The 43rd Toronto International Film Festival kicks off September 6, 2018, and this year there are more exciting films and celebrities attending than ever before. Melissa McCarthy, Jake Gyllenhaal, Julia Roberts, Ryan Gosling, Lady Gaga, Bradley Cooper, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jesse Eisenberg, Alexander Skarsgård, Hugh Jackman, Hilary Swank, and Penelope Cruz are just some of the stars expected to walk the red carpet.

Here are some of the most anticipated films at TIFF 2018:

TIFF 2018 Must-See Films

A Star Is Born

Bradley Cooper’s directorial debut tells the story of a seasoned musician who discovers — and falls in love with — a struggling artist (Lady Gaga). In this new take on the tragic love story, as her career takes off, he fights an ongoing battle with his own internal demons.

High Life

Former Twilight crush Robert Pattinson starts in French auteur Claire Denis’ first English-language film about a father and his daughter struggle to survive in deep space where they live in isolation. The sci-fi drama set in space also stars Juliette Binoche, Mia Goth, and André Benjamin.

Beautiful Boy

Based on the best-selling pair of memoirs from father and son David and Nic Sheff, Beautiful Boy chronicles the heartbreaking and inspiring experience of survival, relapse, and recovery in a family coping with addiction over many years. The English-language debut from Felix Van Groeningen stars Steve Carell and Timothée Chalamet.

The Old Man and the Gun

Robert Redford and Sissy Spacek lead an all-star cast, including Danny Glover, Tom Waits, and Elisabeth Moss, and Casey Affleck, in director David Lowery’s true-life dramedy about an unrepentant bank robber and jail-breaker determined to live life by his own rules.

Sharkwater Extinction

The last documentary made by the late Toronto-based filmmaker Rob Stewart will have its world premiere as a special event at this year’s TIFF. The film of Stewart’s adventure to save the world’s greatest predator was completed after his accidental drowning death during production.

Green Book

Award-winning actors Mahershala Ali and Viggo Mortensen star in this engrossing story of a working-class Italian-American bouncer who takes a job chauffeuring an African American classical pianist across the American South in the 1960s.

The Frontrunner

Jason Reitman (Tully, Up in the Air) directs Hugh Jackman, Vera Fermiga, and J.K Simmons in this biopic about U.S. Senator Gary Hart’s 1988 presidential campaign and his scandalous affair that derailed it.

Widows

Four armed robbers (Liam Neeson, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Jon Bernthal, and Garret Dillahunt) are killed in a failed heist attempt, only to have their widows (Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, Elizabeth Debicki, and Cynthia Erivo) step up to finish the job.

What They Had

Hilary Swank, Blythe Danner, Robert Forster, and Michael Shannon star in this intimate family drama about a woman who returns to Chicago to her mother now suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, while also grappling with her own past.

Ben is Back

Ben Is Back follows the charming yet troubled Ben Burns (Lucas Hedges), who returns home to his unsuspecting family one fateful Christmas Eve. Ben’s wary mother Holly Burns (Julia Roberts) welcomes her beloved son’s return, but soon learns he is still very much in harm’s way. During the 24 hours that may change their lives forever, Holly must do everything in her power to avoid the family’s downfall.

Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Can You Ever Forgive Me? is an upcoming biographical comedy-drama film directed by Marielle Heller and written by Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty, based on Lee Israel’s memoir of the same name and starring Melissa McCarthy and Richard E. Gran

Life Itself

As a young New York couple go from college romance to marriage and the birth of their first child, the unexpected twists of their journey create reverberations that echo over continents and through lifetimes. This romantic comedy is written, directed and produced by smash TV hit This is Us’ Dan Fogelman, and features an impressive ensemble cast, including Oscar Isaac, Olivia Wilde, Annette Bening, Olivia Cooke, Mandy Patinkin, and Antonio Banderas.

The Hummingbird Project

A pair of high-frequency traders go up against their old boss in an effort to make millions in a fiber-optic cable deal. The thriller film by writer/director Kim Nguyen stars Jesse Eisenberg, Alexander Skarsgård and Salma Hayek.

Halloween

Jamie Lee Curtis’s Laurie Strode comes to her final confrontation with Michael Myers, the masked figure who has haunted her since she narrowly escaped his killing spree on Halloween night four decades ago.

Red Joan

Academy Award winner Judi Dench and Sophie Cookson take on the complex persona and legacy of Joan Stanley, the seemingly demure physicist who was also a long-serving British spy for the KGB. Red Joan is directed by theatre director Sir Trevor Nunn.

The Public

After learning that emergency shelters are at full capacity when a brutal Midwestern cold front makes its way to Cincinnati, Ohio, a large group of homeless library patrons led by Jackson (Michael Kenneth Williams) refuse to leave the downtown public library at closing time. Directed by Emilio Estevez, The Public also stars Alec Baldwin, Jena Malone, Christian Slater, Gabrielle Union, Taylor Schilling, Jacob Vargas.

First Man

After the Academy Award®-winning smash, La La Land, director Damien Chazelle and star Ryan Gosling reunite for First Man, a biopic on the riveting story of Neil Armstrong and NASA’s mission to land a man on the moon.

ENTER TO WIN

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*Complimentary ticket vouchers are not tickets, and must be exchanged for a ticket at the Venue or your Festival Box Office.

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Author

Maria Lianos-Carbone is the author of “Oh Baby! A Mom’s Self-Care Survival Guide for the First Year”, and publisher of amotherworld.com, a leading lifestyle blog for women.

56 Comments

  1. Wayne Roberts Reply

    I would love to see Fahrenheit 11/9.

    I think it is great you are doing this!!!

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