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What to Watch at TIFF51: The Cinema Group’s Complete Guide & Our Top Picks

By

Joanthan P. Moustakas

·

Headlining Films at Tiff 51. the Cinema Group's Annual Watchlist for the Toronto International Film Festival on This Include Misty Greene. I Play Rocky the Debut Club Kid., Bunker, the Stunt, Man and Ink.

Our TIFF 51 watchlist, heres all the films, premieres and programs we’re most excited to see in Toronto.

The Toronto International Film Festival returns September 10 through 20 for its 51st edition, once again turning Toronto into one of the most important meeting points on the fall festival calendar. This year’s program is sprawling even by TIFF standards, bringing together major world premieres, international discoveries, returning auteurs, new filmmakers and some of the most talked-about titles already emerging from Cannes, Sundance and Venice.

The Gala and Special Presentations programs alone stretch across nearly 30 countries, but the real scale of TIFF 2026 becomes clear once Centrepiece, Discovery, Primetime, Midnight Madness, Wavelengths, TIFF Classics and Short Cuts enter the picture. Cristian Mungiu brings Palme d’Or winner Fjord. Jordan Firstman arrives with Cannes breakout Club Kid. Sundance favorites including Josephine and The Only Living Pickpocket in New York continue their festival runs, while Danny Boyle’s Ink moves from Venice to Toronto.

There are equally compelling unknowns. Martin McDonagh has John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell together in Wild Horse Nine. Chris Rock returns behind the camera with Misty Green. Jesse Eisenberg directs Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti in The Debut. Florian Zeller reunites Penélope Cruz and Javier Bardem for Bunker. Andrew Scott takes on Ian Charleson in Elsinore, Lee Chang-dong returns with Possible Love, and Peter Farrelly dramatizes the almost unbelievable story behind the making of Rocky.

That combination is precisely why TIFF has never made much sense as a conventional “10 movies to watch” festival. The marquee titles matter, but Toronto has built much of its identity around the films that arrive without the same level of expectation and leave with considerably more attention than they had coming in.

So this year, we’re doing the curtain raiser differently.

Below is The Cinema Group’s complete guide to TIFF 51. Here’s the films we’re excited about.

Gala Presentations

All About Corinne

Marc Fitoussi | France · North American Premiere

Two Women Ride Bicycles at Night Along a Festively Lit Street; One Has a Wicker Basket, the Other a Green Basket with Flowers. (tiff Banner)

Isabelle Huppert plays Corinne Maclou, a veteran background actor who has spent decades attempting to move beyond the margins of the French film industry. She finally spots another possible way in after befriending celebrated actor Sandrine Kiberlain, beginning a comic pursuit of the career she has never stopped believing should be hers.

The premise becomes even more appealing through the film’s willingness to play with the real French entertainment industry. Kiberlain, Emmanuelle Bercot, Anne Marivin, Ana Girardot, Vincent Dedienne and Thomas Jolly appear as themselves, while Fitoussi brings experience from directing episodes of Call My Agent! to another story about celebrity, hierarchy and the strange social machinery surrounding actors. Casting one of the world’s most formidable performers as a woman unable to graduate beyond extra work gives the joke an especially sharp edge.

Always Lalisa

Sue Kim | USA · World Premiere

Sue Kim brings Always Lalisa to Toronto for its world premiere as part of TIFF’s Gala program.

The Assassin(s)

Hur Jin-ho | South Korea · World Premiere

Hur Jin-ho returns with The Assassin(s), receiving its world premiere in Toronto.

Atonement

Reed Van Dyk | USA · North American Premiere

Reed Van Dyk brings Atonement to TIFF for its North American premiere.

Babies

Lauren Miller Rogen | USA · World Premiere

a Family Sits on a Couch in a Dim Living Room; a Father Reads Aloud to a Child While Another Adult Looks on Nearby.

Seth Rogen and Anna Kendrick lead Lauren Miller Rogen’s second feature as Aaron and Annie, a couple who have been together for 17 years and still have no definitive answer when friends ask whether they plan to have children. Their long-running “maybe” is suddenly given a practical test when recently separated friend Eliza, played by Kate Berlant, moves in with her young daughter.

The premise expands beyond parenthood into a larger ensemble comedy about adulthood, relationships and the milestones people are expected to reach on schedule. Issa Rae, Dan Stevens, Sharon Stone and David Strathairn round out a cast with enough comic and dramatic range to make Babies one of the more immediately accessible Gala premieres. TIFF describes the film as both funny and unusually thoughtful about ambivalence, community and the different forms a family can take.

Being Heumann

Siân Heder | USA · World Premiere · Opening Night Film

a Woman in a Red Coat Sitting in a Wheelchair Raises Her Arms on a City Street, Surrounded by Protesters; Tiff Film Poster Text Appears at Bottom.

Siân Heder returns to TIFF with the festival’s official Opening Night Film, her first feature since CODA.

That alone places Being Heumann under a considerable spotlight. Heder’s previous film moved from Sundance breakout to Best Picture winner, making her follow-up one of TIFF’s most closely watched premieres before a frame has screened publicly. Toronto will get the first word when the festival formally opens on September 10.

Bunker

Florian Zeller | France, Spain · North American Premiere

Still of a Woman with Reddish Hair in a Blue Shawl, Looking Downward in a Dim, Modern Interior; Tiff Logo and the Title 'bunker | Dir. Florian Zeller' Overlayed in the Frame.

Bunker appears in Special Presentations and will receive its expanded write-up there.

Diary of a Mad Old Man

Wayne Wang | USA · World Premiere

Wayne Wang returns with the world premiere of Diary of a Mad Old Man.

Evil Genius

Courteney Cox | USA · World Premiere

Two Adults Share an Emotional Hug at the Back of a Car As They Comfort Each Other at Dusk.

Courteney Cox moves behind the camera for Evil Genius, receiving its world premiere as part of TIFF’s Gala slate.

Girl Group

Rebel Wilson | United Kingdom · World Premiere

Promo Photo of the All That She Wants Cast Posing Together in a Doorway, Upbeat Group Shot for Tiff Promotional Material.

Rebel Wilson writes, directs and stars as Tassie Young, a pop singer whose attempt to leave a successful group for a solo career collapses after a series of disastrous choices. Following a DUI, she is sentenced to community service and assigned to mentor a group of young girls who dream of becoming performers themselves.

The setup gives Wilson room for broad comedy, but TIFF’s program positions the film as something warmer than a straight redemption vehicle. Jennifer Coolidge, Randall Park, Nicole Scherzinger, Judi Love and Sally Hawkins join the ensemble, while a mix of classic pop tracks and original songs gives the film another obvious route toward Toronto crowd-pleaser territory.

The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd

Tim Blake Nelson | USA · World Premiere

Woman with Long Blonde Hair in a Blue Blouse Sits at a Table in a Processing Room, Inmates in Orange Jumpsuits in the Background, with a Tiff Title Overlay at the Bottom.

Amanda Seyfried and Scoot McNairy lead Tim Blake Nelson’s latest as Karen, a teacher who takes a job at a maximum-security prison and becomes emotionally entangled with Wilson, an inmate whose charisma begins breaking through the defenses she built during an abusive marriage.

That relationship ultimately pushes Karen toward choices capable of changing both of their lives. Set in Nelson’s home state of Oklahoma, the film uses their connection to explore incarceration, punishment, desperation and the dangerous limits of how well one person can ever understand another.

Seyfried is coming off an especially strong run, while McNairy has long been one of the most dependable actors working in American independent film. Giving both of them Nelson’s psychologically thorny material makes this one of our highest-priority world premieres in the Gala program.

Man in Motion: The Rick Hansen Story

Adrian Buitenhuis | Canada · World Premiere

Adrian Buitenhuis brings the story of Canadian athlete and activist Rick Hansen to TIFF for its world premiere.

Misty Green

Chris Rock | USA · World Premiere

Poster Featuring a Woman with Curly Hair Leaning on a Railing, Looking out at the Ocean; Tiff Logo in the Corner and the Title Text 'tiff. Misty Greene | Dir. Chris Rock'

Chris Rock returns as writer-director with a Hollywood satire starring Rosalind Eleazar as Misty, an Emmy-winning actor attempting to rebuild her career after a drug-fueled collapse cost her a major project.

Rock plays filmmaker Jordan, who offers Misty another chance through his upcoming remake of Dreamgirls. The opportunity arrives while she is facing eviction and trying to help her brother, played by Daniel Kaluuya, through a serious personal crisis. Adam Driver and Anna Kendrick also appear in a cast that immediately makes the film one of TIFF’s more intriguing American premieres.

What pushes Misty Green even higher on our list is the territory Rock is entering. TIFF positions the film alongside works such as Hollywood Shuffle and Bamboozled, using Misty’s attempts to survive the industry to attack racism, classism, misogyny and the compromises demanded by Hollywood ambition. The program goes as far as calling it one of the best Los Angeles movies in years.

The Only Living Pickpocket in New York

Noah Segan | USA · Canadian Premiere

Tiff Film Poster Featuring a Man in a Textured Overcoat on a Neon-lit New York Street at Dusk; Bold Title Text at the Bottom.

John Turturro gets the kind of leading role he should have more often.

He plays Harry, an old-school New York pickpocket who works alone, avoids smartphones and spends his evenings caring for his ailing spouse in the Bronx. His carefully maintained routine collapses after he steals from Dylan, the entitled son of a connected crime family, forcing Harry into a race across the city to escape the consequences before they become fatal.

Steve Buscemi, Giancarlo Esposito and Tatiana Maslany join Turturro in a film that openly draws from the character-driven crime pictures of 1970s New Hollywood. After its Sundance premiere, the combination of Turturro, New York and a modest crime story built around character rather than scale makes this one of our easiest Gala priorities.

Onwards and Sideways

John Madden | United Kingdom · World Premiere

John Madden returns with Onwards and Sideways, receiving its world premiere in Toronto.

Pretenders

Joss Crowley | United Kingdom · World Premiere

Black-and-white Photo of Four Musicians Posing Against a Stone Wall; Woman in Front Wears a Dallas T-shirt with a Guitar Strap Nearby.

Joss Crowley brings British feature Pretenders to TIFF for its world premiere.

Prima Facie

Susanna White | Australia, United Kingdom · World Premiere

Close-up of a Black Woman in a White Powdered Wig and Formal Attire; Tiff Poster Text Reads 'prima Fascia | Dir: Susanna White' with a 'highly Anticipated' Logo in the Corner.

Cynthia Erivo takes on the central role in Susanna White’s adaptation of Suzie Miller’s acclaimed stage play.

