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One of the many films to world premiere at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival was writer-director Julie Delpy’s My Zoe. Unlike most films that are easy to describe, the less you know about My Zoe, the better. For now, I’ll say the film is about a recently-divorced husband and wife (Richard Armitage and Julie Delpy) having issues co-parenting their daughter, Zoe (Sophia Ally). While I’d love to go into more detail about the second and third acts, just know My Zoe is unlike anything Delby has done before and the film asks a number of questions that we, as a society, are going to be forced to confront in the not-so-distant future. The film also stars Daniel Bruhl and Gemma Arterton.
Shortly after seeing the film I got to speak with Julie Delpy at the Collider studio at TIFF. She talked about the challenges of getting financing, having the initial idea for the film while working with Krzysztof Kieslowski, how long she’s known that she wanted to write and direct, unproduced screenplays, how the film asks questions we’re going to be asking at some point, premiering at TIFF, her thoughts on more Before Sunrise sequels, and a lot more.
Check out what she had to say in the player above and below is exactly what we talked about followed by the official synopsis.
We also need to send a big thank you to our presenting sponsor Nordstrom Canada and supporting partners Marriott Bonvoy and Ciroc Vodka for supporting the Collider Lounge at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival and helping to make these interviews happen.
Julie Delpy:
- How has she been describing the film to people?
- Where did the idea come from?
- How she remembers talking about the idea with Krzysztof Kieslowski in the 90s.
- How much did she research the things that happen in the film?
- Why she built the film in three specific acts.
- How the film asks a question that at some point many people will be asking.
- When did she know she wanted to write and direct?
- How tough was it to get financing?
- Does she have a lot of unproduced screenplays sitting in her desk?
- If she could get one of her unproduced screenplays produced tomorrow what would she pick?
- What does it mean to premiere at the Toronto Film Festival?
- A favorite film festival premiere.
- Does she have a memorable school moment?
- A memorable scene being filmed.
- Does she think they’re done with the Before Sunrise movies?
Image via TIFF
