According to the Toronto Star, Terrence Malick’s new film, The Tree of Life, will not be appearing in the Toronto International Film Festival this September. The film stars Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, and many were hoping they catch of a glimpse of them at TIFF or the Venice Film Festival. All hopes are dashed as Malick is still working on the film and it may not see a premiere until possibly November. With Tree of Life out of the picture, there’s still a chance for Penn’s upcoming political thriller, Fair Game, to be selected for the Festival.

Fox Searchlight has announced that Black Swan, the much-anticipated ballet thriller from Darren Aronofsky, will have a limited release on December 1st. The film stars Natalie Portman as a ballet dancer who finds herself locked in a web of competitive intrigue with a new rival at the company. Similar to Aronofsky’s 2008 TIFF entry The Wrestler with Mickey Rourke, it is expected that his newest film will generate a lot of buzz come Oscar time. In the meantime, you can also check out some of the first photos from the film here.

This morning, the Venice Film Festival unveiled its lineup of 79 world premieres. Some of the titles named were already slated to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. This includes: Black Swan, Barney’s Version, Miral, Norweigan Wood, Potiche, The Town, That Girl in Yellow Boots and Lope. Films showing at Venice tend to be a good indicator of pics that will appear at TIFF as well, so watch for some of these to be announced in the following weeks:

67TH ANNUAL VENICE FILM FESTIVAL LINEUP
IN COMPETITION
“Black Swan,” Darren Aronofsky, U.S. (Opening Film)
“La Pecora Nera,” Ascanio Celestini, Italy
“Somewhere,” Sofia Coppola, U.S.
“Happy Few,” Antony Cordier, France
“The Solitude of Prime Numbers,” Saverio Costanzo, Italy, Germany, France
“Silent Souls,” Aleksei Fedorchenko, Russia
“Promises Written in Water,” Vincent Gallo, U.S.
“Road To Nowhere,” Monte Hellman, U.S.
“Balada Triste de Trompeta,” Alex de la Iglesia, Spain, France
“Venus Noir,” Abdellatif Kechiche, France
“Post Mortem,” Pablo Larrain, Chile, Mexico, Germany
“Barney’s Version,” Richard J. Lewis, Canada, Italy
“We Believed,” Mario Martone, Italy, France
“La Passione,” Carlo Mazzacurati, Italy
“13 Assassins,” Takashi Miike, Japan, U.K.
“Potiche,” Francois Ozon, France
“Meek’s Cutoff,” Kelly Reichardt, U.S.
“Miral,” Julian Schnabel, U.S., France, Italy, Israel
“Norwegian Wood,” Tran Anh Hung, Japan
“Attenberg,” Athina Rachel Tsangari, Greece
“Detective Dee and the Mystery of Phantom Flame,” Tsui Hark, China
“Three,” Tom Tykwer, Germany

