Michael Moore's 'Fahrenheit 11/9' kicks off Toronto film festival

The world premiere of Netflix’s Scottish drama Outlaw King and Michael Moore’s new documentary about the Trump era opened the Toronto International Film Festival on Thursday, kicking off 10 days of movies seeking to grab attention in the upcoming Hollywood awards season.

Outlaw King stars Chris Pine, Aaron Taylor-Johnson and director David Mackenzie walked the red carpet promoting the action movie about 14th century rebel Robert the Bruce and his fight to win back control of his homeland from an English occupying army.

Liberal activist Moore talked up Fahrenheit 11/9, his provocative look at the reasons behind the 2016 election of Donald Trump as US president.

“We explore the question of how the hell we got in this mess and how do we get out of it,” Moore told Reuters Television. “The film is also very much about who we are as Americans because he [Trump] didn’t fall out of the sky.”

Robert Redford, Julia Roberts, Lady Gaga, Viola Davis and Ryan Gosling are among other celebrities expected at Toronto, which has become a key showcase in the awards season that culminates with the Oscars on February 24 next year.

The Toronto slate this year includes 254 features and 88 short films.

Fresh from its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival last week, singer Lady Gaga and actor-director Bradley Cooper bring their remake of music drama “A Star Is Born” to Toronto.

Actor-director Redford, 82, will present his final movie, crime comedy The Old Man and the Gun, after announcing his retirement from acting after a 50-year career.

Roberts, the latest Oscar-winning star to move into television, will present her psychological thriller Homecoming for Amazon.

The festival will also take on more serious issues.

The Hate U Give and Monsters and Men will look at the issue of police brutality in black communities, while Hotel Mumbai brings the story of the 2008 attack on a hotel in the Indian city to the big screen.

The 1988 US presidential campaign is revisited with The Front Runner, starring Hugh Jackman, about the derailing of Senator Gary Hart’s White House ambitions because of accusations of an affair.