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An unforgettable lead performance and a vivid sense of setting are just two of the strengths of Spencer Creigh’s vignette about a beach-town fixture who gets thrown for a loop by some sad news.

Add this film to your Watchlist and check out more Official Selection titles coming to the 48th annual Toronto International Film Festival. For ticket information visit tiff.net.

See you September 7–17!

By inviting viewers to take a closer look at the birds that serve as one of this country’s hardiest symbols, Karsten Wall’s stunning documentary invites a deeper consideration of the conditions we humans have created for them.

Add this film to your Watchlist and check out more Official Selection titles coming to the 48th annual Toronto International Film Festival. For ticket information visit tiff.net.

See you September 7–17!

In this captivating piece by artist and filmmaker Catherine Boivin, morning runs serve as a means of retracing the footsteps of her Atikamekw ancestors and connecting with deeper rhythms.

Add this film to your Watchlist and check out more Official Selection titles coming to the 48th annual Toronto International Film Festival. For ticket information visit tiff.net.

See you September 7–17!

A sudden loss and an unusual request highlight the fierce and complicated bond between a mother and her son in this beautifully performed tragicomedy by Malia Ann.

Add this film to your Watchlist and check out more Official Selection titles coming to the 48th annual Toronto International Film Festival. For ticket information visit tiff.net.

See you September 7–17!

In his efforts to connect with his Chinese heritage, a biracial man discovers challenges and complexities he may not have expected in James Michael Chiang’s remarkably deft blending of drama and comedy.

Add this film to your Watchlist and check out more Official Selection titles coming to the 48th annual Toronto International Film Festival. For ticket information visit tiff.net.

See you September 7–17!

This year’s Short Film Palme d’Or winner at Cannes, Flóra Anna Buda’s animation is as extraordinary for its kinetic, erotically charged visuals as it is for its empathetic consideration of what it means to be a young adult in an era of diminishing expectations.

Add this film to your Watchlist and check out more Official Selection titles coming to the 48th annual Toronto International Film Festival. For ticket information visit tiff.net.

See you September 7–17!

Terrific turns by Jessica Allen, Emma Hunter, and Daniel Chae Jun help fuel the funny and the feels in Marni Van Dyk’s story of a woman taking a chance to change her life.

Add this film to your Watchlist and check out more Official Selection titles coming to the 48th annual Toronto International Film Festival. For ticket information visit tiff.net.

See you September 7–17!

A photographer who’s losing his vision and a woman looking for a new start have a fateful encounter in Ryan McKenna’s stylistically bold yet emotionally rich merger of fiction and documentary.

Add this film to your Watchlist and check out more Official Selection titles coming to the 48th annual Toronto International Film Festival. For ticket information visit tiff.net.

See you September 7–17!

Reflecting on his peripatetic and sometimes painful journey through the world, a Kurdish man shares the events and moments that formed him in Aylin Gökmen’s uncommonly beautiful documentary.

Add this film to your Watchlist and check out more Official Selection titles coming to the 48th annual Toronto International Film Festival. For ticket information visit tiff.net.

See you September 7–17!

Using a powerful and evocative visual aesthetic and cunning sound design that foregrounds the voice performance by the great Clare Coulter, Marielle Dalpé crafts a bracingly expressionistic and emotionally devastating portrayal of neurocognitive decline.

Add this film to your Watchlist and check out more Official Selection titles coming to the 48th annual Toronto International Film Festival. For ticket information visit tiff.net.

See you September 7–17!

In this bracing science-fiction parable by Andrea Nirmala Widjajanto, a young Pribumi woman faces the reality of how she’s valued by her society in an imagined version of post–New Order Indonesia.

Add this film to your Watchlist and check out more Official Selection titles coming to the 48th annual Toronto International Film Festival. For ticket information visit tiff.net.

See you September 7–17!

In Leonardo Martinelli’s lyrical and captivating film, a trans woman’s poetic quest for a missing bird helps transform an urban space from treacherous to transcendent.

Add this film to your Watchlist and check out more Official Selection titles coming to the 48th annual Toronto International Film Festival. For ticket information visit tiff.net.

See you September 7–17!

One of Canada’s most formidable onscreen talents, Mackenzie Davis proves to be just as gifted behind the camera with this bold and ingenious satire starring Sidse Babett Knudsen as a woman whose skin-care routine ceases to be the bulwark she’d hoped.

Add this film to your Watchlist and check out more Official Selection titles coming to the 48th annual Toronto International Film Festival. For ticket information visit tiff.net.

See you September 7–17!

When an investigative journalist is killed, it falls to his colleague to expose the corruption that cost her friend his life. From returning director Ian Gabriel comes this high-energy political thriller highlighting the devastating risks faced by South African whistleblowers.

When her friend and fellow reporter Stanley Galloway (Rob van Vuuren) is murdered for daring to release catastrophic state secrets, investigative journalist Luyanda Masinda (Noxolo Dlamini) is thrown headfirst into a dangerous search for those responsible.

Stanley is the latest victim in a string of suspicious killings across South Africa intended to silence those committed to rooting out government corruption. Unintimidated, Luyanda is propelled into action, scouring her friend’s files for details about the explosive story he was chasing, knowing it holds the key to exposing his killers. Luyanda uncovers what Stanley had learned about the government’s latest privatization scheme and the double-dealing profiteers who stand to benefit. Tracking down the identity of his confidential source inside the state department, Luyanda unearths a vile conspiracy and discovers why Stanley’s killers so desperately wanted him silenced.

From South African director Ian Gabriel (Forgiveness, TIFF ’04; Four Corners, TIFF ’13) comes a high-energy political thriller highlighting a decades-long and frighteningly real national crisis of whistleblower assassinations. Dlamini delivers a potent performance with flawless command while Gabriel’s assured eye stays true to his trenchant study of the country’s evolving post-apartheid journey. Death of a Whistleblower offers a kinetic and provocative plunge into the struggle over state capture and the sheer power of principled speech.

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Add this film to your Watchlist and check out more Official Selection titles coming to the 48th annual Toronto International Film Festival. For ticket information visit tiff.net.

See you September 7–17!

Master filmmaker Agnieszka Holland turns her lens to expose the refugee crisis at the Polish border in her straight-shooting and soul-shattering drama Green Border.

In 2021, Belarusian dictator Alyaksandr Lukashenka — who was democratically defeated by Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya the year prior yet clung to power — granted horror-stricken people fleeing the Middle East and Africa open age to Belarus as a means of reaching Europe.

His act was not benevolence so much as a strategic ploy to overburden the wider European refugee resettlement program in a bid to antagonize the EU. To countermeasure, neighbouring Poland began constructing a steel wall laced with barbed wire. But mounting walls takes time, and, as refugees landed in Minsk, they were immediately transported to the borderland deep within the woods — coined the red zone — in a merciless landscape, where breaching unprotected areas in the guise of night is possible. Once across, the migrants ran, hoping not to be captured by Polish guards and forcibly returned to Belarus.

The latest from master filmmaker Agnieszka Holland (Burning Bush, TIFF ’13) brutally exposes the real-life crisis, where at least 37 bodies have been unearthed, highlighting godless hypocrisy on both sides of the wall. Although scripted, Green Border yields the power of documentary in depicting innocent people used as political pawns.

The perspective changes from refugees to that of the border guards, and to the patrol groups of Polish citizens who search for survivors to provide basic human rights such as food, water, and medical assistance, yet are legally barred from transporting them to safety. The film further changes tone when the crisis moves to the Ukrainian border, where refugees are seemingly welcomed with open arms.

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Add this film to your Watchlist and check out more Official Selection titles coming to the 48th annual Toronto International Film Festival. For ticket information visit tiff.net.

See you September 7–17!

Love upends the plans of three teenage friends longing to escape a Norwegian centre for young asylum seekers in Hisham Zaman’s equally funny and poignant third feature.

The vast frigid landscapes and imposing mountains of Norway’s north provide formidable obstacles to the young characters who long to escape the asylum centre for unaccompanied minors portrayed in Hisham Zaman’s bittersweet third feature.

It’s no surprise that Hamid (Salah Qadi), Aras (Ravand Ali Taha), and Ismail (Mohamed Salah) — three friends with big dreams about the haven they hope to find beyond the snow and ice — don’t get very far before they’re picked up by the local police. Indeed, their futile efforts have become a sort of empty ritual, much like the oddly cheerful 18th birthday parties the centre throws for their teenage residents before commencing with their deportation orders.

Yet for all the uncertainty and sadness that inform the trio’s situation, Zaman presents their lot with a sense of wry humour and gentle absurdism, qualities that A Happy Day shares with the films of Aki Kaurismäki and Otar Iosseliani. Even more surprising are the traces of classic Hollywood teen movies that emerge after Hamid meets rebellious newcomer Aida (Sarah Aman Mentozi) and they begin a tender, star-crossed romance that jeopardizes the pals’ escape plan.

Drawing from his own experiences as a refugee from Iraqi Kurdistan and working with an extraordinary cast of new discoveries, Zaman finds an utterly fresh and unconventional means to portray the lives and hopes of young asylum seekers. While A Happy Day certainly conveys the despair and anxiety that exists in its characters’ lives, it’s just as vivid as a celebration of their resilience and uniqueness, too.

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Add this film to your Watchlist and check out more Official Selection titles coming to the 48th annual Toronto International Film Festival. For ticket information visit tiff.net.

See you September 7–17!

From producer Salma Hayek Pinault comes this Mexican dramedy following three separate groups as they navigate that most emotionally fraught of seasons: Christmas. Mariana Treviño and Andrés Almeida star.

Mexican-American superstar Salma Hayek Pinault produces this heartfelt Mexican dramedy that weaves together three stories depicting the high emotions surrounding one of the most important festivities of the year: Christmas. Mariana Treviño and Andrés Almeida, best known for their TV roles in 100 días para enamorarnos, are reunited here as Valeria and Gerardo. When Gerardo sneaks into Valeria’s kitchen to help her prepare traditional dishes for the Christmas dinners of several families, he realizes her deep commitment to cooking is all about love. He tries to express his sudden feelings for her, but to no avail.

One of the families that hired Valeria to cater has to deal with increased tension, as one of the adult children promises to attend dinner after a four-year absence. They not only present their assured new identity but also the person they plan to soon marry. It all seems to be too much for the family’s matriarch, who struggles to understand her children and to let them be who they truly are.

To complete the picture, best friends Chava and Santi take on shared duties as Santa Claus in the public arena to make ends meet for the season, but through a series of misunderstandings end up fighting to see who’s the best Santa in the alameda.

When the three scenarios collide, the biggest challenges offer the best opportunities for people to right their wrongs, open their hearts, and finally share the true, forgiving spirit of the season.

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Add this film to your Watchlist and check out more Official Selection titles coming to the 48th annual Toronto International Film Festival. For ticket information visit tiff.net.

See you September 7–17!

Dakota Johnson and Sean Penn display their magnetism and acting range over the course of a cab ride through New York City full of conversational — and power — shifts.

From its beginning, cinema has both explored and exploited screen relationships between younger women and older men — nearly always from the men's perspective. Daddio offers a refreshing turn.

Dakota Johnson plays a woman who steps into a New York cab at the airport, driven by a man played by Sean Penn. She's clearly preoccupied and just wants to get home. He's a curbside philosopher. Immediately, he engages her in conversation which starts in small talk then gets bigger, deeper, and riskier as he steers her to her destination.

Daddio nails its high-wire premise — it's very hard to sustain a feature film with only two characters — but the bigger surprise is how well it handles the power-shifts back and forth between this contemporary woman in her thirties and the proudly old-school man in his sixties. There's no hint of this becoming a romantic or sexual relationship. It's just that the more they talk, the more they connect with their need to talk.

Christy Hall, co-creator of the series I Am Not Okay With This, writes and directs with a palpable sense of both the defenses and the vulnerabilities that a woman might carry with her into a New York taxi. And she's assembled a remarkable team of collaborators. Cinematographer Phedon Papamichael (Sideways, Walk the Line, 3:10 to Yuma) shows his singular talent for capturing emotion on human faces. Composer Dickon Hinchcliffe (Winter's Bone, The Lost Daughter) adds subtle but critical shades.

Ultimately, though, this is a stunning showcase for Johnson and Penn. Both display their range and power as actors. And both remind us of that extra kick of magnetism that movie stars bring to each close-up.

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Add this film to your Watchlist and check out more Official Selection titles coming to the 48th annual Toronto International Film Festival. For ticket information visit tiff.net.

See you September 7–17!

In Anthony Chen’s compelling Generation Z drama, an unusual love triangle develops among three friends against the icy beauty of northeast China and the Changbai Mountain.

Honouring the young people of China and the masterpieces of the nouvelle vague, including Truffaut’s timeless Jules and Jim and Godard’s Band of Outsiders, the latest film by internationally renowned Singaporean auteur Anthony Chen is the tale of three hearts in winter.

Set in the city of Yanji on the border with the Korean Peninsula, against the majestic scenery of the Changbai Mountain, and in the coldest part of China’s northeast, the film uses the immaculate, icy beauty of the landscape as a powerful metaphor for the emotional chill imprisoning its protagonists.

Haofeng (Liu Haoran), a rich young man from Shanghai, travels to Yanji to attend a wedding. He suffers from severe depression, but when he sees Nana (Zhou Dongyu), a charming local tour guide, he can’t help but follow her. Nana is also fascinated by Haofeng and lets him into her private life, one of long nights washed away by too many drinks, spent together with Xiao (Qu Chuxiao), her best friend who works in a local restaurant. The complex relationship she has with Xiao is further complicated by the presence of Haofeng, but it gradually eases into an unusual love triangle. Driven by the need of all three to quench personal anxieties and stifle rampant melancholy, the friends become inseparable.

A free-spirited film that seems born out of impulse and visual suggestions, begun without a script, The Breaking Ice confirms Chen's extraordinary talent for creating stories of rare insight and characters of great dramatic presence, directed to perfection.

Add this film to your Watchlist and check out more Official Selection titles coming to the 48th annual Toronto International Film Festival. For ticket information visit tiff.net.

See you September 7–17!

A trio of revenge-minded siblings head to the US–Mexico border in search of the man responsible for a family death in Guillermo Arriaga’s screenplay penned as the feature debut for his children, co-directors Mariana Arriaga and Santiago Arriaga.

Fernando and Salvador, two teenage brothers from a well-to-do Mexican family, take their stepfather’s jeep and embark on a road trip to the border between Mexico and the United States. There they plan to track down the man they think is responsible for the car accident that caused their father’s death two years before. ed early in the exploit by Paula, their newly acquainted stepsister — for whom the brothers develop conflicting feelings — they begin a tense but revelatory journey that will bring them to with who they’re becoming as much as with their father’s death.

Penned by renowned screenwriter Guillermo Arriaga — winner of the Cannes Best Screenplay Award for The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada and nominated for an Academy Award for Babel (TIFF ’06) — Upon Open Sky was crafted as the debut feature for his children, Mariana Arriaga and Santiago Arriaga.

Partly a powerful revenge-fuelled road movie and partly a nuanced coming-of-age narrative, Upon Open Sky doesn’t shy away from the complexities of the relationships among the teenagers or with the ways grief manifests differently in different personalities. The Arriagas create here a fierce thriller that investigates forgiveness, a recurring theme in Guillermo’s oeuvre, while probing the nature of family bonds.

Add this film to your Watchlist and check out more Official Selection titles coming to the 48th annual Toronto International Film Festival. For ticket information visit tiff.net.

See you September 7–17!

Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir’s feature debut tells the story of a child poised on the edge of adulthood as he navigates the tension between staying true to his own desires and honouring his duties.

Following her acclaimed short films Mountain Cat and Snow in September ― TIFF’s winner of the 2022 Short Cuts Award for Best Film ― is this meditative, sensual, and richly textured debut from Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir. Ze (a breakthrough performance by Tergel Bold-Erdene) is a 17-year-old high-school student who balances his studies, family obligations, and responsibility of being the shaman for his village in Mongolia.

Like most teenagers, Ze and his older sister struggle with comparing themselves to others ― the modern apartments, sleek new malls, and the diversions of the new moneyed class are visible from their rural, modest community, yet seem an entire world away. Meanwhile, Ze develops feelings for one of the teen clients he meets in a shamanic ceremony designed to protect her during surgery. This new relationship awakens desires in him for earthly pleasures and freedom from the strict rules of his spiritual lifestyle.

While his sister is on her own wayward journey, generating conflict between his parents, the fallout of Ze losing his way affects the entire community in dramatic ways. City of Wind is a gorgeously shot exploration of a child poised on the edge of adulthood as he navigates the tension between staying true to his own desires and honoring his duties.

