It’s TIFF-MAS again and, as usual, there is *way* too much to see and not enough time to see it. While on the ground for the third year running for Elements of Madness, I’ll be navigating films as things change, screenings change, times get missed, the body shuts down, and the world goes ‘round. All that said, this is a list of the movies I am looking forward to seeing at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival.
**These recommendations are primarily based on reading the summaries and finding them intriguing. If I’m able to cover (or EoM has covered previously), the titles will be hyperlinked with a review – so be sure to check back.**
Toronto International Film Festival takes place in Toronto, Canada, from September 10th – 20th, 2026.
Alpha Gang
Official Synopsis:
Léa Seydoux, Dave Bautista, Lily-Rose Depp, and Cate Blanchett star in the Zellner brothers’ look at an alien gang coming to Earth to conquer, but finding the human world has a plague they weren’t ready for.
A scene from ALPHA GANG. Photo courtesy of TIFF.
Arrested Memory
Official Synopsis:
A seasoned detective (Ethan Juan) recently diagnosed with dementia is doggedly pursued by both cops and crooks after he unwittingly wanders off with a multimillion-dollar ransom in a new absurdist crime caper from cult auteur SABU.
A scene from ARRESTED MEMORY. Photo courtesy of TIFF.
Babies
Official Synopsis:
Seth Rogen and Oscar nominee Anna Kendrick (TIFF ’09’s Up in the Air) star in Lauren Miller Rogen’s big-hearted comedy about the dilemma that eventually infiltrates every long-term relationship: to parent or not to parent?
A scene from BABIES. Photo courtesy of TIFF.
Back in Black
Official Synopsis:
Christopher Walken leads a terrific cast in director Ron Murphy’s hilarious satire about a failing family funeral home that experiences a reversal of fortune thanks to their town’s suspicious spike in fatality rates.
A scene from BACK IN BLACK. Photo courtesy of TIFF.
Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo
Official Synopsis:
A disgraced Tokyo detective spirals into a world of corruption, addiction, and violence as he becomes entangled in a twister investigation involving a vengeful ex-Yakuza, an enigmatic FBI agent, and a missing daughter of a powerful American family.
Closing Night
Official Synopsis:
Naomi Watts, Sarah Paulson, and Odessa A’zion deliver powerhouse performances in Cody Fern’s sensational feature debut, where a hardened movie star reunites with the deliciously messy family she left behind decades earlier.
A scene from CLOSING NIGHT. Photo courtesy of TIFF.
Club Kid
Official Synopsis:
A hard-partying New York City club promoter sees his whirlwind lifestyle upended by the arrival of the 10-year-old son he never knew he had.
The Debut
Official Synopsis:
When Mona Friedman is cast in a bit part at a small community theater, she transforms from a shy, unassuming housewife into a zealous method actor willing to do anything to protect the artistic integrity of her marginal role—even if it means waging war against the show’s domineering director.
Djinn Wedding
Official Synopsis:
Set in a remote Anatolian village, Ferit Karahan’s Djinn Wedding is an impressive family drama that unravels family secrets and conflicts across three periods of time.
A scene from DJINN WEDDING. Photo courtesy of TIFF.
Evil Genius
Official Synopsis:
Featuring David Harbour (Stranger Things) and Oscar winner Patricia Arquette (Boyhood), Courteney Cox’s second feature as director boldly dramatizes the chilling, darkly hilarious web of stories behind 2003’s infamous “pizza bomber” incident.
A scene from EVIL GENIUS. Photo courtesy of TIFF.
Fjord
Official Synopsis:
Winner of the prestigious Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, the latest from writer-director Cristian Mungiu is a gripping high-stakes courtroom drama driven by a profound moral dilemma.
Glaxo
Official Synopsis:
Glaxo, Benjamín Naishtat’s riveting adaptation of Hernán Ronsino’s novel, transforms a single betrayal into an absorbing tale of guilt, loyalty, and memory, weaving personal tragedy with Argentina’s turbulent twentieth-century history through an atmosphere of mounting mystery and suspense.
A scene from GLAXO. Photo courtesy of TIFF.
Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!
Official Synopsis:
Haru and Luis love competing in Tokyo’s ballroom dance scene, but after tragedy strikes, Haru withdraws into isolation. When friends coax her back to the studio, she develops an infatuation with the new instructor. She must face what comes next as sparks fly.
HALF
Official Synopsis:
Twin half-blooded vampires (Ranjith Sajeev and Aiswarya Raj) wage war with desert highway hijackers in a gory martial arts curry western from writer-director Samjad and choreographer Very Tri Yulisman (The Raid 2; The Night Comes for Us).
A scene from HALF. Photo courtesy of TIFF.
Hope
Official Synopsis:
In the remote South Korea village of Hope Harbor, police chief Bum-seok (Hwang Jung- min) and officer Sung-ae (Hoyeon) are called to find a mysterious creature that has wreaked havoc on the village. In the nearby forest, a coterie of hunters, including Sung- ki (Zo In-Sung) set out to track the beast and find themselves hunted instead. But all is not as it seems, and perceptions can be misleading. What begins as ignorance plants the seed of disaster, escalating through human conflict into a tragedy of cosmic proportions.
The Idiot(s)
Official Synopsis:
Aimee Lou Wood and Johnny Flynn bring to life the story of Anna and Fyodor Dostoevsky, showcasing the troubled author and the woman who pushed him to write one of his greatest works.
A scene from THE IDIOTS. Photo courtesy of TIFF.
In the Heart of the South
Official Synopsis:
In the Heart of the South is what Single White Female would be if it were set in Toronto, with an Inuk protagonist and a dash of supernatural elements, starring North of North’s Anna Lambe.
A scene from IN THE HEART OF THE SOUTH. Photo courtesy of TIFF.
