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Palace scores six at Toronto

[Release by Palace Films]

The final line-up for this year’s Toronto International Film Festival was announced today, and includes six highly anticipated features acquired by Palace Films for Australian and New Zealand distribution.

I’ve Loved You So Long
TIFF Program: Special Presentations
Australian Release Date: 26 December 2008
This powerful story of familial struggles and redemption is the debut feature of novelist Philippe Claudel and stars Kristin Scott Thomas and Elsa Zylberstein. The film follows a shell-shocked Juliette (Scott Thomas), who returns to live with her younger sister Lea after being banished from the family for 15 years.

Summer Hours
TIFF Program: Contemporary World Cinema
Australian Release Date: 2 April 2009
A heartrending French drama written and directed by auteur Olivier Assayas and starring Juliette Binoche, Charles Berling and Jérémie Renier, it tells the story of three siblings dealing with the death of their mother and disappearance of their childhood memories, as they make difficult decisions about what to do with her valuable estate.

Tulpan
TIFF Program: Discovery
Australian Release Date: 23 April 2009
Winner of the Un Certain Regard Prize at the Cannes Film Festival this year, Sergey Dvortsevoy’s Tulpan takes an extraordinary look into the realities of life on the steppes of Kazakhstan. This is where we meet Asa, an aspiring shepherd who must find a wife before his dreams of owning his own flock can be realised.

Genova (World Premiere)
TIFF Program: Special Presentations
Australian Release Date: April 2009
From acclaimed director Michael Winterbottom comes Genova, a poignant tale of love and forgiveness starring Colin Firth, Catherine Keener and Hope Davis. Seeking a new life after the sudden death of his wife, Joe (Firth) moves his family to the Italian town of Genova, hoping for a fresh start for himself and his two daughters.

Acolytes
TIFF Program: Midnight Madness
Australian Release Date: TBC 2009
An Australian thriller directed by Jon Hewitt (Redball, Bloodlust) and starring Joel Edgerton (The Square) and Michael Dorman (Suburban Mayhem), Acolytes is the story of three teens that blackmail a serial killer and are consequently lured into his violent world.

Il Divo
TIFF Program: Special Presentations
Australian Release Date: TBC 2009
**Screening as part of the Lavazza Italian Film Festival from September 2008**
Written and directed by Paolo Sorrentino, this original and witty political opera looks at the life and longevity of eighty-nine year-old Giulio Andreotti. Having been Italy’s prime-minister three times, Andreotti has enjoyed an uninterrupted sixty two years as a parliamentarian, despite twenty-six separate court cases on charges including corruption and Mafia involvement.