TIFF 2025: Day One

The 50th annual Toronto International Film Festival begins today with the world premiere of Colin Hanks' latest documentary, John Candy: I Like Me. It's my nineteenth year attending—a crazy number to see placed against that milestone anniversary. If I keep it up another decade I'll eventually balance the scales to have been present for half of TIFF's entire existence.

This golden celebration has already earned its first bit of controversy after the selection of Barry Avrich's The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue, its subsequent withdrawal after vocal opposition against the platforming of zionist propaganda, the subsequent letter providing "context" for that withdrawal by explaining the filmmakers didn't have the "rights to use" Hamas' footage of the October 7th attacks (despite them being publicly available online), and its subsequent reinstatement after vocal opposition from zionists. I'm thinking this saga isn't done yet. Cue the protests from both sides.

In lighter news, the festival will be handing out their Tribute Awards to Guillermo del Toro (director), Hikari (emerging talent), Jodie Foster (Share Her Journey groundbreaker award), Catherine O'Hara (Norman Jewison Award), Nina Hoss and Channing Tatum (performance), Kazu Hiro (Variety Artisan Award), Idris Elba (Jeff Skoll Award in Impact Media), and Lee Byung-hun, Zacharias Kunuk, and Jafar Panahi (special tribute). And amongst those industry leaders comes another famous visitor by the name of the Criterion Mobile Closet—its first event outside of America. The line will certainly be untenable.

Other intriguing parts to this year's event: Cinema Park with free outdoor screenings in David Pecaut Square (including anniversary showings of The Goonies on 9/4, Best in Show on 9/8, Before Sunrise on 9/9, and High Fidelity on 9/10), a 60-foot sushi bar pop-up serving free omakase on 9/5 from 5-6:30pm at King and John in honor of the Masaki Saito documentary, and whatever "Amazon MGM Studios and Prime Video are bringing one of John Candy’s most iconic film moments to life" means from 10am-8pm on 9/5-9/7.

I personally avoid all that noise. The awards are generally a marketing ploy. The King Street hustle and bustle is definitely a marketing ploy (with sponsors giving away free samples and information at their outdoor booths). The exception proving the rule are those glorious food trucks saving me from eating street dogs like my early TIFF days.

I attend for the films and it's looking like my schedule will include eleven titles on the big screen. Eight are confirmed (barring any setbacks): Adam Carter Rehmeier's Carolina Caroline, Gus Van Sant’s Dead Man's Wire, David Mackenzie's Fuze, Jan Komasa's Good Boy, Christian Petzold's Miroirs No. 3, Ben Wheatley's Normal, Annemarie Jacir's Palestine 36, Romain Gavras’ Sacrifice. As for the other three, it could be any of Aziz Ansari's Good Fortune, Aneil Karia’s Hamlet, Cato Kusters' Julian, Potsy Ponciroli's Motor City, Park Chan-wook's No Other Choice, or Hubert Davis' Youngblood. It depends on public tickets access.

As with the past two years, I'll be publishing daily dispatches at 8am here at Hey, Have You Seen? with all the reviews I've written for movies that premiered the prior day or shortly thereafter (but I won't push them via email so as not to spam subscriber inboxes). This is why there are no reviews included today ... nothing has played yet. So, let's talk about the coverage you can expect from me the next week, the rest of 2025, and into the future as more TIFF entries gain US distribution.

Today's schedule:

• Miroirs No. 3, d. Christian Petzold | Centrepiece | Germany | German

In the queue

I've had the pleasure of pre-screening a bunch of titles with 22 reviews already filed for the coming days. I must thank all the great publicists that work together with critics to ensure coverage for their clients because no one would ever be able to catch everything on their wish lists without them.

Since I'm only in Toronto for four days, the slots in my schedule fill up quickly with assignments for The Film Stage. That almost always guarantees many new voices and unknown commodities are left by the wayside—a sad truth for many working journalists considering their need to keep up with the Joneses by prioritizing the bigger names first. Gotta get those clicks.

I haven't seen all of the below, but I do hope to get to as many as possible upon returning home after the weekend. Most have been sent to me or promised. Some are hopefuls I've been told might be available without having heard back about a confirmation. There are some real bona fide gems here to keep a look out for and, if you're in Toronto, to add to your own schedule.

