Col Needham's Top 20 Toronto Picks for 2021
by Col Needham | created - 27 Aug 2021 | updated - 05 Sep 2021 | PublicI am the Founder and CEO of IMDb and these are the 20 movies which I am most looking forward to seeing at the Toronto International Film Festival. The list is in alphabetical order as it hard enough to pick only 20, let alone rank them! Unfortunately due to the pandemic I am unable to travel to Toronto so I will be watching virtually from home again.
The scope of the festival and the quality makes it difficult to select 20 and these are all taken from my longer TIFF Interest List which contains nearly 100 movies.
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1. Ali & Ava (2021)
Not Rated | 95 min | Drama, Romance
Ali and Ava, both lonely for different reasons, meet and sparks fly. Over a lunar month a deep connection begins to grow, despite the legacy of Ava's past relationship, and Ali's emotional turmoil at the breakdown of his marriage.
Director: Clio Barnard | Stars: Adeel Akhtar, Claire Rushbrook, Macy Shackleton, Shaun Thomas
Votes: 3,026
2. Belfast (2021)
PG-13 | 98 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
A young boy and his working-class Belfast family experience the tumultuous late 1960s.
Director: Kenneth Branagh | Stars: Jude Hill, Lewis McAskie, Caitríona Balfe, Jamie Dornan
Votes: 92,138
3. Bergman Island (2021)
R | 112 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
A couple retreat to the island that inspired Ingmar Bergman to write screenplays for their upcoming films when the lines between reality and fiction start to blur.
Director: Mia Hansen-Løve | Stars: Vicky Krieps, Tim Roth, Mia Wasikowska, Anders Danielsen Lie
Votes: 9,881
4. Dear Evan Hansen (2021)
PG-13 | 137 min | Drama, Musical
Film adaptation of the Tony and Grammy Award-winning musical about Evan Hansen, a high-school senior with social anxiety disorder, and his journey of self-discovery and acceptance after a classmate's suicide.
Director: Stephen Chbosky | Stars: Ben Platt, Julianne Moore, Kaitlyn Dever, Amy Adams
Votes: 18,564
5. Dune (2021)
PG-13 | 155 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
A noble family becomes embroiled in a war for control over the galaxy's most valuable asset while its heir becomes troubled by visions of a dark future.
Director: Denis Villeneuve | Stars: Timothée Chalamet, Rebecca Ferguson, Zendaya, Oscar Isaac
Votes: 848,671 | Gross: $108.33M
6. The Electrical Life of Louis Wain (2021)
PG-13 | 111 min | Biography, Drama, History
English artist Louis Wain rises to prominence at the end of the 19th century for his surreal cat paintings that seemed to reflect his declining sanity.
Director: Will Sharpe | Stars: Benedict Cumberbatch, Claire Foy, Andrea Riseborough, Toby Jones
Votes: 20,392
7. The Eyes of Tammy Faye (2021)
PG-13 | 126 min | Biography, Drama, Romance
An intimate look at the extraordinary rise, fall and redemption of televangelist Tammy Faye Bakker.
Director: Michael Showalter | Stars: Jessica Chastain, Andrew Garfield, Cherry Jones, Vincent D'Onofrio
Votes: 38,878
8. Encounter (III) (2021)
R | 108 min | Drama, Sci-Fi, Thriller
Two brothers embark on a journey with their father, who is trying to protect them from an alien threat.
Director: Michael Pearce | Stars: Riz Ahmed, Octavia Spencer, Lucian-River Chauhan, Aditya Geddada
Votes: 10,962
9. The Forgiven (III) (2021)
R | 117 min | Drama
A fatal accident disrupts the lives of Western visitors to a lavish party in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco, and will ultimately lead to a reckoning in the desert.
Director: John Michael McDonagh | Stars: Aissam Taamart, Omar Ghazaoui, David McSavage, Anas El Baz
Votes: 9,148
10. The Guilty (2021)
R | 90 min | Crime, Drama, Thriller
A demoted police officer assigned to a call dispatch desk is conflicted when he receives an emergency phone call from a kidnapped woman.
