Kristoffer Borgli’s Dream Scenario comedy, starring Nicolas Cage with a hair transformation and Julianne Nicholson, has been announced as the opening film for the Platform competition program at the Toronto Film Festival. The film, directed by Borgli, also features Dylan Baker, Kate Berlant, Michael Cera, Dylan Gelula, and Tim Meadows. It will have its world premiere at the festival.
Dream Scenario is a surrealist satire-comedy that offers sharp and timely observations about social media culture, specifically the phenomenon of going viral and its impact on our daily interactions with others. Robyn Citizen, the director of programming and platform lead at TIFF, described the film as having some of Cage’s finest work. The film was selected as the opening film for the competitive sidebar by A24, the production company behind the project.
This year’s Platform competition program at TIFF will showcase 10 features with world premieres, focusing on international films outside the Hollywood studio orbit, competing for the Platform Prize. The lineup includes Tarsem Singh Dhandwar’s Dear Jassi from India, Kei Chika-ura’s Great Absence from Japan, and Ginevra Elkann’s I Told You So (Te l’avevo detto) from Italy. Elkann began her film career as an assistant director on Bernardo Bertolucci’s Besieged.
The jury responsible for selecting the Platform Prize winner consists of Barry Jenkins, the Oscar-winning director of Moonlight, Nadine Labaki, a Cannes and Toronto award winner, and Anthony Shim, whose film Riceboy Sleeps earned the Platform competition prize in Toronto last year. The jury will evaluate mostly foreign-language films from Europe, including Christian Sparkes’ The King Tide from Canada, Hannah Slak’s Not A Word (Kein Wort) from Germany/Slovenia/France, and Jaione Camborda’s The Rye Horn (O Corno) from Spain/Belgium/Portugal.
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One advantage of having mostly international films in the Platform competition program is that TIFF organizers can avoid the restrictions imposed by the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike on U.S. actors promoting upcoming studio and streaming titles at fall festivals. This allows the festival to focus on showcasing independent and foreign films without the need for a large presence of Hollywood A-listers.
The Toronto Film Festival is scheduled to take place from September 7 to 17. Additional lineup announcements will be made in the coming weeks, following the recent announcement of Gala and Special Presentations picks. However, the participation of Hollywood A-listers in the festival remains uncertain due to the ongoing actors and writers strikes in Hollywood. TIFF hopes that the strikes will be resolved before the festival begins, but they are prepared for the possibility of fewer U.S. celebrities attending and are ready to showcase their selection of U.S. acquisition titles to film buyers in the informal market.
In addition to Dream Scenario, the complete list of Platform competition contenders includes:
– Dear Jassi, directed by Tarsem Singh Dhandwar from India.
– Great Absence, directed by Kei Chika-ura from Japan.
– I Told You So (Te l’avevo detto), directed by Ginevra Elkann from Italy.
– The King Tide, directed by Christian Sparkes from Canada.
– Not A Word (Kein Wort), directed by Hannah Slak from Germany/Slovenia/France.
– The Rye Horn (O Corno), directed by Jaione Camborda from Spain/Belgium/Portugal.
– Sisterhood (HLM Pussy), directed by Nora El Hourch from France.
– Shame on Dry Land (Syndabocken), directed by Axel Petersén from Sweden.
– Spirit of Ecstasy (La Vénus d’argent), directed by Héléna Klotz from France.
The Platform competition at TIFF provides a platform for emerging and established directors to showcase their work and compete for recognition and awards. It is a valuable opportunity for filmmakers to gain international exposure and connect with industry professionals and audiences alike.
