The Toronto International Film Festival has hosted a series of modern day classics, including Black Swan (2010), The Fabelmans (2022), Dumb Money (2023), and The Boy and The Heron (2023). This year, director Azazel Jacobs’s newest project His Three Daughters is among the official selections. 

With a star-studded cast of Elizabeth Olsen, Natasha Lyonne, and Carrie Coon, the film follows 3 estranged sisters as they reunite to care for their sick father. The meeting reignites past dramas and forces the sisters to better their bonds as siblings.  This isn’t as easy as it sounds. The years apart have made these sisters widely different from one another. Where one sister is strict and organized another is wildly care-free and impulsive. As their personalities clash, their histories become more and more tangible. 

In a conversation with Deadline, Azazel Jacobs shared his inspiration for the piece being of his own connection and relationship to his family. He discussed that he wrote the script with the 3 actresses in mind, later reaching out to them individually to ask that they read the script. In a panel for the film, Elizabeth Olsen shared that this was a new experience for her. As an actress, she had never had a director or screenwriter reach out with a script written with her in mind -- especially one that she did not see herself in. Sharing a similar experience, Natasha Lyonne told Vanity Fair that she had trouble connecting to her character because she was so far from how Natasha sees herself. The actress stated, “I don’t know that I’ve ever seen something like this.”

To hear such acclaimed actresses reveal their connection to the scripts/story in a light that sets it apart from the rest of their career is a credit to the film and Jacobs. The film certainly positions itself as a one-of-a-kind portrait of real life, especially with both Olsen and Lyonne sharing that their characters are different from anything they’ve played before. It’ll be exciting to watch these talented women step into new roles and dawn new hats when His Three Daughters comes to a wider audience.

That excitement about the film will not have to wait long though! After its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, the film will be showing in select theaters starting September 6 before moving to Netflix on September 20.