Director: Antoine Fuqua | Stars: Jake Gyllenhaal, Riley Keough, Peter Sarsgaard, Christina Vidal
Votes: 148,440
11. Huda's Salon (2021)
R | 91 min | Drama, Thriller
A woman whose visit to a hair salon turns into a nightmare when she is blackmailed by its owner.
Director: Hany Abu-Assad | Stars: Maisa Abd Elhadi, Ali Suliman, Manal Awad, Jalal Masarwa
Votes: 1,172
12. Last Night in Soho (2021)
R | 116 min | Drama, Horror, Mystery
Aspiring fashion designer Eloise is mysteriously able to enter the 1960s, where she encounters dazzling wannabe singer Sandie. But the glamour is not as it seems, and the dreams of the past crack and splinter into something darker.
Director: Edgar Wright | Stars: Thomasin McKenzie, Anya Taylor-Joy, Matt Smith, Diana Rigg
Votes: 176,432
13. Maria Chapdelaine (2021)
158 min | Drama
Maria, teen of a pioneer family in Québec, is coming of age and a few young men show interest. The «coureur des bois» is her prefered, then the city man, and the neighbour establishing his own farm. Events will help her decide her future.
Director: Sébastien Pilote | Stars: Sara Montpetit, Sébastien Ricard, Hélène Florent, Antoine Olivier Pilon
Votes: 346
14. Mothering Sunday (I) (2021)
R | 104 min | Drama, Romance
Director: Eva Husson | Stars: Odessa Young, Josh O'Connor, Colin Firth, Olivia Colman
Votes: 4,495
15. Silent Night (I) (2021)
Not Rated | 92 min | Comedy, Drama
Nell, Simon, and their 3 sons are ready to welcome friends and family for what promises to be a perfect Christmas gathering. Perfect except for one thing: everyone is going to die.
Director: Camille Griffin | Stars: Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Roman Griffin Davis, Annabelle Wallis
Votes: 19,927
16. Sundown (I) (2021)
R | 82 min | Drama
Neil and Alice Bennett are the core of a wealthy family on vacation in Mexico until a distant emergency cuts their trip short. When one relative disrupts the family's tight-knit order, simmering tensions rise to the fore.
Director: Michel Franco | Stars: Tim Roth, Albertine Kotting McMillan, Samuel Bottomley, Charlotte Gainsbourg
Votes: 6,635
17. Spencer (2021)
R | 117 min | Biography, Drama
Diana Spencer, struggling with mental-health problems during her Christmas holidays with the Royal Family at their Sandringham estate in Norfolk, England, decides to end her decade-long marriage to Prince Charles.
Director: Pablo Larraín | Stars: Kristen Stewart, Timothy Spall, Sally Hawkins, Jack Nielen
Votes: 76,502
18. Titane (2021)
R | 108 min | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi
Following a series of unexplained crimes, a father is reunited with the son who has been missing for ten years.
Director: Julia Ducournau | Stars: Vincent Lindon, Agathe Rousselle, Garance Marillier, Laïs Salameh
Votes: 55,998
19. The Tsugua Diaries (2021)
102 min | Drama
Follows Crista, Carloto and João who are building an airy greenhouse for butterflies in the garden and share household routines, but they are not the only ones.
Directors: Maureen Fazendeiro, Miguel Gomes | Stars: Crista Alfaiate, Carloto Cotta, João Nunes Monteiro
Votes: 578
20. The Worst Person in the World (2021)
R | 128 min | Comedy, Drama, Romance
The chronicles of four years in the life of Julie, a young woman who navigates the troubled waters of her love life and struggles to find her career path, leading her to take a realistic look at who she really is.
Director: Joachim Trier | Stars: Renate Reinsve, Anders Danielsen Lie, Herbert Nordrum, Hans Olav Brenner
Votes: 97,117
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