The 51st Toronto International Film Festival may have wrapped on 20 September, but its cinematic energy still lingers around Reitman Square. As Toronto edges towards winter, with temperatures sitting around 15 to 17 degrees Celsius, King Street West remains marked by the afterglow of films, stars and unfamiliar stories.
Penélope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Cynthia Erivo, Naomi Watts, Michelle Yeoh and BLACKPINK’s Lisa drew crowds, but younger audiences increasingly sought global cinema. Chief Programming Officer Anita Lee told Reuters that younger people were returning with broader international interests.
The 10–20 September festival featured Being Heumann, Prima Facie, Musk, I Play Rocky, Misty Green, The Debut and Always Lalisa, alongside films about Edward Said, Ukraine, Mediterranean migration, labour organising and Iranian women. Lee said Tiff could not ignore geopolitical realities while keeping cinema central.
From China to Palestine
Reuters counted six Chinese-language or China-produced films, up from three last year, alongside Singaporean, Taiwanese and Malaysian productions. They included Michelle Yeoh’s It’s My Time, Peter Chan’s The Road Not Taken and Zhou Jing’s A Girl Unknown. Yeoh cited Korean and Japanese cinema’s global reach, while Fan Bingbing received a Special Tribute Award.
Sue Kim’s Always Lalisa followed Lisa through 2024–25, Alter Ego, The White Lotus and Coachella, with Lisa attending its premiere. Alex Gibney’s nearly four-hour Musk examined Elon Musk’s economic, technological and political influence and concentrated power.
Prima Facie, starring Erivo as lawyer Tessa, follows her after she is assaulted by a colleague. Susanna White directed the film from Suzie Miller’s play. Opening film Being Heumann, directed by CODA’s Siân Heder and starring Ruth Madeley as Judy Heumann, revisited the 1977 San Francisco occupation seeking implementation of Section 504.
Documentaries included James Marcus Haney’s Black Sunflowers, Mayken Baird’s Edward Said: Between Worlds, Sine Plambech’s Rescue, Afsaneh Salari’s Tehran, Under the Skin and Barbara Kopple’s Union Town, covering Ukraine, Said, migration, Iranian women and labour.
Market and Canada
Tiff: The Market, held 10–16 September at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, drew 7,010 delegates from 92 countries, 238 exhibitors, 1,473 buyers and more than 116,000 visits, exceeding its 6,000 target. Deals included Babies, starring Anna Kendrick and Seth Rogen. Industry reactions praised its connections but raised concerns about fewer market-ready projects than Cannes.
The winners — and the bigger story
Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi’s La Bola Negra won People’s Choice, ahead of I Play Rocky and Being Heumann.
Elsinore won International People’s Choice, ahead of Possible Love and The Assassin(s). Darlene Love: I Know Where I’ve Been won Documentary, ahead of Black Sunflowers and The Ultra Runner. Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney won Midnight Madness, ahead of The Spiral and Arrested Memory.
Angh won Platform; Brace Your Heart (Garrat Du Váimmu) won its Special Jury Award; Ancestors won FIPRESCI; Thirteen in Gaza won NETPAC; Smudge the Blades won Best Canadian Discovery; and Sunburn won Best Canadian Feature.
Short Cuts winners were MAMMALIA, Fight Kid and Into The Betaverse. Past People’s Choice winners Green Book, Nomadland, 12 Years a Slave and The King’s Speech later won Best Picture.
Beyond prizes, stars shared space with young Ukrainians, Edward Said’s legacy, Mediterranean migrants, labour organisers, Iranian women, Indigenous communities and unfamiliar languages. Toronto did not lose interest in stars; it simply made more room around them.
Bangladesh: The Difficult Bride carries Venice momentum
Rubaiyat Hossain’s The Difficult Bride, the first Bangladeshi feature selected for Venice Orizzonti, was a Tiff Centrepiece and her return seven years after Made in Bangladesh. Its 16, 17 and 19 September screenings sold out, she said.
Set in contemporary Dhaka, the psychological horror blends supernatural elements and South Asian folklore around beauty, marriage, femininity and social control.
Discussions covered women’s freedom, beauty standards, class and social pressure. Hossain said snails, earthworms, snakes and lizards sought physical and emotional response rather than direct symbolism. Next stops are BFI London and Chicago.
Nagaland: Angh finds its own road to the Oscars
Theja Rio’s Angh won Platform and C$20,000, with the jury praising its refreshing perspective, filmmaking strength and “deeply resonant portrait of a world”.
Set in the early 1960s in a Konyak village near India-Myanmar, it follows chief Anghba, his ailing wife and non-speaking son as their community disappears. Douglas Henshall plays an American missionary.
Primarily in Konyak and shot on 16mm by Adam Pietkiewicz, it stars Anghlong Konyak, Sobino Rengma, Genpai Konyak, Amah Konyak and Wangton Konyak.
Adapted from Rio’s 2021 Clermont-Ferrand Special Jury Award-winning short, the film street-cast villagers because Nagaland lacks professional film infrastructure.
New Oscar rules allow designated winners at six festivals, including Tiff, to gain International Feature consideration without official submission. India chose Marathi Gondhal, while Angh was reportedly among the Film Federation of India’s final three.
After 11 days, Toronto’s clearest image was not a retreat from stars but a widening screen: famous faces and unfamiliar stories sharing the same festival as audiences increasingly looked beyond the familiar.
