Clooney and Pitt films in Toronto Film Festival's line-up

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The 36th Toronto International Film Festival, North America's largest film fest, announced its 2011 line-up on July 26, with films by directors Pedro Almodovar, George Clooney, Madonna, Lars von Trier and Francis Ford Coppola on the extensive program.

This year's impressive star-studded schedule features premieres of Brad Pitt's Moneyball, David Cronenberg's A Dangerous Method with Viggo Mortensen, and Luc Besson's The Lady, about Myanmar's democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi.

Music documentaries include the opening film From the Sky Down, about U2, directed by David Guggenheim ( An Inconvenient Truth), and Cameron Crowe's chronicle Pearl Jam Twenty.

Galas and Special Presentations include the following highlights:

-The Ides of March, a political drama starring George Clooney, Paul Giamatti ( Duplicity) and Philip Seymour Hoffman ( Doubt)

- A Dangerous Method, directed by David Cronenberg, following the relationship of psychiatrists Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung and the woman who came between them. Starring Michael Fassbender, Viggo Mortensen and Keira Knightley.

- Moneyball starring Brad Pitt as a US baseball team manager using innovative, controversial tactics. Directed by Bennett Miller ( Capote) with Jonah Hill ( Get Me to the Greek).

- Melancholia, Lars von Trier's story about the end of the world during a wedding, starring Kirsten Dunst, Alexander Skarsgård, Kiefer Sutherland and Charlotte Gainsbourg.

- The Skin I Live In by Pedro Almodóvar and starring Antonio Banderas in a dark drama about a plastic surgeon haunted by the past who creates synthetic skin for a woman.

- Trishna by Michael Winterbottom, starring Freida Pinto ( Slumdog Millionaire), based on the tragic story of Thomas Hardy's Tess of the d'Urbervilles, set in India.

- Twixt by Francis Ford Coppola, a horror film starring Val Kilmer and Elle Fanning about a writer caught up in a murder mystery.

- Peace, Love, & Misunderstanding stars Jane Fonda and Catherine Keener ( Being John Malkovich) in a comedy about a lawyer who visits her hippie mother in the country.

- 360 stars Jude Law, Anthony Hopkins and Rachel Weisz in a film from director Fernando Meirelles ( The Constant Gardener), who links characters in cities from Vienna to Rio in a suspenseful tale of love.

- W.E., a romantic drama directed by Madonna with a modern take on the affair between Wallis Simpson and Edward, Duke of Windsor, with Abbie Cornish ( Sucker Punch).

- Drive, a thriller directed by Cannes winner Nicholas Winding Refn, stars Ryan Gosling ( Blue Valentine) as a stunt driver who is the target when a heist goes wrong. Costars Carey Mulligan ( An Education) and Ron Perlman ( Hellboy).

- Anonymous, by Roland Emmerich ( 2012), asks if William Shakespeare was a fraud. Stars Rhys Ifans ( Harry Potter) and Vanessa Redgrave.

- Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, directed by Lasse Hallstrom and starring Ewan McGregor ( The Ghostwriter) and Emily Blunt ( The Adjustment Bureau), about a fisheries scientist.

- Shame stars Michael Fassbender ( X-Men: First Class) and Carey Mulligan ( An Education) in a story of the sexual escapades of a 30-something guy in New York.

- The Descendants by Alexander Payne ( Sideways) with George Clooney, a dramedy about a father who tries to re-connect with his daughters after his wife's boating accident.

The 11-day event will run September 8-18.

http://ww.tiff.net/TheFestival

RC