• Aki, d. Darlene Naponse – world premiere | TIFF Docs
• Amoeba, d. Siyou Tan – world premiere | Discovery
• Babystar, d. Joscha Bongard – world premiere | Discovery
• Bayaan, d. Bikas Ranjan Mishra – world premiere | Discovery
• Bouchra, d. Orian Barki & Meriem Bennani – world premiere | Platform
• Egghead Republic, d. Pella Kågerman & Hugo Lilja – world premiere | Discovery
• Flana, d. Zahraa Ghandour – world premiere | TIFF Docs
• Forastera, d. Lucía Aleñar Iglesias – world premiere | Discovery
• Ghost School, d. Seemab Gul – world premiere | Discovery
• Girl, d. Shu Qi – North American premiere | Centrepiece
• Honey Bunch, d. Madeleine Sims-Fewer & Dusty Mancinelli – North American premiere | Centrepiece
• I Swear, d. Kirk Jones – world premiere | Centrepiece
• Junk World, d. Takahide Hori – world premiere | Midnight Madness
• Karmadonna, d. Aleksandar Radivojević – world premiere | Midnight Madness
• Laundry, d. Zamo Mkhwanazi – world premiere | Discovery
• Levers, d. Rhayne Vermette – world premiere | Wavelengths
• Little Lorraine, d. Andy Hines – world premiere | Discovery
• Lovely Day, d. Philippe Falardeau – world premiere | Special Presentations
• Mama, d. Or Sinai – North American premiere | Centrepiece
• Mārama, d. Taratoa Stappard – world premiere | Discovery
• Meadowlarks, d. Tasha Hubbard – world premiere | Special Presentations
• Mile End Kicks, d. Chandler Levack – world premiere | Special Presentations
• Modern Whore, d. Nicole Bazuin – world premiere | TIFF Docs
• Nomad Shadow, d. Eimi Imanishi – world premiere | Centrepiece
• Nuns vs. The Vatican, d. Lorena Luciano – world premiere | TIFF Docs
• Oca, d. Karla Badillo – world premiere | Discovery
• Our Father, d. Goran Stankovic – world premiere | Discovery
• Retreat, d. Ted Evans – world premiere | Discovery
• Sk+te'kmujue'katik (At the Place of Ghosts), d. Bretten Hannam – world premiere | Platform
• The Son and the Sea, d. Stroma Cairns – world premiere | Discovery
• Steal Away, d. Clement Virgo – world premiere | Special Presentations
• The Tale of Silyan, d. Tamara Kotevska – North American premiere | TIFF Docs
• To the Victory!, d. Valentyn Vasyanovych – world premiere | Platform
• Uiksaringitara: Wrong Husband, d. Zacharias Kunuk – North American premiere | Special Presentations
• Under the Same Sun, d. Ulises Porra – world premiere | Centrepiece
• Wasteman, d. Cal McMau – world premiere | Centrepiece
• Whitetail, d. Nanouk Leopold – world premiere | Centrepiece

Coming out in 2025

Why does it pay to put titles like the above on your itinerary? Because you never know if you'll ever be able to see them again. It's not always just the films like Marialy Rivas' Princesita that fail to get distribution either. All the acclaim in the world for Olivier Nakache and Éric Toledano's Intouchables still couldn't secure an American steward for their wonderful C'est la vie!

Miss them now and you might miss them forever. Because, let's face it, TIFF is a platform for a lot of films already scheduled for stateside theaters. Some this very month. So, for those attending the festival looking to swap in a far-flung title and those at home wondering when they can catch what everyone is already talking about, the following films release soon:

• The Man in My Basement – limited on September 12; Hulu on September 26
• Nirvana the Band the Show the Movie – limited on September 12
• Adulthood – limited on September 19
• The Lost Bus – limited on September 19; AppleTV+ on October 3
• Steve – limited on September 19; Netflix on October 3
• Swiped – Hulu on September 19
• Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery – Hulu on September 21
• Eleanor the Great – limited on September 26
• The Ugly – limited on September 26
• The Smashing Machine – October 3
• John Candy: I Like Me – Prime on October 10
• If I Had Legs I’d Kick You – limited on October 10
• Roofman – October 10
• Ballad of a Small Player – limited on October 15; Netflix on October 29
• It Was Just An Accident – limited on October 15
• Blue Moon – limited on October 17
• Frankenstein – limited on October 17; Netflix on November 7
• Good Fortune – October 17
• Hedda – Prime on October 29
• Little Amélie or the Character of Rain – limited on October 31; wide on November 7
• Nouvelle Vague – limited on October 31; Netflix on November 14
• Nuremberg – November 7
• Sentimental Value – limited on November 7
• Train Dreams – limited on November 7; Netflix on November 21
• Eternity – November 14
• Left Handed Girl – limited on November 14; Netflix on November 28
• Sirat – limited on November 14; wide in January 2026
• Rental Family – November 21
• The Secret Agent – limited on November 26; wide on December 5
• Wake Up Dead Man – limited November 26; Netflix on December 12
• Hamnet – limited on November 27; wide on December 12
• Dust Bunny – December 12
• Scarlet – limited on December 12

All these dates are obviously subject to change, but having US distribution pretty much guarantees any shift will likely be minimal.

Pulled from the archives at cinematicfbombs.com.

Chevalier screened on September 11, 2022 at TIFF.