Add this film to your Watchlist and check out more Official Selection titles coming to the 48th annual Toronto International Film Festival. For ticket information visit tiff.net.

See you September 7–17!

A film of love, loss, music, and female friendship, set in and around the falling feathers of a chicken processing plant in industrial north Wales.

Helen (Louise Brealey), a reserved, gentle woman, is slowly collapsing under the weight of her inexplicable life. She lives with her torpid husband and his much younger girlfriend (and their new colicky baby), working nights at the local chicken processing plant. There are two things that keep her hanging on: music, and her dear elderly mother-in-law Gwen (Sorcha Cusack), whom she cares for.

This dismal state of affairs is interrupted when Joanne (Annabel Scholey), a former neighbour (and Helen’s schoolgirl crush), arrives back in town after her father’s death. His house holds difficult childhood memories for Joanne, of events that many on the street , but since she’s been away, she’s become unapologetic in facing down the small-town malice that’s slung at her. What begins as a casual meeting between the two women swiftly turns to friendship and then to love.

Joanne is beguiled by Helen’s sweet naiveté, and Helen is in awe of Joanne’s courage and confidence. Their burgeoning relationship is threatened when Helen’s home life is further upended, accompanied by turbulence within the tight-knit group of women who work with her on the factory floor. Soon, Helen and Joanne each face a difficult, perhaps impossible, emotional choice about their futures.

Writer and director Janis Pugh infuses every frame with love for her characters in all of their complexity. The more serious themes of finding strength through community and the quest for female autonomy are intertwined with joyous, observant humour, and spontaneous musical numbers that the characters find themselves pulled into, capturing the blissful catharsis of art and the way it empowers us to be brave.

Add this film to your Watchlist and check out more Official Selection titles coming to the 48th annual Toronto International Film Festival. For ticket information visit tiff.net.

See you September 7–17!

Drawing inspiration from Wald, a 2015 novel by the bestselling author Doris Knecht, as well as her own traumatic experience of witnessing the 2020 Vienna attack, writer-director Elisabeth Scharang retreats to the woods in this atmospheric and soul-stirring film.

Marian Malin (played by the brilliant Brigitte Hobmeier) has everything she could hope for: a successful career, a deep romantic love, and time to pursue her ions. Everything is perfect until she and her husband (Bogdan Dumitrache) witness a deadly terrorist attack in the heart of Vienna, her homeland’s capital. Plagued with post-traumatic flashbacks, Marian is unable to function in the city and flees to a Lower Austria country house that once belonged to her grandparents. There, in what seems like relative safety, she freely roams the woods and rekindles a connection to the simple place she once called home. But it is not without its own presences, including old friends Gerti (the revelatory Gerti Drassl) and Franz (Johannes Krisch), both of whom stayed in the village and for whom Marian’s return summons questions about life-defining events.

For her latest feature, writer-director Elisabeth Scharang drew inspiration from Wald, a 2015 novel by the bestselling author Doris Knecht, as well as her own traumatic experience witnessing the 2020 Vienna attack, where a terrorist rampage killed four people and injured 23. The film is impeccably shot by Jörg Widmer, who previously worked with Scharang on Jack (TIFF ’15) and Heart Hunting, and also shot Benjamin Millepied’s Carmen (TIFF ’22), Terrence Malick’s A Hidden Life (TIFF ’19), and Wim Wenders’ Pina (TIFF ’11). Out of any comfort zone with seemingly no way back, Scharang’s haunting film asks: When everything collapses, how do we grieve the past while learning to live in the future?

Add this film to your Watchlist and check out more Official Selection titles coming to the 48th annual Toronto International Film Festival. For ticket information visit tiff.net.

See you September 7–17!

In occupied Poland, a former nurse (Sophie Nélisse) risks her own life to shelter a dozen Jewish men and women from the Nazi war machine.

Warsaw, 1939: when the Nazis invade Poland, nurse Irena Gut (Sophie Nélisse) is displaced and forced to work in of the German war effort, eventually assigned to run the home of a Nazi commandant (Dougray Scott). Instead of following the path of least resistance and gambling on her status and ethnicity to keep her safe, Gut risks everything to save a dozen Jewish refugees from persecution and murder, sheltering them under her boss’s nose. With fascism proudly elbowing its way back onto the national stage, it sadly feels urgent and necessary to give this story a dramatic spotlight.

Adapted by Dan Gordon (The Assignment, TIFF ’97; The Hurricane, TIFF ’99) from his stage play, and directed by Quebecois filmmaker Louise Archambault — working in a very different mode from her previous dramas Familia (TIFF ’05), Gabrielle (TIFF ’13), and And the Birds Rained Down (TIFF ’19) — Irena’s Vow is, at its heart, a story of simple moral clarity.

It’s all anchored by a powerful performance from the empathetic Nélisse, who’s grown from a child actor in Monsieur Lazhar (TIFF ’11) and Endorphine to a confident young star in Mean Dreams (TIFF ’16) and the hit television series Yellowjackets. Here she channels the alternating shock, disbelief, and horror of an innocent who is forced, over and over again, to negotiate an impossible situation — always racing to ensure not just her friends’ survival, but her own.

Add this film to your Watchlist and check out more Official Selection titles coming to the 48th annual Toronto International Film Festival. For ticket information visit tiff.net.

See you September 7–17!

Two young boys, best friends Malik and Eric, discover the joys and hardships of growing up in the sprawling Cabrini-Green public housing complex in 1992 Chicago in the latest film from director Minhal Baig (Hala, TIFF ’19).

Constructed over several decades beginning in the late 1940s, Chicago’s Cabrini-Green public housing complex embodied contemporary thought on housing and urban development. By 1992, however, the community — and the world — had changed significantly. That’s captured in the latest film from director Minhal Baig (Hala, TIFF ’19).

Along with his mother Dolores (Jurnee Smollett) and grandmother Anita (S. Epatha Merkerson), 12-year-old Malik (Blake Cameron James) has lived in this community all his life. The same is true for his best friend Eric (Gian Knight Ramirez) and together the boys know every nook, stairway, and rooftop — all of these a playing field for their (sometimes forbidden) adventures. But change is intruding on their childhood idyll. Drugs and crime are seeping into the neighbourhood and, when a sudden tragic event further shakes the families, the children’s future becomes uncertain. As Dolores weighs a new job that would take them to the unfamiliar suburbs, Malik and Eric struggle with accepting that they may have to say goodbye to each other.

Anchored by astonishing performances from young newcomers James and Ramirez, We Grown Now serves as a rich and textured portrait of the friendships we often neglect to acknowledge when we talk about what a community is. Baig spent significant time with former residents of the now-demolished Cabrini-Green homes, gathering their stories and garnering for the telling of them. The result is a lyrical and poignant tale of boyhood innocence, social change, and the fight to hold on to optimism.

Add this film to your Watchlist and check out more Official Selection titles coming to the 48th annual Toronto International Film Festival. For ticket information visit tiff.net.

See you September 7–17!

The relationship between a hard-working mother and her layabout son is challenged when she invites one of her students into their home, in the latest from prolific director Jun Robles Lana.

Love can take all shapes and sizes, and Jun Robles Lana’s (Bwakaw, TIFF ’12) latest chamber drama explores and challenges just that idea. What are the boundaries that define love, and where do we draw the line between morality and amorality, normality and abnormality?

Sarah is a middle-aged woman who hustles as the sole breadwinner of her family of two. As she scrambles to teach online courses and meet her food orders to provide for her son, her helper, Amy, wonders why her boss works so hard. Sarah’s son Emman doesn’t have a job and is often killing time at Amy’s by getting high and having sex. He’s a delinquent from all angles, but strangely possessive of his mother. One day, Sarah brings one of her students, Oliver, home to give him refuge from his violent father. Like throwing a catfish into a tank of sardines, Oliver’s appearance stirs Emman’s life and impacts his atypical relationship with Sarah. The change soon begins to crack Emman’s tank, and all the shocking secrets flood out uncontrollably.

On the surface, Lana’s newest film seems to delve into the theme of the Oedipus complex, yet it invents a category of its own. The odd, intimate relationships are skilfully brought to life by his talented cast — particularly Sue Prado and Kokoy de Santos — who play crucial roles in blowing up the balloon of intensity till its final burst at the climactic ending.

Add this film to your Watchlist and check out more Official Selection titles coming to the 48th annual Toronto International Film Festival. For ticket information visit tiff.net.

See you September 7–17!

Ramata-Toulaye Sy’s tragic romance follows two lovers on a quest for self-possession in the face of tradition and against the terrestrial majesty of the Sahel.

Banel & Adama is the breathtaking debut feature from writer-director Ramata-Toulaye Sy, whose breakout short Astel (TIFF ’21) earned the Festival’s Share Her Journey award for emerging women filmmakers. Set against the terrestrial majesty of the Sahel, the film is a tragic romance following two young lovers as they strive for independence and self-possession in the face of imperious tradition.

Neither Senegal nor the rest of the world has known a love like Banel (Khady Mane) and Adama’s (Mamadou Diallo), each eager to begin their adult lives away from the stifling demands of their families and community. The young couple were married by an ostensible combination of chance and duty when Adama’s older brother Yero died, leaving a still-young Banel, his second wife, a too-young widow. Now, the same duty dictates that Adama accept the role of village chief. However, the fated lovers have plans that do not include the expectations of others. That is, until something in the air changes. The rains do not come, the cattle begin to die, the men leave and Banel, once lovelorn and lost in responsibility, surrenders to the call for a life lived beyond prescription.

Premiering in competition at this year’s Cannes Film Festival — the sole debut granted the honour — Banel & Adama is a lyrical odyssey that takes a hypnotic descent into mythic fabulism with the profundity of a timeless fable. Sy delivers a lesson in craft, building lush, inspired, and strong-willed characters who command perspective, seeking to carve out a future for themselves in a narrative atmosphere hauntingly alive from sand to sky.

Add this film to your Watchlist and check out more Official Selection titles coming to the 48th annual Toronto International Film Festival. For ticket information visit tiff.net.

See you September 7–17!

Set in a picturesque Italian seaside town at the height of summer, writer-director Edoardo Gabbriellini’s suspenseful and perturbing third feature chronicles a subtle cat-and-mouse game.

Just before her 20th birthday, Veronica (Margherita Corradi) is released from prison after a long and public trial in which she stood accused of brutally murdering her mother and her mother’s lover. She was found not guilty in court, but the court of public opinion is another matter, and now every move she makes is under society’s microscope.

She has become a social pariah, and only Veronica’s father (Alessandro Tedeschi) and her best friend Giada (Giorgia Frank) — who was also there on the fateful summer night when the couple was found stabbed and floating in the pool at a swanky seaside villa — are by her side. Now, with the ordeal in the near-distant rearview, Veronica, who maintains her innocence, is simultaneously beating a drum in search of a fugitive while trying to reclaim her young life, which was abruptly frozen just as she was discovering her sexuality.

Set in a placid village on the Ligurian Riviera where pristine beaches full of fleshy vacationers line the coast and silent, hidden streets and alleyways lend themselves to unimaginable transgressions, this film by writer-director Edoardo Gabbriellini — known for his 2012 feature The Landlords, as well as for his performances in Luca Guadagnino’s 2009 I Am Love and Paolo Virzì’s 1997 Hardboiled Egg, for which he won best actor at the Venice International Film Festival — reveals the high-profile, unsolved case in flashbacks. A hall of mirrors suggesting that what was done may be of less significance than what’s to come, Holiday, Gabbriellini’s third feature, is an unsettling and thrilling dive into the depths of the human soul.

Add this film to your Watchlist and check out more Official Selection titles coming to the 48th annual Toronto International Film Festival. For ticket information visit tiff.net.

See you September 7–17!

A tense, captivating, and touching portrait of family dynamics starring Carrie Coon, Elizabeth Olsen, and Natasha Lyonne as sisters who converge after their father’s health declines.

When their father’s health worsens, three estranged sisters come together to try to plan for the inevitable. The eldest is high-strung Katie (Carrie Coon), who talks a hundred miles a minute and stresses about all the practical details. The middle sister, Rachel (Natasha Lyonne), is ready to check out after spending a year taking care of the man. And the youngest sibling, Christina (Elizabeth Olsen), seems always on the verge of tears, trying her best to clumsily keep the peace while they’re all stuck in their father’s small apartment.

The three actors deliver absorbing performances, defining distinct personalities, each with their own perspective on how to deal with the situation. Their father remains hidden from our view, confined to his bed, but as the daughters take turns butting heads, we slowly piece together a portrait through the women he raised.

Eschewing the format of a traditional family drama, His Three Daughters is a story of what we cannot see, of the work it takes to peel back the layers of someone’s pain, and of the patience required to meet their joy. Director Azazel Jacobs not only captures the tragic, tiring limbo of palliative care, but also offers a sharp snapshot of the bonds only siblings can share, finding laughter amidst the sadness, to tell a story that is ultimately about all the messy and wonderful things a parent leaves behind.

Add this film to your Watchlist and check out more Official Selection titles coming to the 48th annual Toronto International Film Festival. For ticket information visit tiff.net.

See you September 7–17!

Bobby Cannavale, Rose Byrne, and Robert De Niro star in this fabulously unpredictable ensemble dramedy from director Tony Goldwyn (TIFF ’10’s Conviction) about parents struggling over how best to raise their child.

Both an unpredictable family dramedy and a road movie that runs on mischief, the latest from director Tony Goldwyn (TIFF ’10’s Conviction) stars Bobby Cannavale, Rose Byrne, and Oscar winner Robert De Niro as three adults with wildly divergent opinions about what’s best for one precious little boy.

New Jersey stand-up Max (Cannavale) tells stories, not jokes, about ordinary chaos. And there is no better source of chaos in his life than his son, Ezra (William A. Fitzgerald). Diagnosed with autism, Ezra is precocious and precarious: he’s been reading The New York Times since he was five, but his impulsive behaviour often gets him into trouble and sometimes even poses a danger to himself and others. A doctor insists Ezra be sent to a special school and medicated. Ezra’s mom, Jenna (Byrne), who shares custody with Max, is inclined to go along with the program, but Max will have none of it. One night, Max, who has been promised a spot on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, takes Ezra on a cross-country excursion — without the permission of Jenna or his father (De Niro), whose car Max has “borrowed.”

Written by Tony Spiridakis, Ezra recalls John Cassavetes at his most light-hearted, making us fall in love with characters who say and do spectacularly wrong things. This is partly due to Goldwyn and Spiridakis’ buoyant, big-hearted storytelling, but it’s also the result of the film’s astonishing ensemble cast, which counts Oscar nominee Vera Farmiga and Oscar winner Whoopi Goldberg among its ranks. We might cringe in terror at some of Max’s decisions, but we won’t have the slightest doubt about this father’s ferocious love for his son.

Add this film to your Watchlist and check out more Official Selection titles coming to the 48th annual Toronto International Film Festival. For ticket information visit tiff.net.

See you September 7–17!

Past, present, and future collide when Saul (Peter Sarsgaard) follows Sylvia (Jessica Chastain) home from their high school reunion, in this touching and masterful film by director Michel Franco.

Silvia (Jessica Chastain) works at a public home in New York City for adults struggling with mental health conditions. She leads a simple and structured life: her daughter, her job, her AA meetings. She meets Saul (Peter Sarsgaard) in the worst circumstances, after he has creepily followed her home from their high school reunion party and she finds him dripping wet and freezing outside her door the next morning. Their surprise encounter will profoundly impact both of them as they open the door to the past.

The story was shot by frequent collaborator Yves Cape with the natural austerity that has come to define most of writer-director Michel Franco’s ouvre, as does his ability to not shy away from thorny issues on screen but instead explore the often painful vulnerability they contain. Dealing with complex themes of identity and trust, the loss of self, and the pervasiveness of hope, Franco (New Order, TIFF ’20; Sundown, TIFF ’21) and his experienced leads go for broke without ever overwhelming the audience.

The film’s finely attuned ing cast including Merritt Wever (Nurse Jackie, Unbelievable) and Josh Charles (The Good Wife) help take the story to an unexpected and unforgettable place. In this touching and profound piece, memory — often thought to be the foundation of who we are — does not define the limits of what it means to be human.

A young woman uses her storytelling gifts to share the magic of the pictures she has seen in the cinema with the poor inhabitants of a desert mining community, in director Lone Scherfig’s inspirational drama.

