See: A bus, a bomb threat and ‘Kill’ at Toronto International Film Festival

The Middle East finds rich representation at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) with films like ‘Inshallah A Boy’, British-Palestinian director Farah Nabulsi’s debut feature, ‘The Teacher,’ Moroccan filmmaker Asmae El Moudir’s documentary hybrid ‘The Mother of All Lies’, Iranian filmmaker Farhad Delaram’s Achilles, dark comedic crime thriller “Mandoob’, Egyptian filmmaker Abu Bakr Shawky’s ‘Hajjan’ etc.

A rather determined Ethan Hawke refused to let anything keep him from attending the premiere of his latest film, ‘Wildcat’. When ‘People’ asked his daughter, Maya Hawke, if it were true that her father had to catch a Greyhound bus in order to make it to the annual event, she replied, “He did! Everyone’s talking about it!... He had to take the bus here ‘cause all the flights got cancelled.” “Three flights cancelled, then I was like, ‘I’m not gonna miss this because of some airport,” Ethan told the magazine.

Filmmaker Karan Johar and Oscar-winning producer Guneet Monga attended the screening of their film, 'Kill', featuring Lakshya in the lead role. Johar shared a couple of pictures from the event on his Instagram profile on Saturday and captioned them: Ready to #KILL! World Premiere of KILL at Toronto International Film Festival - Midnight Madness Screening!”

Actor Anil Kapoor’s film, ‘Thank You For Coming’ will also be screened at the prestigious festival and the actor is ecstatic to be there. “You know, I’ve been wanting to attend TIFF ever since Slumdog Millionaire! That year, I travelled to pretty much all the celebrated festivals for Slumdog — from BFI at London to Cannes and everything in between,” said Kapoor in a statement. “The only festival I couldn’t attend then was TIFF and that was only because my visa didn’t arrive in time for me to be there. So TIFF has been on my bucket list ever since!” Check it off, Mr Kapoor.

What’s a film festival without some drama? The premiere of the documentary ‘Lil Nas X: Long Live Montero’ was delayed after a bomb threat was called in. The Saturday night premiere of the film at Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall was delayed by about 20 minutes while authorities verified that the threat wasn’t credible. Lil Nas X was kept off the red carpet during that time.

Cast member Dakota Johnson attended the premiere of ‘Daddio’. She plays a programmer landing in New York after a trip to see her half-sister, finding herself in a cab driven by Sean Penn’s character. And though there was nothing fishy about it, her outfit, printed with fish all over, did get people talking. And that’s what showbiz is all about, right?

Elliot Page returned to TIFF 16 years later for his latest film, 'Close to You'. This was Page’s first leading man role since coming out as transgender in 2020. The movie’s director, Dominic Savage, confirmed that the movie was very much rooted in Page’s own journey, Yahoo reported. “This film was made with Elliot, for Elliot and because of Elliot,” the filmmaker said. Page was one of the few actors who appeared on a TIFF red carpet amid Hollywood’s dual strikes by the Writer’s Guild of America and the Screen Actors Guild.