A Day in the Life of TIFF – Day 4: Sing, Denial, Nocturnal Animals

With the first weekend of the Toronto International Film Festival coming to a close, the programmers made sure to squeeze in some massive star power to round out the fourth day (not that we don’t have things to look forward to – La La Land premieres Monday!).  But with the sun back shining again, the afternoon showing of Sing was first on the agenda.  The film comes from Illumination Entertainment, the same people behind Despicable Me, and boasts and impressive cast including Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, and Scarlett Johansson, all of whom were in attendance at the red carpet.  Also in attendance were co-stars Nick Kroll, Taron Egerton (Kingsman: The Secret Service) and Tori Kelly.  Jennifer Hudson was also walking the red carpet to support the film.

Later in the evening, Rachel Weisz‘s newest film Denial had its world premiere.  Weisz had to leave early in order to go to rehearsal of the play Plenty (also written by Denial screenwriter David Hare), but did come out to help introduce the film before jetting off.  Timothy Spall, Tom Wilkinson and Andrew Scott (Sherlock) did take to the stage together afterwards however to answer questions on the drama, which centres around the true story of a Holocaust denier and the woman who battles him in court.

Over at Roy Thomson Hall, the premiere of Loving was taking place and stars Ruth Negga and Joel Edgerton were present.  Co-star Michael Shannon also attended, though a lot of excitement happened with Colin Firth dropped by (wonder if he hung out with his Kingsman co-star while they’re in town!).  Firth is a producer on the film, which tells the true story of a interracial couple sentenced to jail for getting married in 1950’s Virginia.

Nocturnal Animals, Tom Ford‘s newest film which has LOTS of buzz around the festival, premiered with Amy Adams on the red carpet (she gets an encore performance when Arrival premieres Monday).  She was joined by costar Michael Shannon, who literally must have just walked across the street to his second show of the evening.  Jake Gyllenhaal was notably absent, however that didn’t stop the crowd from calling his name every time an SUV door opened.  As another surprise, Bryce Dallas Howard also showed up to the premiere, though not in the film.  She also was at the premiere Friday of Trespass Against Us as well.  Guess the star is just a movie lover like the rest of us!