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From The Critic to One Life, here are ten films to look out for at the 2023 Toronto International Film Festival

From award-winning biopics to weird comedies, the Toronto Film Festival this year features a lineup of big performers taking huge risks

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TIFF 2023 poster
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The Hollywood strikes may have given this year's fall festival season a new face, with fewer stars and red carpets, but the lineups are as strong as ever, implying a shift away from the circus and toward cinema.
Here are some films to keep an eye on:
One Life
It tells the story of Nicholas Winton, a businessman who helped save Jewish children in Czechoslovakia before World War II. Johnny Flynn, best known for playing David Bowie in 2020's Stardust, will play his younger self. 
The Critic
 Based on Anthony Quinn's novel Curtain Call, it promises to be a tale of ruthless ambition and intrigue, with the period's endemic, state-supported homophobia serving as the foundation for a diabolical narrative of backstabbing and extortion. 
Dumb Money
A film based on the 2021 GameStop controversy was unavoidable, especially in a world obsessed with Social Networking, and every viral tech story out there, but it was less certain that it would happen so rapidly. Dumb Money is based on author Ben Mezrich's near-instantaneous account of what transpired when Redditors took on Wall Street.
Next Goal Wins
The American Samoa football team and the improbable coach, portrayed by Michael Fassbender, who must lead them to victory, are the subjects of the rags-to-riches tale Next Goal Wins.
The End We Start From
It may sound like a Colleen Hoover adaptation, but it is a gritty survival thriller about an ecological crisis that causes widespread flooding in London. Benedict Cumberbatch, Mark Strong, and Katherine Waterston all lend their voices to Comer's portrayal of a mother attempting to safeguard her baby.
Pain Hustler
Emily Blunt, whose fact-based caper Pain Hustlers comes from big, bad Netflix, is one of the biggest stars who has decided not to attend this year's festival.
North Star
Film North Star is a comedy-drama starring Kristin Scott Thomas as a mother who marries for the third time, forcing her three children, Scarlett Johansson, Sienna Miller, and Emily Beecham, to confront their own romantic lives. Scott Thomas co-wrote the script with Bloomberg journalist John Micklethwait, and it is inspired by pieces of her own family background.
Dream Scenario
In the Ari Aster-produced Dream Scenario, Nicolas Cage plays an academic who becomes unusually famous after appearing in people's dreams, in what is marketed as a comic twist on A Nightmare on Elm Street.
Lee
Kate Winslet returns to the hard ground with Lee, a long-gestating biopic of Lee Miller, a model turned war photographer, following her Bafta-winning performance in her one-off drama I Am Ruth and her even more gruelling stint holding her breath for James Cameron in Avatar 2.
Wicked Little Letters
The fact-based mystery Wicked Little Letters, which reunites Olivia Colman with fellow Lost Daughter contender Jessie Buckley, premieres on Saturday night. The two take on the roles of 1920s neighbors attempting to figure out who is behind a string of filthy letters.
These ten must-see movies are ones you should watch, whether at the festival or as soon as they become available in your area, despite the fact that over 186 movies are set to premiere over the 10-day event.