama, Historical
What’s It About: Odysseus, after an absence of twenty years, returns to his kingdom to find that much has changed.
What’s Interesting: Fiennes and Binoche are reuniting for the first time on screen since 1996’s The English Patient.
Eden
Featuring: Ana de Armas, Vanessa Kirby, Jude Law
Genre: Thriller
What’s It About: A group of people leave everything behind and travel to the Galápagos Islands to find themselves.
What’s Interesting: In addition to the talented cast, legendary composer Hans Zimmer (the Dune movies, No Time to Die, Top Gun: Maverick, The Creator) scored the film.
The Fire Inside
Featuring: Ryan Destiny, Kylee D. Allen, Brian Tyree Henry
Genre: Sports, Drama, Biography
What’s It About: Claressa ‘T-Rex’ Shields becomes the first woman in American to win an Olympic gold medal in boxing.
What’s Interesting: The movie is helmed by Rachel Morrison, who previously directed TV episodes of The Mandalorian, The Morning Show, and Quantico. However, this is her first feature.
The Life of Chuck
Featuring: Tom Hiddleston, Mark Hamill, Chiwetel Ejiofor
Genre: Drama
What’s It About: Based on the Stephen King novella, this is the life story of an ordinary man (Hiddleston) told in reverse, ending with his childhood in a haunted house.
What’s Interesting: It will be good to see Mark Hamill outside of Star Wars.
Nightbitch
Featuring: Amy Adams, Scoot McNairy
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Genre: Horror, Comedy, Drama
What’s It About: A mother (Adams) takes leave of her job to be a stay-at-home-mom when things take a turn for the strange.
What’s Interesting: The title, for starters. And the fact that IMDb has this film listed as a comedy in addition to a drama and horror.
Rez Ball
Featuring: Kauchani Bratt, Jessica Matten
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Genre: Drama
What’s It About: Story of a Native American high school basketball team that loses their star player. As a result, they must band together to keep their dream of competing in the state championships alive.
What’s Interesting: Basketball legend LeBron James is one of the producers.
The Wild Robot
Featuring: Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal, Bill Nighy, Catherine O’Hara, Mark Hamill
Genre: Animation, Comedy, Science Fiction
What’s It About: Shipwrecked on an uninhabited island, a robot (Rozzum Unit 7134, or “Roz” for short) makes friends with the local animals and subsequently becomes a surrogate mother to an orphaned gosling.
What’s Interesting: This must be Mark Hamill’s year, as this is his second feature being screened at TIFF. In addition, this will be the final DreamWorks film to be animated entirely in house.
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40 Acres
Featuring: Danielle Deadwyler, Michael Greyeyes, Leenah Robinson
Genre: Drama, History, Thriller
What’s It About: Amidst a decimated future, the legacy of African American farmers who settled in Canada in 1875 is ignited in a final, desperate struggle.
What’s Interesting: TFS Video Production Program online graduate Christopher Kezar was the film’s dailies operator.
Harbin
Featuring: Hybun Bin
Genre: Thriller
What’s It About: The movie is based on the real-life story of the assassination of Japan’s first prime minister, Prince Itō Hirobumi, by Korean activists.
What’s Interesting: The film has been selected to be part of the Gala Program at TIFF. Gala selections receive the red-carpet treatment and are reserved for high profile films.
Shepherds
Featuring: Félix-Antoine Duval, Solène Rigot, Guilaine Londez
Genre: Drama
What’s It About: A Montreal advertising executive quits his job to become a shepherd in the south of France.
What’s Interesting: This Canadian French film is an adaptation of the novel D’où viens tu, berger? by Mathyas Lefebure. The story is semi-autobiographical.
Superboys of Malegaon
Featuring: Adarsh Gourav, Vineet Kumar Singh, Shashank Arora
Genre: Drama
What’s It About: This Hindi-language film introduces us to an amateur filmmaker who sets out to make a movie about the residents of his hometown, Malegaon.
What’s Interesting: Inspired by the 2008 documentary Supermen of Malegaon.
We Live in Time
Featuring: Andrew Garfield, Florence Pugh
Genre: Romance, Comedy, Drama
What’s It About: The story of two people falling in love, and the challenges they face over a decade.
What’s Interesting: Both Garfield and Pugh have starred as Marvel characters (Garfield as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, and Pugh as Yelena Belova in Black Widow), and both are Oscar nominees.
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K-POPS!
Featuring: Anderson .Paak, Soul Rasheed, Jee Young Han
Genre: Comedy, Drama
What’s It About: A washed-up musician has to choose between family and fame when his son’s stardom gives him another chance at the big time.
What’s Interesting: In addition to starring in the film, it is also Anderson .Paak’s directorial debut. He also co-wrote the screenplay.
The Deb
Featuring: Rebel Wilson, Naomi Sequeira
Genre: Comedy, Musical
What’s It About: Two teenage cousins try to find dates to a debutante ball in a small Australian town.
What’s Interesting: It’s Wilson’s directorial debut, and TIFF 2024’s closing night film.
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TIFF Tribute Awards
The TIFF Tribute Awards are the festival’s largest annual fundraiser, with net proceeds supporting TIFF’s Every Story Fund, which champions equity, diversity, inclusion, and belonging in film.
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As of publication, this year’s award recipients include:
TIFF Tribute Performer Award: Amy Adams
TIFF Norman Jewison Career Achievement Award: David Cronenberg
TIFF Share Her Journey Groundbreaker Award: Cate Blanchett
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The TIFF Tribute Awards Honorary Chair will be filled this year by Sandra Oh, and the event will take place on Sunday September 8 at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel in Toronto.
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For the latest on all award recipients, check out tiff.net.
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You’re Invited to Join Us at Toronto Film School’s Pop-up Cinema!
Join Toronto Film School on Festival Street for TIFF 2024’s huge opening weekend! During the first four days of TIFF, stop by our pop-up cinema (you’ll find it next to the TIFF Lightbox) where you can savour free popcorn and discover up-and-coming filmmakers through TFS student and alumni screenings.
New for TFS this year: discover TIFF’s Art Market in partnership with Toronto Film School, which brings community partners such as Inside Out, imagineNATIVE, Reel Asian Film Festival, Luminato Festival Toronto, OCAD University, Workman Arts, REEL CANADA, Regent Park Film Festival and more out to Festival Street during TIFF’s opening weekend. Each will be providing exciting and engaging activities for you to participate in.
We are proud to be the exclusive sponsor of this event, as over 450,000 people are expected to make their way to Festival Street in what may be the coolest block party of the year.
You could also have the chance to have your short film screened at the Art Market, as part of our very exciting, very exclusive contest…
Win Festival Access with TFS: YOUR IN TO TIFF Contest
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We could be your in to TIFF 2024! We’re giving away 15 conference passes (valued at $570 each) and a chance to have your short film screened at the Festival Street Art Market*! Imagine having your work previewed during one of the world’s most prestigious film festivals (and don’t fret if you don’t have a film, you can still enter the contest).
Prizes include access to conferences, industry screenings, special events, trial membership with Cinando (billed as the “go-to networking platform for film industry professionals worldwide”) and more.
Whether you’re a TFS student, a graduate, or just thinking about enrolling, this could be your chance to mingle with the industry’s finest. Check out our TFS: YOUR IN TO TIFF contest page for full details and rules. And good luck!