OUT OF COMPETITION

Opening Night Tribute to Bruce Lee
 “The Return of Chen Zhen,” Andrew Lau (China, Hong Kong)
Opening Night Midnight Movie 
”Machete,” Robert Rodriguez (U.S.)
“The Tempest,” Julie Taymor (U.S.)
Homage to Vittorio Gassman
”Vittorio racconta — Una vita da Mattatore,” Giancarlo Scarchilli (Italy)
“The Town,” Ben Affleck (U.S.)
“I’m Still Here: the Lost Year of Joaquin Phoenix,” Casey Affleck (U.S.)
“Sorelle Mai,” Marco Bellocchio (Italy)
“Niente Paura — Come siamo come eravamo e le canzoni di Luciano Ligabue,” Piergiorgio Gay (Italy)
“Dante Ferretti — Production Designer,” Gianfranco Giagni (Italy)
“Notizie degli Scavi,” Emidio Greco (Italy)
“The Last Movie” (1971), Dennis Hopper
“Gorbaciof,” Stefano Incerti (Italy)
“That Girl in Yellow Boots,” Anurag Kashyap (India)
“Showtime,” Stanley Kwan (China)
“Sei Venezia,” Carlo Mazzacurati (Italy)
“Zebraman” (2004), Takashi Miike (Japan)
“Zebraman 2: Attack on Zebra City,” Takashi Miike (Japan)
“The Child’s Eye 3D,” Oxide Pang and Danny Pang (China, Hong Kong)
“Vallanzasca – Gli angeli del male,” Michele Placido (Italy)
“All Inclusive 3D,” Nadia Ranocchi and David Zamagni (Italy, Austria)
“Raavan” (Tamil version), Mani Ratnam (India)
“1960,” Gabriele Salvatores (Italy)
“La prima volta a Venezia,” Antonello Sarno (Italy)
“A Letter to Elia,” Martin Scorsese and Kent Jones (U.S.)
“Shock Labyrinth 3D,” Takashi Shimizu (Japan)
“L’ultimo Gattopardo: Ritratto di Goffredo Lombardo,” Giuseppe Tornatore (Italy)
“Passione,” John Turturro (Italy)
“Lope,” Andrucha Waddington (Spain, Brazil)
“Space Guy,” Zhang Yuan (China)

If you didn’t know, Mark Romanek’s latest film Never Let Me Go is based on Japanese-English writer Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel of the same name. It was shortlisted for the 2005 Booker Prize, National Book Critics Circle Award and 2006 Arthur C. Clarke Award. Time Magazine has arguably described it as “the best novel of the decade” as printed on its new theatrical poster (see below). The film adaptation stars British actresses Carey Mulligan and Keira Knightley, and is the story of a woman who, as she reflects on her private school years in the English countryside, reunites with her two friends to face the dark secrets buried in their communal past.

To the delight of many TIFF fans, more than 50 films were announced yesterday, including 15 Galas, 35 Special Presentations and 1 Masters. Films from the Midnight Madness programme are expected to be announced next Tues Aug 3. Watch for film news, reviews and trailers on our blog in the next few days.


GALAS
Barney’s Version
Directed by: Richard J. Lewis
Canada/Italy

Black Swan
Directed by: Darren Aronofsky
USA

Casino Jack
Directed by: George Hickenlooper
Canada

Janie Jones
Directed by: David M. Rosenthal
USA

Little White Lies
Directed by: Guillaume Canet
France

Peep World
Directed by: Barry Blaustein
USA

Potiche
Directed by: François Ozon
France

The Bang Bang Club
Directed by: Steven Silver
Canada/South Africa

The Conspirator
Directed by: Robert Redford
USA

The Debt
Directed by: John Madden
USA

The Housemaid
Directed by: Im Sang-Soo
South Korea

The King’s Speech
Directed by: Tom Hooper
United Kingdom/Australia

The Town
Directed by: Ben Affleck
USA

The Way
Directed by: Emilio Estevez
USA

West is West
Directed by: Andy De Emmony
United Kingdom (more…)

Since Michael McGowan’s Score: A Hockey Musical was announced as the opening night film at TIFF 2010, there have been many other titles thrown around as potential entries. The 12 below are the most notable films leaked out by the media and other credible sources this past week:

Black Swan
Directed by: Darren Aronofsky
Cast: Mila Kunis, Natalie Portman, Winona Ryder
A thriller that hones in on the relationship between a veteran ballet dancer and a rival.
Source: /Film

Trust
Directed by: David Schwimmer
Cast: Clive Owen, Catherine Keener
A teenage girl is targeted by an online sexual predator.
Source: Los Angeles Times

Miral
Directed by: Julian Schnabel
Cast: Willem Dafoe, Freida Pinto
A chronicle of Hind Husseini’s effort to establish an orphanage in Jerusalem after the 1948 partition of Palestine and the creation of the state of Israel.
Source: Martin Knelman (Toronto Star)

The Beaver
Directed by: Jodie Foster
Cast: Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster
A guy walks around with a puppet of a beaver on his hand and treats it like a living creature.
Source: New York Post

