CINEMA | Bradley Cooper Conducts 'Maestro' x WFF 2023

"You're going to die a lonely, old queen!"

Whistler Film Festival

A Star is Born filmmaker Bradley Cooper once again directs himself in the Leonard Bernstein period biopic Maestro, co-produced by cinematic legends Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg. Cooper crafts a complex portrait of the famed composer and conductor who had a tumultuous personal life amidst the highs of his professional accomplishments within the context of a difficult but loving marriage.

CINEMA | Emma Stone Resurrects 'Poor Things'

"Always carve with compassion."

Searchlight Pictures / Element Pictures

Idiosyncratic Greek filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos reteams with star Emma Stone (also a producer) to adapt the madcap fantasia of self-discovery, Poor Things, based on the novel of the same name by Scottish writer/artist Alasdair Gray. This wildly surreal steampunk fairytale of a dark comedy feels just as heartfelt and earnest as it does shockingly sexually graphic.

GENRE | Thomasin McKenzie and Anne Hathaway Seduce 'Eileen'

"People are so ashamed of their desires."

Neon / Elevation Pictures

Described as "Carol meets Reservoir Dogs" by author Ottessa Moshfegh, Lady Macbeth director William Oldroyd adapts Moshfegh's debut 2015 novel Eileen into a wintry 1960s New England psychological film noir set during Christmas. Starring Thomasin McKenzie as the eponymous prison secretary, her character becomes captivated by a glamorous new coworker (Anne Hathaway) who draws her into a potentially dangerous relationship.

CABLE | 'Scott Pilgrim Takes Off' Gets Remixed on Netflix

"The goose is loose!"

Science Saru / Universal Content Productions

Toronto-based comic book writer and artist Bryan Lee O'Malley readapts his famed graphic novel series once again—this time in anime television form. Scott Pilgrim Takes Off achieves the remarkable task of creating both something totally fresh and new storywise while also balancing the familiar comfort of the cult source material, including the entire cast of the live-action film adaptation, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, reprising their respective roles vocally.

CINEMA | Natalie Portman Studies 'May December' x WFF 2023

"This is just what grown-ups do."

Whistler Film Festival

Celebrated indie filmmaker Todd Haynes directs the comically meta melodrama May December, loosely inspired by the Mary Kay Letourneau scandal of the 1990s, starring Natalie Portman (also a producer) and Julianne Moore as an actress doing research and the real-life tabloid subject of the former's latest film project.

CINEMA | Before 'The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes'

"Hunger is a weapon."

Lionsgate / Cineplex Pictures

The Hunger Games sequel director Francis Lawrence successfully revisits the dystopian young adult action franchise he took over and cemented in the prequel film, The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes, also based on the book by series author Suzanne Collins and set sixty-four years before the first entry.

GENRE | Nicolas Cage Sleeps Off A 'Dream Scenario' x TIFF 2023

"I wish this was real."

Toronto International Film Festival

Dream Scenario is a hilarious satire of cancel culture starring Nicolas Cage as an otherwise forgettable professor who starts inexplicably showing up in strangers' dreams (imagine A Nightmare on Elm Street as a comedy). Written and directed by Norwegian filmmaker Kristoffer Borgli and produced by Ari Aster, where the surreal fantasy film goes makes for a brutal takedown of our contemporary society, never failing to illicit truly tense comedic horror.

CINEMA | Brie Larson Captains 'The Marvels'

"I walked through a barrier of a witch hex and now I can manipulate light energy."

Marvel Studios

African-American filmmaker Nia DaCosta takes over the Captain Marvel reigns in the cosmic superhero team-up sequel The Marvels. Brie Larson returns to both Earth and outer space when her intergalactic powers get entangled with two other marvellously powerful characters we've already seen before.

CINEMA | Paul Giamatti Babysits 'The Holdovers' x TIFF 2023

"You can't even dream a whole dream, can you?"

Toronto International Film Festival

The Holdovers is a gruff yet warm-hearted dramedy directed by Academy Award-winning dramatist Alexander Payne. Set in the early 1970s at an elite New England prep school during winter break, the film revolves around three lost and lonely misfits finding comfort and understanding in each other's flaws while stranded together during the holiday season.