‘Rez Ball’ Director Sydney Freeland, Malcolm Washington, Janicza Bravo to Headline Toronto Film Fest Conference

The Toronto Film Festival has unveiled programming for its Sept. 6 to 10 industry conference, to include conversations with The Listeners director Janicza Bravo, screenwriter Jordan Tannahill, and Malcolm Washington and Virgil Williams, the director and screenwriter bringing TIFF The Piano Lesson adaptation for Netflix.

Rebecca Hall stars in The Listeners, which will have a world premiere in Toronto, while Samuel L. Jackson and John David Washington star in The Piano Lesson. Denzel Washington’s son Malcolm will direct the film adaptation of The Piano Lesson, based on a screenplay he penned with Williams.

They will be joined as part of the Dialogues program in Toronto by Rumours director Guy Maddin and Universal Language director Matthew Rankin, both Canadians who are bringing their Cannes world premiere titles to TIFF for North American bows.

The Toronto conference has also booked conversations with Sydney Freeland, director of Netflix’s Indigenous basketball drama Rez Ball, and Kaniehtiio Horn, the Reservation Dogs actor making her feature debut with Seeds.

Also appearing onstage as part of the Dialogues program are director Andrés Baiz, who is bringing his latest movie, Pimpinero: Blood and Oil, to Toronto; Beloved Tropic helmer Ana Endara; and Rodrigo Prieto, director of Pedro Páramo.

TIFF Conference organizers also plan speakers to be announced at a later date for discussions around queer cinema, Southeast Asian filmmaking and documentary storytelling.

Elsewhere, the Perspectives program will hold panel discussions on the future of film journalism, theatrical distribution, strategies for sustainable cinema and African cinema.

The Toronto Film Festival is set to run from Sept. 5 to 15.