L.A. Zombie
Directed by: Bruce La Bruce
Cast: François Sagat
A schizophrenic homeless man who thinks he’s a zombie has sex with lots of dudes to bring the dead back to life.
Source: Fangoria

The Debt
Directed by: John Madden
Cast: Sam Worthington, Helen Mirren
In 1965, three young Israeli Mossad agents on a secret mission capture and kill a notorious Nazi war criminal. Now, thirty years later, a man claiming to be the Nazi has surfaced in Ukraine and one of the former agents must go back undercover to seek out the truth.
Source: Radical Publishing

Vanishing on 7th Avenue
Directed by: Brad Anderson
Cast: Hayden Christensen, Thandie Newton, John Leguizamo
A mysterious, seemingly global blackout leaves a small handful of survivors to band together in a tavern on 7th Street, struggling to combat the apocalyptic horror.
Source: CTV News

The Town
Directed by: Ben Affleck
Cast: Ben Affleck, Blake Lively, Jeremy Renner
As he plans his next job, a longtime thief tries to balance his feelings for a bank manager connected to one of his earlier heists, as well as the FBI agent looking to bring him and his crew down.
Source: Examiner.com

The King’s Speech
Directed by: Tom Hooper
Cast: Helena Bonham Carter, Colin Firth, Guy Pearce
A chronicle of King George VI’s effort to overcome his nervous stammer with the assistance of speech therapist Lionel Logue.
Source: Martin Knelman (Toronto Star)

Barney’s Version
Directed by: Richard J. Lewis
Cast: Dustin Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Bruce Greenwood, Rosamund Pike, Minnie Driver
The picaresque and touching story of the politically incorrect, fully lived life of the impulsive, irascible and fearlessly blunt Barney Panofsky.
Source: Martin Knelman (Toronto Star)

Dhobi Ghat
Directed by: Kiran Rao
Cast: Aamir Khan
A documentary drama about a painter who lives and works in his tiny studio-apartment in a noisy and congested Mumbai neighbourhood.
Source: Fimicafe.com

I’m Still Here
Directed by: Casey Affleck
A documentary on Joaquin Phoenix’s transition from the acting world to a career as an aspiring rapper.
Source: New York Post

LATEST ADDITIONS:
Harud (Autumn)
Directed by: Aamir Bashir
A man and his family are struggling to come to terms with the loss of his older brother, who disappeared from the militant insurgency in Kashmir.
Source: outlookindia.com

For more rumors and updates related to TIFF 2010, follow us on Twitter.

In anticipation of an official film announcement real soon, our next series of posts will feature some likely candidates that we think may have a crack at the TIFF 2010 lineup. Leading off the series is a closer look at Japanese directors, most of whom are Midnight Madness veterans.

Takashi Miike
It’s almost safe to say that if Takashi Miike has a new film out, MM programmer Colin Geddes will screen it. Sukiyaki Western Django (2007), Big Bang Love, Juvenile A (2006) and The Great Yokai War (2005) are the most recent ones. He’s been missing from the lineup for the last 2 years and he’s due to reappear at TIFF. Luckily, he has 2 possible entries this year: Zebraman 2: Attack on Zebra City and Thirteen Assassins. Zebraman 2 is the sequel to the superhero film from TIFF 2004, continuing the story of the title character who reawakens in futuristic Tokyo, renamed as Zebra City. Thirteen Assassins, set to premiere in Japan this September, is about a group of assassins who join forces to kill an evil lord and stars Koji Yakusho.

Zebraman 2

• Trailer
• The Japan Times Online Review

Thirteen Assassins

• Trailer

Takeshi Kitano
Beat Takeshi is a common name at TIFF, having numerous films screened in years past, including Achilles and the Tortoise (2008), Glory to the Filmmaker! (2007) and Takeshis’ (2005). His latest film, Outrage, premiered at Cannes to mixed reviews. Doing what he’s originally known for, yakuza films, Kitano stars as a mob boss who must follow his father’s order to defeat a rival gang. Don’t expect Kitano’s best work here, but look forward to lots of violence.