In the nitrate salt flats of Chile’s Atacama Desert, mine workers have created a community amidst a harsh, precarious life in the driest place on Earth. For María Magnolia (Bérénice Bejo, also at the Festival in Sisterhood), wife to one such miner (Antonio de La Torre, The Last Circus, TIFF ’10), the desire for something more than just hardship runs deep. Her ion and sophisticated taste for film, music, and entertainment enchants Nansen (Daniel Brühl, All Quiet on the Western Front, TIFF ’22), the mine’s soft-spoken, but respected, . It also signals her secret longing to fulfill her dream of pursuing the arts. After a while, she is painfully compelled to leave her family behind in search of the bright lights of the big city.

Left behind is her daughter, María Margarita (Sara Becker), who has inherited her mother’s love for movies. She’s also a gifted performer, transforming herself on stage when she recounts to her family (who can only afford one ticket among them) the pictures she has seen in the town’s cinema. Soon she becomes the community’s most prominent star. As the “movie teller” she transports her audience to the new, exotic, and epic worlds she discovers onscreen, allowing them to escape their daily lives.

As the changing times threaten to erode the community, and despite the hardships that life throws at her, María defiantly continues to breathe life into the people of this unforgiving land, immortalising their struggles in her stories of drama, humour, romance, and courage. The Movie Teller is a celebration of our capacity to defy even the harshest circumstances, to find love, inspiration, and hope where none of these seem possible.

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See you September 7–17!

Based on the Governor General’s Award–winning novel by Kim Thúy, Ru is the story of the arduous journey of a wealthy family fleeing from Vietnam, before landing in Quebec.

Based on the Governor General’s Award–winning novel by Kim Thúy, Ru is the story of the arduous journey of a wealthy family fleeing from Vietnam in 1975 after the fall of Saigon, then spending time at a refugee camp in Malaysia, before landing in Quebec.

This film adaptation, directed by Charles-Olivier Michaud, tracks the events through the eyes of the daughter of the family, Nguyen An Tinh. She’s trying to make sense of her new French-speaking life while also fully aware of the horrors that she and her family have escaped.

A stunningly beautiful film, Ru doesn’t shy away from devastating flashbacks of fleeing and hiding in buildings, friends and family left behind, and a dark and scary age by boat. These flashbacks are juxtaposed with images of the family in snowy Quebec, trying to find their footing in a very different world than the one they were used to, making friends, and working restaurant jobs amidst culture clashes.

Including a star turn from Chloé Djandji in her first film role, as Tinh, the cast is also rounded out with Chantal Thuy (Magnum PI) as her mother, Jean Bui as her father, and Karine Vanasse (Cardinal) and Patrice Robitaille as the Quebec family that welcomes them in.

The book’s author, Kim Thúy, serves as producer.

Ru is a sombre examination of forced migration, isolation, and newfound belonging, told through rich visuals and an orchestral score.

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See you September 7–17!

Three estranged children come together when their mother refuses to move from a couch in a furniture store, in this film boasting all-star talent including Taylor Russell, Ewan McGregor, Ellen Burstyn, F. Murray Abraham, Lara Flynn Boyle, and Rhys Ifans.

Ewan McGregor, Rhys Ifans, Lara Flynn Boyle, and Ellen Burstyn star in this sublime and eccentric story about the grand expanse that parents occupy within our lives and the family that has to come together to help you find your way.

While David (McGregor) is at a furniture store with his mother (Burstyn), she pulls the tarp off a covered couch and plops herself down. With a mountain of obligations waiting around the corner, he’s anxious to leave, but she refuses to get up. David’s brother Gruffudd (Ifans, also at the Festival in NYAD) and sister Linda (Flynn Boyle) seem less bothered about the situation, casually tending to matters that seem infuriatingly unimportant. David becomes pushy while trying his best to be gentle, recognizing that his mother’s odd behaviour may be a sign of psychosis. As he’s forced to take a step back, acquainting himself with the store owner (F. Murray Abraham) and his daughter (Taylor Russell), the stress dream starts to expand around him. Why won’t his mother just tell him what’s wrong? And why were they here in the first place?

This debut feature by director Niclas Larsson introduces us to his unique voice with a surrealism that builds to an arresting series of images. McGregor gives a penetrating performance, aided by the warmth of the stunning cast, as Mother, Couch reveals itself to be a story about the chaos of those unshakeable moments in one’s life that make you unmoored just long enough to find new land.

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See you September 7–17!

Oscar winners Tommy Lee Jones and Jamie Foxx star in this rousing David and Goliath courtroom drama about one family’s struggle to hold onto their mom-and-pop funeral home in the face of heartless corporate exploitation.

Based on true events, this rousing David and Goliath courtroom drama stars Oscar winners Tommy Lee Jones (also at the Festival in Finestkind) and Jamie Foxx as two unlikely allies united by a shared desire for justice. Directed by Maggie Betts (TIFF '17’s Novitiate), The Burial generates suspense and laughter as it chronicles one family’s struggle to hold onto their funeral home in the face of heartless corporate exploitation.

As he turns 75, Biloxi, Mississippi funeral director Jeremiah O’Keefe (Jones) feels blessed by his wife and children and the legacy he’s proud to leave to them. But debts force Jeremiah to sell parts of his business to a corporation rapidly buying up funeral homes, cemeteries, and insurance companies to profit from what its CEO, Ray Loewen (Bill Camp), refers to as “the golden age of death.”

When Jeremiah’s contract with Ray is in dispute, he solicits the services of Willie E. Gary (Foxx), a flamboyant personal-injury lawyer who hasn’t lost a case in 12 years — but who doesn’t know a thing about contract law. After Ray hires a hotshot defence team, it becomes clear the odds are stacked against Jeremiah and Willie. But despite their different backgrounds, they recognize qualities in each other they feel certain will see them through: faith, integrity, and a tireless fighting spirit.

The Burial takes a probing look into a multibillion-dollar death-care industry poised to take advantage of people during the most vulnerable moments in their lives. It is also wildly entertaining, capitalizing on Jones’ magnetic decency and Foxx’s singular ability to balance showmanship with heart. The way these men forces will have you cheering.

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See you September 7–17!

A new 4K restoration of The Talking Heads’ classic concert movie directed by Jonathan Demme and filmed over three nights at Hollywood’s Pantages Theater in December 1983.

IMAX World Premiere!

A man walks onstage with a guitar. There is a boombox waiting for him. He presses play on the boombox and starts to sing. The world changes.

The man is David Byrne, the band is Talking Heads, the song is “Psycho Killer,” and the movie is Stop Making Sense, directed by Jonathan Demme. Four decades later, we live in a culture shaped by all of them.

Stop Making Sense didn’t invent the concert film; when it opened in 1984, the rockumentary was already a staple of midnight movies and film-studies courses, with Don’t Look Back, Gimme Shelter, Woodstock, The Song Remains the Same, and Rust Never Sleeps having shaped the form. But Demme perfected it, working with Byrne and bandmates Chris Frantz, Jerry Harrison, and Tina Weymouth to create the ideal visual representation of a band built on precision and minimalism.

It starts with the boombox. It ends in ecstasy, with a magnificent cover of Al Green’s “Take Me to the River” that somehow recalibrates the song’s gospel glory into a plea for another sort of release. Stop Making Sense is a master class in how to shoot live performance, as Demme and Blade Runner cinematographer Jordan Cronenweth strip the Heads down to their essential parts and then fill everything back in, mindful of Byrne’s meticulous staging but also taking full advantage of the cinematic possibilities.

TIFF is overjoyed to host the world premiere of this glorious 4K restoration. If you’ve never seen this film in a movie theatre, you are about to have a wonderful time. Hold tight, cool babies.

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See you September 7–17!

Featuring Pio Marmaï, Jonathan Cohen, Noémie Merlant, and Mathieu Amalric, the latest from writer-directors Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano is a puckish comedy about finding a reason for being — even when the world is falling apart.

The latest from writer-directors Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano (C’est la vie!, TIFF ’17) is a puckish comedy about finding a reason for being — even when the world seems to be falling apart. Featuring winning performances from Pio Marmaï, Jonathan Cohen, Noémie Merlant, and Mathieu Amalric, A Difficult Year is social satire that goes down easy.

When Bruno (Marmaï) and Albert (Cohen) first meet, neither is in a good way. Bruno has just stolen a television, while Albert responds to being evicted with a bumbling suicide attempt. Bruno manages to save this doped-up stranger’s life — only after getting vomited on — and a friendship is born. They have something in common: each suffers an addiction to buying stuff, and both are drowning in debt. They take classes from debt-reduction expert Henri (Amalric), though he, too, has a long record of overspending that threatens to follow him forever.

One day, Bruno and Albert crash a meeting held by a group of activists dedicated to fighting overconsumption. The guys came for free beer, and have zero interest in speeches about climate change or new-agey, energy-boosting hugs… well, maybe they’d like the hugs, especially if they come from the group’s beautiful leader (Merlant), who manages to persuade them to participate in elaborate demonstrations that Bruno hopes will spark a love affair — if he doesn’t get arrested first.

Nakache and Toledano manage to poke fun at their characters while simultaneously honouring them. Above all, A Difficult Year is driven by a belief in people’s fundamental ability to change — and the ability to find beauty in even the bleakest moments.

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See you September 7–17!

Gemma Arterton and Ian McKellen star as adversaries forced to take desperate measures to save their careers, in this scintillating tale of ambition and deceit in the theatre world.

Set during the rise of fascism in pre-WWII England, this scintillating tale of ambition and deceit in the theatre world stars Gemma Arterton and Ian McKellen as adversaries forced to take desperate measures to save their careers.

The year is 1936. As the new steward of London’s Chronicle, David Brooke (Mark Strong) seeks to revive the financially troubled daily as the country’s most-read family paper. In the firing line is long time theatre critic Jimmy Erksine (McKellen), whose extravagant prose and personal “proclivities” are distasteful to David. Jimmy has a lot to lose as an elderly gay man in a culture and legal system deeply hostile to homosexuality. Yet he cannot resist writing the flamboyantly merciless critiques that are his trademark.

Actor Nina Land (Arterton) — for whom the married David secretly carries a torch — is a regular target for Jimmy’s most withering remarks. As pressure to appease his employer mounts, Jimmy concocts a plot to entrap both David and Nina — herself secretly in love with a married painter (Ben Barnes). But with the Blackshirts taking to the streets amid anti-queer police raids, Jimmy may be grossly overestimating his ability to emerge from his elaborate scheme unscathed.

Directed by Anand Tucker (producer, TIFF ’03’s Girl with a Pearl Earring) and adapted by Patrick Marber (Notes on a Scandal) from Anthony Quinn’s novel Curtain Call, The Critic brims with intrigue — each of its central characters struggling within a web of blackmail and fraught desire to hang on to what they hold dear.

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See you September 7–17!

Paul Giamatti stars in Alexander Payne’s latest about the bond that forms between a strict professor and a belligerent student he’s stuck supervising over the winter holiday at an elite boarding school.

Barton men don’t lie. This is just one of the many rules Professor Hunham (Paul Giamatti) takes much too seriously as he hands out poor grades at an elite boarding school in 1971. As he dismisses the politics that come along with educating the children of people in high places, he’s punished by the heaster who gives him a most undesirable assignment for the winter break: to stay at the school and supervise the students who are unable to go home.

Hunham resolves to have the students suffer with him, forcing them to start studying next semester’s curriculum ahead of time. Among them, 15-year-old Angus (Dominic Sessa), bright but belligerent, makes a ruckus. Teacher and student become foes, antagonizing one another and tiring themselves out, as Mary (Da’Vine Joy Randolph), the school cafeteria manager, observes from the sidelines, herself alone after recently losing her son in the Vietnam War. As the petulant pair succumb to the depressing truth that they’ve got little else but each other this holiday season, Professor Hunham starts to soften up and they begin to see themselves in one another.

Giamatti gives a career-high performance as the risible teacher who delights in doling out punishment, while newcomer Sessa makes an immediate name for himself, revealing layers of complexity to his character’s rebellious nature. With The Holdovers, director Alexander Payne (Downsizing, TIFF ’17) makes a delicate point about how a first impression never tells the whole truth and shows that the pains and tragedies that feel specific to us actually make us a lot more alike than unalike.

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See you September 7–17!

The latest by legendary Italian director Marco Bellocchio is a grand, historical fresco depicting the scandalous true story of a young Jewish child who, in mid-19th century Bologna, was abducted from his family by the church under the Pope’s orders.

The indefatigable Italian filmmaking legend Marco Bellocchio has never been one to shy away from controversial topics, particularly while probing his country’s storied past. Kidnapped, his latest, is a grand, historical fresco inspired by the true story of Edgardo Mortara, a young Jewish child who was abducted from his family by the church under the Pope’s orders in 1858 Bologna. The six-year-old boy (Enea Sala) was allegedly baptized in secret as a baby by the family’s maid who feared for his soul should he succumb to illness and die Jewish; pontifical law thus demanded he be raised a Catholic.

With operatic intensity and Bellocchio’s singular precision, the film follows the harrowing fight of Mortara’s parents (played by Barbara Ronchi and Fausto Russo Alesi, so convincing in their anguish) to have their son returned, their unrelenting confrontation with the Vatican quickly garnering and eliciting outrage from the international Jewish community and Italian liberals.

Telling a story so rich and complex it was once pursued by Steven Spielberg, Bellocchio’s Kidnapped is less an outright critique of Pope Pius IX (a suitably slippery Paolo Pierobon) than it is an exploration of Edgardo’s wracking existential contradictions as an adult (Leonardo Maltese), who accepted his conversion and became steadfast in his beliefs though never quite free of torment. Awash in painterly chiaroscuro, nodding to the masterworks of Caravaggio and Delacroix, the film uses light and shadow to convey the tenebrous, baroque drama of the events — whether Edgardo’s inner turmoil or the country’s momentous unrest as it marched toward unification.

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Add this film to your Watchlist and check out more Official Selection titles coming to the 48th annual Toronto International Film Festival. For ticket information visit tiff.net.

See you September 7–17!

A place of bucolic serenity is threatened by cynical urban developers, in this exquisite slow burn from Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car, TIFF ’21) that reveals the hidden potential for transformation on both sides of its fraught power dynamic.

A place of bucolic serenity is threatened by cynical urban developers in Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s exquisite drama. Shifting between opposing environments and viewpoints, the latest from the Oscar-nominated director of Drive My Car (TIFF ’21, and named Best International Feature at the 2022 Academy Awards) is a slow burn that reveals the hidden potential for transformation on both sides of a fraught power dynamic.

Takumi and his eight-year-old daughter Hana reside in a forested region of Japan that’s remained largely unsullied by large-scale development. Until now. A pair of agents come to Takumi’s village to propose a “glamping” project, a resort for vacationers who want to feel like they’re camping without getting their fingernails dirty. During the briefing, locals critique numerous flaws in the project, from fire hazards to inadequate septic tanks, but the blank responses from the agents make it clear this exercise is purely tokenistic. The agency is determined to move forward regardless of whether locals approve.

One can imagine a version of this story focused exclusively on the locals’ resistance, but Hamaguchi does something more interesting: halfway through the film, he takes us from the village to the city and into the private worlds of the agents. He generates an intimate connection with the major characters, though they live according to such different time signatures.

And the alluring twists don’t stop there. Things take a dramatic turn in the film’s last third, which speaks to the transformative power of performing simple, timeless tasks, to the primacy of parental instincts, and to the increasing difficulty of living in harmony with the natural world.

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Add this film to your Watchlist and check out more Official Selection titles coming to the 48th annual Toronto International Film Festival. For ticket information visit tiff.net.

See you September 7–17!

Atom Egoyan and his Chloe star Amanda Seyfried reunite for this knotty psychodrama about a young theatre director forced to re-examine her own trauma while working on a remount of Salome.

Bequeathed a job remounting a Canadian Opera Company production of Salome after the death of its revered creator, her mentor, a young director (Amanda Seyfried) is forced to re-examine her tangled personal history with the project, the deceased man, and her own family.

Recently separated from her husband (Mark O’Brien), Seyfried’s Jeanine finds herself adrift, trying to explain her vision to the confused opera stars and taking comfort in reconnecting with an old friend (Douglas Smith) who’s understudying the role of Jochanaan. His fellow understudy (Diggstown star Vinessa Antoine) worries she’s about to miss her only chance to play Salome — while her partner, prop master Clea (Rebecca Liddiard), drifts into a dangerous situation with the blustering star, Johann (Michael Kupfer-Radecky).

For decades, Atom Egoyan’s cinema has explored families shattered by loss and betrayal, parents and children becoming alien to one another, the tangle of legacies, and monomania. Seven Veils continues his icy fascination with manipulation and abuse, as entitled men impose their will on the women in their orbits and leave them to deal with the fallout.

