Toronto Film Festival Opens With Judy Heumann Biopic and a Packed Slate

The 51st edition of the Toronto International Film Festival begins Thursday, bringing North America's largest film gathering back with a lineup that ranges from a disability rights biopic to a Rocky Balboa origin story and a K-pop documentary.

Opening night belongs to "Being Heumann," directed by Siân Heder as her follow-up to the best picture-winning "CODA." Ruth Madeley stars as Judy Heumann, the disability rights activist who died in 2023.

TIFF's scale means attention is hard to hold. Most of the fall's awards contenders will compete for notice alongside films still searching for a distributor, and many titles arriving from Venice and Telluride will screen in Toronto as well, packing the top fall releases into a 10-day stretch of premieres.

Among the prominent debuts are Chris Rock's "Misty Green," which he wrote and directed, a character study of a headstrong Hollywood actor played by Rosalind Eleazar. Other titles include "Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother," with Mahershala Ali as a religious hitman; Rachel Morrison's romantic drama "Love of Your Life," led by Margaret Qualley; and Peter Farrelly's "I Play Rocky," starring Anthony Ippolito as a young Sylvester Stallone during the making of "Rocky." Farrelly's "Green Book" launched at TIFF in 2018 before winning best picture at the Academy Awards.

The festival has increasingly positioned itself as a major film market, with finished films and packaged productions up for sale. More than 6,000 market delegates are expected this year, up from 1,000 a year earlier. Sales premieres include Tim Blake Nelson's prison drama "The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd," with Amanda Seyfried; Susanne White's "Prima Facie," starring Cynthia Erivo as a barrister defending a man accused of sexual assault; and the midnight selection "Rogue Trooper," an animated science fiction film from "Moon" director Duncan Jones. A late addition is Zack Snyder's "The Last Photograph."

Last year's market produced a striking success when Curry Barker's low-budget indie horror "Obsession" premiered quietly, sold to Focus Features for $15 million and went on to earn $512 million, a possibility distributors will be chasing again.

Toronto's top prize is not juried but the audience-voted People's Choice Award, an unusually reliable Oscar indicator: since 2012, every winner but one has gone on to a best picture nomination. Last year's winner was "Hamnet." Standouts from Cannes, Venice and Telluride will also stop at TIFF, giving the festival's audiences an early say in the awards race.

The music documentary slate is led by "Always Lalisa," chronicling the solo career of Lisa Manobal of Blackpink. Also screening are "Pretenders," about Chrissie Hynde and the band she founded in 1978; "Darlene Love: I Know Where I've Been," tracing the vocalist's up-and-down career; "Bleeding Hearts," on country newcomers Chaparelle; and "Neil Peart: No One's Disciple," a tribute to the Rush drummer.