Erivo plays Tessa, a formidable barrister from a working-class background who has built her career partly by defending people accused of sexual crimes. Her confidence in the legal system is shattered after she is sexually assaulted by a colleague and finds herself forced to experience those same procedures from the other side.

The film’s premise is inherently difficult, but Erivo is exactly the kind of performer capable of carrying its contradictions. Daniel Ings, Elizabeth Dulau and Simon Russell Beale support her in a drama concerned not simply with guilt and innocence, but with the assumptions built into legal systems and the enormous difference between understanding those systems intellectually and being subjected to them personally.

Run Terry Run

Sean Menard | Canada

Sean Menard brings another distinctly Canadian story to the Gala program with Run Terry Run.

Spirit Guardians: The Last Secret of the First Emperor

Nguyen Phan Quang Binh | Vietnam · International Premiere

Nguyen Phan Quang Binh’s Vietnamese production receives its international premiere at TIFF.

A Talent for Murder

Anton Corbijn | United Kingdom, Italy · World Premiere

Anton Corbijn returns with a new British-Italian production making its world premiere in Toronto.

Tenzing

Jennifer Peedom | USA, Australia · Canadian Premiere

Two Men in Blue Expedition Jackets Stand in a Snowy Alpine Pass, with a Tiff Logo and the Film Title at the Bottom: 'tiff. Tenzing | Dir: Jennifer Peedom'

Jennifer Peedom turns to the life of Tenzing Norgay, the Himalayan Sherpa mountaineer who reached the summit of Mount Everest with Edmund Hillary in 1953.

Genden Phuntsok plays Tenzing, with Tom Hiddleston as Hillary, Willem Dafoe as expedition leader John Hunt and Caitríona Balfe among the ensemble. Luke Davies, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter behind Lion, wrote the film.

Peedom already explored Himalayan mountaineering culture with documentary Sherpa, giving her an unusually strong foundation for this material. TIFF’s description also emphasizes Stefan Duscio’s large-scale cinematography and Phuntsok’s performance, suggesting the film could offer more than a conventional prestige adventure biopic.

Up Against It

Trudie Styler | United Kingdom · World Premiere

Trudie Styler’s latest feature receives its world premiere as part of TIFF’s Gala program.

Villeneuve: The Rise of a Legend

Yan Lanouette Turgeon | Canada · World Premiere · Closing Night Film

Race Car Driver in a White Racing Suit Walks with a Woman Holding a Child While a Photographer Films in the Background.

TIFF closes its Gala program with an unmistakably Canadian story.

Rémi Goulet stars as Gilles Villeneuve, tracing the Quebec racer’s development from a modest upbringing through snowmobile racing, drag racing and eventually Formula One. The film follows Villeneuve’s persistence through a motorsport world largely controlled by wealth and access before his 1977 British Grand Prix debut catches the attention of Enzo Ferrari.

Villeneuve would ultimately record six Formula One wins, two pole positions, eight fastest laps and 13 podiums before his death at only 32. Yan Lanouette Turgeon’s film positions that career as both adrenaline-driven sports biography and a story about the extreme discipline required to force entry into a world that initially seemed inaccessible.

Centrepiece

Centrepiece is where TIFF’s international reach becomes impossible to ignore. The 2026 program moves from Rwanda, Palestine and Nepal to Mexico, Thailand, Haiti, Nigeria, Denmark and Canada, combining established international filmmakers with names many North American audiences will encounter for the first time.

The section contains more than 50 films, so discovery is built into its identity. Two titles from our personal watchlist stand out immediately, but Centrepiece is also the part of the festival where the movie nobody expected can very easily become the one everybody is discussing three days later.

A Girl Unknown

Zou Jing | China · North American Premiere

Zou Jing brings A Girl Unknown to Toronto for its North American premiere.

After Elena

Shawn Garry | Chile, Colombia, Italy · World Premiere

Shawn Garry’s Chilean-Colombian-Italian production receives its world premiere at TIFF.

Ah Girl

Ang Geck Geck Priscilla | Singapore · North American Premiere

Singaporean filmmaker Ang Geck Geck Priscilla brings Ah Girl to North America through Toronto.

Ashes

Diego Luna | Mexico, Spain · North American Premiere

Diego Luna returns behind the camera with Ashes, receiving its North American premiere at TIFF.

Back in Black

Ron Murphy | Canada · World Premiere

Canadian filmmaker Ron Murphy brings Back in Black to TIFF for its world premiere.

Ben’Imana

Marie-Clementine Dusabejambo | Rwanda, Gabon, France, Norway · North American Premiere

Marie-Clementine Dusabejambo’s international co-production arrives in Toronto for its North American premiere.

Congo Boy

Rafiki Fariala | Central African Republic, France, Democratic Republic of Congo, Italy · North American Premiere

Rafiki Fariala brings Congo Boy to TIFF for its North American premiere.

Conversation With The Sea

Muayad Alayan | Palestine · North American Premiere

Muayad Alayan’s Palestinian feature makes its North American debut in Toronto.

Dorothy

Karthik Subbaraj | India · World Premiere

Karthik Subbaraj brings Dorothy to TIFF for its world premiere.

Eklipse

Manuel Wetscher | Austria, Italy · North American Premiere

Manuel Wetscher’s Austrian-Italian production receives its North American premiere.

Elephants in the Fog

Abinash Bikram Shah | Nepal, France, Germany, Brazil, Norway · North American Premiere

Abinash Bikram Shah brings the international co-production Elephants in the Fog to Toronto.

Everytime

Sandra Wollner | Austria, Germany · North American Premiere

Sandra Wollner’s latest arrives at TIFF for its North American premiere.

Flies

Fernando Eimbcke | Mexico · North American Premiere

Fernando Eimbcke returns with Flies, receiving its North American premiere.

Four Seasons in Java

Kamila Andini | Indonesia, France, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Singapore · World Premiere

Kamila Andini’s ambitious international production makes its world premiere in Toronto.

Furies

Rami Kodeih | Lebanon, Brazil · North American Premiere

Rami Kodeih brings Furies to TIFF for its North American premiere.

Future Tense

Jenna Cato Bass | South Africa, Australia · World Premiere

Jenna Cato Bass premieres Future Tense in Toronto.

God Bless You, Mr Kopu

Alex Liu | New Zealand, Australia · World Premiere

Alex Liu’s God Bless You, Mr Kopu receives its first public screening at TIFF.

Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!

Josef Kubota Wladyka | USA · Canadian Premiere

Close-up of a Woman with Bold Blue Eyeshadow and Red Lipstick Looking Upward, Wearing a Nose Ring, As She Dances in a Dim Club with a Man in the Background Reaching Up.

Josef Kubota Wladyka brings Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty! to Toronto for its Canadian premiere.

How We Stand

Marie Clements | Canada · World Premiere

Marie Clements returns to TIFF with the world premiere of Canadian feature How We Stand.

Inherit

Banjong Pisanthanakun | Thailand · World Premiere

Banjong Pisanthanakun brings Inherit to TIFF for its world premiere.

Intermission

Yonfan | Hong Kong · North American Premiere

Yonfan’s Intermission receives its North American premiere in Toronto.

Iron Boy

Louis Clichy | France, Belgium · North American Premiere

Louis Clichy brings Iron Boy to TIFF for its North American premiere.

Julián

Louise Bagnall | Luxembourg, Ireland, Canada, Denmark · North American Premiere

Louise Bagnall’s international co-production makes its North American debut at TIFF.

La Gradiva

Marine Atlan | France, Italy · North American Premiere

Marine Atlan brings La Gradiva to Toronto.

L’AUTRE

Alexandre Franchi | Canada · World Premiere

Canadian filmmaker Alexandre Franchi premieres L’AUTRE at TIFF.

Lemonade

Kim Bartley | Ireland, United Kingdom · World Premiere

Close-up of a Man Driving, Looking Ahead; Tiff Logo and 'lemonade | Dir: Kim Bartley' Text Overlaid.

Barry Keoghan joins newcomer Lewis Brophy in Kim Bartley’s first narrative feature, centered on an 18-year-old abruptly forced out of Ireland’s foster-care system. Danny enters adulthood alone in a tiny Dublin apartment, takes an entry-level factory job and desperately wants to reconnect with the younger brother he had to leave behind. Then Josh, his former social worker, reappears.

Bartley brings a documentary background to the material without allowing Danny’s circumstances to consume his entire identity. TIFF’s notes emphasize the warmth, humor and romance she finds alongside the harder social realities, with Brophy singled out as a major discovery and Keoghan providing a steadier presence as a man whose attempt to help cannot erase their complicated history.

Light Pillar

Xu Zao | China · North American Premiere

Xu Zao brings Light Pillar to North America through TIFF.

Long Long Night

Kyu Bock Youm | South Korea · World Premiere

Kyu Bock Youm’s Long Long Night receives its world premiere.

Love is the monster

Neto Villalobos Brenes | Costa Rica, Peru, Panama, Chile, Mexico · World Premiere

Neto Villalobos Brenes brings the multinational Love is the monster to Toronto for its world premiere.

Marie Madeleine

Géssica Généus | France, Haiti, Belgium, Canada, Luxembourg · North American Premiere

Géssica Généus’ international production receives its North American premiere.

Muyi

Julien Chheng | France · North American Premiere

Julien Chheng brings Muyi to TIFF.

Neverman

Rodrigo Barriuso | Canada · World Premiere

Rodrigo Barriuso premieres Canadian feature Neverman in Toronto.

Our Loves

Avi Nesher | Israel · World Premiere

Avi Nesher brings Our Loves to TIFF for its world premiere.

Rehearsals for a Revolution

Pegah Ahangarani | Czech Republic, Spain · Canadian Premiere

Pegah Ahangarani’s Rehearsals for a Revolution makes its Canadian premiere.

Smudge the Blades

Cody Lightning | Canada · World Premiere

Ice Hockey Faceoff: Blue and Orange Team Players Lean in As the Referee Prepares to Drop the Puck.

Cody Lightning returns to TIFF with the world premiere of Smudge the Blades.

Soumsoum, The Night of the Stars

Mahamat-Saleh Haroun | Chad, France · North American Premiere

Mahamat-Saleh Haroun brings his latest film to North America through Toronto.

Sunburn

Serville Poblete | Canada · World Premiere

Serville Poblete’s Canadian feature Sunburn premieres at TIFF.

Tangles

Leah Nelson | Canada, USA · North American Premiere

Leah Nelson brings Tangles to Toronto for its North American premiere.

The Betrayers

David Bezmozgis | Canada, Ukraine · World Premiere

David Bezmozgis’ Canada-Ukraine production makes its world premiere.

