Steven Spielberg in Toronto for a rainbow-colored festival

 

After two editions with reduced capacity due to the pandemic, moviegoers are looking forward to the start of the festival on September 8 and the arrival of director Steven Spielberg, who will present for the first time his film The Fabelmans, based on his childhood in Arizona, with actors Michelle Williams, Paul Dano and Seth Rogen. Also on the program is the premiere of Rian Johnson's Netflix-produced thriller Glass Onion: A Knife and Dagger Story, in which Daniel Craig will reprise the role of private investigator Benoit Blanc alongside a five-star cast including Edward Norton, Ethan Hawke and Jada Pinkett Smith. Peter Farrelly, whose drama Green Book: On the Roads of the South had won the Oscar in 2018 after winning the Audience Award in Toronto, will present his new film The Greatest Beer Run Ever.  Zac Efron plays a sailor, former military, challenged to bring a beer to his friends left at the front in Vietnam in 1967. The Canadian festival, which does not award a palm or a bear like Cannes or Berlin but only an audience award, often sets the tempo for the winter awards in Hollywood. Last year, unlike other festivals such as Venice and Cannes, which had almost returned to their normal version, the Toronto festival had opted for a mix of virtual and real screenings, with limited capacity in theaters.

 

Among the stars making their comeback on the Canadian red carpet are actress Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne, starring in The Good Nurse and pop superstar Harry Styles, who plays a gay policeman in the 1950s in My Policeman.  Jennifer Lawrence will accompany her film, about a war veteran trying to reintegrate into civilian life in New Orleans, while Viola Davis will present the epic film The Woman King. Ewan McGregor and Ethan Hawke will be present for the world premiere of Raymond & Ray, Halle Berry, Morgan Freeman, Denzel Washington and Quincy Jones will be there for Sidney, a documentary about Sidney Poitier, produced by Oprah Winfrey. The festival, which lasts until September 18, will also host the premiere of the gay romantic comedy Bros with Billy Eichner, and A Jazzman's Blues directed by Tyler Perry.