Pablo Escobar film starring Benicio del Toro to premiere in Toronto

“Escobar: Paradise Lost,” a French dramathriller starring Benicio del Toro as the late Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar and directed by Andrea Di Stefano, will have its world premiere at next month’s Toronto International Film Festival.

Organizers also announced that films starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Catherine Deneuve, John Travolta and Morgan Freeman, among other actors, will have their inaugural screenings at the TIFF.

The festival on Tuesday unveiled seven more films that will be part of its Gala Presentations section, which, according to its Web site, offers “movie stars, redcarpet premieres and major audience interest.”

Those new additions include “Boychoir,” directed by Francois Girard and starring Dustin Hoffman and Kathy Bates; “Escobar: Paradise Lost,” in which a young surfer (Josh Hutcherson) meets the woman of his dreams and then meets her uncle: the notorious kingpin of the Medellin drug cartel; and “The Forger,” with Philip Martin directing and John Travolta and Christopher Plummer as star cast members.

Also Tuesday, organizers added 17 titles to the festival’s Special Presentations section, which features “highprofile premieres and the world’s leading filmmakers.”

They include the world premieres of “The Cobbler,” directed by Thomas McCarthy and starring Adam Sandler and Ellen Barkin; “Gentlemen,” with Mikael Marcimain directing and David Dencik and Ruth Vega Fernandez as cast members; and “Maggie,” a film that Henry Hobson directs and features Schwarzenegger in a leading role.

Organizers of the TIFF, which runs this year from Sept. 414 and is regarded as one of the world’s most prestigious film festivals, also said Tuesday that this year’s event includes an international short films section for the first time.

“Some of the best filmmaking in the industry is happening in the short form and the introduction of this program allows the festival to identify talented filmmakers and connect them to the rest of the world as well as the highly engaged audience present here in Toronto,” the TIFF’s Special Projects director, Shane Smith, said in a statement.