The bovine with the curved horns

Omar E. Ospina Giraldo | Colombia · World Premiere

Omar E. Ospina Giraldo brings the Colombian production to TIFF for its world premiere.

The City of the Living

Edoardo Gabbriellini | Italy · International Premiere

Edoardo Gabbriellini’s The City of the Living receives its international premiere.

The Difficult Bride

Rubaiyat Hossain | France, Bangladesh, Germany, Norway, Portugal · North American Premiere

Rubaiyat Hossain brings her international co-production to Toronto.

The Dreamed Adventure

Valeska Grisebach | Germany, France, Bulgaria, Austria · North American Premiere

Valeska Grisebach returns with The Dreamed Adventure, making its North American premiere.

The Lost Children Of Tuam

Frank Berry | Ireland · International Premiere

Frank Berry’s Irish feature receives its international premiere at TIFF.

The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives

Daniel Oriahi | Nigeria · World Premiere

Daniel Oriahi brings The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives to Toronto for its world premiere.

The Surgeon

Roshan Sethi | Ireland · World Premiere

Roshan Sethi premieres The Surgeon at TIFF.

The Violinist

Ervin Han, Raúl García | Singapore, Spain, Italy · North American Premiere

Two Young Violinists Play Violins at Sunset Along a Riverfront, with Warm Orange Skies and Boats in the Background, Creating a Peaceful Scene.

Ervin Han and Raúl García bring The Violinist to North America through Toronto.

Thirteen in Gaza

Hosam Abu Dan | Palestine · World Premiere

Hosam Abu Dan’s Thirteen in Gaza receives its world premiere at TIFF.

Toy Gun Bandit

Rémi St-Michel | Canada · World Premiere

Rémi St-Michel premieres Canadian feature Toy Gun Bandit.

Trash Mountain

Kris Rey | USA · World Premiere

Kris Rey brings Trash Mountain to Toronto for its world premiere.

Viva Carmen

Sébastien Laudenbach | France · North American Premiere

Sébastien Laudenbach’s Viva Carmen arrives for its North American premiere.

We Are All Strangers

Anthony Chen | Singapore · North American Premiere

Anthony Chen returns with We Are All Strangers, receiving its North American premiere.

Where the River Begins

Juan Andrés Arango | Canada, Colombia, Norway · World Premiere

Juan Andrés Arango brings Where the River Begins to TIFF for its world premiere.

Woman Unknown

May el-Toukhy | Denmark · North American Premiere

Back View of a Woman in a Red Off-shoulder Dress, Hands Clasped Behind Her; Tiff Logo and Film Credit Line Overlaid.

May el-Toukhy sets Woman Unknown in Copenhagen immediately after the end of Nazi occupation, when liberation brings celebration for some and fear of retribution for others. Mathilde Arcel plays Marie, a young housekeeper preparing to marry her wealthy employer while desperately hiding a history that could make her a target.

A man from Marie’s past suddenly threatens that future, setting off an increasingly desperate three-day attempt to keep her secrets buried. After Queen of Hearts, el-Toukhy again centers a woman facing a society eager to police and punish her choices, with TIFF emphasizing both the escalating tension and the film’s refusal to reduce Marie to an easy moral argument.

Special Presentations

If Gala is where TIFF puts some of its biggest stars, Special Presentations is where the festival usually gets more interesting. This year’s slate is unusually deep, mixing major auteurs with Cannes and Sundance carryovers, North American premieres, prestige world premieres and several titles that already feel like they could dominate conversation once Toronto begins. This is also where a large portion of The Cinema Group’s personal watchlist lives.

A Good Little Soldier

Stéphane Brizé | France | North American Premiere

Side Profile of a Woman in a Blazer Listening Thoughtfully During a Meeting, with a Pen Resting Near Her Mouth.

Stéphane Brizé brings A Good Little Soldier to Toronto following its Venice debut, adding another established European filmmaker to an already crowded Special Presentations slate.

The Age of Goodbyes

Edmund Yeo | Taiwan, Malaysia | World Premiere

Edmund Yeo brings The Age of Goodbyes to Toronto for its world premiere.

All of a Sudden

Ryûsuke Hamaguchi | France, Japan, Germany, Belgium | North American Premiere

Nighttime Waterfront Scene with Two Women Sitting on a Dock, City Lights Blurred in the Background; Tiff Promo Text for All of a Sudden by Ryusuke Hamaguchi at the Bottom.

Any new Ryûsuke Hamaguchi film becomes an event by default.

The filmmaker behind Drive My Car, Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy and Evil Does Not Exist returns with another international production, arriving in Toronto for its North American premiere. Hamaguchi has become one of the most consistently unpredictable filmmakers working today, and his ability to turn seemingly ordinary conversations into something emotionally destabilizing makes All of a Sudden one of the easiest additions to our must-see list.

All That She Wants

Scarlett Bermingham, Andrew Rhymer | USA, Canada | World Premiere

Two People Face Each Other in a Warmly Lit Room, Smiling, with Tiff Branding and the Film Title at the Bottom Moment.

Annie Murphy and Cooper Raiff lead a Toronto-set romantic comedy written by Schitt’s Creek executive producer David West Read.

Murphy plays Emma, a thirtysomething woman attempting to recover from a breakup when she meets the younger Luke, played by Raiff, during a night out. The morning after their hookup comes with an especially awkward realization: Emma used to babysit him.

That encounter initially appears destined to remain a one-night mistake, but Luke continues drifting back into Emma’s life as she makes an independent decision to pursue motherhood. Zosia Mamet and Christine Baranski also appear in a film TIFF describes as funny, sexy and unusually perceptive about the tension between independence and attachment.

Alpha Gang

David Zellner, Nathan Zellner | USA | International Premiere

Group of Six People in Dark Leather Jackets Posing Together in a Dimly Lit Room, Looking Toward the Camera, with a Retro Jukebox Behind Them (tiff Feature: Alpha Gang).

The Zellner brothers approach alien invasion from an unexpectedly human direction.

Léa Seydoux, Riley Keough and Dave Bautista lead a group of extraterrestrials disguised like leather-jacketed 1950s bikers. Their mission begins to unravel once exposure to human emotion disrupts whatever directives brought them to Earth in the first place.

Music, intimacy, art, joy and ordinary encounters with nature begin changing the group’s perspective. Rather than treating humanity as something to conquer, the aliens slowly discover reasons to become attached to it. The cast alone makes this worth prioritizing, but the Zellners turning an invasion movie into something about emotional contamination sounds considerably more interesting than another large-scale extraterrestrial war.

Bad Lieutenant Tokyo

Takashi Miike | USA, United Kingdom, Japan | World Premiere

Man in a Brown Leather Jacket Looks Down on a Film Set, with a Blurred Suited Man in the Background and Red Decor Overhead.

There are titles that require paragraphs of explanation. Then there is Bad Lieutenant Tokyo.

Takashi Miike taking on a project carrying the Bad Lieutenant name immediately makes this one of TIFF’s most irresistible wild cards. Miike has spent decades moving between crime, horror, action, comedy and material that refuses easy categorization, which makes the pairing feel appropriately dangerous.

Its world premiere in Toronto should be one of the Special Presentations screenings where nobody quite knows what they are walking into.

The Beloved

Rodrigo Sorogoyen | Spain | North American Premiere

Film Still of a Woman in a Red Jumpsuit and a Man in a Black Jacket Walking Across a Desert, with Tiff Branding and the Title 'the Beloved' by Rodrigo Sorogoyen."

Javier Bardem and Victoria Luengo play a father and daughter whose 13-year estrangement becomes inseparable from a film they begin making together.

Bardem is Esteban, a celebrated director preparing a Sahara-set historical drama about the Sahrawi uprising against Spanish colonial rule. He offers a role to Emilia, the daughter he has barely seen in more than a decade. She accepts despite the unresolved anger between them, and the production becomes the setting for a much more personal confrontation.

Sorogoyen and frequent collaborator Isabel Peña use filmmaking itself as a vehicle for control, manipulation and reopened family wounds. TIFF’s program describes the film as darker and more brutal than the comparison point many viewers will inevitably make to Sentimental Value, with Bardem and Luengo singled out for particularly strong work.

Bitter Christmas

Pedro Almodóvar | Spain | North American Premiere

Man with Glasses and Gray Beard in a Bright Yellow Sweater Sits at a Desk with a Laptop, Surrounded by Colorful Shelves; Tiff Feature About Bitter Christmas, Dir. Pedro Almodóvar.

A new Pedro Almodóvar film needs little additional justification. Bitter Christmas arrives in Toronto for its North American premiere and immediately becomes one of the Special Presentations slate’s essential screenings.

Bucking Fastard

Werner Herzog | USA | Canadian Premiere

Two Women in White Dresses with Floral Headpieces and Veils Face Each Other Against a Dark Background, Their Hands Raised in a Mirrored Pose; Tiff Logo and Film Credits Shown at the Bottom.

Werner Herzog directs real-life sisters Rooney Mara and Kate Mara as Jean and Joan Holbrooke, two sisters whose identities appear almost impossibly intertwined.

They speak together, dress alike, share dreams and ultimately fall for the same man, played by Orlando Bloom. Their shared romantic obsession eventually lands them in court and turns their unusual relationship into a media spectacle.

It is difficult to imagine material better suited to Herzog. He has spent his career fascinated by people whose relationships to ordinary reality operate according to their own internal logic, and pairing that sensibility with Rooney and Kate Mara makes Bucking Fastard one of the late additions that immediately jumps toward the top of our list.

Clarissa

Arie Esiri, Chuko Esiri | Nigeria, USA | North American Premiere

Arie and Chuko Esiri bring Clarissa to Toronto for its North American premiere.

Closing Night

Cody Fern | Australia, Canada | World Premiere

Film Poster: a Person in a Dark Suit and Sunglasses Sits in Front of Vertical Blinds; Tiff Closing Night, Dir. Cody Fern.

Despite the title, Cody Fern’s Closing Night is not TIFF’s official Closing Night Film. It is a Special Presentation world premiere centered on an internationally famous actor who summons her estranged family to the opening night of her Broadway play.

Sarah Paulson plays the star at the center of the reunion, with Naomi Watts as her resentful sister and Toby Wallace as the nephew hoping to establish a relationship with the aunt he barely knows. Odessa A’zion and Dianne Wiest round out an unusually strong ensemble.

Fern co-wrote the film with Devon Bostick and makes his feature directing debut with what TIFF describes as a sharply comic family drama that gradually reveals something more tender underneath all the cruelty.

Club Kid

Jordan Firstman | USA | Canadian Premiere

Man in Denim Jacket Smoking a Cigarette Beside a Curious Boy on an Urban Street; Tiff Promo for Club Kid by Jordan Firstman.

