By Original-Cin Staff

At 51, the Toronto International Film Festival faces the same existential problem anyone does at that age. The first half-century is in the rear-view mirror, and future is unforeseeable.

Which won’t stop Original-Cin from giving it a good try.

At this point, all we can glean from TIFF about the future is that it will be weird. This year, Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney — a movie about the former prime minister — is playing in the horror-heavy Midnight Madness series (by dint of the weirdness of director Matthew Rankin). Musk, a 235-minute biopic about Elon Musk is somehow not.

But we look forward to future horror shows involving politicos and Bond villain-esque billionaires. On the screen, we mean.

What won’t have changed from one half-century to the next is the sheer eclectic binge-watch on offer. Some 248 feature films are there to be seen, from more than 50 countries, and from some of the world’s most famous and impactful filmmakers.

During TIFF 2026, which runs from September 10 through 20, Original-Cin writers will see and capsule-review scores of narrative features and documentaries, from must-sees to best-avoids. Also watch for illuminating interviews and views.

In the meantime, the future-watch continues, as 10 Original-Cin writers each offer three films they can’t wait to see. Although, fortune-telling being what it is, any random screening at TIFF can turn out to be a hugely pleasant surprise.

Liz Braun

Tender Loving Care (Special Presentations)

If you know the work of Mike Leigh and the inimitable way he examines the lives of ordinary people, then any feature from this filmmaker is cause for celebration. Anticipation runs high for this entry, which concerns age, change, and the passage of time. It’s wonderful to imagine a young person somewhere with no previous Mike Leigh movie experience being introduced to such extraordinary films as Secrets & Lies, Life Is Sweet, Naked, Vera Drake, Another Year, Happy-Go-Lucky, Mr. Turner, Hard Truths and all the rest. What a concept.

Fjord (Special Presentations)

This is an easy choice, given the reception Cristian Mungiu’s latest has already received. The Romanian filmmaker has been on my radar since his 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days showed up at TIFF 2007, and one looks forward to another tense, chewy, difficult head-on collision between cultures, belief systems, and social structures. That funny whirring sound? That’s your moral compass spinning in ethical vertigo, friend.

Growth of the Soil (Special Presentations)

Norwegian film is of interest, and this drama from director Hans Petter Moland, based on Knut Hamsun’s novel, has an irresistible man-against-nature theme that I am keen to witness. I might just be hoping for another version of the Danish film The Promised Land, which stars Mads Mikkelsen; it must be a Canadian thing. Show me a spirit-crushing rugged landscape and people desperate to work that land, and I am happy.

Thom Ernst

A Talent for Murder (Gala Presentations)

I was young when I met Patricia Highsmith, the enigmatic author of such iconic novels as Strangers on a Train and The Talented Mr. Ripley. Highsmith took a liking to me, even as she shunned far more accomplished authors. And so, I’m naturally drawn to director Anton Corbijn’s chamber mystery, featuring Helen Mirren as Highsmith. Secluded in her remote Swiss mountain home, Highsmith toys with an ambitious young literary agent who has come to persuade her to write one more novel. She refuses — unless the agent can concoct the perfect murder.

Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo (Special Presentations)

The Bad Lieutenant is back for a third appearance in a franchise no one imagined could become a franchise. But is it even one? Each outing features a different star, a different location, and a different director. This time, Takashi Miike takes charge — and Miike has never been known to hold back when there’s an opportunity to push further. In his hands, there’s a very good chance we’ll see the Bad Lieutenant at his absolute worst, which could mean the series at its very best.

Arrested Memory (Midnight Madness)

Judging by its description, Arrested Memory sounds like a worst-case example of what might be considered unacceptable in the depiction of mental illness. And yet its premise of a tough cop in the early stages of dementia is impossible to resist. Just how far director SABU takes that premise remains to be seen. Will it be comedic, sensitive or outrageously inappropriate? Whatever it proves to be, I don’t intend to miss it and be left without an opinion.

Karen Gordon

Fjord (Special Presentations) / Minotaur (Special Presentations)

The two big winners from last spring’s Cannes festival top my list. Both are helmed by excellent directors whose work is deeply thoughtful and morally complex and who don’t pander to audiences by making it easy for us to figure out who the good guys are, or by wrapping things up with a neat bow. Romanian writer-director Cristian Mungiu’s Fjord won the Palme d’Or, Cannes’ top prize. Russian director-in-exile Andrey Zvyagintsev’s Minotaur won the festival’s Grand Prix. Both have excellent casts that won high praise for their performances.

