25 movies for book lovers to see at TIFF 2024
The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) 2024 is now upon us — and the festival features multiple book-to-screen adaptations. TIFF 2024 runs from Sept. 5 - 15.
CBC Books went through the lineup and found all the literary inspired titles for you to check out this year!
Addition
Based on: Toni Jordan's 2008 novel Addition
In director Marcelle Lunman's debut narrative feature film, Grace, a woman with arithmomania, or a compulsive need to count, spends her days trying to stay in control and stay "normal."
When Grace meets Seamus, his interest in her throws her structured life into disarray, forcing her to confront a childhood trauma in order to move forward. Lunam adapts Australian writer Toni Jodan's Addition as a humorous romance.
Blue Road
Based on: The life of famous Irish author Edna O'Brien
Filmmaker Sinéad O'Shea charts the course of famed Irish author Edna O'Brien's life and story in this documentary premiering at TIFF. O'Brien, who grew up in rural Ireland in the mid 20th century, was labelled a scandal for her realistic and provocative 1960 novel The Country Girls.
Told by O'Brien, actor Gabriel Byrne and writer Walter Mosely, Blue Road explores O'Brien's personal and professional life, made all the more poignant after her death on July 27.
LISTEN | Edna O'Brien discusses her life and career with Eleanor Wachtel:
Bonjour Tristesse
Based on: Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan
In Bonjour Tristesse Montreal-based director Durga Chew-Bose immerses audiences in the sunlight of the French seaside in her coming-of-age debut. A teen named Cécile is enjoying a peaceful summer with her father and his younger girlfriend, spending her time sunbathing and listening to her father's fabulous stories.
The arrival of her late mother's friend Anne (Chloë Sevigny) throws Cécile's tranquil days into upheaval as she realizes the people around her have their own secrets, shames and desires.
Based on the 1954 novel of the same name, the film explores the complex relationships between women and families.
Conclave
Based on: Conclave by Robert Harris
From Oscar-winning All Quiet on the Western Front director Edward Berger comes a drama set within the Vatican following the Cardinals as they select a new Pope. Starring Oscar nominees Stanley Tucci, Ralph Fiennes and John Lithgow, Conclave is a human story about politics, tradition and faith, and the tensions between them.
Adapted by The Goldfinch's Peter Staughan, the film promises secrets, betrayal and sabotage as Berger brings audiences behind the jaw-dropping walls of the Vatican.
Disclaimer
Based on: Disclaimer by Renée Knight
In this seven-part psychological thriller series, five-time Oscar winner Alfonso Cuarón brings British author Renée Knight's novel to life. Starring Cate Blanchett as a journalist who receives a book in the mail that seems suspiciously about herself, Disclaimer asks the question of how far you will go to protect you and your family's reputations.
Also starring Sacha Baron Cohen, the film explores themes of love, perception and truth.
Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight
Based on: Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller
From actor-director Embeth Davidtz comes her directorial debut. Based on Alexandra Fuller's memoir of the same name, Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight follows a white farming family living in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) at the end of white rule in 1980.
Shifting between the perspectives of the different members of the Fuller family including eight-year-old Bobo and Sarah and Jacob, two of the Fullers' workers, the film dives into the end of colonial rule and the intimate conflicts between people.
Jane Austen Wrecked My Life
Based on: The life of Jane Austen and the themes of her works
Following an aspiring author working at the legendary Paris bookshop Shakespeare & Co, director Laura Piani helms a charming romantic comedy drawing inspiration from Jane Austen.
In her directorial debut, Piani explores love, desire and the impacts of tragedy as author Agathe is torn between two men as she strives to finish a manuscript.
Exploring love and life in the modern era, Jane Austen Wrecked My Life forces audiences to confront the idea of being a passenger in their own lives.
Love In The Big City
Based on: Love In The Big City by Sang Young Park
In Korean filmmaker E.oni's new feature work Love In The Big City, romance and young adult life take centre stage. Based on Sang Young Park's novel of the same name, the film explores two misfits searching for love and connection in Seoul. Roommates Jae-hee and Heung-soo are used to people thinking they're dating, but Heung-soo is struggling to find love as a gay man and Jae-hee is desperate for connection.
The novel was longlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize and the film adaptation takes audiences into the world of Seoul's nightlife, dating scene and the realities of life as a young adult.
M - Son of the Century
Based on: M. Son of the Century by Antonio Scurati
From director Joe Wright comes M - Son of the Century, a stylized drama series about the rise of Benito Mussolini. Connecting 1920s Italy to today's world, Wright humanizes Mussolini in order to understand what made his rise to power so successful and to illustrate the similarities to the current political climate. The series explores fascism, power and disillusionment and marks Wright's latest book-to-screen adaptation.