Jordan Firstman stars as Peter Green, a New York queer nightlife promoter whose perpetual party collides with adulthood when he discovers he has a 10-year-old son.

Cara Delevingne plays Peter’s long-suffering business partner, Reggie Absolom plays Arlo and Diego Calva appears as both Arlo’s therapist and Peter’s romantic foil. What distinguishes the premise is the larger queer community that gradually makes room for the child rather than treating him as an interruption. After becoming a sensation at Cannes, Club Kid arrives in Toronto as one of our biggest priorities.

Coward

Lukas Dhont | Belgium | North American Premiere

Group of Soldiers in Green Uniforms Crowding Together, Shouting with Excitement and Raised Fists Around a Central Figure.] ,

Lukas Dhont returns with Coward, bringing his latest feature to North America through TIFF. After Girl and Close, another Dhont film dealing with intimacy and emotional vulnerability belongs firmly on the watchlist.

The Debut

Jesse Eisenberg | USA | International Premiere

Tiff Film Still: Woman in a Light Blue Cardigan Seated on a Chair As Crew Members Pass by on a Backstage Set for the Debut (dir. Jesse Eisenberg) at Tiff

Julianne Moore and Paul Giamatti in a Jesse Eisenberg comedy about community theatre is difficult to resist.

Moore plays Mona Friedman, a suburban housewife who auditions for a local production and unexpectedly discovers something in herself once she lands the part. Giamatti plays Jerry, the demanding director who recognizes her potential and encourages her to push further.

The joke lies partly in the seriousness with which everyone approaches an objectively small theatrical production. Eisenberg takes that self-importance seriously enough to turn it into character rather than simply mockery, while Moore treats Mona’s artistic awakening with complete commitment.

Elsinore

Simon Stone | United Kingdom | Canadian Premiere

Man with Blond Hair in a Gray Sweater Holds a Weathered Skull, a Tiff Still from Elsinore by Simon Stone.

Andrew Scott playing Ian Charleson in a film built around Hamlet makes Elsinore one of TIFF’s most compelling acting showcases on paper.

Charleson had already become internationally recognizable through Chariots of Fire when he returned to the stage. After Daniel Day-Lewis walked away from a National Theatre production of Hamlet, Charleson stepped into the role while simultaneously confronting an AIDS diagnosis.

Scott plays that collision between artistic opportunity and mortality, with Olivia Colman appearing as a doctor treating Charleson and other gay men during the epidemic. Joe Locke also appears in a supporting role. TIFF goes unusually far in describing Scott’s work as career-best, while screenwriter Stephen Beresford and director Simon Stone approach Charleson’s final years through theatre, friendship and the stubborn desire to continue making art.

Everest: The Other Side

Jimmy Chin, Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi | USA | Canadian Premiere

Climber in Orange Gear Ascending a Steep Snowy Slope with Red Skis Strapped to Their Backpack; Bottom Text Shows 'tiff. Everest: the Other Side | Dir: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin'

Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi return to extreme environments with Everest: The Other Side. The filmmaking team behind Free Solo and The Rescue has repeatedly demonstrated an ability to make physical endurance feel psychologically immediate, which alone makes another Everest project worth watching closely.

Everybody Wants To F*** Me

Jonathan Schey | United Kingdom, France, USA | World Premiere

Man in a Gray Sweatshirt and Red Shorts Running with a Small Dog on an Autumn Park Path; Tiff Poster Text Overlaid at the Bottom Reads 'tiff. Everybody Wants to F*ck Me | Dir: Jonathan Schey'

Taron Egerton stars in one of the lineup’s most provocative world premieres.

He plays Adam, a man who has carefully mastered the outward signs of enlightened masculinity. He listens at meetings, reads feminist literature, practices yoga and understands exactly how to present himself as the self-aware alternative to the conventional toxic man.

Then he meets Sofia, played by Jessica Henwick. She recognizes some of the contradictions immediately, and soon women begin responding to Adam with increasingly extreme levels of attention, progressing from attraction to stalking and aggressive pursuit.

Jonathan Schey turns that reversal into a satire of modern dating, online self-mythology and men who have learned how to signal virtues they may not actually possess.

Faith

Paul Andrew Williams | United Kingdom | World Premiere

Paul Andrew Williams brings Faith to TIFF for its world premiere.

Fjord

Cristian Mungiu | Romania, France, Norway, Sweden, Denmark | Canadian Premiere

Man with Glasses and Stubble in a Gray Winter Jacket Stands in a Snowy Town, Tiff Logo and 'fjord | Dir: Cristian Mungiu' Overlayed on the Image.

The Palme d’Or winner arrives in Toronto as one of the festival’s most obvious heavyweights.

Renate Reinsve and Sebastian Stan play Lisbet and Mihai Gheorghiu, a conservative Christian couple who have moved from Romania to an isolated Norwegian town with their five children. Their strict religious household clashes with the surrounding community after one child is accused of introducing religious bias into school and another child is discovered with a bruise.

What begins as a conflict over parenting and religious freedom escalates into a wider confrontation about cultural assimilation, discipline, authority and who gets to determine what constitutes harm inside a family.

Cristian Mungiu has built much of his career around putting ordinary people inside moral systems where every available choice carries consequences. Fjord appears to continue that tradition on a larger international canvas.

Gentle Monster

Marie Kreutzer | Austria | Canadian Premiere

Woman with Long Blonde Hair Sits at a Grand Piano, Gazing to Her Left, Wearing a Brown Leather Jacket in a Studio Setting with a Window in the Background.

Léa Seydoux stars as experimental musician Lucy Weiss, whose family life collapses after authorities arrest her husband.

Lucy, her filmmaker husband Philip and their nine-year-old son have relocated from Munich to the countryside after Philip suffers a breakdown. Their apparent retreat from the world ends when a sex-crimes unit arrives to seize the family’s digital devices.

As the allegations against Philip become harder to dismiss, Lucy’s attention shifts toward an even more frightening possibility involving their son. Marie Kreutzer follows Corsage with another film centered on a woman trapped inside social and emotional circumstances that become increasingly impossible to control. Jella Haase plays the investigating officer, while Catherine Deneuve appears in a cameo.

Glaxo

Benjamín Naishtat | Argentina, Brazil | World Premiere

Benjamín Naishtat brings Glaxo to TIFF for its world premiere.

Growth of the Soil

Hans Petter Moland | Norway | World Premiere

Hans Petter Moland premieres Growth of the Soil in Toronto.

Happily Ever After

Feng-I Fiona Roan | Taiwan | World Premiere

Feng-I Fiona Roan brings Happily Ever After to TIFF for its world premiere.

Hombre al agua

Gael García Bernal | Mexico | North American Premiere

Lifeguards Assist a Shirtless Man Seated on the Sandy Beach, One Helper Holding His Leg While Another Supports His Foot. a Red Rescue Float Sits Nearby.

Gael García Bernal returns behind the camera with Hombre al agua, receiving its North American premiere in Toronto.

The Housewife

Ben Shirinian | USA | World Premiere

Stylish Woman in a Red Dress Walks on a City Sidewalk, Carrying a Black Handbag As Pedestrians Pass By; Film Poster Text Visible: 'tiff. the Housewife | Dir: Ben Shirinian'

Naomi Watts, Tye Sheridan, Luke Evans and Michael Imperioli headline one of TIFF’s more intriguing historical thrillers.

Set in New York in 1964, the film follows Hermine, played by Watts, and her husband Russel, played by Evans. Their apparently stable life is disrupted when Hermine meets New York Times journalist Joseph Lelyveld, played by Sheridan.

Joseph is following a tip from a Holocaust survivor suggesting Russel may actually be a Nazi hiding in America. As the investigation deepens, his relationship with Hermine becomes increasingly intimate and the case grows significantly stranger.

Ben Shirinian’s feature debut begins as investigative suspense before moving toward courtroom drama and larger questions about complicity, memory and whether time can ever erase responsibility for historical crimes.

I Play Rocky

Peter Farrelly | USA | World Premiere

a Man in a Gray Hoodie and Black Beanie Raises His Fists in Triumph Against a City Skyline.

Anthony Ippolito plays the young Sylvester Stallone in the improbable true story behind Rocky. After watching Muhammad Ali fight Chuck Wepner, Stallone writes the screenplay in a burst of inspiration. Studios want it, but he refuses to sell unless they let the unknown actor play Rocky himself.

Tracy Letts, Stephan James and Matt Dillon join Ippolito, whom TIFF calls a revelation in the role. The story behind Rocky has essentially the same underdog architecture as Rocky itself, making this one of the most obvious potential TIFF crowd-pleasers. 

The Idiot(s)

Małgorzata Szumowska, Michał Englert | Poland, Germany | Canadian Premiere

Bearded Man in a Black Suit and a Woman in a Pastel, Victorian-style Dress with a Large Hat Walk Down a Cobblestone Alley; Tiff Banner Text at the Bottom.

Małgorzata Szumowska and Michał Englert bring The Idiot(s) to Toronto for its Canadian premiere.

In Alaska

Jaap van Heusden, Vinnie Karetak | Netherlands, Canada | World Premiere

In Alaska makes its world premiere as a Netherlands-Canada co-production from Jaap van Heusden and Vinnie Karetak.

Ink

Danny Boyle | United Kingdom, France, USA | Canadian Premiere

Tiff Promotional Still: a Man in a Suit in an Industrial Setting with a Text Overlay Reading 'tiff. Ink | Dir: Danny Boyel'

Guy Pearce plays Rupert Murdoch and Jack O’Connell plays editor Larry Lamb in Danny Boyle’s account of The Sun’s transformation into a tabloid powerhouse.

The strategy is simple: become louder, more provocative and more sensational than the competition. Circulation explodes, but so does the newspaper’s appetite for escalation. Claire Foy plays a woman trying to establish herself within the paper’s entrenched boys’ club, while TIFF singles out O’Connell’s morally compromised ambition and Pearce’s carefully controlled Murdoch. 

It Will Happen Tonight

Nanni Moretti | Italy, France, Spain | International Premiere

Nanni Moretti brings It Will Happen Tonight to TIFF for its international premiere following the film’s late addition to Special Presentations.

Josephine

Beth de Araújo | USA | Canadian Premiere

Film Still from Josephine by Beth De Araújo: Two Women Embrace in a Dim Hallway While a Man Looks Down Nearby; Tiff Logo Overlaid with Credits.

Beth de Araújo’s Josephine was already one of the films we carried out of Sundance thinking about.

