Director John Madden is returning to the Toronto International Film Festival after 16 years to premiere "Onwards and Sideways," a romantic drama inspired by writer Paul Mayhew-Archer's own experience of living with Parkinson's disease. The film, starring Laura Linney and Rhys Ifans, follows two strangers who are diagnosed with the condition on the same morning at the same hospital and whose lives become intertwined as they fall in love. Madden is bringing the project to buyers at TIFF, marking a significant departure from the festival-avoiding, audience-first release strategy he used for his breakout hit "Shakespeare in Love."

The story unfolds across five chapters as Tony (Ifans) and Emma (Linney), told they have only "five good years" left, navigate their diagnosis together, partly through a Parkinson's ballet class. Two consultants worked on set to ensure an authentic depiction of the disease, which the Parkinson's Foundation estimates affects more than 10 million people worldwide. Madden previously brought "The Debt" and "Proof" to TIFF, and says working with Ifans and Linney felt "natural" despite the technical challenge of shooting out of chronological order while calibrating each character's symptoms precisely.