Late July in the film industry has an odd way of making one very aware of early autumn; as we are coping with heatwaves (whilst hopefully enjoying some R&R), in come various exciting festival line-ups, stacked with the rest of the year’s best cinematic crop. The full, exhaustive Venice line-up came out yesterday (see the news), with the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) Platform slate arriving later, joining a new batch of Galas and Special Presentations announced on Monday. With the fight for A-list world premieres as competitive as ever (although with Venice expectedly coming out on top), TIFF’s appeal for launching major European titles is still beyond doubt. The Canadian festival runs from 4-14 September this year, overlapping with the final few days of Venice.

The difference between Gala and Special Presentations at TIFF requires a short explanation, as there are equally anticipated films in both categories; the former has formal red carpets, and takes place in the city’s most prestigious venues. World premieres from European filmmakers just announced include Arnaud Desplechin’s Two Pianos - with François Civil and Nadia Tereszkiewicz as his attractive leads this time - and Palestine 36 by Annemarie Jacir, considered among the best working Palestinian auteurs. The latter is a film concerning a key episode in the 1936 Arab Revolt by Palestinians against the British administration. The underrated and versatile Scottish director David Mackenzie returns to the festival after premiering Relay last year, with his London-set thriller Fuze, starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson, following the discovery of an undetonated World War II bomb.

Of the new world premieres in Special Presentations, Romain Gavras’s fantasy-thriller Sacrifice, with Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Evans, should provide a welcome dose of adrenaline. Alice Winocour’s Couture sees Angelina Jolie again working in high-end European cinema after Maria, as the Oscar-winning icon plays a US film director caught up in Paris Fashion Week, at the centre of multiple plot strands involving women and girls from France, Ukraine and Sudan. Edward Berger’s Ballad of a Small Player, a Netflix-backed and Macau-set gambling thriller with Colin Farrell, gets an official announcement as a “Canadian Premiere”, meaning it will show first at the exclusive Telluride Film Festival in Colorado; indeed, Venice chief Alberto Barbera faced a few questions in interviews yesterday about the absence of the director’s Conclave follow-up from his choices. Guillermo del Toro’s lush-looking Frankenstein and Mona Fastvold’s The Testament of Ann Lee also play as Special Presentations soon after showing on the Lido. The new film by Spain’s Isabel Coixet, the Italian production Three Goodbyes, also features in the section.

The nine-strong Platform line-up, with each film competing for the Platform Award, has more recognisable names, and potentially innovative filmmaking, than in previous years. Valentyn Vasyanovych impressed with his previous two Venice premieres Atlantis and Reflection, and now, in To the Victory!, he stars as who else but a director struggling to get opportunities in a “dystopian” post-war Ukraine. Also standing out are Hungarian director György Pálfi’s nutty-sounding Hen, recounting a resilient member of that very species aiming to raise a family, and Tim Mielants’ Steve, where he reunites with Cillian Murphy after Small Things Like These on another film based on blue-chip literary material, this time the eponymous novel from British writer Max Porter. Pauline Loquès’ charming Cannes Critics’ Week entry Nino gets another turn in the limelight, enjoying its international premiere in the section. The section also features other European co-productions, such as Winter of the Crow by Poland’s Kasia Adamik (co-director of Agnieszka Holland’s Spoor), The Currents by Swiss-based Argentinian filmmaker Milagros Mumenthaler (winner of Locarno’s 2011 Golden Leopard with Back to Stay), Bouchra by Orian Barki and Meriem Bennani, and At the Place of Ghosts by Bretten Hannam.

Here is the full selection in the three sections:

Platform

Steve - Tim Mielants (Ireland/UK, opening film)
Winter of the Crow - Kasia Adamik (Poland/UK/Luxembourg)
Bouchra - Orian Barki, Meriem Bennani (Italy/Morocco/USA)
Sk+te'kmujue'katik (At the Place of Ghosts) - Bretten Hannam (Canada/Belgium)
Nino - Pauline Loquès (France)
The Currents - Milagros Mumenthaler (Argentina/Switzerland)
Hen - György Pálfi (Germany/Greece/Hungary)
Between Dreams and Hope - Farnoosh Samadi (Iran)
To the Victory! - Valentyn Vasyanovych (Ukraine/Lithuania)
The World of Love - Yoon Ga-eun (South Korea)