This project lets Egoyan indulge his long-time love of opera, incorporating this year's COC production of Salome, which he directed, into the film, and casting stars Kupfer-Radecky and Ambur Braid as fictional performers. And his reunion with Seyfried — who played the eponymous role in his drama Chloe (TIFF ’09) — lets the star demonstrate a range she rarely gets the chance to explore.

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Add this film to your Watchlist and check out more Official Selection titles coming to the 48th annual Toronto International Film Festival. For ticket information visit tiff.net.

See you September 7–17!

Kiran Rao’s (Dhobi Ghat, TIFF ’10) sophomore romp finds two young brides in India in 2001 accidentally swapped before their big day.

Set in 2001 in rural India, this sophomore romp by Kiran Rao (Dhobi Ghat, TIFF ’10) finds two young brides hilariously entwined in a riot of mistaken identities.

New brides Jaya (Pratibha Ranta) and Phool (Nitanshi Goel), veiled in their crimson, filigreed marital saris, are accidentally swapped when Phool’s timid groom Deepak (Sparsh Shrivastava) mistakenly escorts Jaya out of their overnight train. Now, self-possessed and secretive Jaya temporarily enters Deepak’s t family, while docile and fragile Phool finds herself abandoned at a remote railway station.

Soon, Phool is befriended by a railway urchin and his accomplice, and sheltered by the coarse but matronly tea kiosk owner Manju Mai (Chhaya Kadam). Jaya, on the other hand, experiences doting sisterhood, innocent flirtation, and an opportunity to flex her intellect in Deepak’s raucous household. Meanwhile, in a gradually unfurling investigation led by goofy and power-tripping local police officer Shyam Manohar (Ravi Kishan), the grooms cluelessly search for their respective wives.

Merrily paced to a tinkering and hummable score, Lost Ladies at first feels like a vibrant heist film. But it gradually exceeds this conceit, offering clever commentary in the farce of patriarchal matrimony and its stifling demands on women. Effervescently filmed, with an impressive ensemble cast, Rao’s charming, whimsical hoot untangles its labyrinthine web of kinships with a surprising depth and an endearing hilarity. At once a comedy of errors and a feminist coming-of-age tale, Lost Ladies packs a punch in more ways than one.

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Add this film to your Watchlist and check out more Official Selection titles coming to the 48th annual Toronto International Film Festival. For ticket information visit tiff.net.

See you September 7–17!

Ethan Hawke explores the life and art of American author Flannery O’Connor — played by his own daughter, Maya Hawke — in his latest interrogation of the artist’s way.

There's always something intriguing rustling around in the projects Ethan Hawke chooses to direct, as anyone who saw his documentary Seymour: An Introduction (TIFF ’14) can attest. After Blaze and his recent documentary series about Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward, Hawke's latest exploration of the artist's way focusses on a key period in the life of Flannery O’Connor, imagining the young writer as she perfects her process, committing to her unique and deeply personal fiction at the cost of her own comfort and contentment.

The O’Connor story allows Hawke to play with both text and texture, using the device of having his protagonist insert her own family into her fiction in a movie where he's cast his daughter Maya Hawke as that protagonist. And, of course, he's made a movie about a writer's process that spends little time on the actual labour of writing, because he knows the end result is the thing that matters. The thing that lasts.

Maya Hawke finds something similarly compelling in O’Connor’s skin, wrestling with the author’s bred-in-the-bone Catholicism and her enigmatic decision to abandon earthly temptations to embrace an ascetic life. The film feels like Ethan Hawke’s response to making Paul Schrader’s First Reformed, with its tormented protagonist struggling to understand God’s purpose. He even casts his co-star Philip Ettinger in a small but pivotal role here, alongside Laura Linney, Steve Zahn, Alessandro Nivola, and Cooper Hoffman. The result is an ambitious, aching inquiry into creation and sustenance from one of America’s most consistently enthralling talents.

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Add this film to your Watchlist and check out more Official Selection titles coming to the 48th annual Toronto International Film Festival. For ticket information visit tiff.net.

See you September 7–17!

Set in British Mandatory Palestine, this tense historical thriller from Michael Winterbottom weaves a story of star-crossed love with one of political radicalization.

Set in British Mandatory Palestine, this tense historical thriller from prolific auteur Michael Winterbottom traces the origins of one of the world’s most complex conflicts. Co-written by Winterbottom, his regular collaborator Laurence Coriat (Wonderland, TIFF '99; Genova, TIFF '08), and Paul Viragh, Shoshana weaves a story of star-crossed love with one of political radicalization.

The year is 1938, and tensions run high in Tel Aviv, where the British struggle to maintain order among a mixed Palestinian and Jewish population. Yet English police officer Thomas Wilkin (Douglas Booth) has made his home here — and is madly in love with Shoshana (Irina Starshenbaum), daughter of Zionist Labour movement co-founder Dov Ber Borochov. As the paramilitary organization Irgun, led by poet Avraham Stern (Aury Alby), undertakes a violent campaign to evict the British authorities, Thomas and his superior officer Geoffrey Morton (Harry Melling) adopt a zero-tolerance policy toward the resistance, intensifying their tactics to include torture. Meanwhile, Shoshana receives death threats for daring to fraternize with a member of the occupying forces. She loves Thomas, but she also believes in the pursuit of her people’s independence. She will be forced to choose between the two.

Winterbottom, Coriat, and Viragh wisely structure Shoshana as a procedural, not a polemic. Based on true stories, the film is plotted with surgical precision, and every scene is brisk — which makes its effect that much more brutal. With its subtle homage to The Third Man, its carefully staged set pieces, and its propulsive pace, Shoshana makes for great entertainment, but it is also an insightful portrait of where today's conflicts began.

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Add this film to your Watchlist and check out more Official Selection titles coming to the 48th annual Toronto International Film Festival. For ticket information visit tiff.net.

See you September 7–17!

Julian Dennison delivers another charismatic performance in a witty and wise story about a young student trying to find his place among New Zealand’s fight for its national identity in the ’80s.

In 1981 the South African rugby team toured New Zealand, sparking protests across the country about the government’s decision to let them play, given South Africa’s apartheid policy. While this battle for the nation’s identity rages, 17-year old Josh Waaka (Julian Dennison) has to figure out his own place in the world.

Josh is content to let life happen around him. Since the death of his father, things haven’t exactly been bright at home. His older brother Jamie (James Rolleston) is in a numb stasis after an injury has kept him from continuing his rugby career. Their mom Shirley (Minnie Driver) spends most of her time working to keep the family afloat. While rugby is on everyone’s mind at home and in school, one of his teachers (Rhys Darby) pushes Josh to audition for drama school. This opens up new ways of looking at the world, and soon he starts to see the activism in his community differently.

Dennison, whom audiences will from Deadpool 2 and Taika Waititi’s Hunt for the Wilderpeople, gives another charismatic performance that has you rooting for him from the start. Along with co-writer Sonia Whiteman, directors Hamish Bennett and Paul Middleditch intelligently frame his character’s coming of age through the country’s own growing pains and acknowledgement of racial identities. With wit and wisdom, Uproar offers a cheering call to action and a reminder to live as your true self, even if it sometimes gets in the way.

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Add this film to your Watchlist and check out more Official Selection titles coming to the 48th annual Toronto International Film Festival. For ticket information visit tiff.net.

See you September 7–17!

Set in the 1860s, Viggo Mortensen’s second outing as writer-director (after Falling, TIFF ’20) is an elegantly realized feminist western starring Mortensen himself and Vicky Krieps as immigrants attempting to forge a life in a corrupt Nevada town.

Set in the 1860s, Viggo Mortensen’s second outing as writer-director (after Falling, TIFF ’20) is an elegantly realized feminist western starring Mortensen himself and Vicky Krieps as immigrants attempting to forge a life in a corrupt Nevada town.

French-Canadian flower seller Vivienne Le Coudy (Krieps) and Danish carpenter Holger Olsen (Mortensen) meet in San Francisco. Vivienne is irreverent, fiercely independent, and refuses to wed, but agrees to travel with Holger to his home near the quiet town of Elk Flats, Nevada. There, they begin a life together — Vivienne grows roses and waits tables at a tavern and Holger builds barns, until the couple are separated by Holger’s decision to fight for the Union in the burgeoning Civil War. Left on her own, Vivienne must fend for herself in a place controlled by corrupt Mayor Rudolph Schiller (Danny Huston) and his business partner, powerful rancher Alfred Jeffries (Garret Dillahunt). Alfred's violent, wayward son Weston (Solly McLeod) aggressively pursues Vivienne, who is determined to resist his unwanted advances.

The Dead Don’t Hurt slides between points in time, beginning near what is, in fact, the story’s chronological end. Thus, when we see Weston’s brutal encounter with Vivienne, we already know what violence he’s capable of. The brilliance of Mortensen’s narrative structure is that it frontloads the lawlessness and mayhem we expect from a western, then gradually introduces the tenderness and moral integrity that give this film its true raison d’être. Framed in a style that emphasizes the relationship between character and landscape, and infused with multiple exquisite performances, this is a portrait of a ionate woman determined to stand up for herself in an unforgiving world dominated by ruthless men.

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Add this film to your Watchlist and check out more Official Selection titles coming to the 48th annual Toronto International Film Festival. For ticket information visit tiff.net.

See you September 7–17!

For her feature directorial debut, Kristin Scott Thomas leads Scarlett Johansson and Sienna Miller in a charming family drama about three sisters who are hung up on the men in their lives, as their mother prepares for her third wedding.

On the eve of their twice-widowed mother’s third wedding, three sisters return to their home in the English countryside for a tenuous reunion. Having lost their father and their stepfather, both perishing while serving in the British Royal Navy, the women continue to grapple with complex feelings left behind by these mythologized men.

Following in her father’s footsteps, Katherine (Scarlett Johansson) prepares for a new role as a captain in the navy. It proves a bittersweet moment to untangle her childhood recollections of loss. Meanwhile, Victoria (Sienna Miller), the eldest sister, is content to milk the family tragedy in interviews to help her Hollywood acting career. And the youngest, Georgina (Emily Beecham), who has a more dutiful life as a nurse, worries about her husband’s fidelity. None of them has a hope of a healthy relationship if they can’t let go of the men in their memories, and it isn’t long before their mother has to shake all three of her daughters out of themselves.

Directing for the first time, Kristin Scott Thomas — who also plays the matriarch — uses her own family history as a jumping-off point for this charming family drama. With richly drawn lives for each of its characters, and beautifully animated flashback sequences that pull you into the grief they’re trying to leave behind, North Star, a triumphant tale about the people who are always by our side, adds to Scott Thomas’ storied career.

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Add this film to your Watchlist and check out more Official Selection titles coming to the 48th annual Toronto International Film Festival. For ticket information visit tiff.net.

See you September 7–17!

One of the great essayists on the traumas of the 20th and early 21st century, the singular Jean-Luc Godard offers a melancholic outline for a film that will never be made in this posthumous overture comprised of notes, papers, images, words, collages, clips, and music from his own archive.

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Add this film to your Watchlist and check out more Official Selection titles coming to the 48th annual Toronto International Film Festival. For ticket information visit tiff.net.

See you September 7–17!

A ghostly oratório from Portuguese auteur Pedro Costa, The Daughters of Fire features a widescreen triptych image of three Cape Verdean women singers, with their separate expressionistic spaces coned by a plaintive, haunting song overlapping like a disruptive musical.

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Add this film to your Watchlist and check out more Official Selection titles coming to the 48th annual Toronto International Film Festival. For ticket information visit tiff.net.

See you September 7–17!

New Releases and Limited Screenings that are now playing or coming soon to TIFF Lightbox. Add these to your watchlist and get tickets at tiff.net/calendar

Last updated: May 20, 2025

• Desert of Namibia
• Bonjour Tristesse
• Caught by the Tides
• The Wedding Banquet
• Jane Austen Wrecked My Life
• Pavements
• Two Women
• April
• The Life of Chuck

A 50-film journey through TIFF’s most influential moments.

Curated by TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey, with input and insight from TIFF programmers past and present, The TIFF Story in 50 Films showcases 50 pivotal films that have shaped TIFF’s rich history of curatorial excellence and influenced global cinema.

“Fifty wasn’t enough! But putting together this list was as much fun as it was daunting. Guided by input from many of TIFF’s programmers and leaders of the past five decades, we landed on 50 films that tell the story of our festival’s obsessions, discoveries, and lasting influence. At the heart of it: those moments when TIFF’s curation met the Toronto audience and the world found a new movie to fall in love with.” –Cameron Bailey, CEO

This marquee series includes in-person Q&As with filmmakers, video introductions from artists, and behind-the-scenes stories and anecdotes shared by former and current TIFF programmers offering personal insights into these defining cinematic moments. Read Cameron Bailey's series note and see the screening schedule at tiff.net/50films.

The series runs June 13 to August 27 at TIFF Lightbox – list is in order of screening date. TIFF and Under-25 Free holders get access to TIFF Cinematheque and marquee series tickets. Become a Member today at tiff.net/hip.

• The Princess Bride
• Memories of Murder
• Antonia's Line
• In the Cut
• My Beautiful Laundrette
• Rhymes for Young Ghouls
• Viva Riva!
• The Shawshank Redemption
• Next of Kin
• Cave of Forgotten Dreams

...plus 40 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

In recognition of Asian Heritage Month, TIFF Cinematheque presents a showcase of Vietnamese and Vietnamese diasporic cinemas. While Hollywood has dominated filmic representations of Vietnam, the works in this programme provide authentic visions of a country and people in search of new beginnings.

Gathering diverse documentary and narrative films, Flights: Vietnam on Film explores escapes from, ages through, and returns to a country ravaged by war and transformed by globalization. The series runs May 9–28 at TIFF Lightbox.

TIFF and Under-25 Free holders get access to TIFF Cinematheque and marquee series tickets. Become a Member today at tiff.net/hip.

• Journey From the Fall
• A Tale of Love
• Three Seasons
• Daughter From Danang
• The Tailor
• Boat People
• Madam Phung's Last Journey
• Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell

Over her remarkable 30+ year career, Indo-Canadian writer-director Deepa Mehta has established herself as a bold, humanistic filmmaker.

Renowned for her ability to craft deeply moving stories through a culturally hybrid perspective, Through the Fire: The Films of Deepa Mehta celebrates how Mehta’s groundbreaking work gives voice to individuals’ capacity for resilience and hope in the face of profound marginalization.

As the 50th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival approaches, it is remarkable to note that nine of Deepa Mehta’s films have premiered at the Festival, making her a significant and frequent presence in its curatorial history. This retrospective is a celebration of her contributions to Canadian and transnational cinema, and runs April 4–23 at TIFF Lightbox.

TIFF and Under-25 Free holders get access to TIFF Cinematheque and marquee series tickets. Become a Member today at tiff.net/hip.

• Fire
• Earth
• Water
• Heaven on Earth
• Beeba Boys
• Sam & Me
• Anatomy of Violence
• Midnight's Children
• Bollywood/Hollywood
• Funny Boy

Programmed by youth, for youth, the 14th annual TIFF Next Wave Film Festival, brought to you by Takis and ed by the Ontario Arts Council and the City of Toronto, celebrates the next generation of filmmakers and cinephiles.

Returning to TIFF Lightbox April 10–13, the TIFF Next Wave Film Festival is a weekend of fresh, boundary-pushing films and special events, including Battle of the Scores, Loved It: Chandler Levack on Fast Times at Ridgemont High, special screenings of Shiva Baby and Bottoms with director and Next Wave alum Emma Seligman in attendance, and more.

The TIFF Next Wave Film Festival offers free tickets to Official Selection screenings for anyone under 25 who has TIFF's Under-25 Free or paid Under-25 hip. Learn more at tiff.net/nextwave.

• Brides
• The Dog Thief
• Manas
• Pools
• Queens of Drama
• Rape Play
• Seaside Serendipity
• The Virgin of the Quarry Lake
• We Were Dangerous
• Where the Wind Comes From

TIFF Cinematheque presents a centenary celebration marking the legacy of Swedish author, actor, and director Mai Zetterling (1925–1994), whose three-decade career traversed not only nations, but also modalities, producing short films, documentaries, television episodes, and six feature-length films.

After early international success in front of the camera acting in Alf Sjöberg's Torment and Ingmar Bergman's Music in Darkness, Zetterling’s curious (and iconoclastic) sensibility led her to directing. From her incendiary debut feature Loving Couples onward, Zetterling’s bracingly frank depictions of women’s health, sexuality, and gender roles would be criticized and sometimes censored, but have emerged as a singular and fearless body of work that remains as transgressively urgent and necessary as it did then.