• Trailer
• Outrage – Official Cannes Page
• Twitch Review

Mamoru Oshii
The latest film from the director of The Sky Crawlers (2008) and Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence (2004) features a girl trio who fight for the future of humanity in a post-apocalyptic world. Assault Girls casts Rinko Kikuchi, and was first released in Japan in Dec 2009, so we’re a little bit skeptical if the film will get a North American premiere this late into the season.

• Trailer
• Twitch Review

Hirokazu Kore-eda & Hitoshi Matsumoto
Unfortunately, they have nothing new at the moment. Air Doll (2009) and Symbol (2009) both screened last year at TIFF.

UPDATE: Unfortunately, mmadnesstiff denies The Grand Master will screen at MM. That leaves Red Nights (Les Nuits Rouges Du Bourreau De Jade) as a possible contender (see comments).

This is purely an educated guess, but we believe that Wong Kar Wai’s new film in production, The Grand Master, will screen at this year’s Midnight Madness programme. The Grand Master is the story of martial-arts master Ip Man, the man who trained Bruce Lee, and stars Tony Leung, Zhang Ziyi and the long-awaited return of Hong Kong actress… Brigitte Lin. WKW fans may recognize Ms. Lin in Ashes of Time (1994) and Chungking Express (1994). She retired from acting in 1994 and decided to make a comeback in WKW’s latest action biopic.

Our prediction is based on a Twitter post from the Midnight Madness folks this afternoon: mmadnesstiff



We believe that TIFF 1994 MM film is Jeffrey Lau’s The Eagle Shooting Heroes, in which Brigitte Lin starred as the Third Princess. If this prediction is indeed true, it will mark Wong Kar Wai’s return to TIFF since Ashes of Time Redux (2008) and Eros (2004). Let’s just hope he finishes his film on time

TIFF’s new homebase, TIFF Bell Lightbox, opens on September 12 and they’re kicking things off with free exhibitions across the city inspired by the Essential 100 list. The list consists of 100 top films in cinema selected by TIFF experts and audience votes. Some of the exhibitions are linked to the Future Projections programme and will also feature major artworks relating to films and filmmakers in the Essential 100 list. Notable exhibitions and highlights include:

• Robert De Niro’s cab license, used while researching his role in Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver
• Original storyboards from Gone With the Wind depicting the evacuation of Atlanta
• Guy Maddin: Hauntings I and II – a series of short film installations that are meant to invoke and appease the ghosts of cinema
• Atom Egoyan: 8½ Screens – a key scene from Fellini’s masterpiece 8½ and a reversal of the customary relationship between the projector, the audience and the screen
• Douglas Gordon: 24 Hour Psycho Back and Forth and To and Fro – a dual-channel video installation which consists of two side-by-side projections of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho
• Stan Douglas: Klatsassin – refashions Akira Kurosawa’s Rashomon, a tale of murder with a narrative told from four different viewpoints, as a western rooted in the historical context of the Gold Rush and the annexation of land along Canada’s west coast
• Perry Bard: Man With a Movie Camera: The Global Remake – a participatory video shot by people around the world who are invited to record images that re-interpret Dziga Vertov’s Man With a Movie Camera
• Ming Wong: In Love for the Mood – inspired by Wong Kar-wai’s meditation on love and infidelity In the Mood for Love, a Caucasian actress plays both the leading man and woman attempting to deliver the lines in Cantonese

Source: TIFF Press Release

Ticket package sales go on sale this Monday, July 5 (for Visa cardholders only) and many fans are already waiting for TIFF 2010 to begin. With less than 70 days to the film festival, we’ve decided to compile a list of films that might be playing this year. Our list is mainly based on unconfirmed reports from online sources (news sites, blogs, Twitter, IMDb, etc.), as well as trends in film selection from previous years. Let’s start with the strongest candidates…

CANNES 2010 WINNERS
Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (Palme d’Or Winner)
Directed by: Apichatpong Weerasethakul
United Kingdom, Thailand, France, Germany, Spain
On his deathbed, Uncle Boonmee, recalls his many past lives.

