The Toronto International Film Festival is soldiering on with plans for its 48th edition, Sept. 7-17, despite ongoing strikes by Hollywood actors and writers that threaten to prevent many celebrities from attending.
TIFF announced Wednesday its third world premiere for the fest, this time a Canadian one: “Seven Veils,” an opera-inspired film by Toronto’s Atom Egoyan (“The Sweet Hereafter”) that stars Amanda Seyfried, Rebecca Liddiard, Douglas Smith, Mark O’Brien and Vinessa Antoine.
The film, a drama of repressed trauma set in the opera world, also features Ambur Braid as Salome and Michael Kupfer-Radecky as John the Baptist.
The two actors starred in the Canadian Opera Company’s most recent production of “Salome,” which the Oscar-nominated Egoyan also directed and used as inspiration for his film.
TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey said the fest is “honoured” to welcome back Egoyan for his 18th film to premiere at the fest.
“Egoyan’s cinematic works are unmatched, and we’re excited to bring ‘Seven Veils’ to our TIFF audiences and to the city of Toronto, his home,” Bailey said in a news release.
The film is scheduled to premiere Sept. 10 as part of TIFF’s Special Presentations program. Prior to that, on Sept. 8, there will be a special “avant-première” at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, in partnership with the Canadian Opera company.
“Seven Veils” reunites Egoyan with Amanda Seyfried, the title star of his 2009 Toronto-set thriller “Chloe.”
“Amanda is a phenomenal actress, and here she brilliantly plays a woman dealing with complex and explosive relationships in her past, present, and future,” Egoyan said.
But Seyfried and other stars would likely be unable to attend the two premieres or walk the “Seven Veils” red carpet, if a strike by 160,000 actors represented by the SAG-AFTRA union is still on in September, as all indications suggest it might be. Complicating the situation, which has shut down production and promotion of many films and TV shows, is a strike by members of the Writers Guild of America which has been on for nearly three months with no end in sight.
TIFF is endeavouring to remain positive. It released an expanded and more upbeat version of its official statement about the Hollywood union strikes against major movie studios and streaming services.
“The impact of the SAG-AFTRA strike on the entertainment industry and events like the Toronto International Film Festival cannot be denied. We are continuing to plan for a memorable and star-studded festival showcasing the best of global cinema and are excited to once again welcome thousands of film lovers to TIFF in September!”
TIFF’s plans have already been disrupted. The fest was planning to make a much larger announcement this week, its list of the films in the big-ticket Galas and Special Presentations programs.
The announcement has been pushed to next week.
The Hollywood strikes are forcing talent and festivals everywhere to change plans. Nicolas Cage, a SAG-AFTRA member, was supposed to receive a career achievement award this weekend at Montreal’s Fantasia Film Festival, North America’s biggest genre festival. He cancelled his appearance to honour a union ban on actors participating in film promotions of any kind during the strike.
There have been two previous announcements for films world-premiering at TIFF ’23: Ladj Ly’s “Les Indésirables,” another tale of Paris tumult from filmmaker of lauded “Les Misérables,” and Taika Waititi’s “Next Goal Wins,” a soccer comedy in the vein of “Ted Lasso.”
It’s expected that TIFF ’23 will screen more than 200 features, so there are many more film announcements to come.
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