Gala Presentations

Good Fortune - Aziz Ansari (USA)
She Has No Name - Peter Ho-Sun Chan (China)
Roofman - Derek Cianfrance (USA)
Glenrothan - Brian Cox (UK)
Two Pianos - Arnaud Desplechin (France)
Driver’s Ed - Bobby Farrelly (USA)
Eternity - David Freyne (USA)
Homebound - Neeraj Ghaywan (India/USA)
John Candy: I Like Me - Colin Hanks (USA)
The Choral - Nicholas Hytner (UK/USA)
Palestine 36 - Annemarie Jacir (Palestine/UK/France/Denmark/Qatar/Saudi Arabia/Jordan)
Eleanor the Great - Scarlett Johansson (USA)
Swiped - Rachel Lee Goldenberg (USA)
Fuze - David Mackenzie (UK)
Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery - Ally Pankiw (Canada)
Nuremberg - James Vanderbilt (USA/Hungary)
Adulthood - Alex Winter (USA)
Hamnet - Chloé Zhao (UK/USA)
A Private Life - Rebecca Zlotowski (France)
Peak Everything - Anne Émond (Canada, closing film)

Special Presentations

The Captive - Alejandro Amenábar (Spain/Italy)
Poetic License - Maude Apatow (USA)
Train Dreams - Clint Bentley (USA)
Ballad of a Small Player - Edward Berger (UK/Germany)
If I Had Legs I’d Kick You - Mary Bronstein (USA)
Three Goodbyes - Isabel Coixet (Italy/Spain)
Hedda - Nia DaCosta (USA)
You Had to Be There: How the Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution… - Nick Davis (USA)
Charlie Harper - Tom Dean, Mac Eldridge (USA)
Frankenstein - Guillermo del Toro (USA)
Silent Friend - Ildikó Enyedi (Germany/Hungary/France)
Bad Apples - Jonatan Etzler (UK)
Lovely Day - Philippe Falardeau (Canada)
The Testament of Ann Lee - Mona Fastvold (USA/UK/Hungary/Sweden)
Sacrifice - Romain Gavras (UK/Greece/Cyprus/France)
The Lost Bus - Paul Greengrass (USA)
Rental Family - Hikari (USA/Japan)
Franz - Agnieszka Holland (Czech Republic/Germany/Poland/France/Turkey)
Scarlet - Mamoru Hosoda (Japan)
Meadowlarks - Tasha Hubbard (Canada)
A Pale View of Hills - Kei Ishikawa (Japan/UK/Poland/Singapore)
Rose of Nevada - Mark Jenkin (UK)
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery - Rian Johnson (USA)
Monkey in a Cage - Anurag Kashyap (India)
Wrong Husband - Zacharias Kunuk (Canada)
Sirāt - Oliver Laxe (Spain/France)
Ky Nam Inn - Leon Le (Vietnam)
Project Y - Lee Hwan (South Korea)
Kokuho - Lee Sang-il (Japan)
Mile End Kicks - Chandler Levack (Canada/USA)
New Wave - Richard Linklater (France)
EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert - Baz Luhrmann (Australia/USA)
California Schemin’ - James McAvoy (UK/USA)
The Secret Agent - Kleber Mendonça Filho (Brazil/France/Germany/Netherlands)
A Poet - Simón Mesa Soto (Columbia/Germany/Sweden)
Primavera - Damiano Michieletto (Italy/France)
Christy - David Michôd (USA)
It Was Just an Accident - Jafar Panahi (France/Luxembourg/Iran)
Easy’s Waltz - Nic Pizzolatto (USA)
Eternal Return - Yaniv Raz (UK/USA)
Degrassi: Whatever It Takes - Lisa Rideout (Canada)
Tuner - Daniel Roher (USA)
It Would Be Night in Caracas - Mariana Rondón, Marité Ugás (Mexico/Venezuela/USA)
The Christophers - Steven Soderbergh (USA)
Good News - Byun Sung-hyun (South Korea)
Couture - Alice Winocour (France/USA)
The Smashing Machine - Benny Safdie (USA)
Sound of Falling - Mascha Schilinski (Germany)
Calle Málaga - Maryam Touzani (Morocco/France/Spain/Germany/Belgium)
Sentimental Value - Joachim Trier (Norway/France/Denmark/Germany)
Dead Man’s Wire - Gus Van Sant (USA)
Steal Away - Clement Virgo (Canada/Belgium/Netherlands)
The Ugly - Yeon Sang-ho (South Korea)