Toronto International Film Festival sets lineup with Sydney Sweeney, Aziz Ansari and 'Knives Out 3'

Films starring Sydney Sweeney, Angelina Jolie and Aziz Ansari will premiere at the 50th Toronto International Film Festival, festival organizers announced Monday.

TIFF laid out the selections to its galas and special presentations programs, which make up the bulk of the red carpet premieres to North America's largest film festival. Films making their world premieres include Ansari's “Good Fortune,” starring Keanu Reeves as an angel trying to teach a struggling man (Ansari) a lesson; David Michôd’s “Christy,” with Sweeney playing the boxer Christy Martin; and Alice Winocour's “Couture,” starring Jolie as an American filmmaker attending Paris Fashion Week.

Those films join previously announced TIFF world premieres including Rian Johnson's “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery." All three of Johnson's “Knives Out” films have premiered in Toronto.

Also debuting in Toronto will be Derek Cianfrance's “Roofman,” starring Channing Tatum as a struggling father turned thief; Nia DaCosta's Ibsen adaptation “Hedda,” starring Tessa Thompson; Nicholas Hytner's WWI drama “The Choral,” with Ralph Fiennes; Steven Soderbergh's third 2025 release, “The Christophers”; Hikari's “Rental Family,” starring Brendan Fraser as an American actor in Japan; and Paul Greengrass' “The Lost Bus,” with Matthew McConaughey as a bus driver navigating California's 2018 Camp Fire.

The Toronto International Film Festival will kick off Sept. 4 with the debut of the documentary “John Candy: I Like Me,” from director Colin Hanks and producer Ryan Reynolds. The festival runs through Sept. 14.

Toronto has long been one of the prized launching pads to the fall movie season, though many of the top films often first go to the Venice or Telluride film festivals. This year, that includes TIFF selections like Chloe Zhao's “Hamnet,” Guillermo del Toro's “Frankenstein,” Benny Safdie's “The Smashing Machine” and Edward Berger's “Ballad of a Smaller Player.” The designation of those premieres suggests “Frankenstein” and “The Smashing Machine” will first play Venice, while Zhao's and Berger's films will likely play both Venice and Telluride.

Other notable films premiering in Toronto include James Vanderbilt's Nuremberg trials drama “Nuremberg,” with Rami Malik and Russell Crowe; Rachel Lee Goldenberg's “Swiped,” starring Lily James as Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd; and Agnieszka Holland's Franz Kafka drama “Franz."

Several directorial debuts will be landing in Toronto including those by Brian Cox (“Glenrothan”) and Maude Apatow ("Poetic License"). Other selections include “Bad Apples,” with Saoirse Ronan as a teacher with a poorly behaved student; “Easy's Waltz," a Las Vegas-set drama starring Vince Vaughn and Al Pacino; and Alex Winter's “Adulthood.”

A number of standouts from May's Cannes Film Festival will also play in Toronto, such as Jafar Panahi's Palme d'Or winner “It Was Just an Accident,” Joachim Trier's “Sentimental Value,” Oliver Laxe's “Sirât” and Richard Linklater's “Nouvelle Vague.”

FILE - A welcome sign for the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival is pictured on the opening night of the festival, Thursday, Sept. 5, 2024, in Toronto. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)

A Ukrainian drone strike killed one person and wounded three others in the Russian city of Voronezh, local officials said Sunday.

A young woman died overnight in a hospital intensive care unit after debris from a drone fell on a house during the attack on Saturday, regional Gov. Alexander Gusev said on Telegram.

Three other people were wounded and more than 10 apartment buildings, private houses and a high school were damaged, he said, adding that air defenses shot down 17 drones over Voronezh. The city is home to just over 1 million people and lies some 250 kilometers (155 miles) from the Ukrainian border.

The attack came the day after Russia bombarded Ukraine with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles overnight into Friday, killing at least four people in the capital Kyiv, according to Ukrainian officials.

For only the second time in the nearly four-year war, Russia used a powerful new hypersonic missile that struck western Ukraine in a clear warning to Kyiv and NATO.

The intense barrage and the launch of the nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile followed reports of major progress in talks between Ukraine and its allies on how to defend the country from further aggression by Moscow if a U.S.-led peace deal is struck.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday in his nightly address that Ukrainian negotiators “continue to communicate with the American side.”

Chief negotiator Rustem Umerov was in contact with U.S. partners Saturday, he said.

Separately, Ukraine’s General Staff said Russia targeted Ukraine with 154 drones overnight into Sunday and 125 were shot down.

Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

This photo provided by the Ukrainian Security Service on Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, shows a fragment believed to be a part of a Russian Oreshnik intermediate range hypersonic ballistic missile that hit the Lviv region. (Ukrainian Security Service via AP)

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, second left, listens to British Defense Secretary John Healey during their meeting in Kyiv, Ukraine, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Danylo Antoniuk)