The Toronto film festival today offered audiences a glimpse of the future, as it unveiled a list of premieres which reads like a dry run for next year's Oscars ceremony.
Among the 13 galas and 52 special presentations revealed is The Fifth Estate, the drama based partly on the book about WikiLeaks by Guardian journalists David Leigh and Luke Harding, which will open this year's festival. The drama, directed by Bill Condon, stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Julian Assange with Daniel Brühl, David Thewlis, Stanley Tucci, Laura Linney and Dan Stevens in supporting roles. Peter Capaldi plays the Guardian's editor, Alan Rusbridger.
The film is one of three world premieres starring Cumberbatch at the festival, which runs from 5 - 15 September. The others are both Weinstein Company productions. Firstly, August: Osage County, an adaptation of Tracy (Killer Joe) Letts' Pulitzer prize-winning play, co-starring Meryl Streep, Julia Roberts and Ewan McGregor. And secondly, 12 Years a Slave, Steve McQueen's followup to Shame, with Chiwetel Ejiofor as a real-life free man kidnapped in 1841 and sold into slavery in Louisiana. Cumberbatch is the plantation owner who buys him; Michael Fassbender and Brad Pitt co-star. Ejiofor also takes the lead in Half of a Yellow Sun, based on the Nigeria-set novel by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.
Other key contenders getting their first airing in Canada include the Weinsteins' Nelson Mandela biopic, A Long Walk to Freedom, starring Idris Elba and Crash director Paul Haggis's Third Person, an ensemble love story with Liam Neeson, Maria Bello, James Franco and Mila Kunis.
Kate Winslet makes a return to the spotlight with Labor Day, an adaptation by Jason Reitman of the Joyce Maynard bestseller about a depressed single mother who takes in a convict (played by Josh Brolin). James Van Der Beek and Tobey Maguire co-star.
Keira Knightley also takes on her first lead since last autumn with Can A Song Save Your Life? a drama from Once's John Carney about the romance between a dejected music executive (Mark Ruffalo) and a young singer-songwriter (Knightley) in New York. Catherine Keener, Yasiin Bey (aka Mos Def), Adam Levine, CeeLo Green and James Corden have supporting roles.
Cordon takes the lead in One Chance, about the rise of Britain's Got Talent star Paul Potts, which was presented as part of the Weinstein's showreel at Cannes, and is also being spoken of as an awards contender. Julie Walters plays his mum. Yasiin Bey, meanwhile, can also be seen in the closing night film, Life of Crime, an Elmore Leonard adaptation co-staring Isla Fisher and Jennifer Aniston.
Toronto has traditionally been a popular premiere destination for British directors; Richard Ayoade's Submarine premiered at the festival three years ago, and his new film, The Double, looks set to be one of the most eagerly-anticipated titles. A loose adaptation of the Dostoyevsky novel of the same name, it stars Jesse Eisenberg, Mia Wasikowska and Submarine's Noah Taylor, and concerns a man driven to insanity by his doppelganger.
The Invisible Woman, Ralph Fiennes' take on the Claire Tomalin biography of Charles Dickens's lover, Nelly Ternan, also opens in Toronto. Fiennes directs and stars, Felicity Jones is Nelly, Kristin Scott Thomas her mother and Tom Hollander plays Wilkie Collins.
Roger Michell showed Hyde Park on Hudson at the festival last year, this year he's back with Le Weekend, about a married couple (Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan) who attempt to rekindle their marriage in Paris. David Mackenzie's Starred Up is about a violent teen (Jack O'Connell) transferred to prison where he meets his father.
Toronto also sees the return of Amma Asante, the British director behind the Bafta-winning Way of Life. Belle is about Dido Elizabeth Belle, the daughter of a British admiral and a slave; Tom Wilkinson and Emily Watson are the couple who raise her. Gugu Mbatha-Raw stars as Belle herself.
Then there's All Is By My Side, the long-awaited Jimi Hendrix biopic that stars Outkast musician Andre "3000" Benjamin as the legendary guitarist. It's written and directed by John Ridley, the writer of David O Russell's Three Kings. Tom Dunlea and Oliver Bennett play the other two-thirds of The Jimi Hendrix Experience - drummer Mitch Mitchell and bass player Noel Redding. Skeletons star Andrew Buckley is their manager, Chas Chandler, while Hayley Atwell will play Hendrix's long-term girlfriend, Kathy Etchingham.
