TIFF ’26: What to See at This Year’s Fest, Sept. 18
By Liz Braun, Thom Ernst, Karen Gordon, Kim Hughes, John Kirk, Chris Knight, Liam Lacey, Bonnie Laufer, Alice Shih and Jim Slotek
Here we are: the final weekend of TIFF 2026. Seen anything great yet? We have… along with some not-so-greats but hey, they can’t all be winners. Read on, cinephiles, read on.
A scene from HALF.
American Hostage (Primetime)
Fri, Sept. 18, 9:30 pm, Scotiabank 4.
Based on a true story from 1977, American Hostage observes the fine line reporters walk when presenting the news and the risks they take in becoming it. When a disgruntled client of a local mortgage firm in Indiana takes a broker hostage, veteran radio news director Fred Heckman (Jon Hamm) must interview the kidnapper on live radio. The tension-filled back story between the kidnapper and the mortgage company reveals itself. Tony Kiritsis (Giovanni Ribisi) is more than just a mad gunman with revenge on his mind, and Heckman's reporter instincts kick in as he shares the gripping, uncensored story with his captivated audience. JK
Babies (Gala Presentations)
Fri, Sept 18, 9:15 am, Scotiabank Theatre 3.
Writer-director Lauren Miller Rogen tackles the thorny couples’ issue of whether or not to have children in this comedy, with Seth Rogen and Anna Kendrick as the duo trying to figure all that out. A friend whose marriage is breaking up comes to stay — bringing her little daughter along with her — and the undecided couple gets a chance to see what life is like with a child in the house. Elderly parents, broken dreams, and other issues surface; call it a slice of American life, maybe, but it’s inadvertently heartbreaking. Great music. Wish the filmmaker had gone deeper. LB
Carrie (Primetime)
Fri, Sept. 18, 8:30 pm, Royal Alexandra Theatre; Sat, Sept. 19, 8:30 pm, Scotiabank 1; Sun, Sept. 20, 7 pm, Scotiabank 3.
I know what you're thinking: Who needs another Carrie? Well, evidently, we do because this eight-episode series written and directed by the uber-talented Mike Flannagan (Life of Chuck) is outstanding. We meet a young Carrie (as written by Stephen King) who, after being locked away in her home by her parents (particularly her religious and abusive mom) is let out into the world to attend high school. Summer H. Howell is spectacular in the title role, bringing compassion and innocence that elicits great sympathy throughout the series. Flannagan has brought this story into present day, where social media bullying is at its peak. I am not going to lie, even knowing what Carrie is capable of I was rooting for her! Eagle-eye viewers will notice a shout-out to Brian De Palma who directed the classic 1976 movie starring Sissy Spacek. BL
Everything Else is Noise (Wavelengths)
Fri, Sept. 18, 10 pm, TIFF Lightbox 4.
If Seinfeld was a “show about nothing,” imagine a wry version (sans laugh-track), set entirely during a day in a Mexico City apartment with Teresa (Teresita Sánchez), her daughter Luisa (Luisa Pardo), and Teresa’s best friend Rosa (Rosa Estela Juárez Vargas), all of whom are cello performers and classical composers. Ashamed of her own digs, Rosa plans to use Teresa’s apartment as the location for an on-camera interview. Throw in intermittent power failures, an unstoppable barking dog, and a looming dinner with Teresa’s ex (a fatuous famous maestro). Amid punking of the interviewers, relationships and hard realities unfold along with cathartic laughter. A sly bare-bones comic gem from Nicolás Pereda. JS
HALF (Midnight Madness)
Fri, Sept. 18, 11:59 pm, Royal Alexandra Theatre; Sat, Sept. 19, 6:15 pm, Scotiabank 7.
