Yeah, we knew the program would be smaller, but the Toronto International Film Festival surprised everyone today by saying that only 50 films would be featured in their 2020 lineup - a drastic reduction from the usual 300+ films that screened at the Canadian festival last year.
All P&I screenings will be digital.
That being said, the in-person portion of the festival (if it happens) will only take place during the first five days, with social-distancing measures in place. Various sections, such as Wavelengths and Midnight Madness, will still be happening.
A number of "Cannes 2020" labeled films are still waiting to see if they were accepted to TIFF, and that makes sense now, with such a limited number of slots. They announced four today, and it’ll be interesting to see how many more will end up being taken in.
The "World Premieres" announced today:
Ammonite, (Francis Lee)
Another Round, (Thomas Vinterberg)
Bruised, (Halle Berry)
Concrete Cowboy (Ricky Staub)
Fauna, (Nicolás Pereda)
Good Joe Bell, (Reinaldo Marcus Green)
Spring Blossom (Suzanne Lindon)
True Mothers (Naomi Kawase)
A surprise omission today, Wes Anderson’s “The French Dispatch.” The two big titles you should look out for here are “Ammonite,” and “Spring Blossom,” both were supposed to be at Cannes and the buzz on them has been substantially significant.
The venues won’t be crowded and it looks like TIFF will be playing it very safe with this edition, downgrading their lineup to the just 1/6 of the usual amount of films. I expect a combination of Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes titles along with very few world premieres/gala presentations.