Taboo: Mai Zetterling on Film runs February 28 – March 23 at TIFF Lightbox. TIFF's month-long celebration of International Women's Day is ed by RBC.

TIFF and Under-25 Free holders get access to TIFF Cinematheque and marquee series tickets. Become a Member today at tiff.net/hip.

• Loving Couples
• Night Games
• The Girls
• We Have Many Names
• The War Game
• Music in Darkness
• Scrubbers
• Torment
• Amorosa

Banned and lauded, Binka Zhelyazkova was a singular voice in Eastern European cinema. This TIFF Cinematheque retrospective highlights her poetic, politically charged films — testaments to resistance, survival, women’s agency, and defiance in occupied Bulgaria.

The series includes a complete overview of Zhelyazkova's six narrative feature films including: Life Flows Quietly By...; We Were Young; The Tied-Up Balloon, which marked Zhelyazkova's first major international screening at Montreal's Expo ’67, and more.

Unknown Legend: Binka Zhelyazkova runs March 7–26 at TIFF Lightbox. TIFF's month-long celebration of International Women's Day is ed by RBC.

TIFF and Under-25 Free holders get access to TIFF Cinematheque and marquee series tickets. Become a Member today at tiff.net/hip.

• The Tied Up Balloon
• The Last Word
• We Were Young
• The Swimming Pool
• The Big Night Bathe
• Life Quietly Moves On...

One of the most exciting and inspiring filmmakers working in the 21st century, Tibetan director and novelist Pema Tseden (1969–2023) was the first director in China to foreground Tibetan language and culture, presenting a realistic, multifaceted depiction of Tibetan life that garnered international acclaim.

Tseden made eight features, many of which screened at TIFF, including Snow Leopard (TIFF ’23), Balloon (TIFF ’19), and Jinpa (TIFF ’18). Comionate Light: Stories of Tibet by Pema Tseden is curated by Guest Programmer Shelly Kraicer and comes to TIFF Lightbox January 31 – February 26 after a successful run at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York City.

TIFF and Under-25 Free holders get access to TIFF Cinematheque and marquee series tickets. Become a Member today at tiff.net/hip.

• Snow Leopard
• Tharlo
• The Silent Holy Stones
• Old Dog
• The Search
• Balloon
• The Sacred Arrow
• Jinpa
• The Grassland
• The Silent Holy Stone

Celebrate the Year of the Snake and build your Lunar New Year watchlist with these films curated by TIFF Staff.

• The Joy Luck Club
• Long Life, Happiness and Prosperity
• Eat Drink Man Woman
• Everything Everywhere All at Once
• Let the Bullets Fly
• Detective Chinatown
• Detective Chinatown 2
• Detective Chinatown 3
• Kung Fu Hustle
• Cell Phone

...plus 20 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Canada’s Top Ten features and shorts of 2024, presented by MUBI.

Featuring works from emerging artists and established filmmakers, this list celebrates Canada’s best stories of 2024, offering diverse perspectives, insights, and experiences from coast to coast to coast.

This list begins with the top ten features, followed by the top ten shorts.

Learn more about Canada’s Top Ten at tiff.net/ctt. #SeeTheNorth

• 40 Acres

  In a post-apocalyptic future where food is scarce, the last descendants of a Black family of farmers who settled in Canada after the American Civil War must protect their homestead from an organized militia hell-bent on taking their land.

• Any Other Way: The Jackie Shane Story

  Music lovers and local history buffs will adore this intimate and powerful portrait of Toronto club singer Jackie Shane.

• Can I Get a Witness?

  Keira Jang, Joel Oulette, and Sandra Oh star in this introspective live-action and animated feature set in the near future when technology and travel are almost completely banned, and nobody is allowed to live past age 50.

• Matt and Mara

  Struggling with a new baby and a distracted husband, an academic is more than happy to reconnect with an old college pal. But what sort of relationship are they resuming, precisely?

• Paying for It

  Sook-Yin Lee’s adaptation of Chester Brown’s autobiographical 2011 graphic novel is a movie only Lee could make… because it’s her story, too.

• Tanz der Titanen

  Cate Blanchett stars in this absurd satire of a G7 world leaders meeting that spins wildly out of control, from co-directors Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, and Galen Johnson.

• Seeds

  Kaniehtiio Horn (Alice, Darling, TIFF ’22) wrote, directed, and stars in Seeds, a tense thriller that weaves Kanienʼkehá:ka connections to the land with a cat-and-mouse game.

• Shepherds

  A Montréal copywriter sets out to reinvent himself as a sheep herder in the French Alps despite knowing literally nothing about the centuries-old craft.

• The Shrouds

  Grieving the loss of his wife, a tech entrepreneur finds what’s left of his world collapsing into a nightmare of sex, paranoia, and grief in David Cronenberg’s most personal film.

• Universal Language

  Matthew Rankin’s second feature is a charmingly impossible story of a Canada where Persian and French are the two official languages, and loneliness is the common currency.

...plus 10 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

With a career spanning an extraordinary six decades, Marco Bellocchio is one of Italy’s — and the world’s — great, adventurous filmmakers. This long-overdue retrospective arises during a particularly fertile time in Bellocchio’s career, marked by a string of masterworks including Kidnapped (TIFF ‘23).

Since making one of the greatest debuts in film history, the exhilarating Fists in the Pocket in 1965, Bellocchio has, with varying styles, delved head-on into the complexities of recent Italian history, fearlessly exploring the impacts of institutions — family, state, and church — upon the individual, and political subversion. While quintessentially Italian in their subjects, his films are also deeply personal and universal in their appeal.

Programmed by TIFF Cinematheque Senior Curator Andréa Picard, Marco Bellocchio: A Leap in the Dark is a collaboration with Cinecittà and presented by Istituto Italiano di Cultura (ICI) in Toronto with the Cinémathèque québécoise in Montréal.

TIFF and Under-25 Free holders get access to TIFF Cinematheque and marquee series tickets. Become a Member at tiff.net/hip.

• Good Morning, Night
• Fists in the Pocket
• Marx Can Wait
• Dormant Beauty
• My Mother's Smile
• Devil in the Flesh
• China Is Near
• Vincere
• Blood of My Blood
• A Leap in the Dark

...plus 4 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Curated by artist and filmmaker Blake Williams, Dimensional Excursions: A Century of Innovation in 3D Cinema celebrates 3D's primal and immersive energy, showcasing films by artists and filmmakers – from the avant-garde and major studios both – that take playful and innovative approaches to the third dimension.

Consisting of features and shorts, the programme includes rare gems like Jean-Luc Godard's first and only 3D feature, Adieu au langage; Julian Roffman’s 1961 cult classic The Mask, the first feature-length 3D film made in Canada; and Martin Scorsese’s magical 3D feature, Hugo (2011), which, in addition to paying stereo-homage to many other early cinema treasures, includes its own bombastic rendition of the famed Lumières’ actualités.

TIFF and Under-25 Free holders get access to TIFF Cinematheque and marquee series tickets. Become a Member at tiff.net/hip.

• Hugo
• The Arrival of a Train 3D
• Dimensional Excursions
• Red Capriccio
• Mutations
• The Green Wave
• cinéma concret
• Let Your Light Shine
• Flesh for Frankenstein
• Speechless

...plus 9 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

No one makes films quite like Almodóvar. Embracing the thriller, melodrama, screwball comedy, farce, film noir, sci-fi, and western, Almodóvar has forged a genre all his own — what the Cuban writer Guillermo Cabrera Infante termed “Almodrama”.

He has conjured daring narratives blending the comic and the tragic to powerful effect, realized visionary production designs that seem as alive and dynamic as any one of his characters, and created a gallery of wild and wonderful characters that live on in the viewer’s imagination long after the final credits have rolled.

With his newest film and English-language feature debut, The Room Next Door, which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Festival and had its North American Premiere at #TIFF24, Almodóvar shows no sign of slowing down. He continues to make films that matter, films that celebrate creativity as an enabling act, a binding mechanism that brings a broken family together or refashions how the past is ed.

The films of Pedro Almodóvar show the potential of art to embody the temper of the times with wit, verve, humour, elegance, and profound humanity.

TIFF and Under-25 Free holders get access to TIFF Cinematheque and marquee series tickets. Become a Member at tiff.net/hip.

• All About My Mother
• Bad Education
• Broken Embraces
• The Cannibalistic Councillor
• Dark Habits
• High Heels
• I'm So Excited!
• Julieta
• Kika
• Labyrinth of ion

...plus 15 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

"Just in time for seasonal depression and Valentine’s Day FOMO to hit their peak, TIFF Cinematheque offers up a killer selection of cinematic guilty pleasures with our tribute to the erotic thriller. A descendent of the melodrama, thriller, and film noir alike, this oft-maligned black sheep of cinema reached its zenith in the ’80s and ’90s — anchored by the critical and commercial success of racy blockbusters such as Adrian Lyne’s Fatal Attraction and Paul Verhoeven’s Basic Instinct — and was reimagined by daring iconoclasts such as Jane Campion and Katt Shea. Later revived by international art-house provocateurs Park Chan-wook and Alain Guiraudie, the erotic thriller has become a bona fide genre in its own right, spawning a litany of femme fatales, deadly obsessions, and crimes of ion."

Dark Twisted Fantasies: Erotic Thrillers screens at TIFF Lightbox from February 5 – March 3, 2022.

For more information, including ticket information, visit tiff.net/eroticthrillers.

• In the Cut
• Basic Instinct
• The Handmaiden
• Poison Ivy
• Fatal Attraction
• Stranger by the Lake
• Cat People

"Natalie Wood’s career spanned four decades, beginning in early childhood and including three Academy Award nominations by the time she was 25. This series explores Wood’s most familiar role as a woman between two worlds, navigating shifting romantic expectations and social mores with a modern combination of fragility and assertiveness."

Both Sides, Now: The Roles of Natalie Wood screens at TIFF Lightbox from March 4 – 24, 2022.

For more information, including ticket information, visit tiff.net/nataliewood.

• Gypsy
• This Property Is Condemned
• Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice
• Splendor in the Grass

The 47th annual Toronto International Film Festival took place September 8–18, 2022. The Swimmers was the Opening Night Gala, Dalíland was the Closing Night film, and The Fabelmans was the People's Choice winner.

• The Fabelmans
• Bros
• Glass Onion
• Brother
• On the Come Up
• The Woman King
• My Policeman
• Catherine Called Birdy
• The Swimmers
• Alice, Darling

...plus 228 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The 35th annual Toronto International Film Festival took place September 9–19, 2010. Score: A Hockey Musical was the Opening Night film and Last Night was the Closing Night film. The King's Speech won the People’s Choice Award.

• The King's Speech
• 10 to 11
• September 12
• 127 Hours
• 22nd Of May
• 40
• A Beginner's Guide to Endings
• A Horrible Way to Die
• Crying Out
• A Married Couple

...plus 288 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The 34th annual Toronto International Film Festival took place September 10–19, 2009. Creation was the Opening Night film and The Young Victoria was the Closing Night film. Precious won the People’s Choice Award.

• Precious
• [REC]²
• 010101
• 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
• 25 Carat
• A Gun to the Head
• A Letter to Uncle Boonmee
• A Serious Man
• A Shine of Rainbows
• A Single Man

...plus 306 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The 33rd annual Toronto International Film Festival took place September 4–13, 2008. chendaele was the Opening Night film and Stone of Destiny was the Closing Night film. Slumdog Millionaire won the People’s Choice Award.

• Slumdog Millionaire
• $5 a Day
• $9.99
• 33 Scenes from Life
• 35 Shots of Rum
• 7915 Km
• A Film with Me in It
• A Time to Stir
• Achilles and the Tortoise
• Acne

...plus 281 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The 32nd annual Toronto International Film Festival took place September 6–15, 2007. Fugitive Pieces was the Opening Night film and Emotional Arithmetic was the Closing Night film. Eastern Promises won the People’s Choice Award.

• Eastern Promises
• 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
• A Cure For Terminal Loneliness
• A Jihad for Love
• Inside
• The Man from London
• A Promise to the Dead: The Exile Journey of Ariel Dorfman
• A Short Film About Falling
• A Thousand Years of Good Prayers
• Across the Universe

...plus 301 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The 36th annual Toronto International Film Festival took place September 8–18, 2011. From the Sky Down was the Opening Night film and Page Eight was the Closing Night film. Where Do We Go Now? won the People’s Choice Award.

• Where Do We Go Now?
• 349 (for Sol LeWitt)
• 360
• 388 Arletta Avenue
• 50/50
• 99 Clerkenwell Road
• A Dangerous Method
• A Monster in Paris
• A Preface to Red
• Back to Stay

...plus 306 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The 37th annual Toronto International Film Festival took place September 6–16, 2012. Looper was the Opening Night film and Song for Marion was the Closing Night film. Silver Linings Playbook won the People’s Choice Award.

• Silver Linings Playbook
• 100 Musicians
• 21 Chitrakoot
• 3
• 7 Boxes
• 9.79*
• 90 Minutes
• The Battle of Tabato
• A Few Hours of Spring
• A Hijacking

...plus 359 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The 38th annual Toronto International Film Festival took place September 5–15, 2013. The Fifth Estate was the Opening Night film and Life of Crime was the Closing Night film. 12 Years a Slave won the People’s Choice Award.

• 12 Years a Slave
• 1982
• 12/12/12
• 45 7 Broadway
• A Field in England
• Grand Canal
• A Place in Heaven
• A Promise
• Shuddh Desi Romance
• A Spell to Ward Off the Darkness

...plus 356 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The 39th annual Toronto International Film Festival took place September 4–14, 2014. The Judge was the Opening Night film and A Little Chaos was the Closing Night film. The Imitation Game won the People’s Choice Award.

• The Imitation Game
• (NULL)
• [REC]⁴ Apocalypse
• 1001 Grams
• 130919 • A Portrait of Marina Abramovic
• '71
• 8 Bullets
• 99 Homes
• A Dream of Iron
• A Girl at My Door

...plus 360 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The 40th annual Toronto International Film Festival took place September 10–20, 2015. Demolition was the Opening Night film and Mr. Right was the Closing Night film. Room won the People’s Choice Award.

• Room
• (Otto)
• 11 Minutes
• 25 April
• 3000 Nights
• 3D Movie
• 4 Quarters
• 45 Years
• 7 Sheep
• 88:88

...plus 375 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The 41st annual Toronto International Film Festival took place September 8–18, 2016. The Magnificent Seven was the Opening Night film and The Edge of Seventeen was the Closing Night film. La La Land won the People’s Choice Award.

• La La Land
• The Assignment
• 025 Sunset Red
• 150 Milligrams
• 350 MYA
• 3-Way (Not Calling)
• 5 Films About Technology
• '76
• 93 Days
• A Brief History of Princess X

...plus 370 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The 42nd annual Toronto International Film Festival took place September 7–17, 2017. Borg vs McEnroe was the Opening Night film and C'est la vie! was the Closing Night film. Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri won the People’s Choice Award.

• Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
• (100ft)
• Outlaws
• 3/4
• 55 Steps
• The Ciambra
• A Drowning Man
• A Fantastic Woman
• A Fish Out of Water
• A Gentle Night

...plus 339 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The 43rd annual Toronto International Film Festival took place September 6–16, 2018. Outlaw King was the Opening Night film and JT LeRoy was the Closing Night film. Green Book won the People’s Choice Award.

• Green Book
• 22 July
• 1986 Summer
• 3 Faces
• 7A
• A Faithful Man
• A Million Little Pieces
• A New Year
• A Private War
• A Return

...plus 332 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The 44th annual Toronto International Film Festival took place September 5–15, 2019. Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and the Band was the Opening Night film and Radioactive was the Closing Night film. Jojo Rabbit won the People’s Choice Award.

• Jojo Rabbit
• 1982
• 2008
• (tourism studies)
• 143 Sahara Street
• 2minutes40seconds
• 37 Seconds
• A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
• A Bump Along the Way
• A Dry White Season

...plus 320 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The 45th annual Toronto International Film Festival took place September 10–19, 2020. David Byrne’s American Utopia was the Opening Night film and A Suitable Boy was the Closing Night presentation. Nomadland won the People’s Choice Award.

• Nomadland
• 180 Degree Rule
• 4 North A
• 40 Years a Prisoner
• 76 Days
• A Suitable Boy
• Akilla's Escape
• Ammonite
• Aniksha
• Another Round

...plus 84 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The 5th annual Toronto International Film Festival, known then as the Festival of Festivals, took place September 4–13, 1980. Loving Couples was the Opening Night film and Divine Madness was the Closing Night film. Bad Timing won the People’s Choice Award.