Mason Reeves plays an eight-year-old girl who witnesses a disturbing attack in Golden Gate Park while walking with her father, played by Channing Tatum. Although he intervenes, what Josephine sees fundamentally changes the way she understands the world around her.

Tatum’s Damien responds by putting his daughter into martial arts. Gemma Chan’s Claire pushes for therapy and wants Josephine to testify. Their competing approaches leave the child trapped between adults attempting to restore a sense of safety that has already disappeared.

De Araújo draws from a childhood memory of her own and uses formal control to place viewers inside Josephine’s growing hypervigilance. Reeves gives the film its center.

The Julia Set

Niki Byrne | USA | World Premiere

Close-up of a Young Woman’s Face Looking Contemplative, with a Blurred Background Figure; Tiff Logo and 'the Julia Set | Dir: Niki Byrne' Overlaid.

Chase Infiniti plays Julia, a gifted mathematics student who has spent much of her life minimizing her abilities before being recruited into an elite group preparing for the prestigious Putnam Exam.

Christopher Briney plays teaching assistant Pascal, while Nina Hoss appears as the notoriously difficult professor leading the students. Jason Isaacs plays Pascal’s celebrated mathematician father, with Chloe Bailey and Gillian Anderson also joining the ensemble.

Niki Byrne’s debut appears less interested in mathematics itself than the social structures around recognized genius: who gets encouraged, who gets overlooked and how family expectations can shape intellectual confidence.

La Bola Negra

Javier Calvo, Javier Ambrossi | Spain, France | Canadian Premiere

Close-up of a Man with Curly Hair Blowing into a Brass Trumpet in a Tiled Room; Tiff Festival Promo Text Overlaid with La Bola Negra Details.

Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi bring one of Cannes’ major Spanish titles to Toronto for its Canadian premiere. The filmmaking duo behind Veneno and The Messiah have established a distinctive ability to combine heightened style with deeply personal emotional material, making La Bola Negra an obvious priority.

Le Faux Soir

Michaël R. Roskam | Belgium, France | World Premiere

Michaël R. Roskam premieres his new Belgian-French production in Toronto.

The Liberation

Guy Nattiv | USA | Canadian Premiere

a Woman in Black Leads a Small Group Down a Wet Suburban Street, an Older Man in a Suit Behind Her; Tiff Logo and Film Title Overlay.

Carrie Coon stars as Rita, an assistant bank manager, wife and mother whose comfortable life is destabilized when painful family history resurfaces.

Then she meets Ricki.

Lily James plays the charismatic stranger who introduces Rita to a women’s group offering apparent liberation from the anxieties consuming her. Rita becomes increasingly absorbed in the organization and eventually leaves home to help establish an all-woman rural commune.

Bella Ramsey and Odessa Young play Rita’s daughters, who go looking for their mother and become pulled into the same increasingly disturbing world. Inspired partly by filmmaker Guy Nattiv’s own grandmother, The Liberation looks at the mechanisms that allow emotional vulnerability to become a pathway toward manipulation and control.

A Long Winter

Andrew Haigh | Canada, United Kingdom | Canadian Premiere

Top-down View of a Person in a Brown Fur-trimmed Parka Standing in Deep Snow, Facing Downward.

Andrew Haigh returns to Toronto with A Long Winter. After All of Us Strangers, almost any new Haigh feature would qualify as one of our priorities. Few contemporary filmmakers are better at turning loneliness, intimacy and regret into something simultaneously restrained and devastating.

Look Back

Hirokazu Kore-eda | Japan | North American Premiere

Two Friends in Winter Knit Hats Smiling and Looking Up, Enjoying a Snowy Day.

A new Hirokazu Kore-eda film belongs on the schedule automatically. Look Back makes its North American premiere at TIFF, extending a body of work that has repeatedly turned family, memory and seemingly ordinary human relationships into some of contemporary cinema’s most emotionally precise filmmaking.

Love of Your Life

Rachel Morrison | USA | World Premiere

Young Woman with Sunglasses on Her Head Stands on Rocky Coast, Pink Shirt Tied at the Waist, Overlooking the Sparkling Sea; Tiff Poster Text Appears.

Margaret Qualley leads Rachel Morrison’s latest as Maya, a young Boston nurse whose life changes dramatically after she falls in love with Charlie, played by Gabriel Basso.

Their relationship moves quickly toward marriage before the pandemic fractures the life they have built together. Maya leaves the United States and begins rebuilding herself as a digital nomad in Portugal, eventually meeting Aaron Pierre’s Felix and entering another phase of her life in England.

Patrick Schwarzenegger plays Maya’s longtime friend, while Catherine Keener also appears in a supporting role. Written by Julia Cox, the film follows Maya over multiple years and countries rather than reducing grief to a single dramatic episode.

The Man I Love

Ira Sachs | USA | North American Premiere

Side Profile of a Shirtless Man Resting in a Bathtub, Water Droplets on Skin, with Tiff Logo and Film Title Overlay for 'the Man I Love' by Ira Sachs

Rami Malek plays Jimmy, an actor and performance artist living in 1980s New York while dying of AIDS.

Ira Sachs deliberately avoids structuring the movie as a conventional illness narrative. Jimmy remains stubbornly focused on creating, particularly after leaving the hospital and preparing for a starring role in an adaptation of a Michel Tremblay work.

Tom Sturridge plays his devoted partner Dennis, while Rebecca Hall appears as his sister Brenda. The film spends time inside rehearsals, dinners, impromptu performances and the communal life surrounding Jimmy rather than treating his diagnosis as the only meaningful thing about him.

Minotaur

Andrey Zvyagintsev | France, Germany, Latvia | Canadian Premiere

Three Friends Sharing a Dinner at a Dimly Lit Table, with Wine Glasses and Bottles, As the Woman on the Right Speaks While the Others Listen.

Andrey Zvyagintsev’s return continues from Cannes to Toronto. After years away from feature filmmaking, the director of Leviathan, Loveless and The Return arriving with Minotaur makes this one of Special Presentations’ most significant international titles.

Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People?

Shinya Tsukamoto | Japan | North American Premiere

Close-up of a Young Soldier Wearing a Helmet in a Sunlit Jungle Setting.

Shinya Tsukamoto brings Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People? to North America through TIFF. The filmmaker behind Tetsuo: The Iron Man remains one of Japanese cinema’s most distinctive voices, which is reason enough to keep this high on the curiosity list.

Neil Peart: No One’s Disciple

Scot McFadyen, Sam Dunn | Canada | World Premiere

Canadian filmmakers Scot McFadyen and Sam Dunn bring Neil Peart: No One’s Disciple to TIFF for its world premiere, adding a major music title centered on the legendary Rush drummer to Special Presentations.

Paradise Lost

Yeon Sang-ho | South Korea | World Premiere

Crowded Scene at Night with Police in Reflective Vests Guiding a Distressed Woman Toward the Center of the Frame.

Train to Busan filmmaker Yeon Sang-ho returns with the world premiere of Paradise Lost. Yeon’s willingness to move between horror, thriller, science fiction and social commentary makes the project an obvious title to watch.

Phoolan

Richie Mehta | India | World Premiere

Young Woman with a Red Headband Crouches Among Armed Men in a Dark Forest, Ready for Action Underground Scene (militants).

Richie Mehta brings Phoolan to TIFF for its world premiere. Following Delhi Crime, Mehta’s return with another major India-set project makes this one worth watching closely.

Possible Love

Lee Chang-dong | South Korea | North American Premiere

Poster for Tiff: Possible Love by Lee Chang-dong Featuring Four People Standing on a Sunny Beach with a Forest Backdrop, Looking Thoughtful Far into the Distance.

Lee Chang-dong has not released a feature since Burning. That alone makes Possible Love one of TIFF 2026’s most important films.

Sul Kyung-gu and Jeon Do-yeon play Ho-seok and Mi-ok, a married couple attempting to move forward after trauma connected to a disastrous labor dispute. Their lives become intertwined with ambitious documentary filmmaker Ye-ji, played by Cho Yeo-jeong, and her wealthy husband Sang-woo, played by Zo In-sung.

The documentary project gradually exposes tensions both between and within the couples, while questions emerge about class, authorship and who has the right to tell another person’s story. Lee has always been extraordinarily good at allowing private pain to open into something larger about society without reducing characters to symbols.

The Road Not Taken

Peter Ho-Sun Chan | China | World Premiere

Peter Ho-Sun Chan brings The Road Not Taken to Toronto for its world premiere as one of the final additions to Special Presentations.

The Stunt Driver

Michael Dowse | Canada | World Premiere

Promotional Thumbnail for Tiff: 'the Stunt Driver' by Dir. Michael Dows, Featuring a Man in an Orange Racing Suit Leaning from a Car with Sunglasses.

Jay Baruchel plays legendary Canadian daredevil Ken Carter, “The Mad Canadian,” whose increasingly outrageous 1970s car stunts culminated in a plan to launch a rocket-powered Lincoln Continental across a mile-wide stretch of the St. Lawrence River.

Michael Dowse reunites with his Goon star for a mostly true story that TIFF describes as matching that film’s anarchic energy while finding something more vulnerable beneath Carter’s bravado. Ed Helms plays designer and technician Dick Keller, while Ben Foster appears as Evel Knievel. 

Tender Loving Care

Mike Leigh | United Kingdom | Canadian Premiere

Three Women Stand in a Sunlit Kitchen, Smiling and Talking Near a Sink and Stove.

Mike Leigh returns with Tender Loving Care. At this point, any new Leigh film deserves immediate attention. His ability to build entire worlds through character observation rather than plot machinery remains almost unmatched.

The Unknown

Arthur Harari | France | North American Premiere

Woman's Face Seen in a Small Round Mirror, Hand on Her Mouth, Looking Thoughtful Andpensive.

Arthur Harari brings his latest French feature to Toronto for its North American premiere. Following his work as co-writer on Anatomy of a Fall, Harari’s return as director makes The Unknown an obvious title to monitor.

Whatcha Want

Mina Shum | Canada | World Premiere

Mina Shum returns to TIFF with the world premiere of Whatcha Want.

Wild Horse Nine

Martin McDonagh | United Kingdom, USA |Canadian Premiere

Two Seniors in Retro Suits and Hats Laughing on a Leather Couch in an Airport Lounge, with a Plane Visible Outside the Window.

John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell play eccentric CIA agents Chris and Lee, sent to Easter Island shortly before the 1973 Chilean coup. Chris is aging and increasingly reflective about the consequences of his career, while Lee remains the brash protégé more interested in enjoying the assignment. Their handler, played by Steve Buscemi, complicates matters as paranoia and conspiracy begin overwhelming what was supposed to be another exercise in foreign intervention.

