“Bold and adventuresome” is how the Toronto International Film Festival’s CEO describes this year’s film lineup.

Piers Handling, CEO and director of the TIFF, and Cameron Bailey, artistic director, announced the first round of titles premiering in the gala and special presentations programmes of the 41st TIFF on Tuesday in Toronto.

The festival will run from Sept 8-16.

Of the 19 galas and 49 special presentations announced, this initial lineup includes films from such celebrated directors as Werner Herzog, Denis Villeneuve, Jim Jarmusch, Mia Hansen-Løve, Rebecca Zlotowski, Tom Ford, François Ozon, Andrea Arnold, Maren Ade, Park Chan-wook, Kim Jee woon, Kenneth Lonergan, Antoine Fuqua, Damien Chazelle, Pablo Larraín and Paul Verhoeven.

“Revealing the first round of films offers a highly anticipated glimpse into the festival’s lineup this year,” said Handling. “Bold and adventuresome work by established and emerging filmmakers from Canada, France, South Africa, Ireland, the UK, Australia, USA, South Korea, Iceland, Germany, Denmark, Chile, India, and China will illuminate Toronto screens and red carpets over another remarkable 11 days this September.”

“The global voices, transformative stories and diverse perspectives of these films capture the cinematic climate of today,” Bailey said. “New films featuring cinema’s brightest talents promise to captivate and entertain the world’s film community and audiences alike.”

Antoine Fuqua’s The Magnificent Seven will open the 2016 TIFF. Starring Denzel Washington, Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D’Onofrio, Byung-Hun Lee, Manuel Garcia-Rulfo, Martin Sensmeier, Haley Bennett, and Peter Sarsgaard, The Magnificent Seven will have its World Premiere on September 8 at Roy Thomson Hall.

Two Chinese movies will be screened during the special presentations as world premieres, I Am Not Madame Bovary directed by Feng Xiaogang, and The Wasted Times (Luo Man Di Ke Xiao Wang Shi) directed by Cheng Er.

I Am Not Madame Bovary tells a story about a café proprietor Li Xuelian, who spends a decade petitioning the Chinese legal system after being swindled by her ex-husband, in this caustically comic contemporary fable. Stars Fan Bingbing. The Wasted Times is about love, hatred, and betrayal abound in Shanghai during the chaotic, war-torn 1930s. Mr. Lu is ambushed during an important meeting with the Japanese army, but his sister’s husband, Watabe, sacrifices himself to save Mr. Lu. Worse still, the Japanese brutally murder Mr. Lu’s children and sister. To avenge their deaths, Mr. Lu’s mistress attempts to kill the culprit but ends up dead. Years later as the Sino- Japanese war comes to a close, Mr. Lu visits Mrs. Wang, the abandoned wife of his former boss who reveals an astonishing truth about the tragedy. The cast includes Zhang Ziyi, Ge You and Tadanobu Asano.

renali@chinadailyusa.com