• Bad Timing
• Yesterday Girl
• Breathless
• AC/DC: Let There Be Rock
• All I Desire
• Alphaville
• Camera Buff
• I Love You Rosa
• Anthracite
• The Oldest Profession

...plus 131 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The 31st annual Toronto International Film Festival took place September 7–16, 2006. The Journals of Knud Rasmussen was the Opening Night film and Amazing Grace was the Closing Night film. Bella won the People’s Choice Award.

• Bella
• ...So Goes the Nation
• 10 Items or Less
• 2:37
• Big Bang Love, Juvenile A
• 7 Years
• A Chairy Tale
• 12:08 East of Bucharest
• A Good Year
• In the Shadow

...plus 292 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The 30th annual Toronto International Film Festival took place September 8–17, 2005. Water was the Opening Night film and Edison was the Closing Night film. Tsotsi won the People’s Choice Award.

• Tsotsi
• 06/05
• 3 Needles
• 50 Ways of Saying Fabulous
• 51 Birch Street
• 7 Virgins
• A Conversation with Basquiat
• A Half Man
• A History of Violence
• A Little Trip to Heaven

...plus 268 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The 29th annual Toronto International Film Festival took place September 10–19, 2004. Being Julia was the Opening Night film and Five Times Two was the Closing Night film. Hotel Rwanda won the People’s Choice Award.

• Hotel Rwanda
• 10 on Ten
• The 10th District Court: Moments of Trial
• Five Times Two
• 9 Songs
• A Dirty Shame
• A Good Woman
• A Letter to True
• À tout de suite
• A Way of Life

...plus 275 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The 28th annual Toronto International Film Festival took place September 4–13, 2003. The Barbarian Invasions was the Opening Night film and Danny Deckchair was the Closing Night film. Zatōichi won the People’s Choice Award.

• Zatoichi
• 11:14
• 16 Years of Alcohol
• 8:17pm, Darling Street
• 21 Grams
• 9 Souls
• A Bear, a Boy and a Dog
• Margarette's Feast
• A Problem with Fear
• Abjad

...plus 273 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The 27th annual Toronto International Film Festival took place September 5–17, 2002. Ararat was the Opening Night film and Femme Fatale was the Closing Night film. Whale Rider won the People’s Choice Award.

• Whale Rider
• Ten
• 24 Hours in the Life of a Woman
• 8 Women
• 8 Mile
• Where the Heart Is
• 'Till Death Do Us Part
• Charge!
• A Married Couple
• A String of Pearls

...plus 285 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The 26th annual Toronto International Film Festival took place September 6–15, 2001. Last Wedding was the Opening Night film and Lantana was the Closing Night film. Amélie won the People’s Choice Award.

• Amélie
• 1:1
• 100 Days
• Fat Girl
• Absolutely Fabulous
• Address Unknown
• Warm Water Under a Red Bridge
• All About Lily Chou-Chou
• You Really Got Me
• Black Soul

...plus 277 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The 25th annual Toronto International Film Festival took place September 7–16, 2000. Stardom was the Opening Night film and How To Kill Your Neighbor’s Dog was the Closing Night film. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon won the People’s Choice Award.

• Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
• 101 Reykjavik
• 19
• The Vertical Ray of the Sun
• A Rumor of Angels
• A Shot at Glory
• Aberdeen
• The Farewell
• Act Without Words I
• Adanggaman

...plus 268 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The 24th annual Toronto International Film Festival took place September 9–18, 1999. Felicia's Journey was the Opening Night film and Onegin was the Closing nNght film. American Beauty won the People’s Choice Award.

• American Beauty
• Bloody Angels
• 1999 Madeleine
• 30 Days
• 8 ½ Women
• The Letter
• A Girl is a Girl
• A Map of the World
• Nightfall
• Adrenaline Drive

...plus 266 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The 11th annual Toronto International Film Festival, known then as the Festival of Festivals, took place September 4–13, 1986. The Decline of the American Empire was the Opening Night film and Children of a Lesser God was the Closing Night film. The Decline of the American Empire won the People’s Choice Award.

• The Decline of the American Empire
• 21-87
• Betty Blue
• 79 Springs
• A Great Wall
• Hour of the Star
• A Judgment in Stone
• The Fall
• A Trip Down Memory Lane
• A Zed & Two Noughts

...plus 221 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The 10th annual Toronto International Film Festival, known then as the Festival of Festivals, took place September 5–14, 1985. My American Cousin was the Opening Night film and Death of a Salesman was the Closing Night film. The Official Story won the People’s Choice Award.

• The Official Story
• 2084: Video Clip for the Trade Unions' Reflection and Pleasure
• 90 Days
• A and B in Ontario
• A Strange Love Affair
• A Trilogy
• Adieu Bonaparte
• Aguirre, the Wrath of God
• All Quiet on the Western Front
• Always … But Not Forever

...plus 177 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The 9th annual Toronto International Film Festival, known then as the Festival of Festivals, took place September 6–15, 1984. The Bay Boy was the Opening Night film and Carmen was the Closing Night film. Places in the Heart won the People’s Choice Award.

• Places in the Heart
• 1857 (Fool's Gold)
• 69
• 98.3 KHz (Bridge at Electrical Storm)
• A and B in Ontario
• A Chairy Tale
• A Dangerous Age
• A Flash of Green
• A Married Couple
• A Soldier's Story

...plus 283 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The 8th annual Toronto International Film Festival, known then as the Festival of Festivals, took place September 9–17, 1983. The Big Chill was the Opening Night film and The Tin Flute was the Closing Night film. The Big Chill won the People’s Choice Award.

• The Big Chill
• 24 Hours or More
• 60 Cycles
• 66 Scenes from America
• September Five at Saint-Henri
• A Separate Peace
• Action : The October Crisis of 1970
• All the Way Home
• Alphaville
• Alsino and the Condor

...plus 177 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The 23rd annual Toronto International Film Festival took place September 10–19, 1998. The Red Violin was the Opening Night film and Antz was the Closing Night film. Life Is Beautiful won the People’s Choice Award.

• Life Is Beautiful
• 2 Seconds
• 23
• Where the Heart Is
• A Place Called Chiapas
• A Simple Plan
• A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries
• A Soldier's Sweetheart
• For Sale
• After Life

...plus 246 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The 22nd annual Toronto International Film Festival took place September 4–13, 1997. The Sweet Hereafter was the Opening Night film and Seven Years in Tibet was the Closing Night film. The Hanging Garden won the People’s Choice Award.

• The Hanging Garden
• 1919
• 4 Little Girls
• A Chinese Ghost Story: The Tsui Hark Animation
• Blinded
• A Matter of Life and Death
• Keep the Aspidistra Flying
• The Oyster and the Wind
• Across
• Afterglow

...plus 235 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The 21st annual Toronto International Film Festival took place September 5–14, 1996. Fire was the Opening Night film and That Thing You Do was the Closing Night film. Shine won the People’s Choice Award.

• Shine
• 2 Days in the Valley
• God's Comedy
• Hovering Over the Water
• A Tickle in the Heart
• A Woman Under the Influence
• Elena's Redemption
• The Fairy, the Ghost & Ah Chung
• Albino Alligator
• American Buffalo

...plus 225 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The 20th annual Toronto International Film Festival took place September 7–16, 1995. The Confessional was the Opening Night film and Devil in a Blue Dress was the Closing Night film. Antonia's Line won the People’s Choice Award.

• Antonia's Line
• (ab)NORMAL
• A Hard Day's Night
• Cold Fever
• A Month by the Lake
• A Portrait of Arshile
• The Outpost
• A Tale of Love
• Princess
• Adultery (A 's Guide)

...plus 235 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The 19th annual Toronto International Film Festival took place September 8–17, 1994. Whale Music was the Opening Night film and Only You was the Closing Night film. Priest won the People’s Choice Award.

• Priest
• 1,000 Roses
• Two Brothers, My Sister
• Three Palm Trees
• 71 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance
• A Causa Secreta
• A Man of No Importance
• A Pin for the Butterfly
• Aadhi Haqeeqat, Aadha Fasana
• The Abadanis

...plus 238 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The 18th annual Toronto International Film Festival, known then as the Festival of Festivals, took place September 9–18, 1993. M. Butterfly was the Opening Night film and Rudy was the Closing Night film. The Snapper won the People’s Choice Award.

• The Snapper
• 18
• A Bronx Tale
• A Dangerous Woman
• A Day at the Beach
• A Foreign Field
• A Life in the Theatre
• A Revolta dos Carnudos
• A Trip Down Memory Lane
• Abissinia

...plus 237 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The 17th annual Toronto International Film Festival, known then as the Festival of Festivals, took place September 10–19, 1992. Léolo was the Opening Night film and Twist was the Closing Night film. Strictly Ballroom won the People’s Choice Award.

• Strictly Ballroom
• Sisters of the World Unite
• 98.3 KHz (Bridge at Electrical Storm)
• A Powerful Thang
• A River Runs Through It
• A Sense of History
• Scorpio Eats Gemini for Breakfast
• A Small Dick Fleshy Ass Thang!
• Water, Wind, Dust
• Adorables mentiras

...plus 245 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

"I think he can relax me a little, because of the way he is and maybe I can give him some energy in the way I am. I don't know, it somehow just works."

After Wong Kar-wai's (Fallen Angels, Chungking Express, Happy Together) intoxicating In the Mood for Love premiered at TIFF '00, stars Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung took part in a press conference to discuss the film's lush visuals, its demanding shoot, and the process of working together, without a script.

Find other Festival press conferences on the TIFF Originals YouTube channel as part of our TIFF Rewind series in celebration of TIFF's 50th edition.

"Star Wars, if you go back to its genesis in that very first film, was political. Politics has always played a part in it."

Andor stars Stellan Skarsgård (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Dune, Good Will Hunting) and Genevieve O'Reilly (Rogue One, The Matrix Reloaded, The Legend of Tarzan) ed us in Studio 9 to discuss the show's creator, Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton, The Bourne Legacy), and his meticulous, historically inspired writing.

They also explore the show's political depth, its themes of war and fascism, and how these elements resonate across every decade of the Star Wars universe.

Curated by TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey, with input and insight from TIFF programmers past and present, this series will showcase 50 landmark films from around the world that played a significant role in connecting with audiences, and reflect the story of TIFF.

Read Cameron Bailey's series note and see the screening schedule at tiff.net/50films. Haven't seen some of these titles? Add them to your watchlist.

The series runs June 13 to August 27 at TIFF Lightbox. TIFF and Under-25 Free holders get access to TIFF Cinematheque and marquee series tickets. Become a Member today at tiff.net/hip.

"The difference between Cronos and The Devil's Backbone is I'm 36 and in Cronos I was 28, and I had now the enormous experience of eight years... but I feel I was better prepared to shoot that movie now. As a filmmaker, I had more tools."

Back at TIFF '01, filmmaker Guillermo del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth, Mimic, The Shape of Water) took part in the Festival's Mavericks conversation series to discuss his filmmaking career, amateur movie stunts he performed as a child, how he met Pedro Almodóvar, and losing all his money on his feature debut Cronos.

Watch the full conversation on the TIFF Originals YouTube channel as part of our TIFF Rewind series in celebration of TIFF's 50th edition.

"It's funny cause, y'know, I've never really considered myself a writer. I've considered myself a director who writes stuff for himself to do, and this was just the first one that I got a chance to do. I was very happy that the first film that I produced was one that I directed."

Winner of the FIPRESCI Prize at TIFF '92, Reservoir Dogs exploded onto the scene with a bang – and this TIFF press conference captures the moment the world met Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill: Vol. 1, Inglorious Basterds).

Watch the full press conference featuring Tarantino, along with cast Michael Madsen, Tim Roth, Steve Buscemi, and Harvey Keitel, on the TIFF Originals YouTube channel as part of our TIFF Rewind series in celebration of TIFF's 50th edition.

"What the film did successfully was it showcased the talent of a young Kôji Yakusho. Before then, he was often cast as a nice guy or a good citizen... I think the role [in Cure] helped shift the way people saw him as an actor."

After the TIFF '24 North American Premiere of his latest film, Cloud, director Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Pulse, Tokyo Sonata, Retribution) stopped by Studio 9 to discuss Japanese horror, the critical response to Cure, and why he likes working with actors his own age – Kôji Yakusho in particular.

"For us it was really the teen comedy first being at the heart of it, and then just being like... what if we took all these characters from a team comedy and just start killing them?"

"Exactly."

Actors-turned-filmmakers Finn Wolfhard (It, When You Finish Saving the World, Ghostbusters: Afterlife) and Billy Bryk (Saturday Night, Friendship) ed us in Studio 9 to discuss teaming up to write and direct their feature debut, the coming-of-age thriller-comedy Hell of a Summer, which had its World Premiere at TIFF '23.

"Everything that was relevant when I was starting to become a filmmaker has completely changed, the landscape is completely different. We independent filmmakers get together and we say 'Have you been able to finance your next project? No, I haven't either.' That's where we're at. So there are new ways to get into filmmaking, even if it's not mainstream."

The Baron of Blood himself, David Cronenberg (The Fly, Crash, The Shrouds) sat down in Studio 9 with TIFF Next Wave Committee Member Sebastian to discuss his conversations with David Lynch and Dune, why you don't need to shoot on film, and his advice for young filmmakers.

"If we hadn't had a really interesting beast, then you'd have had half a movie."

From TIFF '03, watch director Ridley Scott (Blade Runner, Gladiator, Thelma & Louise) and actor Yaphet Kotto's (Midnight Run, The Running Man, Live and Let Die) full Q&A from a screening of Alien: The Director's Cut.

The two get into it all: creature design, the "shaky camera" era, and why Scott rejected the reading of Ripley as a mother/martyr figure. Plus, a dig at Star Trek, naturally.

In celebration of TIFF's 50th edition, stay tuned for more from our TIFF Rewind series on the TIFF Originals YouTube channel.

"There's still so much potential for different kinds of queer stories on screen in genres we haven't seen before, with elements we haven't seen before, like lots of blood, or stunts, or whatever it is. That's the genre I wanted to put queer characters in."

Director and TIFF Next Wave Committee alum Emma Seligman (Shiva Baby, Void) stopped by TIFF's Studio 9 in 2023 to chat all things Bottoms, from how she edits improvised takes to working with rising stars Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri.

Emma Seligman's journey is a testament to the impact of TIFF's commitment to discovering new talent and empowering the next generation of storytellers. As part of our TIFF 50 celebrations, TIFF Next Wave is hosting a double-bill screening of Shiva Baby and Bottoms, on April 13. Get tickets at tiff.net/calendar.

"To young people in this country, make stuff. Don't worry about the results."

When Toronto's own Mike Myers (Wayne's World, Shrek, Inglorious Basterds) attended TIFF '13 for the World Premiere of his directorial debut, Supermensch: The Legend of Shep Gordon, he shared some words of encouragement for up-and-coming Canadian filmmakers that still holds true today.

"I talked to people who said afterwards that they would find themselves weeping, and they would look and there's, you know, somebody weeping beside them by they didn't even know why."

Filmmaker, writer, and visual artist Ann Marie Fleming (Window Horses, The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam) ed us in Studio 9 to discuss her latest film, Can I Get A Witness? (TIFF '24 World Premiere). The director shared her view on enveloping viewers in nature, making not-quite sci-fi, and the emotional audience response.

Can I Get A Witness? was recently named one of Canada's Top Ten films of 2024. Starring Keira Lang, Joel Oulette, and Sandra Oh, Fleming's film is now playing at TIFF Lightbox. Find showtimes and buy tickets at tiff.net/calendar.

"We were filming and... so many sheep, like 2,000 sheep, seeing them in the streets or even crossing the highway."

Canadian filmmaker Sophie Deraspe (Antigone, A Gay Girl in Damascus: The Amina Profile) ed us in Studio 9 following the TIFF '24 World Premiere of her latest film, Shepherds, to discuss how the film has everything you could want in a film: a love story, the gorgeous French Alps, and some 2,000 sheep. Deraspe's film was selected as one of Canada's Top Ten films of 2024.

Shepherds opens March 7 at TIFF Lightbox. Find showtimes and buy tickets at tiff.net/calendar.

"I decided that perhaps the best solution is to use real footage, since I was making this film 'underground' [without legal permits]... I believed that even if I had the capacity to recreate these scenes, I could never reach the power of the reality that was documented in the real footage."

Filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof (There Is No Evil, The White Meadows, A Man of Integrity) visited Studio 9 after the TIFF '24 Canadian Premiere of his Oscar–nominated film, The Seed of the Sacred Fig, which he had to film in secret before fleeing Iran altogether. The director reflected on his imprisonment, the country's oppressive government, and the bravery of protestors.

