TIFF 2016 to include ‘Birth of a Nation,’ films by Denis Villeneuve, Oliver Stone

Toronto International Film Festival logo

TORONTO – Movies by Quebec director Denis Villeneuve, fashion designer Tom Ford, three-time Academy Award winner Oliver Stone, and the buzzy “Birth of a Nation” are headed to this year’s Toronto International Film Festival.

Organizers announced the first slate of 2016 festival films today, including Villeneuve’s sci-fi thriller “Arrival,” starring Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner.

The film fest’s opening film will be the star-studded remake of the 1960 western “The Magnificent Seven,” with a cast including Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt and Ethan Hawke. The film will make its world premiere in Toronto.

Also bound for the fest with big buzz is Stone’s “Snowden,” a dramatization of Edward Snowden’s decision to leak classified security documents to the media. Stars include Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Shailene Woodley and Melissa Leo.

Audiences will get to see London, Ont., native Ryan Gosling sing in the musical romance “La La Land.” “Whiplash” writer-director Damien Chazelle helms the cast that also features Emma Stone and J. K. Simmons.

The Toronto International Film Festival runs Sept. 8-18.

The closing film will be the Vancouver-shot coming-of-age comedy “The Edge of Seventeen,” starring Hailee Steinfeld, Woody Harrelson and Kyra Sedgwick.

Other highlights announced Tuesday:

* Ewan McGregor makes his directorial debut on “American Pastoral,” He also stars, alongside Dakota Fanning and Jennifer Connelly, in the adaptation of Philip Roth’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel.

* The biographical drama “Barry” looks at U.S. President Barack Obama’s years as a college student in New York City.

* Rob Reiner directs “LBJ,” starring Harrelson as president Lyndon B. Johnson and Jennifer Jason Leigh as his wife Lady Bird Johnson.

* In “Queen of Katwe,” directed by Mira Nair, David Oyelowo and Lupita Nyong’o star in the real-life story of Ugandan chess prodigy Phiona Mutesi.

* “The Journey is the Destination,” by Toronto native Bronwen Hughes, stars Maria Bello in the story of slain photojournalist Dan Eldon.

* Other Canadian content includes “Unless” by Ireland’s Alan Gilsenan, based on the novel late Canuck novelist Carol Shields.

* Musical flicks include the star-packed animated comedy “Sing,” the Justin Timberlake concert doc “JT + The Tennessee Kids” by Jonathan Demme, and “The Rolling Stones Ole Ole Ole! : A Trip Across Latin America” by Paul Dugdale.