TIFF reveals eclec­tic Plat­form Com­pe­ti­tion line-up for 2019

Less than a month sep­a­rates us from the kick­off of this year’s Toron­to Inter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val, and the antic­i­pa­tion only con­tin­ues to mount. The pow­ers that be have already revealed the line­ups for the big-tick­et Gala Pre­sen­ta­tions and Spe­cial Pre­sen­ta­tions sec­tions, but today brings a fresh wave of excite­ment as they unveil the Plat­form selec­tions as well.

Each year, the cho­sen Plaform films mix a few name-brand direc­tors with a ros­ter of vision­ary-if-less-well-known tal­ents; TIFF head hon­cho Cameron Bai­ley likens the sec­tion to the Director’s Fort­night at Cannes. This year, the num­ber shrinks from 12 to 10, and goes light on the Amer­i­can filmmakers.

Julie Delpy gets back behind the cam­era once again for My Zoe, a ​“sus­pense dra­ma” about a moth­er on the edge pur­port­ed­ly far removed from the usu­al fizzi­ness of her direc­to­r­i­al work. She’s joined in the sec­tion by a hand­ful of women con­tribut­ing to TIFF’s efforts to reach gen­der par­i­ty across their pro­gram­ming: Alice Winocour is set to unveil Prox­i­ma, in which Eva Green plays an astro­naut prepar­ing for the voy­age of a life­time; Sarah Gavron is bring­ing Rocks, a teenage girl’s com­ing-of-age sto­ry; and Paula Hernán­dez will show The Sleep­walk­ers, a par­al­lel-tracks nar­ra­tive fol­low­ing a moth­er and daugh­ter on sep­a­rate journeys.

From Sin­ga­pore comes Antho­ny Chen’s Wet Sea­son, a dra­ma track­ing the bond between a teacher and stu­dent, and by way of Italy, TIFF land­ed Pietro Marcello’s Jack Lon­don adap­ta­tion Mar­tin Eden. Mex­i­co brings us Work­force, a direc­to­r­i­al debut from David Zonana chron­i­cling a deceased con­struc­tion worker’s rel­a­tives seek­ing jus­tice for his acci­den­tal death.

Per­haps the most intrigu­ing selec­tion of all is Sound of Met­al, from fel­low first-timer Dar­ius Marder, best known for writ­ing The Place Beyond the Pines. The 140-minute whop­per stars Riz Ahmed as a heavy met­al drum­mer slow­ly los­ing his hear­ing and accord­ing­ly hav­ing a think about what his future holds. The pro­mo­tion­al image depicts Ahmed with a shock of bleached-blonde hair, in true Efron­ian fashion.

That leaves Uruguayan eco­nom­ic thriller The Mon­ey­chang­er from Fed­eri­co Veiroj, and the oblig­a­tory ​“Can-con” (that’s Cana­di­an con­tent, for the unhip) Anne at 13,000 Feet, from TIFF’s home­town hero Kazik Rad­wan­s­ki. The film focus­es on a girl named Anne, played in what the pro­mo copy calls ​“one of the year’s most stag­ger­ing per­for­mances” by Der­agh Camp­bell, as she’s chal­lenged by social and pro­fes­sion­al mores.

There’s still more to come – give us the Mid­night Mad­ness selec­tions, we crave them – but what’s for cer­tain is that the next three weeks will go by at an ago­niz­ing pace. See you all in parts north.

The 44^th annu­al Toron­to Inter­na­tion­al Film Fes­ti­val will take place from 5 – 15 Sep­tem­ber. For more info head to tiff​.net