Music in film is a craft that elevates the medium to emotional heights.  We can all recall the feeling of a film by listening to its score years later.  The ability is write insightful music but balance the art of film storytelling is no easy task.  These composers will be presenting their latest work at the Toronto International Film Festival !

Mark Orton (Nebraska) in his latest film THE HOLDOVERS 

The Holdovers | Alexander Payne | INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE | United States of America | 2023 | 133m | English

Paul Giamatti stars in Alexander Payne’s latest about the bond that forms between a strict professor and a belligerent student he’s stuck supervising over the winter holiday at an elite boarding school.

Barton men don’t lie. This is just one of the many rules Professor Hunham (Paul Giamatti) takes much too seriously as he hands out poor grades at an elite boarding school in 1971. As he dismisses the politics that come along with educating the children of people in high places, he’s punished by the headmaster who gives him a most undesirable assignment for the winter break: to stay at the school and supervise the students who are unable to go home.

Hunham resolves to have the students suffer with him, forcing them to start studying next semester’s curriculum ahead of time. Among them, 15-year-old Angus (Dominic Sessa), bright but belligerent, makes a ruckus. Teacher and student become foes, antagonizing one another and tiring themselves out, as Mary (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), the school cafeteria manager, observes from the sidelines, herself alone after recently losing her son in the Vietnam War. As the petulant pair succumb to the depressing truth that they’ve got little else but each other this holiday season, Professor Hunham starts to soften up and they begin to see themselves in one another.

Giamatti gives a career-high performance as the risible teacher who delights in doling out punishment, while newcomer Sessa makes an immediate name for himself, revealing layers of complexity to his character’s rebellious nature. With The Holdovers, director Alexander Payne (Downsizing, TIFF ’17) makes a delicate point about how a first impression never tells the whole truth and shows that the pains and tragedies that feel specific to us actually make us a lot more alike than unalike.

Jay Wadley (Swan Song) in WE GROWN NOW

We Grown Now | Minhal Baig | WORLD PREMIERE | United States of America | 2023 | 93m | English

Two young boys, best friends Malik and Eric, discover the joys and hardships of growing up in the sprawling Cabrini-Green public housing complex in 1992 Chicago in the latest film from director Minhal Baig (Hala, TIFF ’19).

Constructed over several decades beginning in the late 1940s, Chicago’s Cabrini-Green public housing complex embodied contemporary thought on housing and urban development. By 1992, however, the community — and the world — had changed significantly. That’s captured in the latest film from director Minhal Baig (Hala, TIFF ’19).

Along with his mother Dolores (Jurnee Smollett) and grandmother Anita (S. Epatha Merkerson), 12-year-old Malik (Blake Cameron James) has lived in this community all his life. The same is true for his best friend Eric (Gian Knight Ramirez) and together the boys know every nook, stairway, and rooftop — all of these a playing field for their (sometimes forbidden) adventures. But change is intruding on their childhood idyll. Drugs and crime are seeping into the neighbourhood and, when a sudden tragic event further shakes the families, the children’s future becomes uncertain. As Dolores weighs a new job that would take them to the unfamiliar suburbs, Malik and Eric struggle with accepting that they may have to say goodbye to each other.

Anchored by astonishing performances from young newcomers James and Ramirez, We Grown Now serves as a rich and textured portrait of the friendships we often neglect to acknowledge when we talk about what a community is. Baig spent significant time with former residents of the now-demolished Cabrini-Green homes, gathering their stories and garnering support for the telling of them. The result is a lyrical and poignant tale of boyhood innocence, social change, and the fight to hold on to optimism.

– Oscar-winning composer Volker Bertelmann (All Quiet On The Western Front) will return to TIFF with his latest work in ONE LIFE starring Anthony Hopkins

One Life | James Hawes |WORLD PREMIERE | United Kingdom | 2023 | 110m | English

Sir Anthony Hopkins stars as Sir Nicholas Winton, a British stockbroker who helped rescue hundreds of children from Europe on the verge of the Second World War, an act of compassion that was almost forgotten for 50 years.

In 1938, Nicholas Winton was a mild-mannered British stockbroker who became increasingly unsettled by the news of what was happening in continental Europe. After a spur-of-the-moment decision to join friends in Prague to help a growing number of refugees, his life — and the lives of hundreds of Jewish children facing the threat of Hitler’s regime — changed forever. Resolving to take whatever action he could, Winton returned to London and conscripted his indefatigable mother, Babette (Helena Bonham Carter) for what would become years of fundraising and fighting bureaucracy in order to begin transporting children to safety in the UK.

Sir Anthony Hopkins masterfully portrays the deeply humble and almost-anonymous Winton of the 1980s. When his ever-patient wife Grete (Lena Olin) asks him to declutter his office, Nicholas uncovers the long-buried folders and notes that hold the many names of all the children he saved, sparking memories of his wartime efforts. We then follow the younger Nicky, played by Johnny Flynn (Clouds of Sils Maria, TIFF ’14), in his sincere and rallying race against an impending war.

Nicholas’ scrapbook triggered a series of events that culminated in the long-delayed celebration of his life-saving achievements when the BBC invited him to a television program that made him an icon of compassion. His story resonates in our time, as we continue to grapple with war, refugee crises, and growing antisemitism. One Life is a moving portrait of the drive to serve in times of strife and a timeless reminder of our ability to make a difference.

Enjoy these and other films @ #tiff23!

The Toronto International Film Festival takes place September 7–17, 2023. Tickets are on sale now at tiff.net.