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Toronto Film Festival Unveils a Starry Lineup — and Hopes the Strike Ends by September 

Kate Winslet. (AP)
Kate Winslet. (AP)
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Toronto Film Festival Unveils a Starry Lineup — and Hopes the Strike Ends by September 

Kate Winslet. (AP)
Kate Winslet. (AP)

The Toronto International Film Festival unveiled a starry lineup to its 48th edition on Monday, even if remains unclear if stars will be there to walk red carpets due to the ongoing actors and writers strikes.

Among the films making their world premieres at TIFF this year are Craig Gillespie's GameStop drama "Dumb Money," with Paul Dano and Pete Davidson; Ellen Kuras' "Lee," starring Kate Winslet at war photographer Lee Miller and Tony Goldwyn's "Ezra," with Robert De Niro and Rose Byrne.

Also headed to Toronto are Michael Keaton's "Knox Goes Away," starring Al Pacino and James Marsden; Kristen Scott Thomas' "North Star," featuring Scarlett Johansson and Sienna Miller; David Yates' Netflix drama "Pain Hustlers," starring Emily Blunt and Chris Evans; and Maggie Betts' "The Burial," with Jamie Foxx and Tommy Lee Jones.

Those films, and many more including directorial debuts by Anna Kendrick ("Woman of the Hour") and Chris Pine ("Poolman"), will make up some of the gala premieres at TIFF, the largest film festival in North America.

The festival is a key platform for Hollywood to debut its fall fare and awards hopefuls. But like the Venice Film Festival, which begins about a week before TIFF launches on Sept. 7, Toronto organizers are anxiously following the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes.

While those strikes continue, actors and writers are prohibited by their unions from promoting their films. TIFF will go forward, regardless, but an ongoing strike would sap the festival of A-listers and surely lessen the usual cacophony of buzz emanating from Toronto.

The strike has already led to one of Venice's top titles — Luca Guadagnino's "Challengers," starring Zendaya — pulling out as the festival's opening night selection and postponing its release to April.

Other major titles coming to TIFF include Alexander Payne's "The Holdovers," starring Paul Giamatti as a boarding school professor; Richard Linklater’s "Hit Man," an action comedy starring Glen Powell and Adria Arjona; Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin’s "Nyad," starring Annette Bening as long-distance swimmer Diana Nyad; Mahalia Belo's "The We End Start From," starring Jodie Comer as a mother fleeing a flooded London; and Ethan Hawke's "Wildcat," featuring his daughter, Maya Hawke, as author Flannery O'Connor.

TIFF previously announced that Taika Waititi’s soccer comedy " Next Goal Wins " will open this year's festival, which runs through Sept. 17.

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Entertainment

Inside the Fireproof Vault Housing US Movie History

Nitrate Film vault Leader George Willeman explains how the different functions of the vault work at the Packard Campus of the Library of Congress' National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, Virginia, on April 2, 2026. (AFP)
Nitrate Film vault Leader George Willeman explains how the different functions of the vault work at the Packard Campus of the Library of Congress' National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, Virginia, on April 2, 2026. (AFP)
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Inside the Fireproof Vault Housing US Movie History

Nitrate Film vault Leader George Willeman explains how the different functions of the vault work at the Packard Campus of the Library of Congress' National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, Virginia, on April 2, 2026. (AFP)
Nitrate Film vault Leader George Willeman explains how the different functions of the vault work at the Packard Campus of the Library of Congress' National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, Virginia, on April 2, 2026. (AFP)

Once upon a time in the golden days of Hollywood, the movies were bigger, the stars brighter and the celluloid they were filmed on was, well, explosive.

Which is why the US Library of Congress maintains a special, fireproof vault in Virginia, near Washington, DC.

There, the highly combustible nitrate film used from the dawn of cinema in the 1890s until the early 1950s has a permanent home, rarely accessed by the public but toured by AFP.

Lost movies on the volatile but durable medium are still being discovered and preserved in the facility. And thanks to digitization, the lost treasures can also be safely viewed for the first time in decades.