Tom Waits plays Chris’ brother and Parker Posey appears as Lee’s wife, giving McDonagh a cast almost perversely well suited to his blackly comic dialogue. After Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and The Banshees of Inisherin, this is easily one of our biggest priorities in Toronto. 

Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother

Bassam Tariq | USA | World Premiere

Close-up of a Man Wearing a Dark Headscarf Inside a Building with a Curved Staircase; Tiff Logo and Film Title Overlay.

Bassam Tariq returns with Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, receiving its world premiere in Toronto. After Mogul Mowgli, Tariq remains a filmmaker whose next move is worth watching closely.

TIFF Docs

TIFF Docs is one of the most globally varied sections in this year’s festival, bringing together 21 nonfiction films from across 20 countries. The slate ranges from music and sports profiles to political, cultural and deeply personal stories, with 18 world premieres and several major filmmakers returning to Toronto.

Ba’s Book

Ashley Duong | Canada | World Premiere

Ashley Duong combines documentary and staged recreation as she returns to Vietnam with her father’s memoir and involves family members in reconstructing pieces of their history.

Black Sunflowers

James Marcus Haney | Ukraine, USA | World Premiere

James Marcus Haney follows young Ukrainians navigating life between the war front and civilian existence.

Bleeding Hearts

Andrew Morgan | USA | World Premiere

Andrew Morgan turns his camera toward the couple behind alt-country band Chaparelle.

Cheyenne

Taimi Arvidson | USA | World Premiere

Taimi Arvidson brings Cheyenne to TIFF Docs for its world premiere.

Darlene Love: I Know Where I’ve Been

Barry Avrich | Canada | World Premiere

Barry Avrich turns his attention to the extraordinary career of singer Darlene Love.

Edward Said: Between Worlds

Maiken Baird | USA | World Premiere

Maiken Baird draws on archival material and access to the Said family and estate to examine the life of Palestinian-American scholar and writer Edward Said.

The Final Act

Sophie Deraspe | Canada | World Premiere

Sophie Deraspe moves into documentary territory with a film examining medically assisted dying.

Gail

Michael Maxxis | Canada | World Premiere

Michael Maxxis follows a dedicated Our Lady Peace fan during the Canadian band’s 30th-anniversary tour.

The Hummingbird Paints Fragrant Songs

Èlia Gasull Balada, Matteo Norzi | Peru, USA, Qatar | World Premiere

The film follows Peruvian Amazon painter Sara Flores and her encounter with the international art world.

Like Magic

Melissa Saavedra Gil | Colombia, Argentina, Uruguay | World Premiere

Melissa Saavedra Gil brings Like Magic to TIFF Docs for its world premiere.

Low Lies The Land

Emanuele Gerosa | Denmark, Italy | World Premiere

Emanuele Gerosa’s Low Lies The Land receives its world premiere in Toronto.

Musk

Alex Gibney | USA | North American Premiere

Man in a Dark Jacket Raises a Large American Flag Between Two Cranes Against a Blue Sky, with Tiff Branding at the Bottom Reading 'musk | Dir: Alex Gibney'.

Alex Gibney spent nearly four years working on his portrait of Elon Musk, who declined to participate and publicly criticized the project after it was announced.

Rather than depending on direct access, Gibney draws from years of Musk’s public interviews alongside new conversations with people who have known him personally, including his father, Errol Musk.

The documentary examines Musk’s rise, his companies, public persona and extraordinary cultural influence while attempting to understand the motivations behind one of the most consequential figures in modern technology. Gibney also incorporates a distinctive visual approach inspired by Musk’s own fascination with science fiction and simulation.

At nearly four hours, Musk is among the most substantial documentaries in this year’s festival and one of The Cinema Group’s highest-priority TIFF screenings. Tiff The Cinema Group Picks.docxDOCX

The Pervert’s Guide to Utopias

Sophie Fiennes | Ireland, United Kingdom, Slovenia, Netherlands, Norway | North American Premiere

Older Man with Gray Beard Lying on Green Satin, Wearing a Red Shirt, Raising His Index Finger.

Sophie Fiennes reunites with philosopher Slavoj Žižek for another expansive interrogation of ideology, culture and the stories societies tell themselves about the future.

The film continues the collaboration behind The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema and The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology, turning this time toward utopian thinking and the persistent human desire to imagine better worlds.

Rapinoe

Rebeca Huntt | United Kingdom, USA | World Premiere

Athlete on a Soccer Field Holding a Pink-white Soccer Ball, Wearing a Black Jacket with the Number 15 and a Crest.

Rebeca Huntt profiles World Cup and Olympic champion Megan Rapinoe in the opening film of TIFF Docs.

The documentary gives the program one of its highest-profile nonfiction subjects while continuing Huntt’s development after Beba. Rapinoe’s career, activism and public life give the film territory well beyond a conventional sports biography.

Re/Pair

Lacey Schwartz Delgado | USA | World Premiere

Lacey Schwartz Delgado examines connections and tensions between Black and Jewish communities in the United States.

Rescue

Sine Plambech | Denmark, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Iceland | World Premiere

Sine Plambech brings Rescue to TIFF Docs for its world premiere.

Still Night, Burning House

Carol Nguyen | Canada | World Premiere

Carol Nguyen turns toward her own Vietnamese-Canadian family history in her feature documentary debut.

Nguyen’s previous short-form work established her as an intimate observer of family, memory and intergenerational experience, and Still Night, Burning House expands that perspective into feature length.

Tehran, Under the Skin

Afsaneh Salari | France, Iran, Sweden | World Premiere

Afsaneh Salari brings Tehran, Under the Skin to TIFF for its world premiere.

Turtle Island Rap

Alexandra Lazarowich | Canada | World Premiere

Alexandra Lazarowich follows three Indigenous hip-hop performers in her documentary feature debut.

The project connects music, identity and contemporary Indigenous culture through artists using hip-hop as both expression and community-building.

The Ultra Runner

Mila Aung-Thwin | Canada | World Premiere

Mila Aung-Thwin brings The Ultra Runner to TIFF Docs for its world premiere.

Union Town

Barbara Kopple | USA | North American Premiere

Protester with a Raised Fist Shouting at a Rally, Blue Sign Reading 'united Strong Contract' Behind Him.

Legendary documentarian Barbara Kopple returns to labor with a film following three New York City union battles.

The subject brings Kopple back to terrain that has defined some of her most important work. Harlan County, U.S.A.played the inaugural Toronto festival in 1976, giving Union Town an especially meaningful place in TIFF’s 51st edition.

Rather than functioning simply as a retrospective connection, the new film brings Kopple’s observational approach into contemporary labor struggles and the changing realities facing workers and unions today.

Discovery

Discovery is the section where TIFF’s future tends to reveal itself.

Twenty-four films make up this year’s program, and most are world premieres. For a festival where filmmakers can go from relative unknowns to being chased through hotel lobbies by distributors and publicists in a matter of days, that distinction matters.

Three films immediately stand out on our own list.

A Common Story

Anna Foglietta | Italy · International Premiere

Anna Foglietta brings A Common Story to TIFF for its international premiere.

Ancestors

David Turpin | Ireland, United Kingdom · World Premiere

David Turpin premieres Ancestors in Toronto.

Arne Goes to Space

Lars Vega | Sweden · World Premiere

Lars Vega’s Swedish feature receives its world premiere.

Bedford Park

Stephanie Ahn | USA · International Premiere

Stephanie Ahn brings Bedford Park to TIFF for its international premiere.

Drifter

Sung Kang | USA · World Premiere

Woman Driver in a Pink Car Wearing a Red Racing Suit, Looking into the Distance; Tiff Promotional Text at Bottom.

Sung Kang goes back to cars, but Drifter appears interested in something considerably more intimate than Fast & Furious spectacle.

Kang directs and stars as Tree, a solitary custodian at California’s Willow Springs Raceway who spends his spare time drifting through the desert in a battered Toyota AE86 he calls Lola. He is carrying generational debt and a traumatic past, but an unexpected opportunity to compete professionally forces him to decide whether keeping everyone at a distance is still sustainable.

Kang has also surrounded the film with actual figures from car culture, including Adam LZ, Dai Yoshihara, Rutledge Wood, James Pumphrey and Hoonigan co-founder Brian Scotto. TIFF describes the result as an existential action film balancing automotive authenticity with a more melancholy character study, which makes Drifter one of the Discovery premieres we are most curious to see.

Head to Head

Ghasideh Golmakani | Iran, Germany · World Premiere

Ghasideh Golmakani brings Head to Head to TIFF for its world premiere.

I Am Mario

Sharon Kleinberg | Mexico · International Premiere

Sharon Kleinberg’s I Am Mario receives its international premiere.

In Waves

Phuong Mai Nguyen | France, Belgium · International Premiere

Phuong Mai Nguyen brings In Waves to Toronto.

Krux

Tony Vahl | Germany, Poland · World Premiere

Tony Vahl’s Krux receives its world premiere.

Magazine

Alexandra Pechman | USA · World Premiere

Portrait of a Woman on a Beige Sofa in a Bright Living Room, Looking at the Camera; Tiff Magazine Feature Image.

Alexandra Pechman’s feature debut takes us into New York’s literary ecosystem circa 2011, where aspiring poet Nora, played by Lily McInerny, lands an internship at an influential journal and quickly discovers that literature is only one part of the business.

Parties, gatekeeping, desire and workplace politics become inseparable as Nora tries to understand how people establish power inside a scene that prides itself on cultural sophistication. Jake Lacy plays the journal’s publisher, while the pre-#MeToo setting allows Pechman to explore a world in which outright predation exists alongside much less comfortable shades of complicity.

Memories of a Forest

Katharina Rabl | Germany, Austria · International Premiere

Katharina Rabl brings Memories of a Forest to TIFF.

Nosotros

Joaquín Ruano | Guatemala, Mexico · World Premiere

Joaquín Ruano premieres Nosotros in Toronto.

Purgatory

Lindsay Lanzillotta | Canada, USA · World Premiere

Lindsay Lanzillotta’s Purgatory receives its world premiere.

Salvation

Tom Nicoll | United Kingdom · World Premiere

Tom Nicoll premieres Salvation at TIFF.

Seventeen

Justin Ducharme | Canada · World Premiere

Justin Ducharme brings Canadian feature Seventeen to TIFF.

Sisters

Ione Hernández | Spain · World Premiere

Two Women Sit on a Bench in a Beige-walled Hallway, Holding Hands; Movie Poster Text at Bottom Reads 'tiff. Sisters | Dir: Ione HernÁndez'.

Emma Suárez and Elena Anaya play sisters whose family is shattered after a child accuses her teenage cousin of sexual assault.

