British films at Toronto 2016

7 September 2016

By Sam Wigley

Free Fire (2016)

Following a couple of bumper years, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) continues to show strong support for British cinema in 2016. Running 8-18 September, the 16th edition of TIFF offers a host of high-profile world and North American premieres across the programme. Let’s dive into the detail.

Galas

Four British films receive their world premieres as TIFF galas this year, with three out of four directed by women. Among these is the grand unveiling of A United Kingdom, which will also open the BFI London Film Festival in October. Backed by the BFI Film Fund, this is the new film from Amma Asante (Belle) and stars David Oyelowo and Rosamund Pike in the true story of the diplomatic crisis that ensues when the king of Bechuanaland (now Botswana) falls in love with a London office worker.

A United Kingdom (2016)

Also with its first bow is Their Finest, the latest film from Lone Scherfig (An Education, The Riot Club), which stars Gemma Arterton, Sam Claflin and Bill Nighy in a comic drama set in the world of propaganda filmmaking during the Blitz.

A Toronto native, Bronwen Hughes’ new film, meanwhile, is The Journey Is the Destination. A British-South African co-production, it’s a biopic charting the tragic but inspiring life of Kenyan activist and photojournalist Dan Eldon, who was killed by an angry mob in Mogadishu in 1993.

Their Finest (2016)

Rounding out the British galas is the concert documentary The Rolling Stones Olé Olé Olé!:A Trip across Latin America. Directed by music video and documentary maker Paul Dugdale, it follows Mick Jagger and co on their early 2016 tour including shows in Chile, Argentina and Cuba.

Special presentations

A dozen UK films or co-productions receive special presentations at this year’s TIFF, which include North American premieres for two highly acclaimed Cannes favourites: Andrea Arnold’s freewheeling road movie American Honey, starring Sasha Lane and Shia Labeouf, and Ken Loach’s passionate welfare-state drama I, Daniel Blake, winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes this year. Both films are due for release in the UK in October, with British audiences getting their first glimpse of American Honey at this year’s LFF.

American Honey (2016)

Like these two, both City of Tiny Lights and Trespass against Us received backing from the BFI Film Fund. Featuring Riz Ahmed and Billie Piper, City of Tiny Lights is a London-set noir thriller from the director of Dredd, Pete Travis, while Trespass against Us stars Brendan Gleeson and Michael Fassbender as father and son in a powerful brood of gangsters. Family ties are also to the fore in Brotherhood, the third in Noel Clarke’s trilogy of urban dramas started with Kidulthood (2006) and Adulthood (2008).

Starring Timothy Spall and Colm Meaney, Nick Hamm’s The Journey dramatises the negotiations for the 2006 St Andrews Agreement in Northern Ireland. There’s another title for Bill Nighy fans with The Limehouse Golem, featuring Nighy as a Victorian-era detective investigating a spate of killings in east London. Christopher Plummer takes centre stage as Kaiser Wilhelm II in the historical drama The Exception, while Rooney Mara stars in revenge drama Una, based on David Harrower’s play Blackbird.

Una (2016)

There’s British involvement too in Nocturnal Animals, a new thriller from Tom Ford (A Single Man) that’s received rave reviews since its premiere at Venice; Brimstone, a brooding frontier tale starring Guy Pearce and Dakota Fanning which will play in competition at LFF in October; and Denial, a US/UK courtroom drama with Rachel Weisz and Timothy Spall.

Midnight Madness

Midnight Madness is TIFF’s slot for thrills, spooks and gore, and this year genre fans should be cooing over the world premiere of the new Ben Wheatley. A year after High-Rise saw its big reveal at TIFF, the ever-prolific Wheatley is back in Toronto with Free Fire, a loud, rude and hugely fun action thriller about a weapons deal that goes ever so wrong in an empty warehouse. Backed by the BFI and also the Closing Night Gala at this year’s LFF, it’s written – as ever – in partnership with Amy Jump and features an ensemble cast of familiar faces including Brie Larson, Armie Hammer and Cillian Murphy.