Some 145,000 film reels are stored in strictly fireproof conditions in a vast, chilly vault at the library's National Audio-Visual Conservation Center in Culpeper, Virginia.

It is crammed with cinematic treasures that rekindle warm memories of an era when movies ruled.

The vault's leader, George Willeman, reeled off the names of classics with negatives there: "Casablanca," Frank Capra-directed films like "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," and the grand-daddy of all action movies, "The Great Train Robbery" from 1903.

Down a spartan corridor so long it seemed to recede into the distance, he unlocked a series of cell-like steel doors.

Inside each of the 124 cells -- there's one dedicated just to the Disney archive -- were floor-to-ceiling cubby holes.

Each one held film canisters containing negatives and prints, all arranged meticulously: packed tight to prevent canisters from opening, but far enough apart to prevent any fire from spreading.

Since being set up in 2007 in a former US Federal Reserve building in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, the vault has maintained a perfect no-fire record.

- Film nerds' delight -

Nitrate film is just part of the center's collection of more than six million items of moving images and recorded sound. They also have supporting scripts, posters and photos.

Willeman, who sports a button badge with the invocation to "Experience Nitrate," said the Library of Congress began preserving the medium when in the 1960s, "it was discovered that so much film was being lost" due to fires and defunct companies throwing negatives away.

With the American Film Institute, the library began collecting and copying nitrate film, including the holdings of big Hollywood studios - RKO, Warner Brothers, Universal, Columbia and Walt Disney.

They also tapped the personal collections of film icons like movie impresario and silent era star Mary Pickford and motion pictures inventor Thomas Edison, whose early studio produced hundreds of films.

"We're 50 some years in, and it (the collection) just keeps growing," Willeman said.

With the arrival of digital media, the mission has expanded beyond preservation for purists and cinema historians -- who say movies just look better on nitrate footage -- to putting old films online.

"Now we can make them available for everybody, which to me, being the film nerd I've been since, like, third grade, is just amazing."

Nitrate film made by early artisans often preserves better than the later safety film, said Courtney Holschuh, nitrate archive technician.

At a workstation with no light bulbs or exposed batteries -- either of which could ignite dust or gas from vintage film -- Holschuh recounted how last September she carefully peeled apart a cache of 10 vintage reels donated by a retired schoolteacher.

There were 42 different titles on the reels -- only 26 of which have been identified. They included a lost film, "Gugusse and the Automaton," by French cinema pioneer Georges Melies.

"So much of our early film history is still out there for us to see and to experience," Willeman said.

Entertainment

Oasis, Phil Collins and Luther Vandross Among Rock Hall Inductees

Liam Gallagher, left, and Noel Gallagher of Oasis appear during their reunion tour in Toronto on Aug. 24, 2025. (Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press via AP, File)
Liam Gallagher, left, and Noel Gallagher of Oasis appear during their reunion tour in Toronto on Aug. 24, 2025. (Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press via AP, File)
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Oasis, Phil Collins and Luther Vandross Among Rock Hall Inductees

Liam Gallagher, left, and Noel Gallagher of Oasis appear during their reunion tour in Toronto on Aug. 24, 2025. (Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press via AP, File)
Liam Gallagher, left, and Noel Gallagher of Oasis appear during their reunion tour in Toronto on Aug. 24, 2025. (Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press via AP, File)

Dad rocker Phil Collins and reformed Britpop princes Oasis led the 2026 class of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees who were announced on live US television on Monday.

Billy Idol, chanteuse Sade, metal legends Iron Maiden and Manchester outfits Joy Division and New Order were also honored, along with hip hop collective Wu-Tang Clan and velvet-voiced crooner Luther Vandross.

The announcements of the honorees came in a live episode of the "American Idol" competition, helmed by rockers Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo.

"Induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame is music's highest honor," said the organization's chairman John Sykes.

"We look forward to celebrating these remarkable artists at this year's ceremony -- it's going to be an unforgettable night."

The induction ceremony -- which doubles as a star-studded concert gala rife with tributes to the honorees -- will be held November 14 in Los Angeles.

Eligible nominees into the Rock Hall must have released their first commercial recording at least 25 years prior to being nominated.

Phil Collins, Luther Vandross, and Wu-Tang Clan are first-time nominees. Billy Idol, Iron Maiden, Joy Division, New Order, Oasis, and Sade have all been nominated in the past, but were not selected for induction.

The 2025 class of inductees included Outkast, the White Stripes and Cyndi Lauper.

Entertainment

Tom Holland Says New ‘Spider-Man’ Is the Most Emotional, Most Mature, Yet

Tom Holland. (AFP)
Tom Holland. (AFP)
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Tom Holland Says New ‘Spider-Man’ Is the Most Emotional, Most Mature, Yet

Tom Holland. (AFP)
Tom Holland. (AFP)

Tom Holland’s Peter Parker is dealing with the reality of making his friends forget his identity in the upcoming “Spider-Man” movie.

Sony Pictures unveiled new footage from “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” Monday at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, in which Zendaya’s character MJ apparently has a boyfriend.

Five years after “Spider-Man: No Way Home” became a sensation in theaters, earning over $1.9 billion worldwide thanks in part to the appearance of past Spider-Men Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, the webslinger’s fourth standalone movie is one of the most hotly anticipated of the summer. Its trailer already broke records, with over 1 billion views in its first four days.

Tom Holland, in a video message, told the exhibitors in the audience that it’s the most emotional Spider-Man movie yet, and “the most grown-up.”

He introduced an early scene in the new film showing the aftermath of his decision at the end of “No Way Home.” In the sequence, he attends a housewarming party for MJ and Jacob Batalon’s Ned and introduces himself as “Maynard ... just a neighbor from across the hall.”

Destin Daniel Cretton, who made the Marvel movie “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” stepped in to direct this newest “Spider-Man,” which opens in theaters on July 31.

Sony Pictures has for years kicked off the annual conference and trade show for movie theater owners, where throughout the week Hollywood's major studios bring out stars and new footage hoping to wow the people putting their films on the big screen.

The studio announced the development of an R-rated adaptation of the video game “Bloodborne,” and the release date of “Godzilla Minus One” director Takashi Yamazaki’s English language debut, “Grand Gear,” which will begin filming soon. It’s scheduled to hit theaters on Feb. 18, 2028.

They also debuted new footage from the “Spider-Verse” finale, revealed the title of the next “Jumanji” movie — “Open World” — previewed “Weapons” filmmaker Zach Cregger's “Resident Evil,” and gave the audience a first look at Jeremy Strong playing Mark Zuckerberg in Aaron Sorkin's “The Social Reckoning,” a companion piece to “The Social Network.”

Oscar-winner Mikey Madison (“Anora”) plays Facebook engineer Frances Haugen and Jeremy Allen White is then-Wall Street Journal reporter Jeff Horwitz in the film, which comes out in October. Haugen leaked thousands of pages of internal Facebook records to the Journal, yielding a 2021 investigation known as the “Facebook Files.” The series of stories alleged the social media giant was prioritizing profits over safety and hiding its own research from investors and the public.

“It was time to say more,” said Sorkin, who described this film as “a real David and Goliath story.”

In the footage, Strong's Zuckerberg quips that he's “a professional defendant” and pushes back on an adviser saying, “I’m not two years out of a dorm room anymore.”

Sony Chairman and CEO Tom Rothman said he believes “it’s going to be an Olympic level movie year overall” while also acknowledging the industry’s “serious challenges” including that admissions have been down since before the pandemic.

Studios, he said, need to deliver a variety of great films for all audiences. He also made some recommendations for theaters, imploring them to enforce longer theatrical windows “even if that means you cannot play every film,” to get rid of endless advertising before films and make going to the theater more affordable.

“I’m not heckling,” Rothman said. “I’m rooting for you.”