I had never heard the term “curry western” until Samjad’s HALF. Apparently, the genre has been around since the ’70s. Shame on me. If HALF is a representative sample, I’ll be keeping my eyes open. Set in the dry, remote reaches of Rajasthan, HALF is a gem of a vampire movie in which the vampires are the good guys: bickering twin siblings Ethan and Ivy (Ranjith Sajeev and Aiswarya Raj), half-human, half-vampire, who survive a murderous gang of highway robbers who leave them for dead. Their mixed blood comes with perks: sunglasses handle the daytime, while sundown heals even mortal wounds. The bandits prey on families and assume the twins will be easy pickings. A glorious miscalculation. What follows is a bloody, vicious revenge picture that marries the violence of the western with martial-arts mayhem, all played with a wicked sense of fun. Playful as it is brutal, HALF is exactly the kind of film Midnight Madness was made for. TE
Ink (Special Presentations)
Fri, Sept 18, 9 pm, TIFF Lightbox 1.
Director Danny Boyle points to the beginning of the end in this exhilarating film about the heyday of print, the UK Sun and the role of tabloid culture in creating a sparkly, shallow, post-truth world. Ink has riveting performances from Jack O’Connell as editor Larry Lamb and Guy Pearce as Rupert Murdoch. This bit of history will likely appeal most to a pre-internet generation. LB
It’s My Time (Gala Presentations)
Fri, Sept. 18, 3:20 pm, Scotiabank 1; Sun, Sept. 20, 9:30 am, Scotiabank 3.
Michelle Yeoh plays a foul-mouthed, domineering but energetic 70-year-old grandma living in a care home. Life is no longer challenging or even meaningful until she learns how to play Rubik’s Cube under an ex-champion (Liu Haoran) whose life is unravelling. She determines to win some championships — and score some handsome prize money — to provide for her family and her coach but overloads her physical and mental health. Bai Xue’s sophomore film paints a light and playful picture for seniors to lift their spirits and encourage them to stay vigorous while being mindful of their ambitions. AS
Le Faux Soir (Special Presentations)
Fri, Sept. 18, 2:45 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 2.
I love a good pulling-a-fast-one-on-the-Nazis story, all the more if it’s true. This one is. Belgian writer-director Michaël R. Roskam shoots in the grainy greys and browns that are shorthand for “occupied Europe,” with the story of a group of patriotic Brussels citizens who decide to replace one issue of the local daily Le Soir — Nov. 9, 1943 — with a joke issue akin to The Onion. But that meant finding a willing printer (opposite Gestapo HQ as it happens), getting a printable masthead, rounding up Linotype letters, figuring out how to delay the real paper, etc. A fantastic, fun thriller complete with ticking-clock urgency and a cast of loveable ne’er-do-wells, or rather e’er-do-wells. CK
Paradise Lost (Special Presentations)
Fri, Sept. 18, 6:20 pm, Scotiabank 4.
There’s no obvious connection between Yeon Sang-ho’s Paradise Lost and Milton’s epic poem of the same name though both are ultimately concerned with the battle between good and evil. The film lacks Milton’s theological oomph, but it has plenty on its plate — perhaps too much. Three substantial storylines compete for attention. Kim Hyun-joo is terrific as a single mother whose premonition that something is wrong proves tragically accurate when a school bus carrying children disappears. From that grief emerges a company that commercializes mourning by creating A.I. replicas of the lost children, allowing parents to interact with them as if they were alive. The film’s swipe at A.I. is less about menace than the commodification of grief. Then a missing child unexpectedly returns, just as a new series of killings begin and another child goes missing. Each storyline has the makings of a compelling film. Crammed into one, they make Paradise Lost feel like an overstuffed epic. TE
A scene from Prima Facie.
Prima Facie (Gala Presentations)
Fri, Sept. 18, 6:45 pm; Scotiabank 3; Sat, Sept. 19, 9 pm, Scotiabank 4.
Suzie Miller’s award-winning 2019 play has been adapted by English director Susanna White as a vehicle for Wicked star Cynthia Erivo as Tessa, a London barrister whose legal wins — including defending men accused of sex crimes — have earned her praise and allowed her to rise above her working-class roots. Both her life and faith in the legal system are upended when a new boyfriend sexually assaults her. After she reports the crime to police and the case goes to trial, Tessa faces the kind of scrutiny and skepticism she once dished out to other victims. From time to time, we are privy to Tessa’s inner thoughts in voiceover, reflecting the script’s origins as a one-woman monologue. But this is the only unconventional aspect of this earnest post-#MeToo message movie. LL
Possible Love (Special Presentations)
Fri Sept 18, 11 am, TIFF Lightbox 1; Sat, Sept 19, 11 am, TIFF Lightbox 1.