Chelo immediately believes and tries to protect her daughter Sofia, while Marta cannot accept that her son could have committed the crime. What follows brings old resentments, guilt and long-suppressed family history into an already impossible present.

Ione Hernández’s fiction debut approaches both women with an observational style that TIFF describes as compassionate rather than detached. With Suárez and Anaya occupying opposite sides of a family crisis that resists easy emotional resolution, Sisters looks like one of Discovery’s most formidable dramatic prospects.

Strong Son

Ian Bawa | Canada · World Premiere

Ian Bawa premieres Canadian feature Strong Son.

Stuffed

Theo Rhys | United Kingdom · World Premiere · Discovery Opening Film

Two People Stand Together in a Dim Church Interior with Candlelight, a Stained-glass Window Behind Them, and a Red Velvet Bench in the Foreground.

Theo Rhys’ Stuffed opens the Discovery program with its world premiere.

The Daughters of Abraham

Hanaël El Yousfi | France · International Premiere

Hanaël El Yousfi brings The Daughters of Abraham to Toronto.

The Fortunate Isles

Helena Girón, Samuel Delgado | Spain, Greece · World Premiere

Helena Girón and Samuel Delgado premiere The Fortunate Isles at TIFF.

Voices

Deantè Gray | USA · International Premiere

Deantè Gray’s Voices receives its international premiere.

We Are Born Good

Leung Chuen Yeung | Hong Kong · World Premiere

Leung Chuen Yeung brings We Are Born Good to TIFF for its world premiere.

What Lies Between Us

Amalie Næsby Fick | Denmark · World Premiere

Amalie Næsby Fick premieres What Lies Between Us.

Zjili: A Story of Sisterhood and The Burdens of Excess

Christine Boateng, Hajara Musah Chambas | Ghana · World Premiere

Christine Boateng and Hajara Musah Chambas bring their Ghanaian feature to Toronto for its world premiere.

Primetime

TIFF’s Primetime program has become increasingly important as the line between prestige television and festival cinema continues to disappear. This year’s slate includes 10 series, and several would rank among our most anticipated TIFF screenings regardless of format.

2.6 Seconds: Death in the Outback

Darren Dale | Australia · World Premiere

Darren Dale brings Australian series 2.6 Seconds: Death in the Outback to TIFF for its world premiere.

Alice

Virginie Verrier, Guillaume Lonergan | France, Canada · World Premiere

Virginie Verrier and Guillaume Lonergan premiere Alice in Toronto.

American Hostage

Shawn Ryan, Eileen Myers, Adam Arkin | USA · World Premiere

Serious Man in a Suit with Over-ear Headphones Speaks into a Radio Microphone in a Dim Studio; Tiff: American Hostage, Dir. Adam Arkin (promotional Text).

Jon Hamm and Giovanni Ribisi lead a dramatization of the extraordinary 1977 Indianapolis hostage crisis that placed local radio reporter Fred Heckman directly inside the story he was trying to cover.

Ribisi plays Tony Kiritsis, who takes his mortgage broker hostage and demands contact with Heckman after a financial dispute reaches a breaking point. Hamm’s trusted broadcaster suddenly faces questions that would be difficult even in the modern media environment: whether a live interview with an armed kidnapper should be broadcast, what a journalist owes the public and what happens when the reporter becomes a participant in the event.

Adapted from the podcast of the same name and based on real events, American Hostage looks particularly compelling because its media questions arrive decades before 24-hour coverage and social media made those ethical collisions routine.

Below

Jesse McKeown | Canada · World Premiere · Primetime Opening Series

Man in a Sleeveless Vest with Sunglasses Hanging from His Chest Stands on a Wet Dock, Ropes and Boats to the Left, with Other People in the Background.

Jesse McKeown’s Below opens TIFF’s 2026 Primetime program.

Blindspot Berlin

David Nawrath | Germany · World Premiere

David Nawrath brings Blindspot Berlin to TIFF for its world premiere.

Carrie

Mike Flanagan | Canada, USA · World Premiere · Primetime Closing Series

Young Woman with a Backpack Reading a Book in a Busy Hallway, Tiff Branding Visible at the Bottom Right.

Mike Flanagan returns to Stephen King with another adaptation of Carrie, this time allowing the story room to expand as a series.

Summer H. Howell plays Carrie White, while Samantha Sloyan takes on Margaret White. Matthew Lillard plays school principal Grayle, with Alison Thornton as Chris, Siena Agudong as Sue and Joel Oulette as Tommy.

Flanagan has already built one of the strongest modern relationships with King’s material, and TIFF’s presentation suggests this version is interested in what Carrie’s isolation looks like inside a contemporary high school dominated by devices she herself is forbidden to own. The prom, locker room and telekinetic horror remain, but the series format offers considerably more room to live with Carrie before everything ignites.

Crystal Lake

Brad Caleb Kane, Michael Lennox | USA · World Premiere

Close-up of a Woman with Smeared Blood on Her Face in a Dark Scene; Tiff Promo Image for Crystal Lake.

A24 takes Friday the 13th back to the beginning.

Linda Cardellini stars as Pamela Voorhees, with Callum Vinson playing the young Jason. Rather than treating Pamela simply as the monster waiting behind the mythology, Crystal Lake begins with a devoted single mother working at the camp where her son is bullied, neglected by counselors and ultimately believed to have drowned.

Brad Caleb Kane and Michael Lennox use that tragedy as the starting point for the violence that will eventually define Camp Crystal Lake. TIFF singles out Cardellini’s performance and the series’ attempt to make Pamela’s grief emotionally meaningful without forgetting that audiences also showed up for a very particular kind of bloody history.

Oxygen Masks Will (Not) Drop Automatically

Marcelo Gomes, Carol Minêm | Brazil · North American Premiere

Marcelo Gomes and Carol Minêm bring the Brazilian series to North America through TIFF.

Slow Horses

Adam Randall | United Kingdom, USA · International Premiere

Two Men Stand in a Dark, Teal-lit Doorway, One Younger with a Beard and the Other Older with Glasses, Looking at the Camera.

One of television’s best ensembles returns to Slough House.

Jack Lowden’s River Cartwright once again finds himself trapped among MI5’s institutional rejects, while Kristin Scott Thomas’ Diana Tavener continues consolidating power and old threats begin moving back into the picture. Hugo Weaving returns as Frank Harkness, River’s mercenary father, with Jonathan Pryce, Saskia Reeves, Aimee-Ffion Edwards, Joanna Scanlan, Olivia Cooke and Samuel West among the larger ensemble.

By season six, Slow Horses no longer needs TIFF to establish its reputation. The appeal is getting to see one of television’s sharpest spy dramas with an audience before its latest season reaches everyone else.

YAGA

Kat Sandler, Rachel Talalay, David Frazee | Canada · World Premiere

Tiff Movie Poster for Yaga Showing a Man in a Dark Coat Standing in a Misty Forest with Tall Trees.

Clark Backo plays small-town detective Carson, who reluctantly teams with Noah Reid’s private investigator after local heir Henry Park disappears. Their investigation leads toward Carrie-Anne Moss’ enigmatic university professor and an increasingly supernatural atmosphere where almost everyone appears to be withholding something.

Adapted from Kat Sandler’s stage play, YAGA combines whodunnit structure with folk horror and questions about why societies preserve certain myths. The Canadian ensemble and Rachel Talalay’s involvement make it one of Primetime’s more distinctive world premieres.

Midnight Madness

At some point every TIFF schedule needs to stop pretending sleep is an option.

Midnight Madness remains the festival’s pressure valve: 10 films built for crowds willing to cheer, scream, laugh and discover how much stranger a movie can feel after midnight.

Anchors Aweigh

Matt Barats | USA · International Premiere

Matt Barats brings Anchors Aweigh to TIFF for its international premiere.

Arrested Memory

SABU | Taiwan, Japan · North American Premiere

SABU’s Taiwan-Japan production receives its North American premiere.

HALF

Samjad | India · World Premiere

Samjad brings HALF to Toronto for its world premiere.

Kick On

Nick Kozakis | Australia · World Premiere

Nick Kozakis premieres Australian feature Kick On at TIFF.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney

Matthew Rankin | Canada · World Premiere

Matthew Rankin returns to TIFF with what may be the most immediately curiosity-inducing title in the Midnight Madness lineup.

River

Joshua Giuliano | USA · World Premiere · Midnight Madness Opening Night Film

Joshua Giuliano’s River opens Midnight Madness with its world premiere.

Rogue Trooper

Duncan Jones | United Kingdom · North American Premiere · Midnight Madness Closing Night Film

Duncan Jones closes the program with the North American premiere of Rogue Trooper.

The Face of Horror

Anna Biller | United Kingdom · World Premiere

Anna Biller returns with The Face of Horror, receiving its world premiere in Toronto.

The Spiral

Paolo Strippoli | Italy, France, Belgium · International Premiere

Paolo Strippoli’s international production makes its international premiere.

Vintage Violence

Eugene Kotlyarenko | USA, Japan · World Premiere

Eugene Kotlyarenko brings Vintage Violence to TIFF for its world premiere.

Wavelengths

If much of TIFF is built around discovery through narrative, Wavelengths asks audiences to reconsider what a moving image can actually be.

The program remains the festival’s home for experimental cinema, formal invention and artists whose work often exists well outside conventional theatrical categories.

At Night

Beatrice Gibson | United Kingdom, France · North American Premiere

Double Freedom (La libertad doble)

Lisandro Alonso | Chile, Argentina, Luxembourg, Germany, United Kingdom · North American Premiere

Everything Else is Noise (Lo demás es ruido)

Nicolás Pereda | Germany, Canada, Mexico · North American Premiere

Life of Jorge Luis Borges (Biografía de Jorge Luis Borges)

Mariano Llinás | Argentina · North American Premiere

London

Sebastian Brameshuber | Austria · North American Premiere

My Wife Cries (Meine Frau Weint)

Angela Schanelec | Germany, France · North American Premiere

Nobody’s Violence (Violence du corps de l’autre)

Denis Côté | Canada · North American Premiere

Once Upon a Time in Harlem

William Greaves, David Greaves | USA · Canadian Premiere

Tiff Still from Once Upon a Time in Harlem: a Man in a Red Shirt Gestures Dramatically While Others Watch, a Woman in Turquoise Sits Foreground.

In August 1972, filmmaker William Greaves gathered a remarkable group of artists, writers, scholars and cultural figures connected to the Harlem Renaissance inside Duke Ellington’s townhouse and simply let the cameras run.

