TIFF 2025: The 30 most anticipated movies at this year's Toronto Film Fest

Article content

The Toronto International Film Festival marks the start of fall moviegoing across Canada.

The 50th edition of the world’s largest public film festival, which kicks off on Thursday, has films starring Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt (The Smashing Machine); Sydney Sweeney (Christy); Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Evans (Sacrifice); Kirsten Dunst featuring alongside Channing Tatum (Roofman); Jacob Elordi and Oscar Isaac (Frankenstein); Matthew McConaughey (The Lost Bus); Paul Mescal (Hamnet); Keanu Reeves and Seth Rogen (Good Fortune); Daniel Craig (back with another Knives Out mystery); Jodie Foster (A Private Life); Oppenheimer lead Cillian Murphy (Steve); Elizabeth Olsen, Miles Teller and Callum Turner (Eternity); and the Academy Award-winning Angelina Jolie (Couture), to name a few.

Well-known directors will be in town as well, including Steven Soderbergh (The Christophers); Edward Berger (Ballad of a Small Player); (Guillermo del Toro (Frankenstein); Benny Safdie (The Smashing Machine); Park Chan-wook (No Other Choice); Richard Linklater (Blue Moon); and Gus Van Sant (Dead Man’s Wire).

A slew of popular actors are also making their debuts behind the camera, including comedian Aziz Ansari, Euphoria breakout Maude Apatow, Succession star Brian Cox, Split actor James McAvoy and Scarlett Johansson.

The festivities kick off Thursday night with the premiere of John Candy: I Like Me, a heartfelt tribute to the Canadian comedy icon from producer Ryan Reynolds and director Colin Hanks.

Some of the above mentioned films will undoubtedly go on to become big players in the leadup to awards season.

Since 2005, 15 films that have screened for Canadian audiences first at TIFF have gone on to win the Academy Award for Best Picture, including this year’s Best Picture winner, Anora.

“People love movies here, but it’s not a snobbish film audience,” TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey says of festival goers.

With 291 films set to make their Canadian debut in Toronto, we’ve picked out 30 titles we can’t wait to see. All of which will be coming to theatres (or streamers) in the near future.

Ballad of a Small Player
After his Oscar-winning films All Quiet on the Western Front and Conclave, Edward Berger casts Colin Farrell as a high-stakes gambler whose past catches up with him in Macau.

Black Rabbit (Series)
A rising-star on New York’s restaurant scene is forced into the criminal underworld when his irresponsible brother returns to town with loan sharks in pursuit. Stars Jude Law and Jason Bateman.

Blue Moon
Songwriter Lorenz Hart (Ethan Hawke who is also at the Festival with The Lowdown) struggles to maintain his composure during the premiere of Oklahoma! Richard Linklater directs.

The Christophers
Oscar winner Steven Soderbergh’s third film of the year is a black comedy that follows the estranged children of a once-famous artist who hire a forger to complete his unfinished works. Stars Ian McKellen, Michaela Coel, Jessica Gunning and James Corden.

Christy
Chronicles pioneering female boxer Christy Martin’s rise as she became America’s most well-known female boxer in the 1990s. Stars Sydney Sweeney.

Couture
Anchored by Oscar winner Angelina Jolie, the latest from writer-director Alice Winocour follows three women during the frenzy of Paris Fashion Week.

Dead Man’s Wire
Gus Van Sant returns to the festival to tell the fascinating true story of the 1977 kidnapping that made an aspiring entrepreneur into an outlaw folk hero. Stars Bill Skarsgard, Dacre Montgomery, Colman Domingo, and Al Pacino (also at the Festival with Easy’s Waltz).

Dust Bunny
A 10-year-old girl procures the services of a hit man (Mads Mikkelsen) to kill the monster under her bed. Bryan Fuller (Hannibal) directs.

Eleanor the Great
Oscar nominee June Squibb (Thelma) plays a nonagenarian who passes herself off as a Holocaust survivor. Scarlett Johansson directs.