Ink
Official Synopsis:
Director Danny Boyle’s latest thrillingly charts the meteoric rise of Rupert Murdoch’s fledgling but instantly notorious The Sun newspaper as he and editor Larry Lamb create the blueprint for UK tabloid culture. Guy Pearce (The Brutalist, TIFF ’24) and Jack O’Connell star.
The Liberation
Official Synopsis:
Carrie Coon soars in the riveting story inspired by filmmaker Guy Nattiv’s grandmother, whose humdrum day-to-day life is upended by a mysterious and entrancing young woman (Lily James) offering the promise of escape to something better.
A scene from THE LIBERATION. Photo courtesy of TIFF.
A Long Winter
Official Synopsis:
After his mother disappears during the first blizzard of the season, a young man refuses to give up hope as one long Montana winter reshapes his relationship with his father and his understanding of the man he is becoming. From Andrew Haigh, the acclaimed director of All of Us Strangers.
A scene from A LONG WINTER. Photo courtesy of TIFF.
The Only Living Pickpocket in New York
Official Synopsis:
Harry Lehman (John Turturro) is an aging pickpocket who plies his trade with ever-diminishing returns in a drastically changed New York. Wallets stuffed with cash have been replaced by easily canceled credit cards, and Harry struggles to make ends meet as he cares for his disabled wife, Rosie. When he unwittingly purloins and fences a valuable USB stick, Harry finds himself in a race against time to return the loot or face the rage of a vengeful crime family.
River
Official Synopsis:
Joshua Giuliano makes an audacious debut with a suspenseful slasher that sets three embittered siblings adrift along a rural waterway, and in the sights of a masked killer.
A scene from RIVER. Photo courtesy of TIFF.
Rogue Trooper
Official Synopsis:
Directed by Duncan Jones (Moon; Warcraft), this outlandish animated adaptation of the influential British comic book follows a clone soldier bred for an interstellar forever-war and his fallen comrades whose personalities live on within his gun, helmet, and backpack.
The Spiral
Official Synopsis:
Director Paolo Strippoli turns the screws on a desperate mother (Jasmine Trinca) as she confesses a series of Faustian bargains to her estranged daughter (Romana Maggiora Vergano) in this riveting morality chiller.
A scene from THE SPIRAL. Photo courtesy of TIFF.
Stuffed
Official Synopsis:
Love, death, and taxidermy collide in this gloriously twisted musical, one of the year’s funniest, most original, and unexpectedly heartfelt romances.
A scene from STUFFED. Photo courtesy of TIFF.
The Surgeon
Official Synopsis:
Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere All at Once) is back in action as a kidnapped surgeon forced to perform one last operation in this fun, pulse-pounding thriller.
A scene from THE SURGEON. Photo courtesy of TIFF.
A Talent for Murder
Official Synopsis:
This smouldering chamber thriller from Anton Corbijn (Control) stars Oscar winner Helen Mirren and Alden Ehrenreich (Fair Play) as opponents in a strange confrontation between a youthful literary agent and The Talented Mr. Ripley author Patricia Highsmith.
Tangles
Official Synopsis:
A young woman deals with her vibrant mother’s Alzheimer diagnosis in this deeply moving animation adapted from a graphic memoir, with a voice cast including Abbi Jacobson, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Bryan Cranston, Seth Rogen, and Bowen Yang.
A scene from TANGLES. Photo courtesy of TIFF.
Tender Loving Care
Official Synopsis:
Seven-time Academy Award nominee Mike Leigh returns with an uplifting story of family and how to deal with grief, featuring remarkably emotional performances from Kate O’Flynn and Alice Bailey Johnson.
Kate O’Flynn, Marion Bailey, and Alice Bailey Johnson in TENDER LOVING CARE. Photo Credit: Joseph Lynn. Photo courtesy of TIFF/Thin Man Films Ltd and Bleecker Street.
Trash Mountain
Official Synopsis:
After the death of their hoarder father in rural Missouri, two siblings (Caleb Hearon and Zooey Deschanel) reunite to sort through the baggage — both literal and emotional — in Kris Rey’s poignant and funny exploration of love and grief.
A scene from TRASH MOUNTAIN. Photo courtesy of TIFF.
Vintage Violence
Official Synopsis:
In Eugene Kotlyarenko’s mixed-media caper, a livestreamer (Cole Sprouse) discovers a cache of vintage denim only to run afoul of the Yakuza when he is lured to Japan to sell the jeans by one of his subscribers (Kiko Mizuhara).
Cole Sprouse as XX in VINTAGE VIOLENCE. Photo courtesy of TIFF.
Wild Horse Nine
Official Synopsis:
Shortly before the 1973 Chilean coup, CIA agents Chris (John Malkovich) and Lee (Sam Rockwell) are dispatched from Santiago to Easter Island by their bureau chief, MJ (Steve Buscemi). Amongst the Island’s iconic statues, and as the longtime partners wrestle with their dark pasts and present conspiracies, Chris’s newfound bond with a pair of rebellious students (Mariana di Girolamo and Ailín Salas) threatens to send everyone’s trip to this remote paradise sideways.
Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother
Official Synopsis:
From writer-director Bassam Tariq, Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother stars Mahershala Ali as Latif, a devoutly religious hitman who struggles to balance work, faith and fatherhood. When his wife dies, he embarks on a desperate journey across Houston to protect his children, confronting the forces closing in around him – and the beliefs threatening to unravel within.
About Toronto International Film Festival:
The Toronto International Film Festival returns September 10–20, 2026 for its 51st edition. Celebrate with the best of Canadian and global cinema, special events and talks with stars, plus TIFF: The Market, where the global film, series, and innovation industries come together to power the future of the screen sector.
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Categories: Coming Soon, Recommendation
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