Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Anurag Kashyap named ambassadors for TIFF 2020

Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Anurag Kashyap have been named ambassadors for the 45th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). They join 48 other international filmmakers and artistes including Martin Scorsese, Ava DuVernay, Taika Waititi, Nicole Kidman, Nadine Labaki, Alfonso Cuarón, Riz Ahmed, Rian Johnson, Jason Reitman, Isabelle Huppert, Claire Denis, Atom Egoyan, Viggo Mortensen, Zhang Ziyi, David Oyelowo, and Lulu Wang to usher in the festival this year.

The festival, which will be held from 10-19 September, will be a mix of both of physical and digital. Around 50 new films will be showcased, along with five programmes of short films, and interactive talks, question and answer sessions with cast and crew will be featured. The new film lineup includes Francis Lee’s Ammonite, Thomas Vinterberg’s Another Round, Ricky Staub’s Concrete Cowboys, and actress Halle Berry’s directorial debut Bruised.

The first five days of the festival will feature screenings with physical distancing. The festival attendees can also catch films at drive-ins. However, the festival’s press release indicated that “this presentation of TIFF’s traditional in-person film festival will be contingent on the Province [of Ontario]’s reopening framework to ensure that festival venues and workplaces practice, meet, and exceed public health guidelines.

The Canadian festival is partnering with Shift72 to launch an industry-leading online platform that will host digital screenings, talks and special events. Cameron Bailey, the festival’s artistic director and co-head, said in a statement. “The pandemic has hit TIFF hard, but we’ve responded by going back to our original inspiration — to bring the very best in film to the broadest possible audience. Our teams have had to rethink everything, and open our minds to new ideas.”

Bailey added: “In countless video calls over the past three months we have rebuilt our festival for 2020 drawing on our five decades of commitment to strong curation, support for filmmakers, and engagement with audiences,” he continued. “We have listened to this year’s urgent calls for greater representation of under-represented voices. And we have watched as audiences have embraced cinema’s ability to transport them through screens of all sizes. We’re excited to present thoughtful, high-impact programming this September that reflects our belief that there’s no stopping great storytelling.”