Ben Stiller's first starring role in eight years, 'Nutcrackers', to open TIFF 2024

David Gordon Green's Nutcrackers starring Ben Stiller opens TIFF 2024, followed by Rebel Wilson's The Deb as closer.

David Gordon Green's new comedy starring Ben Stiller, Nutcrackers, is set to open the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) on September 5, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The TIFF opener marks Stiller's first starring role in a movie since Mike White's Brad's Status and Noah Baumbach's Netflix family drama, The Meyerowitz Stories in 2017.

The upcoming film will have a world premiere at Roy Thomson Hall, which is filled with ordinary moviegoers (and not only industry people as in Cannes and Venice).

Nutcrackers, written by Leland Douglas, depicts Mike (Stiller), a straight-laced worker who must fly to rural Ohio to care for his four nephews after their parents' death in a car accident. After weeks of farm-life chaos, Mike realises he will not have to locate a new home for the orphaned children. They found him a new home.

Gordon Green's Nutcrackers, starring Linda Cardellini, Edi Patterson, Tim Heidecker, and Toby Huss, is set to have a star-studded red carpet premiere.

TIFF confirmed that Rebel Wilson's directorial debut, The Deb, based on the Australian blockbuster musical of the same name, will close the 2024 edition. The film follows Taylah Simpkins (Natalie Abbott), a charming farm girl and high school outcast who believes the approaching Debutante Ball, "the Deb," is her one chance to remake herself.

Picking Nutcrackers as its opener and The Deb as the closer follows a tradition of TIFF leaning into mainstream crowd-pleasers to bookend its September event. "This year's festival is shaping up to be a star-studded event with highly anticipated films that reflect the world around us with humour and empathy, like our opening and closing night selections, Nutcrackers and The Deb," Anita Lee, chief programming officer at the Toronto festival, said in a statement.