'Secret Life of Bees' stings Toronto

Festival adds nine world premieres to slate

The screen adaptation of Sue Monk Kidd's 2002 bestseller "The Secret Life of Bees" will world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival as a Gala.

All 21 pics announced by the fest Thursday are North American preems; nine are also world preems.

Fox Searchlight's "Bees," directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood, stars Dakota Fanning, Jennifer Hudson, Queen Latifah, Alicia Keys and Sophie Okonedo.

Also on the Gala red carpet are Keira Knightley and Ralph Fiennes for "The Duchess," a Paramount Vantage biopic about Lady Georgiana Spencer, directed by Saul Dibb ("Bullet Boy"). Dominic Cooper, Hayley Atwell and Charlotte Rampling also star.

Seven titles were added to the fest's Special Presentations program, including the world preems of the Larry Charles-directed doc "Religulous," David Koepp's "Ghost Town," and James Stern and Adam Del Deo's "Every Little Step." Other titles are Wong Kar Wai's "Ashes of Time Redux," Mike Leigh's "Happy-Go-Lucky," Guy Ritchie's "RocknRolla" and Ari Folman's animated feature "Waltz With Bashir," which moves from the Vanguard to Special Presentation.

Added to the Master's Program are the world preem of Jan Troell's "Everlasting Moments" plus Kiyoshi Kurosawa's Cannes' Un Certain Regard jury prize winner "Tokyo Sonata."

World preems in the Contemporary World Cinema program are Francois Velle's "The Narrows," Kristian Levring's psychological drama "Fear Me Not," Yannis Smaragdis' biopic "El Greco" and Yesim Ustaoglu's "Pandora's Box."

Also in the section are two marriage-focused pics: Hans Steinbichler's "My Mother, My Bride and I" and Baltasar Kormakur's "White Night Wedding."

The program also includes Malgosia Szumowska's "33 Scenes From Life," Bohdan Slama's "The Country Teacher," Kornel Mundruczo's "Delta," Yin Lichuan's "Knitting" and Haile Gerima's "Teza."

Fest runs Sept. 4-13.