TORONTO – Annette Bening (search) and Jeremy Irons (search) will raise the curtain on the 29th Toronto International Film Festival this September.
Bening and Irons star in "Being Julia," (search) directed by Istvan Szabo, who made "Sunshine," the 1999 epic following three generations of a Hungarian-Jewish family.
"Being Julia" will open the festival on Sept. 9.
Based on W. Somerset Maugham's novel "Theatre," "Being Julia" is the story of a London stage star in the 1930s who grows bored with her success and stale marriage and finds new lust for life in a fling with a young American.
"Szabo has made a tremendously playful and uplifting film, capturing the effervescence of 1930s theatrical life with graceful panache," said Piers Handling, Toronto festival director, in a statement Tuesday.
The festival, a major launchpad for Hollywood's fall films and Academy Awards (search) contenders, runs through Sept. 18.
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