Addition, the Australian film adaptation of the international bestselling 2008 debut novel by Toni Jordon, will premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in the international Centrepiece program.
The TIFF trailer for the film was released last week. It’s the first look we’ve had at the film billed as ‘a bold romantic dramedy’ about ‘accepting who you are and celebrating the things in life that really count.’
Addition stars Teresa Palmer (Warm Bodies) in the lead role of Grace, a mathematician in her 30s who is obsessed with numbers and with her imaginary friendship with the inventor Nikola Tesler.
Grace counts everything – the letters in her name, the poppy seeds on her orange cake – and she counts because numbers hold her world steady. But a chance encounter with an average guy, Seamus (whose full name happens to have the same number of letters as her own) turns Grace’s world upside down, and her obsessively ordered life starts to unravel.
ScreenHub: Australian books adapted into films – watch list
English actor Joe Dempsie (Skins, Game of Thrones) stars as Seamus, and the cast includes Australian actors Eamon Farren (The Witcher, Twin Peaks), Zahra Newman, Adrienne Pickering, Lou Baxter, and New Zealander Sarah Peirse.
Addition was adapted for the screen by writer Becca Johnstone, and is directed by Australian designer and director Marcelle Lunam, whose feature documentary Habana Shakes won Best Film at the 2023 Byron Bay International Film Festival.
Addition is produced by Made Up Stories’ Bruna Papandrea and Steve Hutensky, along with Jodi Matterson, and Buon Giorno Productions’ Cristina Pozzan. Acccording to Made Up Stories’ Instagram announcement last week, Papandrea and Pozzan optioned Jordan’s bestselling novel 14 years ago.
Melbourne-based scientist-turned author Toni Jordan broke onto the literary scene with Addition, after the book became an international bestseller and was long-listed for the Miles Franklin Award, and won the best debut fiction in the 2008 Indie awards. She has subsequently published six novels to wide acclaim.
Established in 2017 with the express goal of fostering more female-led screen narratives, Made Up Stories is the film and television production company behind other Australian features based on books, including The Dry, based on Jane Harper’s bestselling novel and Penguin Bloom, based on the memoir by Bradley Trevor Greive. (Penguin Bloom also premiered at TIFF in 2020.)
In January 2021, Made Up Stories made history as the first Australian production company to have the top two films at the Australian box office with Penguin Bloom and The Dry. The company’s TV productions also include the Prime miniseries The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart, based on Holly Ringland’s bestseller.
At the time of writing, Addition is the only Australian feature film announced for the 49th Toronto International Film Festival, which will run from 5–15 September, 2024. The film will be screened as part of the the International Centrepiece program which honours and celebrates global cinema and this year will feature 43 titles from filmmakers representing 41 countries.
The full TIFF program is due to be announced 13 August.
Addition will be distributed by Roadshow with a release date yet to be announced.