Other titles confirmed today include Dallas Buyers Club, the true-life tale of an HIV-sufferer's battles with the medical establishment in 1980s Texas. The shoot was the cause of Matthew McConaughey's dramatic weight loss last year; he takes the lead with Jennifer Garner as his doctor. Tiff-favourite Atom Egoyan's dramatisation of the case of the West Memphis Three, Devil's Knot, stars Reese Witherspoon as the mother of one of the murdered boys and Colin Firth as a private investigator
Firth also stars in The Railway Man, based on the autobiography of Eric Lomax, a British officer sent to a prisoner of war camp in Singapore where he worked on the Thai-Burma railway. Stellan Skarsgard plays his best friend, Nicole Kidman his wife; Jeremy Irvine the young Lomax.
One of James Gandolfini's final films also has its world premiere. Enough Said, from director Nicole Holofcener, pairs Gandolfini with newly-divorced Julia-Louis Dreyfus. Holofcener regular Catherine Keener co-stars as Gandolfini's ex-wife.
The Toronto film festival has increasingly been seen as the launchpad of choice for Academy award hopefuls, and its one major award – voted for by audiences – has been seen as a prize to bag en route to Oscar success. Last year, David O Russell's Silver Linings Playbook took top honours (with Ben Affleck's Argo as runner-up); previous recipients have included Slumdog Millionaire and The King's Speech.
Toronto kicks off just as the Venice film festival – which starts at the end of August – begins to wind up. Many of Venice's big premieres travel to Toronto having debuted in Italy, and though few Venice titles have so far been announced, those Toronto titles billed as North American premieres look likely to have first screened in Europe a few days before.
Last year, such films included The Master, To the Wonder and Spring Breakers; this year Lido launches look likely for Jonathan Glazer's Under the Skin, an adaptation of the acclaimed Michel Faber novel with Scarlett Johansson as an alien in human form gobbling her way around the Highlands; Man of Tai Chi, the directorial debut of Keanu Reeves; a new biopic of Mary Queen of Scots with Saoirse Ronan, and Night Moves, the latest film from Kelly (Meek's Cutoff) Reichardt.
Gravity, Alfonso Cuarón's space thriller starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, has already been named opening night film at Venice; it then travels to Toronto. Odds are on that Stephen Frears's Philomena, with Judi Dench and Steve Coogan, will follow suit, likewise David Gordon Green's Joe, Rush, Ron Howard's motor-racing drama and Parkland, a drama set around the assassination of JFK with Paul Giamatti and Zac Efron.
Choice titles from Cannes such as Blue is the Warmest Colour, The Past, The Great Beauty are also set for North American premieres at Toronto. And a smattering of other festival favourites such as Gloria (from Berlin) and Kill Your Darlings (Sundance) will be screened.
Bad Words, the directorial debut of Jason Bateman – about a spelling bee loser who attempts to win as an adult – also has its world premiere, likewise Supermensch, a documentary about talent agent Shep Gordon directed by first-timer Mike Myers.
Other comedies at the festival include Hateship Loveship about a teenage girl (Hailee Steinfeld) who orchestrates a romance between her nanny (Kristen Wiig) and her recovering addict father (Guy Pearce) and The Love Punch, with Pierce Brosnan and Emma Thompson as a divorced couple looking to recoup stolen retirement funds. One of the key men behind Mad Men, Matthew Weiner, presents You Are Here about a road trip to bag inheritance money, co-starring Owen Wilson and Zach Galifianakis.
Key Academy awards contenders not accounted for include Martin Scorsese's The Wolf of Wall Street, Lee Daniels' The Butler, Bennett Miller's Foxcatcher, Nicole Kidman-starrer Grace of Monaco, David O Russell's American Hustle, George Clooney's The Monuments Men and Susanne Bier's Serena. Two Tom Hanks hopefuls – Captain Phillips and Saving Mr Banks – are hot favourites for late announcements, likewise Ridley Scott's star-studded Cormac McCarthy adaptation The Counselor.
More on the Toronto film festival
• Toronto film festival: 20 tops picks in pictures
• The full Toronto film festival line-up
