The First Wave of Toronto Film Festival Movies Includes a Ton of Awards Contenders

George Clooney. Melanie Laurent. Greta Gerwig. Angelina Jolie. What do these people have in common? (Besides, the fact that that they are, like, fabulously attractive obviously.) They’re all actors-turned-directors with new movies premiering at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival this fall.

TIFF announced their first wave of programming this morning, in the Gala and Special Presentations sections, and it’s an impressive lineup of films and filmmakers. In addition to the directors above, you’ve also got new films from Darren Aronofsky (mother!), Joe Wright (Darkest Hour), David Gordon Green (Stronger), and Guillermo del Toro (The Shape of Water). We’ve already reviewed a couple of the titles at Sundance, including Call Me By Your Name and Mudbound.

The full list is below; if there’s one single movie we’re most interested to see, though, it might be Martin McDonagh’s new comedy Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. TIFF 2017 runs September 7 through the 17, and ScreenCrush will be there to cover all the highlights.

Galas 2017
Breathe, directed by Andy Serkis
The Catcher Was a Spy, directed by Ben Lewin
C’est la vie!, directed by Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano (Closing Night Film)
Darkest Hour, directed by Joe Wright
Film Star Don’t Die in Liverpool, directed by Paul McGuigan
Kings, directed by Deniz Gamze Erguven
Long Time Running, directed by Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier
Mary Shelley, directed by Haifaa Al Mansour
The Mountain Between Us, directed by Hany Abu-Assad
Mudbound, directed by Dee Rees
Stronger, directed by David Gordon Green
Untitled Bryan Cranston/Kevin Hart Film, directed by Neil Burger
The Wife, directed by Bjorn Runge
Woman Walks Ahead, directed by Susanna White

Special Presentations
Battle of the Sexes, Directed by Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton
BPM (Beats Per Minute), directed by Robin Campillo
The Brawler, directed by Anurag Kashyap
The Breadwinner, directed by Nora Twomey
Call Me By Your Name, directed by Luca Guadagnino
Catch the Wind, directed by Gael Morel
The Children Act, directed by Richard Eyre
The Current War, directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon
Disobedience, directed by Sebastian Lelio
Downsizing, directed by Alexander Payne
A Fantastic Woman, directed by Sebastian Lelio
First They Killed My Father, directed by Angelina Jolie
The Guardians, directed by Xavier Beauvois
Hostiles, directed by Scott Cooper
The Hungry, directed by Bornila Chatterjee
I, Tonya, directed by Craig Gillespie
Lady Bird, directed by Greta Gerwig (Opening Night Film)
mother!, directed by Darren Aronofsky
Novitiate, directed by Maggie Betts
Omerta, directed by Hansal Mehta
Plonger, directed by Melanie Laurent
The Price of Success, directed by Teddy Lussi-Modeste
Professor Marston & the Wonder Women, directed by Angela Robinson
The Rider, directed by Chloe Zhao
A Season in France, directed by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
The Shape of Water, directed by Guillermo del Toro
Sheikh Jackson, directed by Amr Salama (Closing Film)
The Square, directed by Ruben Ostlund
Submergence, directed by Wim Wenders
Suburbicon, directed by George Clooney
Thelma, directed by Joachim Trier
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, directed by Martin McDonagh
Victoria and Abdul, directed by Stephen Frears