He is known for his films Pride & Prejudice, Atonement, Anna Karenina and Darkest Hour.
Nightbitch
Based on: Nightbitch by Rachel Yoder
Exploring motherhood and identity, Nightbitch, from director Marielle Heller aims to get audiences thinking about responsibility, love and societal expectations. Amy Adams stars as Mother, a suburban woman who chooses to stay at home with her son as she becomes increasingly isolated and numb.
Full of dark humour and magical realism and adapted from the novel of the same name, Nightbitch promises to get viewers talking at its world premiere.
Oh, Canada
Based on: Foregone by Russell Banks
Paul Schrader's latest film Oh, Canada follows one man's recounting of his life and his move to Canada to escape the Vietnam War draft. Based on Russell Bank's 2021 novel Foregone, the film stars Richard Gere as Leonard Fife, a man who became a documentary filmmaker after leaving the U.S.
Co-starring Uma Thurman as his wife Emma and Jacob Elordi as young Fife, Oh, Canada delves into themes of cowardice, duty and identity.
Shepherds
Based on: D'où viens tu, berger? by Mathyas Lefebure
Shepherds follows the story of Montréal copywriter Mathyas Lefebure who, after a medical scare, uproots his life and moves to the French Alps to be a sheep herder. While he has no experience in sheep herding, Lefebure teams up with civil servant Élise and together they, and their border collie, make it work.
Based on the semi-autobiographical novel from Mathyas Lefebure, director Sophie Deraspe takes audiences to the soaring peaks of the Alps and explores ideas of purpose, solitude and fulfilment.
On Swift Horses
Based on: Shannon Pufahl's 2019 novel On Swift Horses
On mirrored paths through the American West, Muriel and her new husband Lee navigate their new lives after his brother, Julius, returns after the Korean War. After the death of her mother and moving from Kansas to San Diego, Muriel chooses to sneak away to the racetracks to bet on horses.
On Swift Horses is adapted for the screen by American writer Bryce Kass, director Daniel Minahan, and Canadian cinematographer Luc Montpellier – known for the Canadian book-to-screen adaptation, Women Talking, in 2022.
Paying For It
Based on: Chester Brown's 2011 graphic memoir Paying For It
In Paying For It: a comic-strip memoir about being a john, Montreal-born cartoonist Chester Brown tells the honest and transactional nature of his experiences with sex workers after the end of a long-term relationship.
Vancouver-born filmmaker Sook-Yin Lee offers a cinematic approach to the comic with a new perspective only she can bring as the former partner of Brown.
Paying For It the film follows Chester and Sonny – Brown and Lee's alter egos – as they give each other the space to explore art, sexuality and culture in Toronto at the turn-of-the-millennium.
Queer
Based on: William S. Burroughs 1985 short novel, Queer
In homage to the reflective political love story of the Beats writer William S. Burroughs, Oscar-nominated director Luca Guadagnino reimagines Queer as an aching historical drama. Starring Daniel Craig as Lee, a lonely middle-aged man headed to 1940s Mexico City in search of illicit drugs and possible enlightenment.
The filmmaking duo behind Challengers, American playwright Justin Kuritzkes and Guadagnino take on Burroughs' seminal short novel while hinting at the true history of the writer. Queer was originally written in 1952 but not published until 1985, 32 years after Burroughs' first book Junkie.
The Wild Robot
Based on: Peter Brown's 2016 middle-grade novel The Wild Robot
Robot Roz is created to take orders and carry out tasks but when she wakes up on a remote island with no sign of her manufacturers, Roz is left to her own devices. Based on the trilogy of middle grade sci-fi novels by American author and illustrator Peter Brown, The Wild Robot follows Roz's adventures on an island inhabited by animals big and small.
When Brightbill, a lost gosling, refuses to leave Roz's side, she learns how to take care of him and together they find their place in the wilderness.
The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire
Based on: The life and legacy of writer Suzanne Césaire
Césaire was an anti-colonial scholar, activist and writer known for contributing to the Négritude movement with her husband, politician Aimé Césaire. Born on the island of Martinique in 1915, she went on to become one of the founders and editors of the cultural journal Tropiques and published seven influential essays on the ideas of Caribbean identity and Surrealism.
American filmmaker Madeleine Hunt-Elrich pays homage to the life and work of Césaire in her first feature film, The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire.