The Autopsy of Jane Doe (2016)

This section also presents a North American premiere for post-apocalyptic drama The Girl with All the Gifts, which goes on release in the UK on 23 September, and a world premiere for the US/UK co-production The Autopsy of Jane Doe, by all accounts a treat for those with strong constitutions, from the director of Troll Hunter. This one is also this year’s Cult Gala at LFF.

TIFF Docs

Four documentaries with British financing feature this year: The Sixth Beatle tells the story of Liverpudlian Sam Leach, who played an intrinsic part in helping to launch the Fab Four during their early club-circuit days; Into the Inferno is a new documentary from Werner Herzog taking a tour of the world’s volcanoes; Maya Zinshtein’s Forever Pure takes the filmmaker inside Jerusalem’s Beitar football club; and India in a Day is the latest in the Ridley Scott-produced series of films offering portraits of a nation through crowd-sourced footage shot on a single day.

Shorts

British shorts screening at TIFF include The White Helmets (Orlando von Einsiedel), Night Dancing (Barney Cokeliss), In the Hills (Hami Ahmadi), Standby (Charlotte Regan), Your Mother and I (Anna Maguire) and A Brief History of Princess X (Gabriel Abrantes).

Elsewhere

A year after his Sunset Song first screened at TIFF, Terence Davies is honoured with a slot in the Masters section for his new Emily Dickinson biopic A Quiet Passion, which stars Cynthia Nixon as the New England poet.

A Quiet Passion (2016)

There’s also a fine, more unhinged period drama in Lady Macbeth, loosely based on the Russian novella Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk District and screening in the Platform strand. The debut feature by William Oldroyd (and up for the First Feature prize come LFF time), it stars Florence Pugh as an unhappily married young bride in 19th-century Northumberland.

Another British directorial debut generating buzz is The Levelling, a rural drama set in modern-day Somerset that sees Hope Dickson Leach move from shorts to features. The Levelling screens in the festival’s Discovery section, before it too competes for the LFF’s First Feature award. Both Lady Macbeth and The Levelling were developed with the support of the BFI, BBC Films and Creative England through iFeatures.

The Levelling (2016)

Also in Platform is Jackie, a new film from Chilean master Pablo Larraín, examining the lead up to the assassination of John F. Kennedy through the eyes of his wife, Jackie (played in the film by Natalie Portman).

Dark and edgy material is profiled in TIFF’s Vanguard section, which this year features two British titles: Prevenge sees Sightseers’ Alice Lowe take on directing, writing and starring, while Message from the King is a revenge thriller from Belgian director Fabrice Du Welz. Meanwhile, the even further out stuff finds a home in the experimental Wavelengths strand, which will unveil Sophie Michael’s The Watershow Extravaganza and Manuela de Laborde’s As Without So Within.

Talking of dark and edgy, TIFF-goers won’t want to miss a sneak glimpse at the third series of Charlie Brooker’s dystopian satire Black Mirror, with a two-episode taster screening in the festival’s Primetime slot.

Films backed by the BFI Film Fund

A United Kingdom
American Honey
City of Tiny Lights
Trespass against Us
I, Daniel Blake
Free Fire
The Girl with All the Gifts
Lady Macbeth
The Levelling

Films also screening at the 60th BFI London Film Festival

A United Kingdom
Free Fire
Nocturnal Animals
Their Finest
The Autopsy of Jane Doe
American Honey
Brimstone
A Quiet Passion
Una
Lady Macbeth
The Levelling
City of Tiny Lights
Trespass against Us
Prevenge
Black Mirror

BFI Player logo

All-you-can-watch access to 100s of films

A free trial, then just £4.99/month or £49/year.

Get free trial

Other things to explore

news

38th BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival wraps with audiences up, global talent attendance and 5 world premieres

38th BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival wraps with audiences up, global talent attendance and 5 world premieres
news

Melanie Hoyes appointed as BFI Director of Inclusion

Melanie Hoyes appointed as BFI Director of Inclusion
news

First call for projects tackling critical challenges for UK screen sector

First call for projects tackling critical challenges for UK screen sector