The Debut (Special Presentations)

Writer-director Jessie Eisenberg has a light hand, but understands that while neurotic characters are funny, they are also sitting on a deep well of pain. Here he has once again cast Julianne Moore (also in his feature debut When You Finish Saving the World) who perfectly embodies the complexity of the people Eisenberg writes. She stars as a bored suburban wife who gets cast in a local theatre production and takes her new role very, very seriously. Even better: Paul Giamatti plays the director.

Kim Hughes

Club Kid (Special Presentations)

A smash at Cannes last spring, this feature debut from writer-comedian Jordan Firstman, about a hedonistic gay club king brought swiftly down to Earth with the discovery of a young son he didn’t know he had, looks charmingly unhinged in the spirit of Anora which, like Club Kid, was produced by Alex Coco. The film is certain to be further buoyed by actor Diego Calva, who is consistently beguiling.

Pretenders (Gala Presentations)

Chrissie Hynde may be the coolest rock ‘n’ roller to have traversed the Earth, and the chance to hear her lucid reminiscences in a documentary is tantalizing. Lest we forget, before forming the Pretenders in 1978, she worked alongside Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood in their Sex clothing store, witnessing the literal birth of punk. She also captivated the wildly divergent minds and hearts of Jim Kerr, Ray Davies, and Nash Kato and is a strident animal rights activist. I have nothing but time for Hynde and her bound-to-be-candid opinions on her obscenely sexist industry.

Low Lies the Land (TIFF Docs)

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t all kinds of curious about Bucking Fastard and Wild Horse Nine, both fêted elsewhere by esteemed colleagues. But this documentary, filmed in the stunning Piemonte region of Northern Italy and following three generational winemaking families whose way of life is threatened by climate change, filial ambivalence, and a predatory developer, sounds like an afternoon brilliantly spent. I am also curious about Onwards and Sidweays; Laura Linney rarely makes bad role choices.

John Kirk

Rogue Trooper (Midnight Madness)

Rogue Trooper is the number one film on my must-see list. Why? Pure adolescent nostalgia. Based on the 1980s UK comic of the same name, the surprise cast is another enticing reason.

The Stunt Driver (Special Presentations)

This isn’t just a cool part of Canadian culture and history to know; it's also a Jay Baruchel film. This Canadian talent earned my love in Fan Boys. To see him invoke the spirit of "The Mad Canadian" makes it a double Canadian threat.

Stuffed (Discovery)

A dark comedy with all the right vibes: English humour, funeral homes, taxidermy all mixed in with the promise of a weird romance. What more do you need for the promise of laughs?

Chris Knight

Back in Black (Centrepiece)

Christopher Walken is 83, which means anything new by this masterful actor is good news. In this one he stars as the owner of a failing small-town funeral home whose granddaughter finds a way to stir up business. It sounds hackneyed — Sweeney Todd meets Six Feet Under? — but if anyone can give it life (or at least orate its demise funereally) it’s Walken.

Bucking Fastard (Special Presentations)

Another 83-year-old, Werner Herzog has long pinballed between zany fabrication and stranger-than-fiction documentaries, but it’s been six years since his last work of fiction. Though based on actual twins Freda and Greta Chaplin (played by real sisters Kate and Rooney Mara) this sounds like a bonkers story as they are sued for harassing their shared love interest. I presume Herzog’s inimitable narration won’t be in this one, but you can’t have everything.

Future Tense (Centrepiece)

I’m a sucker for a good time-travel movie, and this South African film has the most inventive premise I’ve heard in a while. In a near future with the world on the edge of climate collapse, a mixed-race couple travels back to 1647, a pivotal year that marked the start of permanent European settlement in South Africa. One of them dreams of changing the course of history. Sign me up.

Liam Lacey

All of a Sudden (Special Presentations)

I’ve admired Ryûsuke Hamaguchi's expansive, thoughtful dramas (Asako I&2, Drive My Car, Evil Does Not Exist) and was pleased to see that his latest won acclaim at Cannes with its two stars: Virginie Efira as the director of a Parisian care home for the elderly, and Tao Okamoto as a terminally ill Japanese playwright, sharing the best actress prize at this year’s festival. Hamaguchi, a leading figure in international auteur cinema, is fascinated with dialogue — All of a Sudden centres around a night-long conversation — and the struggle to bridge the distances between people.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney (Midnight Madness)

Matthew Rankin made two of the most innovative Canadian films of the past decade: 2019’s The Twentieth Century, a fictionalized biography of Prime Minister McKenzie King, and 2024’s Universal Language, a trio of interconnecting fables set in an alternative Canada where Farsi and French are the official languages. Now he adds to his gonzo-Canadiana oeuvre with this satiric collage “documentary” of Canada’s polarizing 18th prime minister, who transformed Canuck conservatism and left office in 1993 a deeply unpopular figure with his party in disarray. Given the current abject state of U.S.-Canadian trade relations, the man who staked his career on binding our economies together is due for a fresh, irreverent look.