See more from our interview with Rasoulof at TIFF Originals on YouTube.

"The more serious and earnest I become, the more I realize that my films may only be understood by a certain type of person."

The art of horror, according to director Kiyoshi Kurosawa (Cure, Pulse, Tokyo Sonata), is to enjoy the process.

Following the TIFF '24 North American Premiere of his latest film, Cloud, the filmmaker ed us in TIFF's Studio 9 to discuss what he learned from his lifelong love of the psychological genre.

"If you heard the original sound for those shots, you would hear nonstop honking. We pissed off so many people..."

Actor and filmmaker Don McKellar (The Grand Seduction, Through Black Spruce, Childstar) shares the story behind what it took to shoot the most iconic scene from his Toronto New Wave apocalyptic dramedy Last Night (TIFF '98), starring Sandra Oh, Sarah Polley, and David Cronenberg. The drivers of Toronto may never forgive him.

"Adapted from the graphic novel by Chester Brown – which was a memoir in itself – and because I was a character in the graphic novel, I took a whole bunch of stuff that wasn't in the novel that I was privy to [...] it's really kind of a hybrid of reality, fiction, all muzzled up."

Filmmaker Sook-Yin Lee (Octavia Is Dead!, Year of the Carnivore, Toronto Stories) ed us in TIFF's Studio 9 to discuss her latest film Paying For It, a work of auto-fiction, and her relationship with author Chester Brown. The film, which had its World Premiere at TIFF '24, is one of Canada's Top Ten feature films of 2024.

Tickets are still available for select screenings during the Canada's Top Ten 2024 showcase, on now through February 9 at TIFF Lightbox. tiff.net/ctt

"Most films are not concerned with real people, in the strict sense of the notion of real people, they're concerned with movie characters. A lot of movies are movies about movies, and I don't make movies about movies."

Renowned British filmmaker Mike Leigh (Naked, Secrets & Lies, Happy-Go-Lucky) has long been acknowledged as one of cinema's great artists, receiving seven Oscar nominations across his 23 film career. Following the TIFF '24 World Premiere of his latest film, Hard Truths, Leigh ed us to discuss his approach for making well-rounded characters and leaving the audience with questions.

Leigh has long been a friend of TIFF, having eight films in Official Selection at Festivals past. In 2024, he was the recipient of the TIFF Tribute Ebert Director Award.

Hard Truths is now playing at TIFF Lightbox. Find showtimes and buy tickets at tiff.net/calendar.

"The film that I made previously, called Hale County This Morning, This Evening, was essentially from a first person perspective... I used, I think, three or four shots from that film as a proof of concept when trying to show people how images look and how the camera would be moving..."

Filmmaker RaMell Ross sat down in TIFF's Studio 9 to discuss the challenges and technical details of his immersive storytelling vision for Nickel Boys, his adaptation of Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize–winning novel.

Nickel Boys is now playing at TIFF Lightbox, with select screenings presented in 35mm. Find showtimes and buy tickets at tiff.net/calendar.

“Filmmaking is this ability to harness a story, with these incredible actors and locations, and to somehow find a way of bringing it all together.”

Filmmaker Atom Egoyan (Exotica, Chloe, Seven Veils) and actor-director Sarah Polley (Women Talking, Stories We Tell, Take This Waltz) ed us in TIFF’s Studio 9 to revisit The Sweet Hereafter (TIFF ‘97), “something quite special” in Canadian film to this day. The film’s 4K restoration had its World Premiere at TIFF ‘24.

“Canada’s Top Ten celebrates the very best of Canadian cinema, showcasing the bold artistry of Canada’s most celebrated filmmakers and the fresh perspectives of emerging voices. The selection reflects Canada’s eclectic cultural landscape and a renaissance in risk-taking cinema.” –Anita Lee, TIFF Chief Programming Officer

TIFF is proud to reveal Canada’s Top Ten features and shorts of 2024, presented by MUBI.

Featuring works from emerging artists and established filmmakers from across the country, this year’s list includes R.T. Thorne’s 40 Acres, Kaniehtiio Horn’s Seeds, Sook-Yin Lee’s Paying For It, Matthew Rankin’s Universal Language, David Cronenberg’s The Shrouds, and more.

#SeeTheNorth when this year’s selections screen at TIFF Lightbox February 5–9. Tickets are available starting January 15 and free for TIFF .

Find the full Canada’s Top Ten 2024 list at tiff.net/ctt

"You should think of the word 'depressed' as 'deep rest'. Your body needs to be depressed. It needs deep rest from the character that you've been trying to play."

In this 4K remaster of an interview from TIFF '17, the legendary Jim Carrey discusses his career, mental health, and the exploration of character in Chris Smith's documentary Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond.

Watch more Studio 9 interviews with directors, actors, screenwriters, producers, and more on the TIFF Originals YouTube channel.

"It's the difference between seeing the Mona Lisa in-person versus a lithograph."

For director Brady Corbet, 70mm is King. Corbet ed Patrick Tomasso in the TIFF Lightbox technical booth for a deep dive on shooting The Brutalist on VistaVision, projecting it in 70mm, and more. This one's for the format nerds.

The Brutalist opens December 25 at TIFF Lightbox, with select screenings presented in 70mm. Find showtimes and buy tickets at tiff.net/calendar.

"For a film about architecture, it just was sort of a no-brainer."

After the TIFF '24 North American Premiere of his latest film The Brutalist, director Brady Corbet (Vox Lux, The Childhood of a Leader) ed us in TIFF's Studio 9 to discuss why he had to shoot his architectural epic on the VistaVision film format.

The Brutalist opens December 25 at TIFF Lightbox, with select screenings presented in 70mm. Find showtimes and buy tickets at tiff.net/calendar.

"For me, it's almost like this story could happen in a contemporary Poland, which is very bad in the way that you watch a film that takes place 100 years ago and you feel that not much has changed."

Director Magnus von Horn (Sweat, The Here After) ed us in TIFF's Studio 9 to discuss his latest film The Girl with the Needle, which had its North American Premiere at TIFF '24. The film, a stylish and audacious blend of true-crime drama and expressionist nightmare, follows a young seamstress trying to survive in post-WWI Copenhagen, who makes a fateful connection with one of the era’s most infamous figures.

The Girl with the Needle is now playing at TIFF Lightbox. Find showtimes and buy tickets at tiff.net/calendar.

"I thought 'we can turn a camera on these kids, in the farm that they live, and make a movie here.' It would have the kind of spirit of 'rough-and-tumble', unmanicured vibe of movies that I loved when I was growing up."

In TIFF's Studio 9, Director David Gordon Green (Pineapple Express, Halloween (2018), Joe) shares how he developed his latest film Nutcrackers, the Opening Night Gala Presentation of TIFF '24, around his friend's sons and their "confidence, craziness, and charisma." The film was one of the Festival's first major acquisitions when it was picked up by Hulu, where it is now streaming in the US.

“I struggle at times, because I worry the films are getting very dark and bleak, so I try and temper that with as much humour as possible, and just gags – cramming as many visual gags in there as possible to balance out that darkness.”

Filmmaker Adam Elliot (Mary and Max, Harvie Krumpet) discusses how he uses stop-motion animation in his films, including Memoir of a Snail, to help tell stories with tough subject matter.

Memoir of a Snail is playing at TIFF Lightbox through November 28. Find showtimes and buy tickets at tiff.net/calendar.

“I had just done Cronos and Mimic, and Mimic had almost destroyed me… I couldn’t quite finance a new movie, and a few years earlier, Pedro had seen Cronos in the Miami Film Festival and he said ‘Look, if you ever want to shoot a movie in Spain, call me and my brother.’”

When filmmaker Guillermo del Toro ed us in TIFF’s Studio 9, he shared how Pedro Almodóvar ed him through both production challenges and personal struggles, saving his life and giving him a second wind in his career.

TIFF Cinemathque’s marquee series Laws of Desire: The Films of Pedro Almodóvar is on now through December 29. Learn more about the series and the rest of TIFF Lightbox’s year-round programming at tiff.net.

"I was saying to myself, I can't do another one of these unless I have an idea that's worthy of this kind of attention."

George A. Romero (Creepshow, Martin), the creative brain behind the Night Of The Living Dead series, explains the impetus behind his 1978 zombie classic Dawn Of The Dead.

"I just couldn't quite believe how English and wacky it is. I couldn't believe it was based on a real story." 

Thea Sharrock's (Me Before You, The One and Only Ivan, The Beautiful Game) #TIFF23 jewel Wicked Little Letters, starring Olivia Colman (Wonka, The Favourite, Hot Fuzz), Jessie Buckley (I'm Thinking of Ending Things, Men, The Lost Daughter), and Anjana Vasan (Spider-Man: Far From Home, Cinderella, Black Mirror: Demon 79), is now playing at TIFF Lightbox. Get your tickets at tiff.net. 

"Oh, Canada is this magical land of illegal whiskey and great animation."

Acclaimed filmmaker Guillermo del Toro (The Shape of Water, Pan's Labyrinth, Pinocchio) ed us at #TIFF23 to share his love of experimental Canadian film through the works of Norman McLaren (Neighbours, Duo, Begone Dull Care) and the 'madness' of David Cronenberg (The Fly, Videodrome, Crimes of the Future).

Set in a tight-knit community that seems to only experience two seasons, Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s masterfully character-driven return to the screen probes into power dynamics and the darkest regions of the human soul.

Middle-aged Samet (Deniz Celiloglu, Miracle in Cell No. 7, Are We Ok?) is a quick-witted and quick-to-anger elementary school art teacher–cum–amateur photographer in a traditional village who dreams of a posting in his native Istanbul. He shares lodging with his more attractive and likeable colleague Kenan (Musab Ekici, My Father’s Wings) and spends his nihilistic days developing an inappropriate fixation on 14-year-old teacher’s pet Sevim (played by the scene-stealing Ece Bagci). When a love note written by Sevim is confiscated in a school-wide search, Samet’s rotten-to-the-core fantasies grow. Meanwhile, Sevim, who suspects her teacher of stealing the letter, makes her heightened discomfort with his behaviour known to the school authorities and an investigation is launched. Enter Nuray (Merve Dizdar, TIFF ’22’s Snow and the Bear), a fellow teacher whose past political activism has rendered her disabled, allowing her to choose postings anywhere in the state — just the escape Samet needs. The only problem is that Nuray seems to favour Kenan. 

About Dry Grasses is a film laden with longing. Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s characteristically novelistic approach cradles the lurid drama through the peaks and valleys of Eastern Turkey. While Samet blurs the lines between what’s expected and acceptable, we are in the hands of a master filmmaker (a Palme d’Or winner for his 2014 film Winter Sleep) who captures the full picture in his lens, and whose observation of power dynamics leads us through a tale as old as time in a way that few would dare. 

—Dorota Lech 

Nuri Bilge Ceylan's About Dry Grasses returns to TIFF Lightbox starting March 1. Get your tickets at tiff.net. 

A struggling Indigenous actor tries to rejuvenate his career by getting a sequel made to the beloved film Smoke Signals, in star and director Cody Lightning’s wildly funny debut mockumentary.

In recent years, Chris Eyre’s 1998 film Smoke Signals has been the source of a thousand memes shared by Indigenous people. Among the most popular have been images of Thomas Builds-the-Fire (Evan Adams) calling out “Hey, Victor!” to Victor Joseph (Adam Beach, Suicide Squad, The Power of the Dog) in a distinctive rez accent. 

In Hey, Viktor! actor Cody Lightning, who played the child version of Beach’s character, revisits that beloved film as director, co-writer, and — playing an outsized version of himself — mockumentary lead. Eager to boost his floundering acting career, the fictional Cody looks to cash in on his old childhood role. He wants to make a sequel for Smoke Signals, in which he would star (as “Viktor,” to avoid a potential lawsuit), alongside the original cast. His first move: hijack the film crew to document his intervention. 

This wild comedy follows a man with plenty of vices, driven by money and fame, as he alienates his family and friends (such as his producer Kate, played by Hannah Cheesman, The Animal Project, Volcano) on his quest to make this sequel. Fans of the film’s inspiration will have that nostalgic itch scratched — we may or may not see many of Smoke Signals’s core cast — but there are so many outrageous moments and jokes that it’s a fun ride to go on, even if you haven’t seen the original. Hey, Viktor! is both a mockumentary — one that plays on the idea of fame and cultural capital — and, much like the film it’s tapping into, a journey of self-discovery.

—Kelly Boutsalis

Cody Lightning's Hey, Viktor! returns to TIFF Lightbox starting March 15. Get your tickets at tiff.net. 

An evocative, drawn-from-life tale from directors Carol Kunnuk and Lucy Tulugarjuk about two siblings’ attempts to heal and overcome trauma during the pandemic.

With a verité documentary feel, Tautuktavuk (What We See) draws from its filmmakers’ lives to tell a powerful story of siblings doing their best to connect during the pandemic. Co-directed by Carol Kunnuk (The Journals of Knud Rasmussen) and Lucy Tulugarjuk (Tia and Piujuq), Tautuktavuk (What We See) presents a relationship between two sisters — one in Montreal and the other in Nunavut — who each deal with trauma in their own way. 

Set during the beginning of the global COVID-19 outbreak, the film is told almost entirely through video chats, revealing how isolating the lockdowns are for the sisters — also played by Kunnuk and Tulugarjuk, blurring fact and fiction — especially with the significant physical distance between them. 

As Tautuktavuk (What We See) unfolds, the contrast between the sisters’ experiences begins to narrow. At first, we see extremely familiar scenes of each person speaking to their device’s camera, alone from their home. But this begins to open up to communal settings. The elder sister Saqpinak (Kunnuk) is often surrounded by grandchildren and hosts a live-TV event with elders performing ajaajaa songs. The younger sister Uyarak (Tulugarjuk) is with her beautiful daughters in her Montreal apartment, and gets a traditional hand-poked tattoo. 

This connection between the sisters and their culture is also the impetus for opening up hard discussions about domestic and childhood sexual abuse. Uyarak has a lot of questions about an experience of childhood sexual abuse that has recently bubbled to the surface for her. Saqpinak, however, waits until they’re finally reunited in Igloolik to share her own story. 

—Kelly Boutsalis 

Carol Kunnuk and Lucy Tulugarjuk's Tautuktavuk (What We See) returns to TIFF Lightbox starting March 8. Get your tickets at tiff.net. 

This gorgeous and bizarre Yorgos Lanthimos film, at once a coming-of-age drama and a sex comedy, stars Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, Ramy Youssef, Kathryn Hunter, and Willem Dafoe.

What do you get when you allow a baby girl to mature in the body of a beautiful woman (Emma Stone, La La Land, Birdman) and raise her completely outside of the confines of societal expectations and gender roles as she travels through a colourful, cyberpunk version of Victorian-era Europe? This gorgeous and bizarre Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster, The Favourite) film, at once a coming-of-age drama and a sex comedy, co-starring Mark Ruffalo (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Shutter Island), Ramy Youssef (Wish, Ramy Youssef: Feelings), Kathryn Hunter (The Tragedy of Macbeth, Orlando), and Willem Dafoe (The Grand Budapest Hotel, American Psycho).

Nominated for 11 awards at the 2024 Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actress Yorgos Lanthimos' Poor Things comes to TIFF Lightbox March 3. Get your tickets at tiff.net. 

"You're worried about a relationship while you're freezing on a door? I think you got to worry about surviving. Drop the dead weight and you'll live."

Illustrious comedian and host of the Why Won’t You Date Me podcast, Nicole Byer makes a pitstop at TIFF’s Studio 9 to deliver dating advice to some of cinema’s most iconic lovers, including: Elisa Esposito (The Shape of Water), Rose DeWitt Bukater (Titanic), Romeo Montague (Romeo + Juliet), Elio Perlman (Call Me By Your Name), Cinderella (Cinderella), and Leia Skywalker (Star Wars).

After fleeing civil war in Liberia, a formerly-privileged refugee (Cynthia Erivo, Wicked Part 1, Widows) is barely scraping by in her new life in Greece when she strikes up an unexpected friendship with a rootless tour guide (Alia Shawkat, 20th Century Women, Green Room).

Anthony Chen's (The Breaking Ice, Ilo Ilo) Drift comes to TIFF Lightbox March 2 & 6. Get your tickets at tiff.net. 

Greta Gerwig’s (Lady Bird, Little Women) wildly successful film follows a self-aware Mattel toy (Margot Robbie, The Wolf of Wall Street, Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood) who leaves the matriarchal paradise of Barbieland for the less female-friendly Real World — with all the disappointment, sexism, and self-doubt that follows.

