Toronto Film Festival 2022 Expecting “Full Houses” Says CEO With Star Power World Premieres: Jennifer Lawrence’s ‘Causeway’, Anya Taylor-Joy’s ‘The Menu’, Jessica Chastain’s ‘The Good Nurse’, Jonathan

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The Toronto International Film Festival is back this year. Seriously, they’re really back. Unlike last year which was a significantly quieter festival with fewer stars and feature films at a count of 130, this year TIFF will see the celebratory closing down of King Street (sans streetcars), full capacity maskless theaters, no proof of vaccinations, live press conferences, the return of concessions and orange shirt volunteers, as well as a robust curation of 260 feature films, of which today the fest announced 18 galas and 45 special presentations.

In a fall and holiday corridor at the domestic box office that’s chock-a-block full of adult counterprogramming primed for awards season, distributors require a TIFF launch now more than ever in order to generate buzz and stoke older moviegoers who are still slow to return during the pandemic.

A critically acclaimed film out of TIFF can propel a movie to cross-over to wider audiences, read the 2019 TIFF world premiere of Hustlers which became Jennifer Lopez’s highest grossing live-action movie stateside with $105M, and even the 2018 North American premiere of A Star Is Born which saw its way to a $215M-plus stateside gross, eight Oscars noms and one win. “There are movies that will launch on the heels of the festival, that I hope adult audiences will see and revive that moviegoing habit.

Thankfully that’s been done with the summer blockbusters. There’s a different kind of movie that launches in the fall, and we’re hoping audiences go and see them,” says TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey.