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Nazis, Cults and Sydney Sweeney: Hollywood Heads to 50th Toronto Fest 

Sydney Sweeney. (AFP)
Sydney Sweeney. (AFP)
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Nazis, Cults and Sydney Sweeney: Hollywood Heads to 50th Toronto Fest 

Sydney Sweeney. (AFP)
Sydney Sweeney. (AFP)

The Toronto International Film Festival kicks off Thursday, with Hollywood stars Russell Crowe, Sydney Sweeney and Daniel Craig bringing hotly anticipated world premieres to the 50th edition of North America's biggest movie event.

Though lacking the historic glamour of Cannes or Venice, TIFF dwarfs rival festivals for sheer scale and is a key launchpad for Oscars campaigns, luring A-listers, critics and giant public audiences for 11 days of red-carpet galas.

On this anniversary year, Matthew McConaughey, Paul Mescal, Angelina Jolie and Anya Taylor-Joy will all hit the screenings and soirees in Canada, while French directors Romain Gavras, Claire Denis and Arnaud Desplechin bring an added European flair.

Among the world premieres, Crowe gives what organizers describe as a nuanced and eerily charismatic performance as Nazi Hermann Goering on trial in historical drama "Nuremberg," opposite fellow Oscar-winner Rami Malek.

"The unexpected part of this performance is you don't expect to be disarmed by this person, who you know has done horrible things," said TIFF director of programming Robyn Citizen. "And then, through the course of the movie, you are."

Sweeney aims to pivot from her recent jeans ad controversy to Academy Award contender with "Christy," a gritty, raw biopic of US female boxing pioneer Christy Martin.

"I think this is the role that's going to make people take notice again of the actor that she is," predicted Citizen.

In another harrowing true-life tale, McConaughey rescues schoolchildren from California wildfires in the emotionally searing action-thriller "The Lost Bus."

With an estimated 400,000 annual attendees, the "audience-first" Toronto festival traditionally showcases splashy crowd-pleasers alongside awards fare.

This year marks the return for a third time at TIFF of Netflix's popular "Knives Out" whodunit franchise, with former 007 actor Craig back investigating the latest murder in "Wake Up Dead Man."

Josh Brolin plays an unnerving demagogue with a cult following in a film that "tackles current issues in a fun, locked-room, classical-plot way," says Citizen.

Several French auteurs are set to attend this year's fest.

Matt Dillon appears in Denis' drama "The Fence," about a mysterious death on an African construction site, while Desplechin launches love story "Two Pianos" starring Charlotte Rampling.

Alice Winocour pairs with Jolie for Paris fashion drama "Couture."

Gavras's celebrity climate-change satire "Sacrifice" stars Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Evans as an eco-terrorist and a waning movie star, respectively.

Elsewhere, the festival's comedy selections contain some of its starriest names.

Keanu Reeves plays an incompetent angel in Aziz Ansari's body-swapping farce "Good Fortune," while Channing Tatum portrays a real-life fugitive who lives clandestinely inside a Toys R Us store in "Roofman."

Brendan Fraser plays a lonely actor available for hire at funerals and weddings in Tokyo-set "Rental Family."

Toronto follows hot on the heels of the small but influential US-based Telluride festival, and as usual invites a selection of movies from that intimate event to make a bigger, second splash in the Canadian metropolis.

Among them, Mescal plays a young William Shakespeare in literary adaptation "Hamnet" from Oscar-winning director Chloe Zhao -- though the focus is squarely on the Bard's long-suffering wife Agnes, played by a "transcendent" Jessie Buckley, says Citizen.

Director Edward Berger, on a hot run after "All Quiet on the Western Front" and "Conclave," will present Colin Farrell as a down-on-his-luck gambler pursued through the casinos of Macao by Tilda Swinton's investigator in "Ballad of a Small Player."

And fresh from Venice, Guillermo del Toro brings his reimagining of "Frankenstein" to Toronto.

Latino reggaeton megastar J Balvin makes his movie debut, playing a 1980s cop chasing cocaine smugglers to the remotest reaches of Nova Scotia in "Little Lorraine."

"Brat" singer-songwriter Charli xcx has two new films -- Gavras's "Sacrifice," and Polish arthouse drama "Erupcja."

And Baz Luhrmann will premiere "EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert," featuring long-lost footage of The King that the director unearthed while making his 2022 biopic "Elvis."

TIFF runs from Thursday through to September 14.

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Entertainment

Netflix Intensifies Bid for Warner Bros Making Its $72 Billion Offer All Cash

A Netflix sign is displayed atop a building in Los Angeles, on Dec. 18, 2025, with the Hollywood sign in the distance. (AP)
A Netflix sign is displayed atop a building in Los Angeles, on Dec. 18, 2025, with the Hollywood sign in the distance. (AP)
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Netflix Intensifies Bid for Warner Bros Making Its $72 Billion Offer All Cash

A Netflix sign is displayed atop a building in Los Angeles, on Dec. 18, 2025, with the Hollywood sign in the distance. (AP)
A Netflix sign is displayed atop a building in Los Angeles, on Dec. 18, 2025, with the Hollywood sign in the distance. (AP)

Netflix is now offering to buy Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio and streaming business in all cash — in an effort to win over the Hollywood giant's shareholders for its $72 billion merger and potentially thwart a hostile bid from Skydance-owned Paramount.

Back in December, Netflix struck a cash and stock deal with Warner valued at $27.75 per share, giving it a total enterprise value of $82.7 billion, including debt. But on Tuesday, the companies announced that they would be revising the transaction to simplify its structure, provide more certainty of value for Warner stockholders and speed up the path to a shareholder vote — which they said could arrive by April.

The all-cash transaction is still valued at $27.75 per Warner share. Warner stockholders will also receive the additional value of shares of Discovery Global, which would become a separate public company following a previously-announced separation from Warner Bros.

Warner leadership has repeatedly backed a merger with Netflix and the boards of both companies approved the all-cash deal announced Tuesday. In a statement, Warner CEO David Zaslav said the revised agreement “brings us even closer to combining two of the greatest storytelling companies in the world.”

A spokesperson for Paramount declined to comment when reached by The Associated Press on Tuesday. Unlike Netflix, Paramount wants to acquire Warner's entire company — including networks like CNN and Discovery — and went straight to shareholders with all cash, $77.9 billion offer last month.

Warner stockholders have until 5 p.m. ET Wednesday to tender their shares in support of Paramount's bid, which has an enterprise value of $108 billion including debt. But that deadline could be pushed back further. While Paramount declined to share further details on Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reported last week that the company was planning another extension.

Beyond its tender offer, Paramount has promised a proxy fight. Last week, the company said it would nominate its own slate of directors before the Warner's next shareholder meeting, the date of which has still not been set.

Paramount also filed a suit in Delaware Chancery Court seeking to compel Warner Bros. to disclose to shareholders how it values its bid and the competing offer from Netflix. But a judge on Thursday denied Paramount's request to expedite that proceeding.

In a statement at the time, Warner applauded the court’s decision and called Paramount’s lawsuit “yet another unserious attempt to distract.” Paramount, meanwhile, maintained that the ruling wasn't about the merits of its allegations and said Warner shareholders “should ask why their Board is working so hard to hide this information.”

Regardless of who eventually wins the upper hand, a Warner Bros. Discovery sale could be a long, drawn-out process that is almost certain to attract tremendous antitrust scrutiny. On Tuesday, Netflix and Warner maintained that they expect to close on a merger 12 to 18 months from December's agreement.

Entertainment

New James Bond Actor Revealed ’Soon’, Frontrunners Emerge

Actor Callum Turner is believed to be leading the charge (Getty Images) 
Actor Callum Turner is believed to be leading the charge (Getty Images) 
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New James Bond Actor Revealed ’Soon’, Frontrunners Emerge

Actor Callum Turner is believed to be leading the charge (Getty Images) 
Actor Callum Turner is believed to be leading the charge (Getty Images) 

An industry insider has revealed when the next James Bond film could begin shooting with its all-new 007, according to METRO newspaper.

The search for the next Bond has been on since Daniel Craig’s version of the character was killed off in No Time To Die, rather definitively vacating the role.