Of Gods and Men (Grand Prix Winner)
Directed by: Xavier Beauvois
France
A drama about Cistercian monks who stand up for their beliefs when confronted by fundamentalists.

On Tour (Award for Best Director)
Directed by: Mathieu Amalric
France
A television producer returns home to France with a team of New Burlesque strip-tease performers with hopes to go on tour.

Poetry (Award for Best Screenplay)
Directed by: Lee Chang-dong
South Korea
A drama centered on a woman at the end of her life in search of new meaning.

Certified Copy (Award for Best Actress, Juliette Binoche)
Directed by: Abbas Kiarostami
France, Italy
A story of a meeting between one man and one woman, in a small Italian village in Southern Tuscany.

Biutiful (Award for Best Actor, Javier Bardem)
Directed by: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Spain, Mexico
A man involved in illegal dealing is confronted by his childhood friend, who is now a policeman.

Our Life (Award for Best Actor, Elio Germano)
Directed by: Daniele Luchetti
Italy, France
A dramatic event comes to upset the simple and happy life of a man and his wife.

A Screaming Man (Jury Prize)
Directed by: Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
France, Belgium, Chad
A pool attendant at a hotel in Chad is forced to give up his job to his son, and becomes socially humiliated.

Hahaha (Un Certain Regard Prize)
Directed by: Hong Sangsoo
South Korea
An aspiring filmmaker decides to move to Canada and reminisces with a film critic who he mets while on a trip.

October (Jury Prize – Un Certain Regard)
Directed by: Diego Vega, Daniel Vega
Peru, Venezuela, Spain
The story of a Lima loan shark who suddenly finds himself saddled with a baby.

The Lips (Un Certain Regard Award for Best Actress)
Directed by: Santiago Loza, Ivan Fund
Argentina
Three women travel to a distant place to do welfare work. The imposed group life gets more complex as they start to know each other and their relationship with the community grows.

Leap Year (Caméra d’Or Winner)
Directed by: Michael Rowe
Mexico
Laura lives deep in the melancholy of her troubled past in Oaxaca. Her solitary days pass until she decides to end it all. Laura meets Arturo who that will help her finish off the pain of her existence.

CANNES 2010 NON-WINNERS
Another Year
Directed by: Mike Leigh
UK
A story about a group of friends and relatives getting through the seasons of a tough year together.

Outrage
Directed by: Takeshi Kitano
Japan
In a ruthless battle for power, several yakuza clans vie for the favor of their head family in the Japanese underworld.

Aurora
Directed by: Cristi Puiu
Romania, France, Switzerland, Germany
42-year-old Viorel who is going through a gloomy period of life leads him to the point of killing without it being clear whether or not it’s his divorce or his conflict with loved ones provoking him to open fire.

Carancho
Directed by: Pablo Trapero
Argentina, Chile, France, South Korea
A love story between a lawyer and a doctor who meet on the street.

Film Socialisme
Directed by: Jean-Luc Godard
Switzerland
Multiple conversations between multiple languages among vacation passengers on a cruise liner in the Mediterranean.

I Wish I Knew
Directed by: Jia Zhangke
China, Netherlands
Focuses on the people, their stories and architecture spanning from the mid-1800s, when Shanghai was opened as a trading port, to the present day.

Heartbeats
Directed by: Xavier Dolan
Canada
The story of three close friends who are involved in a love-triangle.

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger
Directed by: Woody Allen
UK
The lives of a group of people whose passions, ambitions and anxieties force them all into assorted troubles that run the gamut from ludicrous to dangerous.

RETURNING DIRECTORS & ACTORS
Tree of Life
Directed by: Terrence Malick
USA
The story centers around a family with three boys in the 1950s.

