The Toronto International Film Festival showed off some of its prime cuts yesterday, announcing a slate of films including Eminem's acting debut.
Eminem's acting turn will be on display in a rare work-in-progress screening of Curtis Hanson's 8 Mile with Kim Basinger, Mekhi Pfifer and Britany Murphy. The tale of a young rapper overcoming obstacles in 1995 Detroit promises to be more or less autobiographical.
Hanson's 8 Mile is part of the Discovery series that includes Jeffrey Porter's Try Seventeen with Elijah Wood on a voyage of self-discovery in college with oddball roommates (Franka Potente and Mandy Moore), Niki Caro's Whale Rider from New Zealand about a girl who breaks 1,000 years of tradition to lead her tribe, three acclaimed Iranian films -- Manijeh Hekmat's Women's Prison, Ali Reza Amini's Letters In The Wind (about the lives of young soldiers) and Nasser Refaie's The Exam about Iranian women at school -- and Artur Urbanski's remake of 1951's Bellissima and Gyorgy Palfi's Hungarian murder mystery Hukkle.
A complete festival list will be available Aug. 20, with a comprehensive schedule available to the public Aug. 27.