Aaron Douglas, Arna Bontemps, Richard Bruce Nugent, James Van Der Zee and Ida Mae Cullen are among those captured drinking, debating, reminiscing and thinking aloud about a movement they had helped create. More than 50 years later, Greaves’ son David has completed the film.

The result is not merely archival footage assembled into a historical document. The multiple 16mm cameras make the gathering itself feel alive, while contemporary editing connects conversations about art, protest, community and cultural inheritance across generations. Of all the discoveries buried deeper in the TIFF program, Once Upon a Time in Harlem may be one of the most valuable.

The Black Box is Orange

Yuula Benivolski | Canada · World Premiere

The Diary of a Chambermaid (Le journal d’une femme de chambre)

Radu Jude | France, Romania · North American Premiere

The Remotes

John Torres | Philippines · World Premiere

Wavelengths 1: House and Home

Two Pids | John Smith | United Kingdom · North American Premiere
After Image | Rita Ferrando | Canada, Argentina · World Premiere
Moon Palace | Jiaqi Yu | China, USA · World Premiere
Microcosmic Orbit: Encased | Danaya Chulphuthiphong | Thailand · North American Premiere
The Address Book | Mustafa Uzuner | Canada · World Premiere, 16mm
Chronicle of Tiredness | Natalia Marín | Spain · North American Premiere

Wavelengths 2: This Suffocating Now

Ghazal-e Sorkh | Maryam Tafakory | Iran, United Kingdom, France · World Premiere
TM | Takehisa Kosugi | Japan, 1974 · International Premiere of new restoration
Fire Flies | Zheng Lu Xinyuan | China · World Premiere
Splits in Two | Simon Liu | Hong Kong, USA · World Premiere
This Suffocating Now | Vika Kirchenbauer | Germany · North American Premiere

Wavelengths 3: Time and Tide

Forever…Forever | Johann Lurf | Austria, France · North American Premiere, 70mm
La Prospettiva (1653) | Ben Russell | France, Italy · World Premiere
Electric Fragments No. 1 – Rom (Men) | Yervant Gianikian, Angela Ricci Lucchi | Italy, 2001
Fevers | James Richards | Germany, United Kingdom · North American Premiere

Wavelengths: Anoushahpour / Aljafari

Peacocks Come with the Clouds | Parastoo Anoushahpour | Iran, Canada · World Premiere
Masao Adachi Takes a Passport Photo | Kamal Aljafari | Germany, France, Japan · World Premiere

TIFF Classics

TIFF Classics gives some of the festival’s oldest films another opening night.

The 2026 program ranges from Ken Russell and Kon Ichikawa to one of Chinese cinema’s foundational works, while a dedicated Artavazd Pelechian project brings five newly restored films back to the screen.

Ken Russell’s The Devils

Ken Russell | United Kingdom, 1971 · North American Premiere of 4K restoration, courtesy of Warner Bros.

Clockwork Kissed

Lynne Stopkewich | Canada, 1996 · World Premiere of 4K restoration, courtesy of Canadian International Pictures

Report to Mother (Amma Ariyan)

John Abraham | India, 1986 · North American Premiere of 4K restoration, courtesy of Film Heritage Foundation

Spring in a Small Town (Xiao cheng zhi chun)

Fei Mu | China, 1948 · World Premiere of 4K restoration, courtesy of the China Film Archive

Ten Dark Women (Kuroi jûnin no onna)

Kon Ichikawa | Japan, 1961 · North American Premiere of 4K restoration, courtesy of Kadokawa Corporation

Pelechian Project

Land of the People | Armenia, USSR, 1966, 10 mins.
The Beginning | Armenia, USSR, 1967, 10 mins.
We | Armenia, USSR, 1969, 27 mins.
The Seasons | Armenia, USSR, 1975, 31 mins.
The End | Armenia, 1992, 8 mins.
All directed by Artavazd Pelechian

The Pelechian restorations receive their North American premieres courtesy of Coproduction Office.

Short Cuts

TIFF’s Short Cuts program is substantial enough to operate like a festival inside the festival. Six main programs and a dedicated Strange Cuts selection bring together filmmakers from Canada, Armenia, Afghanistan, Palestine, Nigeria, India, Japan, Guatemala, Vietnam and many more countries.

These are often the names worth remembering. A short at TIFF can be the first major festival appearance in a career that looks very different five years later.

Short Cuts Programme 01

Skinny Bottines | Romain F. Dubois | Canada · North American Premiere
Untitled Woman | Camille Summers-Valli | United Kingdom, USA · World Premiere
When the Ground Paused | Jess Barclay Lawton | Australia · International Premiere
The End | Niki Lindroth von Bahr | Sweden, France, Denmark · North American Premiere
The Highway | Yung Chang | Canada, China · World Premiere
Fried Chicken & Strip Checkers | Ophelia Harutyunyan | Armenia, France · World Premiere

Short Cuts Programme 02

Leftover Women | Atalanta Swire | United Kingdom · World Premiere
The Comet | Julie Charette | Canada · North American Premiere
Forgotten Spaceman | Elham Ehsas | Afghanistan, United Kingdom · North American Premiere
Between Late April and Early May | Sophia Smith | Canada · World Premiere
Termite | Shaunak Sen | India · World Premiere
The Lion Does Not Concern Himself | Zarrar Kahn | Canada · World Premiere

Short Cuts Programme 03

A Tenderness | Sabrine Khoury | Netherlands, Palestine · World Premiere
Dough Man | Brittney Gavin, Amy Mielke | Canada · World Premiere
Fight Kid | Michael Del Monte | Canada · World Premiere
Terminal | Alexandre Siqueira | Portugal, Spain, France · World Premiere
Under the Same Clouds | Jérémi Roy | Canada · World Premiere
Patronymic | Mariia Ponomarova | Netherlands, Ukraine · World Premiere
The Episode | Logan Graham Greene | Canada · World Premiere

Short Cuts Programme 04

El Aumento | Maria Belen Poncio | Argentina, USA · World Premiere
BID16 | Mick Robertson, Margaret Rose | Canada · World Premiere
Beans and Belief | Tenzin Sedon | USA, Canada, China · World Premiere
Yek Rooz-e Shirin | Omid Abdollahi | Iran · North American Premiere
(Haboolm Ksinaalgat) Soul Catcher | Amanda Strong, Pamela Post | Canada · World Premiere
Fivehead | Christian Smith | Canada · World Premiere

Short Cuts Programme 05

Bloodline | Fala Chen | USA · World Premiere
Driftwood | A.C. Birch | Canada · World Premiere
Till The Milk Runs Dry | Kalainithan Kalaichelvan | Canada · World Premiere
Almost Pink | Justine Prince | Canada · World Premiere
2:Love | Ronni Shalev | Belgium, France, Israel · World Premiere
Buddies | Fraser Wolfe | Canada · World Premiere
The Spectacular Death of Prisca | Kaelo Iyizoba | Nigeria · World Premiere

Short Cuts Programme 06

Aman | Rahul Roye | India, United Kingdom, USA, France · World Premiere
The Day I Smoked a Cigarette with my Father | Sameh Alaa, Robin Vouters | France, Egypt, Belgium · World Premiere
Call Me Tim | Shamier Anderson | Canada · World Premiere
Pacific Spirit | Antoine Bourges | Canada · World Premiere
Imichki | Yza Nouiga | Canada · World Premiere
Please | Anna Mantzaris | Sweden, France, Czech Republic, Norway, Finland · North American Premiere
Moongirl | Victor Boccard | Japan · World Premiere

Strange Cuts

Melk | Filip Anthonissen | Belgium · North American Premiere
Koden’n | Daniel “Tètèl” Chérubin | Canada · World Premiere
MAMMALIA | Elia Kalogianni | Greece, Netherlands · World Premiere
Into The Betaverse | Varun Raman, Tom Hancock | United Kingdom · World Premiere
Madrugada | Sebastián Lojo | Guatemala · North American Premiere
The Dream Is A Snail | Thien An Nguyen | Vietnam, South Korea · North American Premiere

Toronto Has a Lot of Movies to See

The problem with a festival like TIFF is that anticipation has a way of becoming obsolete almost immediately.

There are films arriving with expectations already attached. Fjord has a Palme d’Or. Club Kid comes with Cannes buzz. Josephine already survived the pressure cooker of Sundance. Ink arrives through Venice. Filmmakers including Pedro Almodóvar, Lee Chang-dong, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Hirokazu Kore-eda, Mike Leigh and Andrey Zvyagintsev hardly need an introduction before audiences begin rearranging schedules around them.

Then there are the world premieres, which are where TIFF becomes much harder to predict. Misty Green, The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd, I Play Rocky, The Debut, The Housewife, Drifter, Sisters and dozens more will arrive in Toronto without an established critical consensus. By the time the festival ends, some of them may be impossible to discuss without using words like acquisition, breakout or awards.

Television has its own increasingly significant place in that equation. Carrie and Crystal Lake bring two enormously recognizable horror properties into Primetime, while American Hostage uses Jon Hamm and Giovanni Ribisi to revisit a bizarre moment in American media history. Slow Horses hardly needs a festival launch at this point, which makes its TIFF appearance feel more like an opportunity to celebrate one of television’s best ensembles with a crowd.

Further down the program, the scale changes but the potential for discovery does not. A 1972 gathering in Duke Ellington’s townhouse can suddenly re-emerge as Once Upon a Time in Harlem. A first feature like Magazine, Sisters or Lemonade can arrive with none of the machinery surrounding the Gala premieres and leave with an entirely different level of attention.

That is why we still do this curtain raiser every year.

It is useful to know where the stars will be. It is useful to know which movies arrive carrying Cannes prizes and which premieres already have distributors preparing major fall campaigns. For us, though, TIFF has always been just as much about finding the film we did not know to ask for.

The 51st Toronto International Film Festival opens September 10 with Siân Heder’s Being Heumann. Yan Lanouette Turgeon’s Villeneuve: The Rise of a Legend takes the Closing Night Gala slot on September 19, with the festival continuing through September 20.

Between them are hundreds of screenings and far more movies than any person can realistically see. We’re going to try anyway.

Because the real challenge at TIFF has never been finding something worth watching. It’s deciding what you are willing to miss.

author avatar
Joanthan P. Moustakas
Jonathan P. Moustakas founded The Cinema Group in 2020 during the challenges of the pandemic, after losing the vital ability to find community in theaters and escape through the captivating magic of cinema. Feeling profoundly cut off from the vibrant film community he cherished, he sought to create a welcoming home for dedicated cinema fans while providing engaging, daily curated content that resonates with their passions. Years later, The Cinema Group has blossomed from a small collective of loyal fans into a thriving brand that reaches millions of audiences every month across a diverse array of platforms and mediums.
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