Black Swan
Directed by: Darren Aronofsky
USA
A thriller that hones in on the relationship between a veteran ballet dancer and a rival.

Rabbit Hole
Directed by: John Cameron Mitchell
USA
Life for a happy couple is turned upside down after their young son dies in an accident. Based on a play by David Lindsay-Abaire.

127 Hours
Directed by: Danny Boyle
USA, UK
A mountain climber becomes trapped under a boulder while canyoneering alone near Moab, Utah and resorts to desperate measures in order to survive.

The Rum Diary
Directed by: Bruce Robinson
USA
Paul Kemp (Johnny Depp) is a freelance journalist who finds himself at a critical turning point in his life while writing for a run-down newspaper in the Caribbean.

London Boulevard
Directed by: William Monahan
USA, UK
In London, an ex-con (Colin Farrell) becomes involved with a reclusive actress (Keira Knightley).

The Social Network
Directed by: David Fincher
USA
A story about the founders of the social-networking website, Facebook.

Restless
Directed by: Gus Van Sant
USA
The story of a terminally ill teenage girl who falls for a boy who likes to attend funerals and their encounters with the ghost of a Japanese kamikaze pilot from WWII.

The Cave
Directed by: Werner Herzog
France
A documentary in 3-D about the earliest known cave paintings in southern France.

And Everything Is Going Fine
Directed by: Steven Soderbergh
USA
A documentary about the life of Spalding Gray.

The Debt
Directed by: John Madden
USA
In 1965, three young Israeli Mossad agents on a secret mission capture and kill a notorious Nazi war criminal.

Life Without Principle
Directed by: Johnnie To
Hong Kong
A hitman is hired to kill the kidnappers of a tycoon’s daughter.

The Assassin
Directed by: Hou Hsiao-hsien
Taiwan
Set in eighth century China, a female assassin looks to leave her profession behind, incurring the wrath of her mentor.

Zebraman 2: Attack on Zebra City
Directed by: Takashi Miike
Japan
Futuristic Tokyo has been transformed into a Zebra City, covered in black and white.

Let the Bullets Fly
Directed by: Jiang Wen
China
Bandit chief Jiang Wen, imposing as a mayor, meets tyrannical gentry Chow Yun-fat in a deadly battle of wit and brutality.

Miral
Directed by: Julian Schnabel
UK, Israel, France
A chronicle of Hind Husseini’s effort to establish an orphanage in Jerusalem after the 1948 partition of Palestine and the creation of the state of Israel.

The Next Three Days
Directed by: Paul Haggis
USA
A married couple’s life is turned upside down when the wife is accused of a murder.

Garbage in the Garden of Eden
Directed by: Fatih Akin
Germany
Villagers in Turkey’s Black Sea village of Camburnu struggle with the government’s decision to turn their community into a garbage dump.

Cirkus Columbia
Directed by: Danis Tanovic
Bosnia and Herzegovina, France, UK, Germany, Slovenia, Belgium, Serbia
A story set in the former Yugoslavia and centered on a guy who returns to Herzegovina from Germany with plenty of cash and hopes for a good new life.

Moving the Arts
Directed by: Atom Egoyan, Hal Hartley, Zhang Ke Jia, Laetitia Masson, Julio Medem, Christian Petzold
Germany

CANADIAN FILMS
Trigger
Directed by: Bruce McDonald
The story of two rock n’ roll women who once shared a friendship, a band and a whole lot of chaos.

Sight Unseen
Directed by: Ross Turnbull
Kitz Harrington aspires to become a secret service agent and acquires a digital eye chip, thinking it will help his career. Paranoia and trouble ensue.

Textuality
Directed by: Warren P. Sonoda
Two people attempt to get into a relationship, while exiting the multiple relationships they were each managing through their Blackberries before they met.

Anchor Baby
Directed by: Lonzo Nzekwe
An illegal immigrant couple have been ordered by the US immigration to leave the country, but the wife gives birth, guaranteeing citizenship for their child.