The Friend
Based on: Sigrid Nunez's 2018 novel The Friend
In 2018, American writer Sigrid Nunez won the U.S. National Book Award for her novel The Friend. The adaptation starring Bill Murray and Naomi Watts follows the same storyline of Nunez's eighth novel. In it, a woman grieving for her close friend and mentor finds unexpected fulfillment caring for his 180-pound Great Dane, Apollo. Directed by American filmmakers Scott McGehee and David Siegel, this New York-based drama shows the power of man's best friend in the face of grief.
The Knowing
Based on: Tanya Talaga's 2024 book The Knowing
Journalist and filmmaker Tanya Talaga's book The Knowing released a month before the accompanying four part docu-series of the same name. In the book, Talaga charts the life of her great-great grandmother Annie Carpenter and the violence she and her family suffered at the hands of the Catholic Church and Canadian government.
As a person of Anishinaabe and Polish descent and as a member of the Fort William First Nation, Talaga then set out to search for more information about her family's history in the docu-series.
Through intimate interviews with Survivors, archival visuals and Ininiw poetic narration Talaga's quest to find her family matriarch is visualized.
The Life of Chuck
Based on: Stephen King's 2020 collection of novellas, If It Bleeds
Best known for his formidable Netflix series' The Haunting of Hill House and The Haunting of Bly Manor, director Mike Flanagan now turns to an adaptation of Stephen King's novella in The Life of Chuck.
An uncanny narrative unfolds as a mundane accountant, Chuck, feels as if the world is coming to an end in his retirement. After his friends, co-workers, and ex-wife have all said goodbye, Chuck continues to have an otherworldly hold on them, showing up in billboards and windows. What is it about Chuck that he stays in everyone's mind?
The Listeners
Based on: The 2021 Scotiabank Giller Prize shortlisted novel by Jordan Tannahill, The Listeners
Ottawa-born writer Jordan Tannahill has adapted his own novel for the screen alongside Mrs. America director Janicza Bravo. In The Listeners Claire has a relatively simple life as a mother, wife and English teacher. When she starts to hear a low and persistent hum in her house, it unsettles the balance of Claire's life.
Searching for answers and meaning, Claire strikes up an unlikely friendship with one of her students who also can hear the hum.
The Salt Path
Based on: Raynor Winn's 2018 memoir, The Salt Path
What would you do if you lost your house, job and found out your husband was diagnosed with a terminal neurodegenerative disease? British writer Raynor Winn made the bold decision to walk the Salt Path, a 630-mile journey on the southwest English coast, and then write a book about it. Surviving on the essentials and one another's company, Raynor and Moth find solace in the beauty of the landscape around them, taking one final adventure together.
British director Marianne Elliott and screenwriter Rebecca Lenkiewicz take on a cinematic adaptation of Winn's deeply personal and ultimately hopeful story, The Salt Path.
Winter in Sokcho
Based on: Elisa Shua Dusapin's 2016 novel Winter in Sokcho, translated by Aneesa Abbas Higgins
Live action and animation intertwine in the French adaptation of French-Korean writer Elisa Shua Dusapin's novel Winter in Sokcho. The story follows Soo-Ha, a young woman working at a guesthouse in Sokcho, a town sitting on the border between North and South Korea. The simple yet desolate life she lives is interrupted when a middle-aged French cartoonist comes looking for artistic inspiration.
French-Japanese filmmaker Koya Kamura makes his directorial debut in this adaptation of a story about identity, art and love.
Without Blood
Based on: Alessandro Baricco's 2002 novel Without Blood, translated by Ann Goldstein
In Without Blood a four-year-old girl named Nina witnesses the brutal murder of her father and brother in their farmhouse. Originally written by Italian writer Alessan Baricco, the film adaptation follows the traumatic event of Nina's childhood and the quest for revenge she embarks on later in life.
Directed by filmmaker and actor Angelina Jolie, Without Blood focuses on the immeasurable impacts of war and gun violence.
Young Werther
Based on: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's 1770s novella The Sorrows of Young Werther
A German polymath and writer of the 18th century, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's writing went on to influence Romantic literature. His first novella follows young Werther as he falls deeper into a doomed love with the wife of his friend, Charlotte. Flash forward to present day, Canadian filmmaker José Avelino Gilles Corbett Lourenço is taking this classic tale to the big screen as a Toronto rom-com.
In this modern retelling, Werther meets Charlotte before leaving for a trip across Europe with his best friend, but puts it all on hold to get to know her despite her already being engaged to someone else. Once a dark and moody story, Young Werther adds a humorous amorous twist.
