As the Toronto International Film Festival gets underway, The Hollywood Reporter’s critics weigh in on this year’s crop of titles, from biopics to documentaries, sweeping epics to intimate character studies, tear-jerking dramas to laugh-out-loud comedies.
Several of this year’s slate have already debuted at other festivals throughout the year. For those curious about the very best the TIFF calendar has to offer, a few — but not nearly all — of the highlights include the Steven Soderbergh ghost story Presence, which David Rooney hailed as “masterfully done” out of Sundance; the Icelandic grief drama When the Light Breaks, which Lovia Gyarkye described as “impossible to shake” at Cannes; and the literary adaptation Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight, which Caryn James praised at Telluride for the “astonishing” child performance at its center.
In addition, the lineup includes a number of highly anticipated world premieres — we’re curious about David Gordon Green’s Nutcracker, Marielle Heller’s Nightbitch and Angelina Jolie’s Without Blood, among many, many others. Plus, feature filmmaking debuts by the likes of TV director Andrew DeYoung (Friendship), commercials and music video director Fleur Fortuné (The Assessment) and actress Rebel Wilson (The Deb).
But perhaps most exciting, this year and ever year, is the unpredictable thrill of discovery: the possibility that any film we sit down for might become a lifelong favorite, might introduce us to a brand-new talent, might show us a way of looking at the world that we’ve never thought of before. We hope you’ll continue to join us as we explore this year’s TIFF titles — watch this space as we continue to update with new reviews posted throughout the festival.
All We Imagine As Light
Sideshow/Janus; directed by Payal Kapadia; 110 minutes
Anora
Neon; directed by Sean Baker; 138 minutes
Babygirl
A24; directed by Halina Reijn; 114 minutes
Battleground
Still seeking U.S. distribution; directed by Gianni Amelio; 103 minutes
Better Man
Paramount; directed by Michael Gracey; 134 minutes
Bird
MUBI; directed by Andrea Arnold; 119 minutes
The Brutalist
Focus; directed by Brady Corbet; 215 minutes
Caught by the Tides
Sideshow/Janus; directed by Jia Zhang-Ke; 111 minutes
Cloud
Still seeking U.S. distribution; directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa; 124 minutes
Conclave
Focus; directed by Edward Berger; 120 minutes
Dahomey
MUBI; directed by Mati Diop; 68 minutes
The Damned
Vertical Entertainment; directed by Roberto Minervini; 88 minutes
Diciannove
Still seeking U.S. distribution; directed by Giovanni Tortorici; 109 minutes
Disclaimer
Apple; directed by Alfonso Cuarón; minutes
Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight
Still seeking U.S. distribution; directed by Embeth Davidtz; 98 minutes
Emilia Pérez
Netflix; directed by Jacques Audiard; 130 minutes
The End
Neon; directed by Joshua Oppenheimer; 148 minutes
Ernest Cole: Lost and Found
Magnolia Pictures; directed by Raoul Peck; 105 minutes
Flow
Sideshow/Janus; directed by Gints Zilbalodis; 86 minutes
The Friend
Still seeking U.S. distribution; directed by Scott McGehee, David Siegel; 123 minutes
The Girl with the Needle
MUBI; directed by Magnus von Horn; 115 minutes
Grand Tour
Still seeking U.S. distribution; directed by Miguel Gomes; 129 minutes
Happyend
Metrograph; directed by Neo Sora; 113 minutes
Harvest
MUBI; directed by Athina Rachel Tsangari; 133 minutes
I’m Still Here
Sony Classics; directed by Walter Salles; 137 minutes
Julie Keeps Quiet
Still seeking U.S. distribution; directed by Leonardo van Dijl; 103 minutes
Kill the Jockey
Still seeking U.S. distribution; directed by Luis Ortega; 96 minutes
Megalopolis
Lionsgate; directed by Francis Ford Coppola; 138 minutes
Memoir of a Snail
IFC; directed by Adam Elliot; 94 minutes
Misericordia
Janus; directed by Alain Guiraudie; 102 minutes
My Sunshine
Still seeking U.S. distribution; directed by Hiroshi Okuyama; 90 minutes
No Other Land
Still seeking U.S. distribution; directed by Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor; 96 minutes
Oh, Canada
Kino Lorber; directed by Paul Schrader; 95 minutes
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
A24; directed by Rungano Nyoni; 95 minutes
The Order
Vertical Entertainment; directed by Justin Kurzel; 116 minutes
Pepe
Still seeking U.S. distribution; directed by Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias; 122 minutes
The Piano Lesson
Netflix; directed by Malcolm Washington; 125 minutes
Piece by Piece
Focus; directed by Morgan Neville; 93 minutes
Presence
Neon; directed by Steven Soderbergh; 85 minutes
Queer
A24; directed by Luca Guadagnino; 135 minutes
The Room Next Door
Sony Classics; directed by Pedro Almodóvar; 107 minutes
Rumours
Bleecker Street; directed by Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, Galen Johnson; 118 minutes
Santosh
Metrograph; directed by Sandhya Suri; 120 minutes
Saturday Night
Sony; directed by Jason Reitman; 103 minutes
The Seed of the Sacred Fig
Neon; directed by Mohammad Rasoulof; 168 minutes
The Shrouds
Still seeking U.S. distribution; directed by David Cronenberg; 119 minutes
The Story of Souleymane
Still seeking U.S. distribution; directed by Boris Lojkine; 102 minutes
The Substance
MUBI; directed by Coralie Fargeat; 140 minutes
Three Friends
Still seeking U.S. distribution; directed by Emmanuel Mouret; 117 minutes
To a Land Unknown
Still seeking U.S. distribution; directed by Mahdi Fleifel; 105 minutes
Universal Language
Oscilloscope; directed by Matthew Rankin; 89 minutes
Vermiglio
Still seeking U.S. distribution; directed by Maura Delpero; 116 minutes
The Village Next to Paradise
Still seeking U.S. distribution; directed by Mo Harawe; 133 minutes
When The Light Breaks
Still seeking U.S. distribution; directed by Runar Runarsson; 80 minutes
Will & Harper
Netflix; directed by Josh Greenbaum; 114 minutes