Ben’Imana (Centrepiece)

At a moment when accounts of genocide and war crimes dominate the global media, it’s a challenge to imagine what such ideas as justice, reconciliation, forgiveness, and healing look like. Those questions make Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo's debut film — its title literally meaning “children of God” and the first Rwandan drama accepted in the official competition at Cannes — especially timely. The winner of the first-feature Camera d’Or prize was praised by critics for exploring the thorny tension between the demands of public forgiveness and unresolved personal pain. Set in 2012, and based on the real accounts of Rwandan women, the story follows Vénéranda (Clémentine U. Nyirinkindi), a survivor of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, who directs community meetings as part of the grueling process of national healing.

A still from *Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney*.

Bonnie Laufer

I Play Rocky (Special Presentations)

Gonna fly now! We’ve all heard the legend of Rocky and Sylvester Stallone’s epic journey from script to screen. Now, get ready to see the blood, sweat, and tears laid bare, with newcomer Anthony Ippolito as Sly. Directed by Peter Farrelly, this behind-the-scenes look reveals the grit it took to get the boxing classic made. Safe to say, this one looks like a frontrunner for the People’s Choice Award.

The Debut (Special Presentations)

I have always been fascinated by actor-turned-director Jesse Eisenberg. His creative mind works in wonderful and mysterious ways. Being a theatre geek, I am so excited for his latest, starring the always fabulous Julianne Moore as a bored housewife stepping into community musical theatre alongside Paul Giammatti. There is zero chance I'm missing this one.

The Liberation (Special Presentations)

I’ll see practically anything featuring Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Tracy Letts, but The Liberation offers a double dose of brilliance by co-starring his extraordinarily talented wife, Carrie Coon. Directed by Guy Nattiv (Golda) and featuring Lily James and Bella Ramsey, the film is inspired by Nattiv’s grandmother’s life. Coon leads as a woman confronting a painful past who becomes entangled in a sinister cult.

Alice Shih

The Age of Goodbyes (Special Presentations)

The Age of Goodbyes is adapted from an award-winning novel by Malaysian writer Li Zi Shu and was once considered to be "unadaptable" because of its complex intersecting timelines. Edmond Yeo's visually stunning period drama not only features an excellent cast from Taiwan, Hong Kong and Malaysia; the costumes and production design remind me of Wong Ka Wai's classics.

Intermission (Centrepiece)

Yonfan was a renowned photographer in Asia before he became a filmmaker in 1984. His visual aesthetics delight our eyes, and his films further transcend his art from still to moving images. Intermission is more than a documentation of the best moments of his past 15 films; it also chronicles the development of Chinese language cinema with defining performances by Asian superstars, mostly from Hong Kong — Chow Yun Fat, Maggie Cheung, Cherie Chung and Daniel Wu — all in their prime.

Bucking Fastard (Special Presentations)

Werner Herzog has the wildest imagination, evident both in his documentary and narrative films. With a title like Bucking Fastard, this mismatch keeps one thinking if the eyes are playing games with the brain. So similar and yet so different, also, are the two leads, the real-life Mara sisters playing siblings with almost identical taste in life. They need to go to court for resolution and I’m intrigued to know what follows!

Jim Slotek

Ink (Special Presentations)

Danny Boyle’s take on the rise of Rupert Murdoch (Guy Pearce) is right in my wheelhouse, given that I had my first daily newspaper byline at 17 and wrote for a tabloid for 33 years. More importantly, Boyle is a terrifically eclectic director (Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, Slumdog Millionaire) who has never disappointed me. A slam-dunk choice for this guy.

Wild Horse Nine (Special Presentations)

Like Danny Boyle, playwright-filmmaker Martin McDonagh (In Bruges, The Banshees of Inisherin, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri) has never let me down, although I know he’s not for all tastes. Described as a black comedy, the movie stars John Malkovich as a senior CIA officer, ensconced in Easter Island on the eve of the Chilean coup, mentoring a young agent (Sam Rockwell). Add Tom Waits and Parker Posey to the cast, and I’m pre-sold.

Bucking Fastard (Special Presentations)

Werner Herzog’s docs have been poetically and introspectively narrated and a reflection of the man himself (inspiring some hilarious Herzog impressions). But my heart lies with his narratives of madness from Fitzcarraldo to Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans. Bucking Fastard is a reality-based take on the case of twin sisters (played by real-life sibs Rooney and Kate Mara) who fall in love with the same man (Orlando Bloom) with an intensity that sends them to court. Herzog plus over-the-top obsession is a promising mix.

Films We Can't Wait to See at TIFF '26

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