Nominated for eight awards at the 2024 Oscars, including Best Picture, Best ing Actress (America Ferrera, How to Train Your Dragon, Dumb Money), and Best ing Actor (Ryan Gosling, La La Land, Blade Runner 2049), Barbie comes to TIFF Lightbox February 20. Get your tickets at tiff.net. 

Our 2024 Oscar Shorts series is back with three programmes of Academy Award–nominated films in the Animation, Live-Action, and Documentary categories, including:

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Animated Shorts  2k6yf

Our Uniform – Yegane Moghaddam, 7 min., Iran (in Farsi)
Using her actual school uniform as a backdrop, Iranian filmmaker Yegane Moghaddam considers the clothing imposed on children.
Letter to a Pig – Tal Kantor and Amit R. Gicelter, 17 min., /Israel (in Hebrew)
A young girl is transported on a journey after hearing a Holocaust survivor read a letter to the pig who saved his life.
Pachyderm – Stéphanie Clément and Marc Rius, 11 min., USA (in English)
This eerie film follows Louise, a young girl who spends a few days at her grandparents’ house in the country every summer. But this year is a little different.
Ninety-Five Senses – Jerusha Hess and Jared Hess, 13 min., USA (in English)
Tim Blake Nelson voices an inmate on death row getting ready to bid farewell to his physical life.
War is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko – Dave Mullins and Brad Booker, 11 min., USA
Pixar alum Dave Mullins teams up with John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s son Sean to tell a story about of opposing armies who take a break from fighting to play chess.

Live Action Shorts  3p4e6e

The After – Misan Harriman and Nicky Bentham, 18 min., UK (in English)
David Oyelowo stars as a rideshare driver reeling from a recent act of shocking violence. 
Red, White and Blue – Nazrin Choudhury and Sara McFarlane, 23 min., USA (in English)
Brittany Snow plays Rachel, a young mother forced to cross state lines for an abortion.
Knight of Fortune – Lasse Lyskjær Noer and Christian Norlyk, 25 min., Denmark (in Swedish/Danish)
A widower arrives at a morgue to say goodbye to his recently-deceased wife. But instead of facing his bereavement, he allows himself to be distracted by a broken lamp.
Invincible – Vincent René-Lortie and Samuel Caron, 29 min., Canada (in French)
This Quebecois film tells the story of the last 48 hours of the life of Marc-Antoine Bernier, a 14-year-old who died while being pursued by police officers.
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar – Wes Anderson and Steven Rales, 37 min., US/UK (in English)
Benedict Cumberbatch and Ralph Fiennes star in Wes Anderson’s adaptation of the Roald Dahl story, about a man who develops the ability to see without using his eyes.

Documentary Shorts  165b39

Island In Between – S. Leo Chiang and Jean Tsien, 20 min., Taiwan (in English/Mandarin)
Filmmaker S. Leo Chiang explores his roots on the Taiwanese island of Kinmen, which sits, not always comfortably, just off the shore of mainland China.
Nǎi Nai and Wài Pó – Sean Wang and Sam Davis, 17 min., USA (in Mandarin)
Sean Wang turns his camera onto his two lively grandmothers as they go about an average day of chores (and shenanigans).
The ABCs of Book Banning – Sheila Nevins and Trish Adlesic, 27 min., USA (in English)
This film turns to the authors of banned books, and the kids who have lost access to them, to explore the rise of this unsettling phenomenon.
The Last Repair Shop – Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers, 39 min., USA (in English)
In an unremarkable warehouse in downtown Los Angeles, a small number of experts work hard at one of the country’s few remaining repair shops of its kind to keep over 80,000 instruments in good condition for the students who need them.
The Barber of Little Rock – John Hoffman and Christine Turner, 35 min., USA (in English)
This doc tells the story of Arlo Washington, who lives in an Arkansas community where many fellow Black people are distrustful of financial institutions. Washington isn’t just a barber who’s helped create jobs for thousands of people — he’s also the founder of a nonprofit community bank.

The Oscar Shorts series comes to TIFF Lightbox starting February 16. Get your tickets at tiff.net. 

A lonely astronaut (Adam Sandler, Uncut Gems, Punch-Drunk Love) desperate to fix things with his wife back on earth (Carey Mulligan, Maestro, Drive) is helped by a mysterious ancient creature hiding on his ship.

Johan Renck's (Chernobyl, ing Nancy) Spaceman comes to TIFF Lightbox starting February 23. Get your tickets at tiff.net. 

"Sometimes the universe is speaking to you, and it did with this film. Bob's music, his message means so much to so many and we really wanted to bring something that humanized him, that brought his lyrics to you and to a new generation." —Reinaldo Marcus Green

TIFF proudly presented the Canadian premiere of Bob Marley: One Love with director Reinaldo Marcus Green (Monsters and Men, King Richard) and Ziggy Marley in attendance in person for a post-screening conversation.

Produced in partnership with the Marley family and starring Kingsley Ben-Adir (Barbie, One Night in Miami…) as the legendary musician and Lashana Lynch (Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, No Time to Die) as his wife Rita, the film celebrates the life and music of an icon who inspired generations through his message of love and unity.

For more information about the Toronto International Film Festival, visit tiff.net.

From the directors of Loving Vincent, The Peasants is a cinematic pageant about a 19th-century Polish village where a beautiful maiden marries a widowed landowner while nursing a burning love for his son.

Yearning for a world beyond the fertile yet arduous one known to her, a maiden resides with her mother in the picturesque Polish countryside of the 19th century, where the homespun traditions of peasantry date back to antiquity. Full of ornamental song and rapturous dance, and meticulously painted frame after frame, The Peasants, from DK and Hugh Welchman, is a comic, tragic, and reflective tableau resembling an ancient epic. 

Told through seasons that honour the cyclical rituals of ploughing, plantation, and harvest, this adaptation of Władysław Reymont’s Nobel Prize–winning novel of the same title (written in four volumes between 1904 and 1909 and translated into 27 languages) recounts the tale of a charming and voluptuous woman named Jagna (Kamila Urzedowska, How I Became a Gangster, 25 Years of Innocence) hungering for love and lacking in cunning. Her home of Lipce, a God-fearing village, is full of characters, including a lecherous mayor, a snooty church organist, and a razor-tongued gossip, and hundreds of storks that, according to lore, foretell the arrival of new life. Here, Jagna creates havoc by marrying a wealthy widower named Boryna (Mirosław Baka, A Short Film About Killing, Decalogue V), whose children and their families — including the apple of her eye, his brawny son, Antek (Robert Gulaczyk, Loving Vincent: The Impossible Dream, Heart Parade) — work the land and expect inheritance. Jagna’s fate is all but sealed when she breaks one of the few societal taboos. Naturalistic in the best of times and brutal in the worst, The Peasants is a love song to the memories of our ancestors and to timeless matters of the heart. 

—Dorota Lech

The comic yet reflective #TIFF23 film comes to TIFF Lightbox starting February 16. Get your tickets at tiff.net. 

“We were shooting a documentary on a fictional character.” 

Award–winning filmmaker Wim Wenders (Paris, Texas, Wings of Desire, The American Friend) ed us at TIFF ‘23 to discuss his return to the big screen with Perfect Days, a poignant character study and a deeply moving reflection on finding beauty in the everyday world around us. Wenders describes the pace of filming the poetic film, and how Koji Yakusho (Cure, Babel, Memoirs of a Geisha) truly embodied the story of his character, Hirayama. 

Nominated for the Best International Feature Film Oscar, the film is now playing at TIFF Lightbox. Get ticket details at tiff.net.

Paul Giamatti stars in Alexander Payne’s latest about the bond that forms between a strict professor and a belligerent student he’s stuck supervising over the winter holiday at an elite boarding school.

Barton men don’t lie. This is just one of the many rules Professor Hunham (Paul Giamatti, The Truman Show, Saving Private Ryan, 12 Years a Slave) takes much too seriously as he hands out poor grades at an elite boarding school in 1971. As he dismisses the politics that come along with educating the children of people in high places, he’s punished by the heaster who gives him a most undesirable assignment for the winter break: to stay at the school and supervise the students who are unable to go home.

Hunham resolves to have the students suffer with him, forcing them to start studying next semester’s curriculum ahead of time. Among them, 15-year-old Angus (Dominic Sessa), bright but belligerent, makes a ruckus. Teacher and student become foes, antagonizing one another and tiring themselves out, as Mary (Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, The Lost City, Dolemite Is My Name), the school cafeteria manager, observes from the sidelines, herself alone after recently losing her son in the Vietnam War. As the petulant pair succumb to the depressing truth that they’ve got little else but each other this holiday season, Professor Hunham starts to soften up and they begin to see themselves in one another.

Giamatti gives a career-high performance as the risible teacher who delights in doling out punishment, while newcomer Sessa makes an immediate name for himself, revealing layers of complexity to his character’s rebellious nature. With The Holdovers, director Alexander Payne (Downsizing, TIFF ’17) makes a delicate point about how a first impression never tells the whole truth and shows that the pains and tragedies that feel specific to us actually make us a lot more alike than unalike.

—Jane Schoettle

Nominated for five awards at the 2024 Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best ing Actress, The Holdovers returns to TIFF Lightbox February 29. Learn more about showtimes and ticket details at tiff.net.

Winner of this year’s Palme d’Or, and starring German actress Sandra Hüller, Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall is a riveting portrait of a complex woman put on trial for the murder of her spouse.

The much-lauded winner of this year’s Palme d’Or, Justine Triet’s (Sibyl, In Bed with Victoria, Age of Panic) fourth feature has cemented her status as one of today’s great filmmaking talents. Unfolding over two-and-a-half hours like a compulsively readable novel, the riveting Anatomy of a Fall is both a dissection of an intimate relationship and of the judiciary process.

Sandra (a ferocious, magnetic, and edgy Sandra Hüller, The Zone of Interest, Toni Erdmann, I’m Your Man) is a successful German writer who lives in the French Alps with her husband Samuel (Samuel Theis) and their visually impaired son Daniel (Milo Machado Graner, Waiting for Bojangles, Stuck Together). A brilliant, decibel-bursting opening scene suggests tensions in their isolated chalet, so when Samuel is discovered dead in the snow beneath one of their windows, suspicion is quickly aroused. Did he take his own life, or was he pushed to his death? When the investigation proves to be inconclusive — its varying angles hinting at the microscopic examination to come — Sandra is ultimately indicted and put on trial.

A captivating and sharply directed, written, and acted courtroom procedural, Anatomy of a Fall also functions like a trenchant autopsy of confirmation bias and ambiguity itself, with the court an operatic arena in which every gesture, word, and past interaction are ripe for judgment. As scrutiny turns to Sandra’s complex character and her tumultuous relationship with Samuel — their artistic rivalries, romantic jealousies, and contempt — the couple’s young son becomes the key witness.

Taut, suspenseful, and thrilling until the final moment, Anatomy of a Fall progresses like a heady puzzle that tackles the messiness of existence and the often-elusive nature of truth itself.

—Andréa Picard

Nominated for five awards at the 2024 Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actress, Anatomy of a Fall heads to TIFF Lightbox February 22. Learn more about showtimes and ticket details at tiff.net.

Martin Scorsese’s (Goodfellas, The Departed, The Last Waltz) historical epic is also a rebuke of the deceptive mythmaking that’s part of the way a nation understands its history. With all the tools in his arsenal, including actors like Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf of Wall Street, Inception, Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood), Best Actress Oscar nominee Lily Gladstone (First Cow, Certain Women, The Unknown Country), and Best ing Actor nominee Robert De Niro (Joker, Taxi Driver, The Godfather: Part II), the veteran filmmaker tells the story of a real American tragedy: the Reign of Terror in 1920s Oklahoma, when dozens of Osage people were murdered after gaining wealth and prominence from the oil on their land. 

Nominated for 10 awards at the 2024 Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actress, Killers of the Flower Moon heads to TIFF Lightbox February 22. Learn more about showtimes and ticket details at tiff.net.

Oscar-winning director and TIFF '23 Platform Jury member, Barry Jenkins (If Beale Street Could Talk, The Underground Railroad, Medicine for Melancholy), makes his return to TIFF to unpack his Academy Award-winning sophomore feature, Moonlight. Examining the Black filmography and the legendary auteurs that influenced his work, Jenkins details his Miami origins and the enduring legacy of his influential film.

Proceeding in three distinct movements, Moonlight traces the literal and figurative growth of its protagonist, Chiron, as he progresses from a troubled child (Alex Hibbert, Black Panther, Good Burger 2) to a sexually confused teenager (Ashton Sanders, Judas and the Black Messiah, Straight Outta Compton) to a buff, jail-tatted drug dealer (Trevante Rhodes, Bird Box, The Predator) who finds that he still yearns for his high-school love.

A supposedly fun night turns into a sobering mission of self-knowledge for 16-year-old Tara while on a wild vacation with her friends in Crete.

Yearly, hordes of young British tourists descend on Malia, a haven on the Greek island of Crete of sun-kissed motels and sticky nightclubs, for a week of unsupervised gallivanting. Fresh off their final exams, bestie trio Taz (Mia McKenna-Bruce, Kindling); Skye (Lara Peake, Mood, How to Talk to Girls at Parties), who seems older than she is; and Em (Enva Lewis), a straight-A student, arrive on the scene with a simple itinerary: party hard and get laid. 

Clad in bodycon and down for adventure, the 16-year-olds are successful only in achieving the first goal on night one. Taz — a goofball and the only virgin in the lot — awakes to a hangover and cat calls from the balcony of neighbour Badger (Shaun Thomas, Ali & Ava). “It’s all very Romeo and Juliet,” Skye jokes, and soon Badger and his pals Paddy (Samuel Bottomley, The Teacher) and Paige (Laura Ambler) the gang, embarking on night number two. Drunken escapades lead Taz beachward with smooth-talking Paddy. The next morning is fuzzy and full of lingering confusion. Meanwhile, as exam results roll in, it’s clear that life will soon set the girls on different paths. 

Molly Manning Walker’s (Good Thanks, You?, The Forgotten C) glittery, gritty, EDM-soundtracked feature debut rages in a timely way, avoiding coming-of-age clichés and, more importantly, any shaming. Serving a cocktail of youthful horniness and the realities of being in such a vulnerable state, How to Have Sex is about self-acceptance, friendship, and survival. This film is for anyone who’s ever felt like being left behind leads to the end of the world. 

—Dorota Lech

Molly Manning Walker’s How To Have Sex comes to TIFF Lightbox starting February 9. Learn more about showtimes and ticket details at tiff.net.

Wim Wenders returns with a poignant character study and a deeply moving, poetic reflection on finding beauty in the everyday world around us.

After several years away from the silver screen, Wim Wenders (Paris, Texas, Wings of Desire) is back with Perfect Days, a poignant character study and emotionally charged journey into the soul of Tokyo. Radiating charm and embracing all his best work, this unique mix of fiction and ordinary life finds an unusual, poetic angle to guide us: the architectural marvels of some of Tokyo’s public toilets. 

Kôji Yakusho (The Blood of Wolves, Mirai), in one of his best performances to date, plays Hirayama, a cleaner of these toilets. (He is named after the protagonist of Yasujiro Ozu’s last film, An Autumn Afternoon — a quiet tribute to the great master of Japanese cinema, an auteur beloved by Wenders.) Hirayama lives alone in a small house full of plants, his days going by according to quiet rhythms that never seem to change. His is a neighbourhood of tiny cafés frequented by the same people, of bookshops that sell works by Patricia Highsmith or young, contemporary Japanese writers. Hirayama speaks very little and has a great ion for music, books, and the trees he loves to photograph. He drives to work in his minivan, fully equipped with his cleaning gear, while The Rolling Stones, Patti Smith, or Lou Reed ring in ageless, husky hums from a tape player. 

As if in search of a new cinema on the road, Wenders follows his protagonist and instead discovers new places of the heart. Through Yakusho/Hirayama, Wenders captures the poetry of the everyday with intimacy and stunning simplicity. 

—Giovanna Fulvi

Wim Wenders' Perfect Days comes to TIFF Lightbox starting February 7. Learn more about showtimes and ticket details at tiff.net.

Bradley Cooper (A Star Is Born) wears many hats (actor, director, writer) in this biopic about conductor Leonard Bernstein and his tumultuous relationship with Felicia Montealegre (Carey Mulligan, Drive, Promising Young Woman, Wildlife).

Bradley Cooper’s Academy Award–nominated film Maestro returns to TIFF Lightbox February 1. Learn more about showtimes and ticket details at tiff.net.