“I feel like I’m in a novel I haven’t read,” says Mi-ok, surveying the lavish summer mansion of a wealthy new acquaintance, a phrase that could describe Possible Love, director Lee Chang-dong’s follow-up to 2019’s Burning. Jeon Do-yeon (the magnetic star of Lee’s Secret Sunshine) plays working-class Mi-ok, struggling to care for her 10-year-old son and husband Ho-Seok (Sul Kyung-gu), who drinks to dull his rage following the violent end of a strike at a factory two years before. At a funeral for a laid-off co-worker, the couple meet Ye-ji (Cho Yeo-jeong) and her rich husband, Sang-woo (Zo In-sung). The well-meaning Ye-Ji wants to make a documentary about the decline of labour and convinces the family to be her subjects in this brilliantly layered narrative of irony and painful emotion. LL
Re/Pair (TIFF Docs)
Fri, Sept. 18, 9 pm, Scotiabank 14.
Dialogue between Americans who are Black and Jewish — and people like director Lacey Schwartz Delgado, who is both — is the goal of this surprisingly moving documentary. At a time of division and rage, the director presents us with the most basic seeds of repair: thoughtful people of good will sitting together to talk, sharing personal feelings and perspectives, and listening to each other. Some are famous, others work behind the scenes; some are long-term friends, others meet on set. All think about these issues and bring open hearts and minds to the conversations. Along the way Schwartz Delgado looks at some of the history between the two groups in America. She deliberately steers clear of conclusions. Rather, the film suggests sincere conversation is the way forward and is inspiring enough to launch a movement. KG
Spirit Guardians: The Last Secret of the First Emperor (Gala Presentations)
Fri, Sept. 18, 5:30 pm, Roy Thomson Hall; Sat, Sept. 19, 1:30 pm, Scotiabank 1; Sun, Sept. 20, 1 pm, Scotiabank 1.
This is the most expensive film ever made in Vietnam, and every penny is evident on screen in the production value and costume design. Plus, we see astounding Vietnamese landscape, unlike what’s typically depicted in war films. Fight choreography is exciting in this period piece about a kingdom in crisis after the king’s death. A coup is planned but loyalists must find a way to keep the king’s coffin out of the hands of their opponents or the kingdom will fall. The plot is quite simple, with cliches of swordplay films from the early ‘80s. The cast is huge, filled with veterans and newcomers; maybe that’s why performances look uneven at times. The Vietnamese film industry is developing and shows growth potential. AS
The Beloved (Special Presentations)
Fri, Sept. 18, 10:45 am, TIFF Lightbox 3; Sun, Sept. 20, 7 pm, Scotiabank Theatre 14.
Making movies is hard. So is admitting to being a terrible parent. Putting the two challenges together, Spanish director Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s has made a film with moments of almost excruciating interpersonal tension, relieved by flashes of caustic humour. Javier Bardem stars as tempestuous auteur Estaban Martinez, who is making a film about Spanish colonialism in West Africa. He has cast his long-estranged adult daughter, Emilia (Victoria Luengo) in one of the key roles to make amends for years of abandonment. But Emilia has not forgiven the violent drunk who scarred her childhood and is now a dictator on the set. Sorogoyen plays with aspect ratios, colour, and shooting styles to suggest different perspectives in this behind-the-scenes drama, but the heart of the film is psychological conflict between father and daughter, conveyed by two viscerally powerful performances. LL
The Man I Love (Special Presentations)
Fri, Sept. 18, 3 pm, TIFF Lightbox 1; Sat, Sept. 19, 2:30 pm, Royal Alexandra Theatre; Sun, Sept. 20, 11 am, Scotiabank 4.
