Trump Film ‘The Apprentice’ Set for Private Toronto Fest Screening

The Apprentice, Ali Abbasi’s hot-button film about the young Donald Trump, never got an official invite to screen at the Toronto Film Festival and is headed to the Atlantic Film Festival for its Canadian fest premiere.

So producers of the film, written by Trump chronicler Gabriel Sherman and starring Sebastian Stan as the future president, have arranged an invite-only private screening at TIFF on Sept. 5. The Apprentice, also starring Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn and Maria Bakalova as Ivana Trump, will screen at 7 p.m. Thursday night at the TIFF Lightbox theater.

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The news that the film would get three screenings at AIFF from Sept. 15 to 18 left Lisa Haller, head of programming at the Nova Scotia festival, to tout landing the official Canadian premiere.

“Coming off its surprise screening at Telluride, and after much speculation as to whether North American audiences would be able to see the film at all, The Apprentice will undoubtedly be a source of buzz, discussion, and even controversy long after election season. Abbasi’s film isn’t just a critical portrait of Trump’s early years, but a trenchant and insightful study of the American political system, and we couldn’t be happier to share it with audiences here in Atlantic Canada this year,” she said in a statement.

The Apprentice explores Trump’s rise to power in 1980s America under the influence of the firebrand rightwing attorney Cohn. Guests at the private Toronto screening may well recognize local landmarks as the film was shot in Toronto, with the Canadian city standing in as New York City.

The film was acquired by Tom Ortenberg’s Briarcliff Entertainment for a pre-election U.S. release on Oct. 11, as well as an awards push. The Sept. 5 screening of the Trump origin story that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May will be the only showing of the film during the Toronto Film Festival.

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