<\/p>\n
TORONTO \u2014 First-time director, longtime festivalgoer Scarlett Johansson says she appreciates that the Toronto International Film Festival focuses more on films than celebrity fashion.<\/p>\n
The screen star discussed themes of forgiveness and grief at a morning press conference for her dramedy \u201cEleanor the Great\u201d as it prepares to screen for a Toronto audience on Monday.<\/p>\n
Seated alongside her actors June Squibb, Erin Kellyman and Chiwetel Ejiofor, Johansson says TIFF so far \u201cfeels like less of a runway and more like a conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n
She adds that Toronto\u2019s downtown festival circuit is well-mapped for crossing paths with other film-lovers and overhearing their chit-chat about buzzy titles.<\/p>\n
Johansson\u2019s intergenerational feature \u201cEleanor the Great\u201d premiered at the Cannes Film Festival back in May when Squibb earned raves for her turn as a lonely nonagenarian who appropriates her friend\u2019s story about surviving the Holocaust.<\/p>\n
It hits theatres on Sept. 26 after screening at TIFF, which wraps Sept. 14.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the last time I was here was with (director) Noah (Baumbach) for \u2018Marriage Story\u2019 and it did feel different because it does feel very audience, like, focused,\u201d Johansson said Saturday when asked to compare TIFF to other film festivals.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels like less of a runway and more like, kind of a conversation, I guess. But I don\u2019t know, we\u2019ll see how it goes. You start to feel the buzz when certain movies have premiered and you can hear people talking about them in the hotel lobby and it\u2019s happening. Ours is kind of coming to that moment soon so, I don\u2019t know, I\u2019ll know more in two days.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johansson is among a constellation of stars on Toronto\u2019s circuit this weekend, including Angelina Jolie, Paul Mescal, Kirsten Dunst, Kerry Washington and Keanu Reeves.<\/p>\n
Ejiofor said he loves visiting TIFF, recalling that he was in Toronto last year for \u201cThe Life of Chuck,\u201d which won the People\u2019s Choice Award.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an incredible place to talk about films, launch films, to speak to audiences, to get that interaction,\u201d Ejiofor said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s sometimes tricky with the schedule but I\u2019m hoping to get to see some films as well and just be part of the community of film lovers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johansson said it helps that the city is \u201ceasy to get around\u201d and that cafes and restaurants seem abuzz with festival chatter.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went to dinner last night and everybody from the restaurant was a part of the festival or experiencing the festival, and everybody was talking about films \u2014 what they saw, what they were looking forward to, directors that were up-and-coming, followup films for first-time directors,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe conversation is wonderful, to come to a film festival and actually be talking about movies\u2026.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd this year, particularly, feels so rich. There\u2019s just so many stories, different new ideas. It feels like there\u2019s a lot of exciting movies out and a very diverse group of directors and subjects and it\u2019s a great year, I think. Lots to see and talk about.\u201d <\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 6, 2025.<\/i><\/p>\n
Cassandra Szklarski, The Canadian Press<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.cp24.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" TORONTO \u2014 First-time director, longtime festivalgoer Scarlett Johansson says she appreciates that the Toronto International Film Festival focuses more on films than celebrity fashion. The screen star discussed themes of forgiveness and grief at a morning press conference for her dramedy \u201cEleanor the Great\u201d as it prepares to screen for a Toronto audience on Monday. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[22220,21741,21799],"class_list":["post-2002860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-artists","tag-arts","tag-entertainment","tag-film"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2002860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2002860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2002860\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2002860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2002860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2002860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}