On Wednesday and Thursday of this week, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) announced the final two main sections of its line-up, the genre extravaganza Midnight Madness and the self-explanatory TIFF Docs strand. Although the gathering is aiming to strengthen its appeal to international industry guests, with its new market being launched at this edition (its 51st – see the news), Midnight Madness in particular testifies to its identity as an “audience” festival; indeed, one of the year’s big global smashes, Curry Barker’s Obsession, was bought by Focus Features out of last year’s section, and it will play again this year as a special “encore” screening, with the director and its breakout star Inde Navarrette in tow. The festival runs from 10-20 September, sandwiched between Venice and San Sebastián in the busy late-summer calendar.

Out of Midnight Madness’s ten features, six are world premieres, with three listed as European. The line-up looks particularly exciting on paper, slightly stretching the definition of what a “midnight movie” can be and making space for unconventional auteur voices. Anna Biller’s The Face of Horror, her long-awaited follow-up to 2016’s IFFR-premiered The Love Witch, will bow in this strand; an old Hollywood-styled rendition of the Japanese horror tale Yotsuya Kaidan, it’s an all-UK production from the independent US director, produced by Mike Goodridge’s prolific Good Chaos. After The Holy Boy played at last year’s TIFF, Paolo Strippoli is back with the international premiere of The Spiral, after it first shows in Venice’s competition, and the Jasmine Trinca- and Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi-starrer should continue raising the promising Italian director’s profile.

TIFF Docs has 21 titles from 20 countries, and an impressive 18 world premieres; five of these have European backing, although this number could rise as more information is revealed. An eye-catching world premiere is Afsaneh Salari’s Tehran: Under the Skin, co-produced by France, Iran and Sweden, which is an observation of beauty clinics and the vogue for cosmetic surgery in the country’s capital, presumably shot before its ongoing war with the USA. Also notable is Sophie Fiennes’ The Pervert’s Guide to Utopia, her ongoing collaboration in film analysis with radical philosopher Slavoj Žižek, which shows as an international premiere after its first screening at Venice. The film is an elaborate co-production between Ireland, the UK, Slovenia, the Netherlands and Norway.

See below for the line-ups in full.

Midnight Madness

River - Joshua Giuliano (USA) (opening film)
Anchors Aweigh - Matt Barats (USA)
The Face of Horror - Anna Biller (UK)
Vintage Violence - Eugene Kotlyarenko (USA/Japan)
Kick On - Nick Kozakis (Australia)
Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney - Matthew Rankin (Canada)
Arrested Memory - Sabu (Taiwan/Japan)
Half - Samjad (India)
The Spiral - Paolo Strippoli (Italy/France/Belgium)
Rogue Trooper - Duncan Jones (UK) (closing film)

TIFF Docs

Cheyenne - Taimi Arvidson (USA)
The Ultra Runner - Mila Aung-Thwin (Canada)
Darlene Love: I Know Where I’ve Been - Barry Avrich (Canada)
Edward Said: Between Worlds - Maiken Baird (USA)
The Final Act - Sophie Deraspe (Canada)
Ba’s Book - Ashley Duong (Canada)
The Pervert’s Guide to Utopias - Sophie Fiennes (Ireland/UK/Slovenia/Netherlands/Norway)
The Hummingbird Paints Fragrant Songs - Èlia Gasull Balada, Matteo Norzi (Peru/USA/Qatar)
Low Lies the Land - Emanuele Gerosa (Denmark/Italy)
Musk - Alex Gibney (USA)
Black Sunflowers - James Marcus Haney (Ukraine/USA)
Rapinoe - Rebeca Huntt (UK/USA)
Union Town - Barbara Kopple (USA)
Turtle Island Rap - Alexandra Lazarowich (Canada)
Gail - Michael Maxxis (Canada)
Bleeding Hearts - Andrew Morgan (USA)
Still Night, Burning House - Carol Nguyen (Canada)
Rescue - Sine Plambech (Denmark/Italy/Germany/Sweden/Iceland)
Like Magic - Melissa Saavedra Gil (Colombia/Argentina/Uruguay)
Tehran, Under the Skin - Afsaneh Salari (France/Iran/Sweden)
Re/Pair - Lacey Schwartz Delgado (USA)