Entertainment

Sarah Paulson's Closing Night to Premiere at Toronto Festival

Jonah VillalbaPublished 9h ago2 min readBased on 3 sources
Sarah Paulson's Closing Night to Premiere at Toronto Festival
Photo by John Sears / CC BY-SA 4.0

Sarah Paulson arrives at the Toronto International Film Festival with a leading role written for her.

Closing Night will have its world premiere at the festival, its first public screening, on 12 September at the 2026 edition, Variety reported. Variety framed its 12 September feature and interview with Paulson around that premiere and the coming awards season. The date of 12 September was also confirmed by IndieWire.

Paulson plays Sandra Vale, a glamorous movie star. After decades of silence, the internationally renowned star invites her estranged family to the opening night of her Broadway play, according to TIFF. The invitation sets up a tense family reunion in front of a theatre audience.

The family around her is played by familiar faces. Naomi Watts plays Vale's estranged sister, while Dianne Wiest plays the family matriarch, Variety reported. Toby Wallace plays Vale's nephew, with Odessa A'zion as the nephew's girlfriend.

The film is the filmmaking debut of Cody Fern, meaning it is the first feature he has directed. He wrote the role of Sandra Vale for Paulson. The part was built for her.

They met on television. Paulson and Fern met on American Horror Story: Apocalypse, where Fern portrayed the Antichrist. That shared history on the long-running horror series led to this collaboration.

Both Paulson and Fern have spoken about the project before the premiere. IndieWire published an interview with Fern about his directorial debut ahead of the 2026 festival. Variety published its Paulson interview on 12 September, tied to the Toronto launch.

In the Variety interview, Paulson also discussed her friendship with Pedro Pascal and her long creative partnership with Ryan Murphy. She addressed backlash to All's Fair. She said she hopes her work in Closing Night leads to more opportunities for good parts.

For fans, this means a familiar screen partnership in a new shape. One actor directing, the other carrying a lead role made for her. Toronto hosts the first screening.

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