Since then, the franchise has been acquired by Amazon MGM Studios, who have begun work on the secret agent’s next era.

This has included hiring Dune director Denis Villeneuve to helm the next instalment of the long-running series.

While we know that Villeneuve will direct a script by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, Amazon has yet to pick its next leading actor – although they have reportedly narrowed their search down to eight names.

Sharing his thoughts on when our new Bond could be revealed, senior Deadline film reporter Justin Kroll has hinted that the announcement everyone’s waiting for may be imminent.

Appearing on the My Mom’s Basement podcast, Kroll shared his prediction for when Villeneuve’s Bond might begin rolling.

“I am predicting summer, if I had to be a betting man,” Kroll said. “Because I think production will likely start [at the] end of this year/top of next.”

He continued: “Obviously, it could be a little sooner, but from everything people have said since I’ve been back, Bond is more likely middle of the year than first quarter.”

If true, this means that Bond fans could finally get some major news any day now.

This comes as producers have reportedly narrowed their search to include some of the hottest names in Hollywood right now.

Dua Lipa’s husband-to-be and Eternity actor Callum Turner is believed to be leading the charge – according to the star himself, if a source for the Daily Mail is to be believed.

Turner is confident that his license to kill is already in the post, with an insider sharing how he’d been ‘blabbing’ the news all over town.

“Callum is the new Bond; it’s been confirmed,” they said. “Everyone in his circle is talking about it. It’s the worst-kept secret going.”

They finished: “Dua is over the moon for Callum. She’s been saying she’d love to record the Bond theme.”

Entertainment

'Avatar: Fire and Ash' at Number One in N. America for 5th Straight Week

This image released by 20th Century Studios shows Neytiri, performed by Zoe Saldaña, left, and Jake Sully, performed by Sam Worthington, in a scene from "Avatar: Fire and Ash." (20th Century Studios via AP)
This image released by 20th Century Studios shows Neytiri, performed by Zoe Saldaña, left, and Jake Sully, performed by Sam Worthington, in a scene from "Avatar: Fire and Ash." (20th Century Studios via AP)
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'Avatar: Fire and Ash' at Number One in N. America for 5th Straight Week

This image released by 20th Century Studios shows Neytiri, performed by Zoe Saldaña, left, and Jake Sully, performed by Sam Worthington, in a scene from "Avatar: Fire and Ash." (20th Century Studios via AP)
This image released by 20th Century Studios shows Neytiri, performed by Zoe Saldaña, left, and Jake Sully, performed by Sam Worthington, in a scene from "Avatar: Fire and Ash." (20th Century Studios via AP)

"Avatar: Fire and Ash" showed no signs of slowing down, topping the North American box office for the fifth consecutive week over the long holiday weekend, industry estimates showed Sunday.

The third installment in director James Cameron's blockbuster fantasy series took in another $17.2 million from Friday to Monday, when Americans mark Martin Luther King Jr Day.

That put its US and Canadian haul at $367.4 million, and its worldwide total at more than $1.3 billion, according to Exhibitor Relations.

"Fire and Ash" stars Zoe Saldana as Na'vi warrior Neytiri and Sam Worthington as ex-Marine Jake Sully, who must battle a new foe threatening their family's life on the planet Pandora.

It is the fourth Cameron film to pass the $1 billion mark, along with the first two "Avatar" films and "Titanic."

Debuting in second place with a disappointing $15 million was "28 Years Later: The Bone Temple," the fourth installment in the zombie horror series, which comes less than a year after the last film.

"Returning after 7 months is quick -- it's too quick, and it's hurting the numbers," said analyst David A. Gross of Franchise Entertainment Research.

Disney's feel-good animated film "Zootopia 2" showed its staying power, moving up to third place at $12 million over the four-day weekend.

In fourth place at $10.2 million was "The Housemaid," an adaptation of Freida McFadden's best-selling novel about a young woman who is hired by a wealthy couple with dark secrets. Sydney Sweeney and Amanda Seyfried star in the Lionsgate release.

"Marty Supreme," starring Oscars frontrunner Timothee Chalamet as a conniving 1950s table tennis player with big dreams, finished in fifth place at $6.7 million.