Directed by Ira Sachs and starring Rami Malek, The Man I Love is set in late-1980s New York during the height of the AIDS epidemic. Malek plays Jimmy, a magnetic and somewhat narcissistic performance artist who lives with his devoted partner (Tom Sturridge) and experiences a brief period of good health following a severe bout of AIDS-related pneumonia. Knowing his time is limited, Jimmy is determined to live life on his own terms and direct and star in an off-off-Broadway production, challenging everyone who loves and wants to protect him. Malek delivers a powerful, gut-wrenching, and deeply vulnerable performance, and commands every inch of the screen. Interesting sidenote and Canadian connection: Jimmy is rehearsing an experimental stage adaptation of Quebec's Michel Tremblay and André Brassard's 1974 queer French-Canadian film, Once Upon a Time in the East. BL
The Road Not Taken (Special Presentations)
Fri, Sept. 18, 6 pm, Visa Screening Room at the Princess of Wales Theatre; Sat, Sept. 19, 3:15 pm, Scotiabank 3; Sun, Sept. 20, 7:45 pm, Scotiabank 11.
Zhou Xun (Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress) plays an experienced television host who suddenly stammers and loses her train of thought on live TV, a result of early onset Alzheimer’s. Apart from her career, she also struggles to keep her family together with an imminent divorce, an overbearing father with a stroke, and a rebellious daughter. Zhou’s performance — transitioning from a hot-tempered, domineering alpha lioness to a meeker self — is emotionally gripping and cathartic. Director Peter Ho-Sun Chan paints a convincing picture of Alzheimer’s caregiver burnout through her family members, showing that hope is around the corner when the sick are surrounded by love. AS
Trees Are Watching (Centrepiece)
Fri, Sept. 18, 6 pm, TIFF Lightbox 1.
The shortest description of this psychological horror from Kurdish Iranian director Bahman Ghobadi is that it’s about a haunted chair. And certainly, scenes where French actress Eva Green battles flying furniture with an axe are difficult to take seriously. But Ghobadi’s moody exercise in horror tropes is wrapped around an ecological subtext and an ancient Kurdish belief that, after death, we become trees and then whatever the wood is used for. Green plays a former student in the south Turkish city of Mardin who returns annually, purportedly to write about its history. But on this visit with her hearing-impaired daughter, memories are dredged up about a pair of sisters and their sadistic mother. There are time jumps and spectral visions, and not a few plot issues — why does a woman who attended Turkish schools until age nine speak not a word of Turkish? But enough thought is put in to take it well above the level of cheese. JS
Yaga (Primetime)
Fri, Sept. 18, 2:45 pm, TIFF Lightbox 2.
The sudden disappearance of Henry Park (Hudson Willliams), a rich kid from a small coastal town, prompts the local police to call in family friend Detective Rapp (Noah Reid) to assist their investigator Sergeant Carson (Clark Backo) and find him. Rapp follows an unconventional path that draws him towards a secretive and alluring professor (Carrie-Anne Moss) who begets more questions than answers. Mysterious events occur and both Carson and Rapp realize this is more than a missing persons case. A proudly Canadian series from Crave with a creepy aura and the flavour of sinister magic in the salt air, Yaga is definitely one not to miss. JK
Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother (Special Presentations)
Fri, Sept. 18, 2:30 pm, Visa Screening Room at the Princess of Wales Theatre.
Mahershala Ali stars in this slightly wobbly action thriller, playing a dad with three kids, looking for breast milk for his formula-allergic newborn after his wife suddenly dies. Oh, and he’s also a working assassin. The premise suggests a comedic mix of 2007’s Shoot ’Em Up (also featuring a hitman and a baby) and a John Wick movie, but writer-director Bassam Tariq (Mogul Mowgli) opts for a more dramatic tone. Such seriousness is almost derailed, however, by John Cho’s over-the-top performance as a cowboy-hat-wearing, gun-toting Christian fundamentalist. (“Kim Chi Jesus,” one character scoffs.) The result is entertaining though decidedly uneven. CK