Eternity
Set in the afterlife, a woman has one week to decide who she wants to spend eternity with – her longtime husband or her first love, who died young and has been waiting 67 years for her to arrive for their happily-ever-after. Stars Elizabeth Olsen, Miles Teller and Callum Turner.

Frankenstein
Oscar Isaac plays Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant scientist driven to the brink of madness when he brings a monstrous creature to life. Co-stars Jacob Elordi.

Good Fortune
Dissatisfied with performing minor miracles, an inept angel (Keanu Reeves) meddles in the lives of a struggling gig worker (actor-writer-director Aziz Ansari) and a spoiled millionaire (Seth Rogen).

Hamnet
Follows the fictionalized story of William Shakespeare (Paul Mescal) and his wife, Agnes (Jesse Buckley), as they come to grips with the loss of their 11-year-old son, Hamnet. Chloe Zhao directs.

It Was Just an Accident
A former political prisoner embarks on a mission of revenge after he has a chance meeting with a man he believes was one of his torturers. Winner of this year’s Palme d’Or at Cannes.

John Candy: I Like Me
Celebrates the late John Candy’s life and work through archival materials and interviews with his friends and colleagues.

The Lost Bus
Academy Award winner Matthew McConaughey and America Ferrera play a bus driver and a teacher who helped rescue a bus full of children during California’s 2018 Camp Fire.

Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery
Takes us behind the scenes of Sarah McLachlan’s legendary all-women music festival.

Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie
Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol revive their cult web series for an update that finds the duo time travelling back to the year 2008 when they tried — and failed — to book a show at The Rivoli, a storied venue in Toronto.

No Other Choice
Adapted from a crime novel by Donald E. Westlake — whose books inspired films like Point Blank and Payback — the latest film from Park Chan-wook centres on an unemployed man looking to take out his competition for a new job.

Nuremberg
Based on Jack El-Hai’s 2013 non-fiction book The Nazi and the Psychiatrist, the historical thriller follows a WWII psychiatrist as he forms a disturbing bond with Hermann Goring. Stars Oscar winners Russell Crowe and Rami Malek.

A Private Life
Oscar winner Jodie Foster plays a psychoanalyst in Paris who suspects one of her dead clients may have fallen victim to foul play.

Poetic License
Two college seniors fall for the instructor auditing their poetry course. Stars Cooper Hoffman, Andrew Barth Feldman, Leslie Mann and Method Man. Maude Apatow directs.

Roofman
A fugitive hiding out from the cops in the walls of a Toys R Us embarks on a romance with one of the store’s employees. Stars Channing Tatum and Kirsten Dunst.

Sacrifice
An environmental conference is disrupted by the leader of a doomsday eco-cult, who is convinced that the only way to stop the world from ending is to offer up a trio of famous sacrifices. Stars Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Evans, Ambika Mod, Vincent Cassel, John Malkovich, Salma Hayek Pinault and Charli xcx (also at this year’s festival in Erupcja).

Sentimental Value
The winner of the Grand Prix at this year’s Cannes festival traces a once-great filmmaker’s effort to recapture his past glory. Stars Stellan Skarsgard and Elle Fanning.

The Smashing Machine
In a role that is already generating plenty of Oscar buzz, Dwayne Johnson plays real-life MMA fighter Mark Kerr, who rose to prominence during the “no-holds-barred” early days of mixed martial arts. Co-stars Emily Blunt.

Steve
Oscar winner Cillian Murphy plays the passionate head of a crumbling “last chance” reform school for teenage boys.

Swiped
Inspired by the real-life story of Whitney Wolfe, the founder of online dating app Bumble. Stars Lily James.

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
In the third instalment of the whodunit franchise, Daniel Craig’s snappily-dressed detective Benoit Blanc tackles an “impossible crime” that he declares is his “most dangerous case yet.”

Youngblood
The remake of the 1986 hockey cult classic that starred Rob Lowe, Patrick Swayze and Keanu Reeves follows a young African-American hockey prodigy.

The Toronto International Film Festival runs from Sept. 4 to Sept. 14. For more info, visit TIFF.net.

mdaniell@postmedia.com