Rock 'n' roll icons U2 descended onto the red carpet in Toronto Thursday for the première of From the Sky Down, the first documentary to open the Toronto International Film Festival in its 36-year history.
The festival, a widely watched event often seen as a starting point in the movie industry's annual Oscar race, features a long list of Hollywood royalty, from Brad Pitt and George Clooney to Keira Knightley and Glenn Close.
But musicians also play a prominent role in the 11day event known as TIFF.
Rock documentaries about Pearl Jam and Neil Young are getting top billing, and the appearance of U2 members Bono and The Edge has made Thursday's opening night screening the hottest ticket in town.
The U2 film takes a look back at the struggles the Irish supergroup had when making their 1991 album Achtung Baby, which was seen as a daring reinvention of the band following the huge success of 1987's Joshua Tree and 1988's somewhat less-well-received Rattle and Hum.
"It was them at their very highest highs and their very lowest lows," director Davis Guggenheim said.
From the Sky Down is just one of a number of high profile documentaries at TIFF this year that offer audiences a look into personalities like Sarah Palin, a murderer on death row and comic-book fanatics.
