TIFF Hot List: Sydney Sweeney, Mads Mikkelsen and Pamela Anderson Films to Tempt Buyers in Toronto

Scott Roxborough and Mia Galuppo

Wed, September 4, 2024 at 8:30 PM UTC

7 min read

Hollywood's dual strikes last year impacted the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) the most, but this year's festival is expected to see a rebound in dealmaking and film premieres post-strike.
TIFF is launching a new market in 2026, funded by the Canadian government, to centralize buying and selling activities, which will test the strength of the post-strike bounce back in the coming years.
Some of the most anticipated titles at TIFF this year include films like "Back to Reality," "Eden," "The Deb," and "Father Mother Sister Brother," which are expected to attract significant market attention and sales.

At this time last year, picketers were walking outside of studio gates, still two months away from resolving Hollywood's dual strikes. Of the big festivals, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), with its focus on star-heavy independent projects, was hardest hit by the labor action, with empty red carpets turning much-hyped premieres into damp squibs. Heading into TIFF this year, Hollywood is contending with less uncertainty (M&A and cost-cutting aside) and release calendars have fewer holes as strike-halted productions have started to roll out again, all of which should be good news for dealmakers headed to TIFF.

"I think you're going to see things moving relatively quickly, especially given the languid pace that has pervaded film festival markets since COVID," says Kent Sanderson of Bleecker Street , who is bringing three titles to the fest while looking for new acquisitions. "If anything is going to slow the pace of film sales, it will be the volume of available films."

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Sundance pickups like Thelma have bolstered confidence in the North American specialty box office, while everyone is pointing to Neon title Longlegs as this year's gold standard of indie success.

Toronto has long been a spot where business gets done — major deals for the (unsuccessful) The Crow reboot and Anna Kendrick's directorial debut Woman of the Hour were inked at or just before TIFF last year — but unlike Cannes or Berlin, the festival has never had an official market where buyers and sellers can set up shop. Instead, U.S. and international film buyers and sellers networked and did business informally while circulating around the festival or in hotel rooms, rather than under one roof.

TIFF's new market — launching in 2026 and bankrolled by the Canadian government to the tune of $23 million over the next three years — will test the size and strength of the post-strike bounce back over the next several years. Many industry veterans are skeptical.

"From our perspective, Toronto is too soon after Cannes to have enough new projects to show buyers," says Susan Wendt, managing director of Scandinavian group TrustNordisk . "Fewer European buyers are going, and the Asian buyers have never been there in big numbers. So the focus likely will be on American and Canadian buyers."

So far, the titles on offer look promising, but the real test will be the size of the checks signed for finished films and packages. Here are some of the titles likely to attract the most market attention.

Back to Reality (working title)

DirectorAnders Thomas Jensen

StarsMads Mikkelsen, Nikolaj Lie Kaas

BuzzDanish director Anders Thomas Jensen reunites with the stars of his cult 2020 action comedy Riders of Justice for this new drama-crime-comedy mashup. Kaas plays a bank robber who needs the help of his traumatized brother (Mikkelsen) to recover his stolen loot. The only way to unlock his brother's memories is to return to their childhood home and start digging, physically and psychologically.

SalesTrustNordisk

Eden

DirectorRon Howard

StarsJude Law, Vanessa Kirby, Sydney Sweeney

BuzzWhile Howard's directing efforts have fallen flat with critics the last few years (see: Hillbilly Elegy ), the Oscar winner is still one of the most in-demand directors in Hollywood, especially when paired with an ensemble of multigenerational A-listers like Law and Sweeney. Daniel Brühl and Ana de Armas also star in this period thriller that forces together different personalities in the harsh wilderness of the Galapagos.

SalesCAA, AGC

The Deb

DirectorRebel Wilson

StarsRebel Wilson, Shane Jacobson, Tara Morice

BuzzThe directorial debut from the Pitch Perfect and Bridesmaids star is an Aussie musical comedy set in a small outback town that appears to have the energy to be a potential Muriel's Wedding or Strictly Ballroom -style indie breakout.

