Nicolas Cage’s ‘Dream Scenario’ to Open Toronto Film Fest Platform Competition
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Kristoffer Borgli’s Dream Scenario comedy, starring Nicolas Cage with a hair transformation and Julianne Nicholson, will open the Toronto Film Festival’s Platform competition program with a world premiere.
The latest film from the director of Cannes gem Sick of Myself also stars Dylan Baker, Kate Berlant, Michael Cera, Dylan Gelula and Tim Meadows, and is part of a competitive program of emerging and established directors headed to Toronto with world premieres.
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“This surrealist satire-comedy has sharp, timely observations about social media culture — especially going viral — and its impact on the way that we interact with others in our day-to-day life. Cage delivers some of his finest work,” Robyn Citizen, director, programming & platform lead at TIFF, said in a statement about choosing A24’s Dream Scenario as the opening film for the competitive sidebar.
Toronto unveiled 10 features with world premieres for the festival section where international films outside the Hollywood studio orbit compete. This year’s selection includes The Cell director Tarsem Singh Dhandwar’s Dear Jassi out of India; Kei Chika-ura’s Great Absence from Japan; and Italian director Ginevra Elkann, who began her film career as assistant director on Bernardo Bertolucci’s Besieged, brings her latest film, I Told You So (Te l’avevo detto).
The jury to pick the Platform Prize winner will be made up of Oscar winner Barry Jenkins (Moonlight), Cannes and Toronto award winner Nadine Labaki and Anthony Shim, whose film Riceboy Sleeps earned the 2022 Platform competition prize in Toronto.
The trio will also choose from mostly foreign-language film contenders out of Europe that include Christian Sparkes’ The King Tide thriller from Canada; Hannah Slak’s Not A Word (Kein Wort); Jaione Camborda’s The Rye Horn (O Corno); Sisterhood (HLM Pussy) by director Nora El Hourch; Shame on Dry Land (Syndabocken) by Swedish director Axel Petersén; and Atomic Age director Helena Klotz’s Spirit of Ecstasy (La Vénus d’argent).
With the under-the-radar Platform competition contenders being from outside the Hollywood majors system, TIFF organizers have been able to sidestep SAG-AFTRA strike restrictions on U.S. actors promoting upcoming studio and streamer titles at fall festivals amid the ongoing actors strike.
The Toronto Film Festival, which is set to run from Sept. 7 to 17, will make additional lineup announcements in the coming weeks after announcing a slew of Gala and Special Presentations picks last week.
It remains to be seen whether Hollywood A-listers will head to Canada or skip the 48th edition amid the Hollywood’s dual actors and writers strikes. Toronto is either looking to the actors strike to be over by Sept. 7, or the Canadian festival can do with far fewer U.S. celebrities on its red carpets this year to get a slew of U.S. acquisition titles in front of film buyers as part of its informal market.
A complete list of Platform competition contenders follows:
Dear Jassi, Tarsem Singh Dhandwar, India
Dream Scenario, Kristoffer Borgli, USA
Great Absence, Kei Chika-ura, Japan
I Told You So (Te l’avevo detto), Ginevra Elkann, Italy
The King Tide, Christian Sparkes, Canada
Not A Word (Kein Wort), Hanna Slak, Germany/Slovenia/France
The Rye Horn (O Corno), Jaione Camborda, Spain/Belgium/Portugal
Sisterhood (HLM Pussy), Nora El Hourch, France
Shame on Dry Land (Syndabocken), Axel Petersén, Sweden
Spirit of Ecstasy (La Vénus d’argent), Héléna Klotz, France
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