Screen Australia congratulates the producers and creative teams of Australian films The Dressmaker and The Daughter, which have both been selected overnight for the 40th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). The Dressmaker will have its world premiere in the red carpet Gala Presentations section, and The Daughter will have its North American premiere in the Special Presentations section. Other Australian talent including Wayne Blair, Nicole Kidman, Naomi Watts and Joel Edgerton will feature over various titles throughout the Gala and Special Presentations sections.

Richard Harris, Head of Business and Audience at Screen Australia, says: “2015 continues to be a banner year for Australian film on the international stage, where the hits just seem to keep coming. The Dressmaker and The Daughter are both such assured and yet distinctive films, and it is wonderful to see them get the profile they deserve at the 2015 Toronto Film Festival. We congratulate directors Jocelyn Moorhouse and Simon Stone, and their creative teams, on their selection into the festival and look forward to supporting their releases to Australian and international audiences in the months to come.”

Director of The Dressmaker, Jocelyn Moorhouse, says: “I am delighted The Dressmaker was officially selected for TIFF. This is a huge honour, and I can’t wait to show audiences the beautiful performances of Kate Winslet, Liam Hemsworth, Judy Davis and Hugo Weaving as well as our extraordinary ensemble cast.”

Producers of The Daughter, Jan Chapman and Nicole O’Donohue, say: “We are delighted to present The Daughter at the Toronto Film Festival as a Special Presentation and our North American premiere. Toronto is a vibrant festival well attended by local audiences and the international industry and is the home of our sales agent, Mongrel International. We look forward to sharing Simon Stone’s debut feature and the moving performances of our ensemble cast.”

OTHER AUSTRALIAN TALENT

Gala Presentations

Wayne Blair’s Septembers of Shiraz starring Salma Hayek and Adrien Brody and shot by Warwick Thornton, will have its world premiere in the Gala Presentations.

Naomi Watts will star alongside Jake Gyllenhaal and Chris Cooper in the Opening Night film Demolition from director Jean-Marc Vallée.

Special Presentations

Joel Edgerton will star alongside Johnny Depp, Benedict Cumberbatch, Rory Cochrane, Jesse Plemons, Kevin Bacon, Dakota Johnson, Julianne Nicholson, Corey Stoll and Peter Sarsgaard in Black Mass from director Scott Cooper.

Nicole Kidman will star with Jason Bateman and Christopher Walken in The Family Fang directed by Bateman.

Mountains May Depart by Jia Zhang-ke was partially shot in Western Australia.

More announcements by TIFF will happen over the next month in the lead up to the festival, which runs 10–20 September 2015.
 
FILM DETAILS
 
THE DAUGHTER
Screening North American premiere / Special Presentations
Genre Drama
Production Company Jan Chapman Films & Wildflower Films
Writer/Director Simon Stone
Producers Jan Chapman, Nicole O’Donohue
Cast Geoffrey Rush, Ewen Leslie, Paul Schneider, Miranda Otto, Anna Torv, with Odessa Young and Sam Neill
Sales Mongrel International
Australian Distribution Roadshow Films
Synopsis In the last days of a dying logging town Christian returns to his family home for his father Henry’s wedding to the much younger Anna. While home, Christian reconnects with his childhood friend Oliver, who has stayed in town working at Henry’s timber mill and is now out of a job. As Christian gets to know Oliver’s wife Charlotte, daughter Hedvig and father Walter, he discovers a secret that could tear Oliver’s family apart. As he tries to right the wrongs of the past, his actions threaten to shatter the lives of those he left behind years before.
 
THE DRESSMAKER
Screening World premiere / red carpet Gala Presentations
Genre Comedy/Drama
Production Company Film Art Media
Director Jocelyn Moorhouse
Writers Jocelyn Moorhouse, PJ Hogan
Producer Sue Maslin
Executive Producers Gavin Poolman, Michael Shyjka, Tim Haslam, Hugo Grumbar, Ian Kirk, Roger Savage, Karl Engeler, Fred Gaines, Greg Sitch, PJ Hogan, Daryl Dellora
Cast Kate Winslet, Judy Davis, Liam Hemsworth, Hugo Weaving
International Sales Embankment Films (co-represented in the US with CAA)
Australian Distributor Universal Pictures International (UPI)
Synopsis Based on the best-selling novel by Rosalie Ham, The Dressmaker is a bittersweet, comedy-drama set in early 1950s Australia. Tilly Dunnage (Kate Winslet), a beautiful and talented misfit, after many years working as a dressmaker in exclusive Parisian fashion houses, returns home to the tiny middle-of-nowhere town of Dungatar to right the wrongs of the past. Not only does she reconcile with her ailing, eccentric mother Molly (Judy Davis) and unexpectedly fall in love with the pure-hearted Teddy (Liam Hemsworth), but armed with her sewing machine and incredible sense of style, she transforms the women of the town and in so doing gets sweet revenge on those who did her wrong.