SALESWME

Friendship

DirectorAndrew DeYoung

StarsTim Robinson, Paul Rudd, Kate Mara

BuzzAudiences can expect the same style of cringe comedy from Robinson's uber popular Netflix sketch show I Think You Should Leave in this feature about a man in the suburbs who becomes obsessed with becoming buddies with his neighbor, played by Rudd.

SalesUTA, WME, Fifth Season

Father Mother Sister Brother

DirectorJim Jarmusch

StarsAdam Driver, Cate Blanchett, Vicky Krieps, Tom Waits, Charlotte Rampling

BuzzGiven the laconic director's enduring appeal among art house buyers and the film's all-star cast, there's certain to be a run on Jarmusch's first feature since 2019's The Dead Don't Die . The movie's plot focuses on the relationships between adult children and their somewhat distant parents.

SalesThe Match Factory

The Last Showgirl

DirectorGia Coppola

StarsPamela Anderson, Jamie Lee Curtis, Dave Bautista

BuzzAnderson is ripe for an onscreen comeback, and this dramatic role that is backed by the Coppola pedigree could be it. She stars as a veteran Las Vegas showgirl whose life is thrown into uncertainty as her workplace, one of the town's last traditional floor shows, announces its closure.

SalesCAA, Goodfellas, Utopia

The Life of Chuck

DirectorMike Flanagan

StarsTom Hiddelston, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan

BuzzThe title is not what audiences might expect from a Stephen King adaptation from the creative behind Haunting of Hill House and Midnight Mass . Instead, the film leans more Shawshank than The Shining , but with the bold-faced names behind the camera and several in front, it is likely to entice buyers.

SalesWME, FilmNation

The Mountain

DirectorRachel House

StarsElizabeth Atkinson, Terence Daniel, Reuben Francis

BuzzExecutive produced by Taika Waititi and his Jojo Rabbit and Hunt for the Wilderpeople producer Carthew Neal, this New Zealand adventure comedy, about three young people who set off on a spiritual quest, is already a box office hit down under and should be able to win over TIFF buyers as well as festival audiences.

SalesUpgrade Production

Night Comes

DirectorJay Hernandez

StarsDafne Keen, Samantha Lorraine

BuzzHot off her cameo in Deadpool & Wolverine , Logan breakout Keen headlines this survivor horror thriller alongside Lorraine (Netflix's You are So Not Invited to My BatMitzvah ), playing sisters who survive a cataclysmic event only to find themselves tasked with a mission to save all humanity from destruction. Suicide Squad actor Hernandez directs in his feature debut.

SalesThe Exchange, Impossible Dream Entertainment

Nutcrackers

DirectorDavid Gordon Green

StarsBen Stiller, Linda Cardellini

BuzzStiller's return to acting opens the fest and sees him star as a real estate developer who, after his sister's death, is put in charge of her four boys and farm in rural Ohio. After a streak of horror films, Gordon Green directs what he has called an homage to the Bad News Bears at a time when streamers are asking for more family-centric comedy content.

SalesUTA

On Swift Horses

DirectorDaniel Minahan

StarsDaisy Edgar-Jones, Jacob Elordi, Will Poulter

BuzzA hot young cast, headlined by Normal People alum Edgar-Jones, Poulter of Midsommar and Euphoria star Elordi should spice up the sales potential for this period drama, set in the American West in the 1950s with themes that echo both Revolutionary Road and Brokeback Mountain .

SalesUTA

Sharp Corner

DirectorJason Buxton

StarsBen Foster, Cobie Smulders, Gavin Drea

Buzz Hell or High Water and Leave No Trace star Foster plays a dedicated family man who becomes obsessed with saving the lives of car accident victims in this psychological thriller that could appeal to genre buyers, both domestic and global.

SalesNeon International, Range Media Partners

Shell

DirectorMax Minghella

StarsElisabeth Moss, Kate Hudson, Kaia Gerber

BuzzMinghella directs his Handmaid's Tale co-star in an homage to slasher films of the '80s and '90s that follows a talented but under-cast actress (Moss) who agrees to buy into fountain-of-youth style beauty treatment peddled by a suspicious beauty CEO. Genre films have had a great year at the specialty box office, leaving distributors looking for high-end horror. Shell could fill that niche.

SalesWME, CAA

This story first appeared in the Sept. 4 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe .

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