Hollywood Reporter: Toronto: Netflix’s ‘Alias Grace,’ Judy Greer’s ‘Public Schooled’ Added to Lineup
Canadian films starring Sandra Oh, Missy Peregrym and Geena Davis also nab TIFF slots.
Netflix’s Margaret Atwood drama Alias Grace, starring Anna Paquin and Sarah Gadon, is headed to the Toronto International Film Festival, organizers said Wednesday.
‘Public Schooled’
Director Mary Harron’s six-hour miniseries, based on the story of convicted murderer Grace Marks and Atwood’s best-seller, will screen in Toronto as part of its Primetime showcase of TV shows, ahead of the show’s global launch Nov. 3 on Netflix. TIFF also unveiled another 26 Canadian features for its Sept. 7-17 run.
Titles set for the contemporary world cinema sidebar include Kyle Rideout’s Public Schooled, toplined by Judy Greer; the Geena Davis-starrer Don’t Talk to Irene, a high school misfit comedy by director Pat Mills; Mina Shum’s Meditation Park, with Sandra Oh in the lead; and Adam MacDonald’s Pyewacket, starring Missy Peregrym and Laurie Holden.
House of Cards star Molly Parker will also screen in Toronto her short film directorial debut, Bird. Amanda Plummer and Clair Coulter star in the drama Parker wrote and directed about a despairing woman who find’s her mother’s lost canary and, with the bird in hand, hope.
The festival will also feature world premiere screenings for Tarique Qayumi’s Black Kite, a Canada-Afghanistan co-production that mixes animation, documentary and live action; Ingrid Veninger’s Porcupine Lake; Robin Aubert’s zombie flick Les Affames; and Simon Lavoie’s The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches.
Oscar nominee Kim Nguyen’s Eye on Juliet, a love story that stars Joe Cole and is set to debut in Venice, will get a North American bow in the special presentations sidebar. In other programs, Alanis Obomsawin’s Our People Will Be Healed has been added to the masters section, while the TIFF docs sidebar has booked Sean Menard’s The Carter Effect, about NBA star Vince Carter playing in Toronto; Matt Embry’s MS film Living Proof; and Alan Zweig’s There is a House Here.
The 2017 Toronto International Film Festival kicks off Sept. 7 with the Shia LaBeouf-starrer Borg/McEnroe, and closes Sept. 17 with C’est La Vie!, by directors Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano.