Skip to main content

Ellen Page is in a scene from the film The Cured, which will premier at TIFF.The Canadian Press

A zombie flick starring Halifax native Ellen Page, Aaron Sorkin's directorial debut, a political profile of the "Deep Throat" informant who sparked the Watergate scandal and I Love You, Daddy by Louis C.K. are among the movies that will make their world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The festival unveiled a new slate of buzzy titles on Tuesday, including the horror thriller The Cured, starring Page as a survivor in the aftermath of a zombie plague.

Molly's Game, starring Jessica Chastain and Idris Elba, is the first feature film to be helmed by Sorkin, who also wrote the screenplay about a former skier who runs the world's most elite high-stakes poker games before being targeted by the FBI. It's based on the memoir Molly's Game: From Hollywood's Elite to Wall Street's Billionaire Boys Club, My High-Stakes Adventure in the World of Underground Poker by Molly Bloom.

Liam Neeson stars as the infamous Deep Throat in Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House, while I Love You, Daddy is a black-and-white film by Louis C.K.

The festival also announced the lineup for its TV-focused Primetime program, now in its third year, which includes the upcoming HBO drama The Deuce starring James Franco and Maggie Gyllenhaal, the second season of Steven Soderbergh's The Girlfriend Experience and the CBC/Netflix series Alias Grace.

And the slate of 11 films in the Masters program, featuring "an outstanding list of prolific filmmakers known for taking stylistic and thematic risks," includes Our People Will Be Healed by Alanis Obomsawin, which marks the first time a First Nations female filmmaker has been selected. Also in the program are Happy End by Michael Haneke, who wrote and directed the Oscar-winning Amour, and First Reformed by Paul Schrader, who wrote the Robert DeNiro classics Taxi Driver and Raging Bull.

The festival runs from Sept. 7 to 17.

The Sarah Polley-produced adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s 'Alias Grace' will have its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. Western Canadian films also have a strong presence in TIFF’s homegrown lineup.

The Canadian Press

Interact with The Globe