Cate Blanchett and Sacha Baron Cohen in a scene from Disclaimer.Sanja Bucko/Apple TV+
Television series starring Cate Blanchett, Sacha Baron Cohen, Rebecca Hall and the Tragically Hip will premiere at next month’s Toronto International Film Festival as the organization marks the 10th anniversary of the small-screen-focused Primetime program.
On Friday, organizers announced that eight new series from around the world – including five world premieres, two of which hail from Canada – would screen at the 49th annual festival, which runs Sept. 5-15.
This year’s Primetime lineup is led by the Canadian premiere of Disclaimer, the highly anticipated Apple TV+ limited series starring Blanchett, Cohen, Kevin Kline and Lesley Manville in a tale of long-buried secrets and lies whose seven episodes are directed by acclaimed filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón (Roma, Children of Men). Blanchett will be pulling triple duty at the festival this year, headlining the Canadian political comedy Rumours from Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson, plus receiving the Share Her Journey Groundbreaker Award at the annual TIFF Tribute Awards gala fundraiser.
On the Canadian side, TIFF will host the debuts of Courtney Montour and Tanya Talaga’s The Knowing, a four-part docuseries exploring Globe and Mail columnist Talaga’s search into her family’s history alongside Canada’s residential school system, and The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal, a career-spanning look at the iconic band directed by the late Gord Downie’s brother Mike.
Members of The Tragically Hip, from left, Gord Sinclair, Johnny Fay, Rob Baker and Paul Langlois. The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal is a career-spanning look at the iconic band directed by the late Gord Downie’s brother Mike.Frank Gunn/The Canadian Press
The Knowing, based on Talaga’s forthcoming book of the same name, will air on the CBC at a date to be determined. The four-episode No Dress Rehearsal will premiere on Prime Video later this fall. The Hip doc, first announced by Prime in 2022, was made with the co-operation of all surviving members of the band, including guitarist Rob Baker, guitarist Paul Langlois, bassist Gord Sinclair and drummer Johnny Fay.
Other highlights of Primetime, which was introduced by TIFF in 2015 to highlight the type of auteur-driven television driving the “Peak TV” era, include Swedish director Tomas Alfredson’s adaptation of Ingmar Bergman’s Faithless; the nations-spanning near-future Danish drama Families Like Ours from Thomas Vinterberg (Another Round); British director Joe Wright’s Mussolini biopic, M. Son of the Century; the Australian road-trip drama Thou Shalt Not Steal; and the U.K. mystery series The Listeners starring Rebecca Hall, which is based on the acclaimed novel by Canadian author Jordan Tannahill.
TIFF, in its final slate announcement of this year’s festival, also announced its Short Cuts program Friday.
Highlights of the 48 selected titles include new work from Canadians Connor Jessup (Closet Monster), Amanda Strong (Biidaaban), Pier-Philippe Chevigny (Richelieu), and Arshile Khanjian Egoyan, son of director Atom Egoyan and actress Arsinee Khanjian. The lineup also features the directorial debuts of Hollywood stars Dakota Johnson and Maika Monroe.