Instead of the several hundred titles that usually make up the rich and diverse selection at this event (333 in 2019!), this year around sixty films will be presented at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), which will take place from September 10 through 20, 2020. The event has thus responded to the international health crisis by slimming down its lineup and limiting the number of invited guests. Nonetheless, these restrictions will not stop French cinema from presenting a wide and ambitious slate of films by established directors and new talents.
Twenty-six French productions (including short films and minority-French coproductions) will be showcased at the 2020 edition of North America's largest film festival, which, according to its organizers, approaches gender parity this year with a near-equal number of films directed by men and women.
Several French films in the Official Selection will get the chance to appear (at last!) on the festival circuit, with many titles carrying the official Cannes 2020 Label (Summer of 85, Spring Blossom, Simple Passion, My Best Part, A Good Man, Should the Wind Drop, Beginning, and Downstream to Kinshasa).
To compensate for the reduced number of films screened, and to give greater visibility to the professional aspect of the festival, TIFF has created the new Industry Selects section that features exclusively online "screenings" aimed at film buyers and distributors. Eight of the thirty titles chosen for this section are French productions, representing one quarter of the program.
French films at TIFF 2020
Special Presentations
- Summer of 85 by François Ozon
- The Father by Florian Zeller (minority-French coproduction)
Contemporary World Cinema
- Night of the Kings by Philippe Lacôte
- Quo Vadis, Aida? by Jasmila Žbanić (minority coproduction)
- New Order by Michel Franco (minority-French coproduction)
Discovery
- Gaza mon amour by Tarzan Nasser and Arab Nasser
- Spring Blossom by Suzanne Lindon
- Beginning by Dea Kulumbegashvili (minority-French coproduction)
- Memory House by João Paulo Miranda Maria (minority coproduction)
Masters
- Notturno by Gianfranco Rosi (minority coproduction)
Special Events
- Wolfwalkers by Tomm Moore, Ross Stewart (minority coproduction)
- Downstream to Kinshasa by Dieudo Hamadi (minority coproduction)
Industry Selects
- Simple Passion by Danielle Arbid
- My Best Part by Nicolas Maury
- The Monopoly of Violence by David Dufresne
- A Good Man by Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar
- Lovers by Nicole Garcia
- The Translator by Rana Kazkaz & Anas Khalaf
- Should the Wind Drop by Nora Martirosyan (minority coproduction)
- And Tomorrow the Entire World by Julia Von Heinz (minority coproduction)
