Photo Coverage: Benedict Cumberbatch & More Attend TIFF Premiere of THE CURRENT WAR

Benedict Cumberbatch and more attended the premiere of THE CURRENT WAR at this week's Toronto Film Festival. Check out photos below! Alfonso Gomez-Rejon (Me and Earl and the Dying Girl) directs Benedict Cumberbatch, Michael Shannon, Nicholas Hoult, Tom Holland, and Katherine Waterston in this account of the race for marketable electricity in the United States between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse.

In 2017, it's nearly impossible to imagine a world without electric light. Yet the technology that illuminates our homes and projects images onto our screens dates back only the length of two lifetimes. The Current War, featuring brilliant performances from Oscar nominees Benedict Cumberbatch and Michael Shannon, brings to life the innovations and rivalries that would switch on the world.

Thomas Edison (Cumberbatch) knew he was a GENIUS - and he made sure everyone else knew it, too. In 1879, he and his team conducted the first successful light bulb tests, declaring an end to night as people knew it. But the broad distribution of electricity posed a daunting challenge. Edison was convinced that direct current was the superior system, but entrepreneur George Westinghouse (Shannon, also appearing at this year's Festival in The Shape of Water), Edison's less flamboyant competitor, had a different idea.

Director Alfonso Gomez-Rejon makes an impressive leap in scale here from his much-admired independent film, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl. It's worth noting, though, that he apprenticed on films by Martin Scorsese, Michael Mann, and Alejandro González Iñárritu. The fleet, eye-catching style he deploys here shows a sizzle and visual imagination that shouldn't be surprising. His skill, combined with the towering talent of Cumberbatch and Shannon, lends both heat and light to this sweeping epic.

Benedict Cumberbatch

Benedict Cumberbatch

Michael Shannon

Alfonso Gomez-Rejon

Nicholas Hoult

Nicholas Hoult

Benedict Cumberbatch

Benedict Cumberbatch

Benedict Cumberbatch

Michael Shannon

Benedict Cumberbatch

Katherine Waterston and Benedict Cumberbatch

Katherine Waterston

Katherine Waterston

Katherine Waterston

olker Bertelmann aka Hauschka, and Dustin O'Halloran

Alfonso Gomez-Rejon

Alfonso Gomez-Rejon

Michael Shannon and Kate Arrington

Benedict Cumberbatch

Katherine Waterston and Benedict Cumberbatch