This year’s Toronto International Film Festival will open with a familiar face: filmmaker David Gordon Green’s latest, the world premiere of dramedy “Nutcrackers,” will kick off the festival on September 5. While Green is a regular at the annual festival, screening everything from his Jake Gyllenhaal-starring Boston Marathon biopic “Stronger” to his horror re-quel “Halloween” at the event, 2024 marks the first time he will officially open the fall fest.
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The film also sounds as if it marks a return to early form for the longtime auteur, who has spent his most recent years helming a series of horror-centric sequels and remakes, including three “Halloween” films and last year’s “The Exorcist: Believer.” For his newest feature, Green seems to be reinvested in the kind of personal drama that drove early films like “All the Real Girls” and “Undertow,” albeit with a slightly lighter touch (see: “The Sitter,” “Your Highness,” the list goes on).
“Nutcrackers” stars Ben Stiller, Linda Cardellini, Edi Patterson, Tim Heidecker, and Toby Huss, and per the film’s official longline, it “follows strait-laced and work obsessed Mike (Stiller) as he is suddenly thrust into being a caregiver for his rambunctious, orphaned nephews.”
The film marks the first time Green has collaborated with both Stiller and Cardellini, while the filmmaker has previously worked on the small screen with his other three stars (Patterson and Huss on “The Righteous Gemstones” and Heidecker on “Eastbound & Down”).
The film does not yet have a distributor, and the UTA Independent Film Group will handle sales at the festival. Check out a first look at Stiller and said rambunctious nephews in the first look photo above.
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While Green will no longer helm subsequent entries in the newly revamped “Exorcist” franchise, he’s got a packed slate ahead of him. In addition to “Nutcrackers,” Green is also helming “Score,” a sports drama both co-written by and starring Don Johnson.
In addition to today’s opening night pick, TIFF has also announced that the world premiere of Rebel Wilson’s directorial debut, the musical “The Deb,” will close the festival. Both films will screen at the Roy Thomson Hall as part of the Gala program, sponsored by Dyson. Wilson’s film will also be for sale at the fest. The announcement comes less than a week after Wilson publicly accused the film’s producers of attempting to block the film from premiering at Toronto.
The festival will take place from September 5 through 15. The full festival lineup will be announced August 13. The festival has already started announcing a handful of titles and tributes, including honors for Amy Adams and David Cronenberg , plus new films from Ron Howard, John Crowley, and more .
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