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The Stars are Aligning in Toronto

The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), now in its 40th year, has grown from an upstart film movement in 1976 to a global cinematic tour de force. Whereas Cannes is known as the Queen of Film Festivals, the Toronto International Film Festival has risen to second in the rankings, frequently referred to as Cannes’ Feisty Princess.

For this year’s opening, Quebec filmmaker Jean-Marc Vallée landed TIFF’s coveted opening gala slot withDemolition , starring , Naomi Watts and Chris Cooper. Jean- Marc Vallée, of course, also directed Matthew McConaughey in Dallas Buyers Club (a TIFF premiere in 2013) and in Wild.

TIFF’s long history is rich with under-the-radar movies that went on to become international blockbusters: (1981), The Big Chill (1983), (1991), American Beauty (1999), Crash (2004), (2009), The King’s Speech (2010) and (2012).

Here are our top picks from this year’s festival:

Black Mass Starring Johnny Depp as Boston’s feared underworld mobster turned FBI informant, James “Whitey” Bolger, is being heralded as the breakout role in Depp’s current career slump and an Oscar-worthy performance. Depp is evil incarnate right down to his creepy blue contact lenses. Kevin Bacon, Benedict Cumberbatch and Dakota Johnson co-star. In theaters now.

The Director and team up to knock this space film out of the park. Damon is an astronaut stranded on . An out-of-this-world MacGiver, he relies on his expansive engineering and botany skills to stay alive as the ground crew figures out how to get him home. The supporting cast is A-list: , , , , and . No “Interstellar”, the movie’s heart won rave reviews by Toronto’s audiences. Release Date: October 2

The Danish Girl This film was generating serious buzz even before its starring actress, Amber Heard, walked hand-in-hand down the Toronto red carpet with her husband, the ever-dapper Johnny Depp. Artist Lili Elde, played by Eddie Redmayne, was one of the first to undergo gender reassignment surgery. Heard plays his friend Oola Paulson. In the hands of director Tom Hooper, an Academy favorite with Les Miserables and The King’s Speech to his credit, this biopic couldn’t be more topical. Release Date: November 27

Spotlight Harkening back to “All the President’s Men”, the Boston Globe’s dedicated Spotlight team of investigative reporters dug into a cover-up by the Catholic Church after allegations of pedophilia among its priests and won the Pulitzer Prize. This film—led by journalists played by , , and Rachel McAdams—follows the gritty process of gathering of information, carefully corroborating facts, all as the sheer scale of the scandal looms into view. plays the paper’s top editor. Release Date: November 6

Trumbo You simply can’t go wrong with Bryan Cranston and . The world’s favorite drug lord plays 1940’s screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, once destined to be Hollywood’s richest screenwriter, who was jailed and later blacklisted for refusing to name names in the Communist witch hunts of the House Un-American Activities Committee. Mirren shines as gossip columnist Hedda Hopper. Film aficionados pooh-poohed the small-screen fast pace but who doesn’t like a rebel with a cause? Especially if that rebel is Cranston.Release Date: November 6

Dheepan The Tweet-a-verse was not happy with this year’s Palme d’Or winner, the top prize of the . No less an authority than Joel Coen disagreed and weighed in: “This isn’t a jury of film critics. This is a jury of artists who are looking at the work.” Toronto audiences, who viewed the film’s North America debut, agreed. “Dheepan” follows a former Sri Lankan Tamil Tiger soldier (amateur actor Jesuthasan Antonythasan) as he and his migrant family start a new life in a Parisian housing project.

The 2015 Toronto Film Festival runs from 9 – 20 September. For more information, visit www.tiff.net.

Top photo: WireImage/Getty for TIFF