TIFF Day 2 – Molly’s Game, The Upside, Stronger… and GaGa

This year, the festival seems to have an even heavier-than-normal first weekend, full of premieres and guests. Fans here are having to choose from several big premieres all at once. While the first weekend is always the busiest, this TIFF seems substantially more top heavy.

Yesterday fans had to choose between Idris Elba, Jake Gyllenhaal and Lady GaGa who all had premieres around the same time. Not an easy task for many (like me!) though definitely GaGa’s Little Monsters seem to have taken over the city with excitement at the premiere of her new documentary (Gaga: Five Foot Two, showing on NetFlix soon and getting good reviews!) and the performance which was to follow. This of course was after she performed at two sold out shows at the Air Canada Centre earlier in the week.

We caught Lady Gaga outside her press conference (check our twitter feed @live_for_films), where there was a much smaller crowd, but later in the day she was busy taking selfies with fans outside the Princess of Wales theatre.

At the late night premiere, the same theatre hosted another famous blonde, Margot Robbie, who was present supporting her new starring turn as Tonya Harding in the darkly comedic biopic I, Tonya. Sebastian Stan and Alison Janney were also on hand (and at the Q&A afterwards the number of Janney fans were made very evident!).

At the Elgin theatre, someone else familiar with Janney’s work was making his directorial debut. Screenwriter Aaron Sorkin, who wrote her character on The West Wing, finally stepped behind the camera for the feature Molly’s Game. Stars Jessica Chastain and Idris Elba arrived to fanfare when they were on the red carpet, and engaged fans at the Q&A after the premiere. The real Molly Bloom, on whom the film is based, was in attendance, despite a point in the film where she mentions she won’t be allowed in Canada any longer. Sorkin praised the Canadian government for allowing her to enter for the occasion.

Back across town, Jake Gyllenhaal and Orphan Black star Tatiana Maslany walked the red carpet in support of their film Stronger, the story of Jeff Bauman, a man who lost his legs in the bombing of the Boston Marathon. Bauman was also present and garnered a lot of cheers from fans. The interviews of Gyllenhaal and Bauman together were quite charming and it’s evident that the pair have developed quite the camaraderie.

Other notable premieres last night were Kodachrome, starring Ed Harris and Jason Sudekis, The Upside with Bryan Cranston and Nicole Kidman (husband Keith Urban was also in attendance), and The Square with Elisabeth Moss.

For tickets to screenings as well as info on all the films (press conference and red carpet footage included) please visit tiff.net.

The Toronto Internationalal film festival continues until September 17th.