TIFF

Journalist Seymour Hersh in 1975, as seen in the documentary “Cover-Up.”

(The New York Times)

When real-life political anxieties (or worse) infuse the atmosphere of a film festival, it’s hard to pretend that celebrating art is ever enough. “Cover-Up” was, for me, the antidote: a furious, hard-nosed profile of legendary investigative journalist Seymour Hersh, the man who broke the My Lai massacre in 1969, then went on to an impressive run of stories that included revelations about Watergate, the CIA and Abu Ghraib. Oscar-winning documentarian Laura Poitras (“Citizenfour”), co-directing with Mark Obenhaus, mainly tries to stay out of the way of Hersh’s ferocious forward momentum, capturing the writer’s method with a minimum of wasted words. “I’ve got every right to be here, buddy,” Hersh bats back to a displeased listener and you thrill to an era when breaking the news wasn’t chilled by caution. — Joshua Rothkopf

Movie fans come to Toronto to get an early peek at the year’s awards heavyweights. I didn’t see a knockout punch, but I saw some strong contenders — and in a couple cases, I just got bludgeoned.

Directors Benny Safdie (“Uncut Gems”) and David Michôd (“Animal Kingdom”) faced off with competing docudramas about the sufferings of two professional brawlers whose careers peaked in the ’90s — i.e., new “Raging Bulls” for today’s nostalgists. “The Smashing Machine” is a solo effort from the younger Safdie brother after making a string of energetic cult hits with his sibling, Josh. It stars Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as MMA fighter Mark Kerr, who could beat almost anyone inside the octagon but struggled to conquer his own demons at home with his then-wife, Dawn (Emily Blunt).

Based on the names and talent involved, I was expecting anything other than what I got: a conventional biopic. Its one bit of flair is a commitment to looking as though it was filmed on VHS. But projected in Imax, it just looked dreary (as did Johnson’s hairpiece). I’ll go another round with it in a more apropos ring.

Michôd’s “Christy” shares several of the same touchstones — the bloodrush of victory, a bruising domestic life, a distracting wig — but gender-flipped. Sydney Sweeney throws a convincing jab as Christy Martin, the first female boxer to make the cover of “Sports Illustrated.” A lesbian from a conservative West Virginia family, she was pressured to hide her sexuality by wearing pastel pink in the ring and marrying her much older, emotionally abusive male coach, Jim Martin (Ben Foster). The script only has a few ideas under its belt, but they’re effective, particularly our dawning recognition that while Christy thinks she’s fighting to prove her worth, she’s really fighting for the patriarchy.

Sweeney is good, even when the leaden dialogue does her a disservice. It’s her first substantial, serious part since 2023’s underseen “Reality” and she seizes the opportunity to be talked about as something other than the internet’s most polarizing ingenue. (Social media is forever singling out one young actress to be damned now and redeemed later, sigh.) As for Foster, who first snagged my attention as the pathetic loon in “Alpha Dog,” he knows how to play a hiss-worthy heel. You spend “Christy” aching to see him get socked in the face. If you need him to take more punishment, he’s just as vile in another TIFF title, “Motor City.”

Tessa Thompson in the movie “Hedda.”

(Prime Video)

At this year’s festival, ladies in corsets did more damage than gals in padded gloves. My favorite mean girl — perhaps even my favorite film of the festival — was Nia DaCosta’s “Hedda,” a devilish and dynamic adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s “Hedda Gabler,” in which the lead character (played by a fantastic Tessa Thompson) starts firing off her daddy’s old pistols as soon as the opening credits. DaCosta, who also adapted the play into a script, restages the action so that the chaos all takes place during a giant, drunken bacchanal at a rented mansion Hedda can’t afford. Thompson’s scheming newlywed manipulates the other characters with the confidence of a queen who controls all the pieces on the board, but every so often she simply has to flip the table over. The spirit is faithful; the subtext is fresh.

“Mārama,” a striking feature debut by Taratoa Stappard, bills itself as a Māori gothic and the combination works. In 1859 England, a white-passing woman from New Zealand named Mary (Ariāna Osborne) has sailed halfway around the world seeking information about her parents. The globe-trotting lord Sir Cole (Toby Stephens) strong-arms her into becoming his niece’s governess, calling the Māori a “magnificent people” while amusing his guests with parlor room reenactments of whale-hunting expeditions done with massive puppets. “Mārama” doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it’s a good ride with first-rate cinematography and production design and a story with one or two more surprises than we expect.

Similarly, “Honey Bunch,” co-directed by Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli, is another manor-bound thriller that toys with familiar tropes. An amnesiac bride (Grace Glowicki, a go-for-broke oddball who always gets my attention) arrives at an isolated and secretive trauma center where everyone seems to be screwing with her memories, including her shady husband (Ben Petrie). Straightaway, we have our suspicions about how this is going to go. The first half of the film doesn’t deviate from the formula — it’s a little dull — but the second half is a superb right hook.

Guillermo del Toro’s grisly, occasionally great “Frankenstein,” shot in Toronto and the U.K., hews more faithfully to Mary Shelley’s novel than the 1931 Boris Karloff classic, scrapping the mob of pitchfork-wielding villagers and salvaging the wraparound story of an ambitious explorer marooned in the the Arctic ice. But it’s still very much Del Toro’s own monster. One of his smartest adjustments is retooling the romantic heroine, Elizabeth (Mia Goth), from the ideal childhood sweetheart to a science-loving pacifist with limited patience for egomaniacs like Oscar Isaac’s Victor Frankenstein. Costume designer Kate Hawley makes Goth look like an exotic beetle with antenna-ish plumes sticking out of her hair.

Jacob Elordi as the Creature in the movie “Frankenstein.”

(Ken Woroner / Netflix)

Jacob Elordi’s creature amps up the pathos a tad too much for my taste, but there’s no denying how much he’s invested in the role, or how well Del Toro’s critiques about narcissistic inventors suit the present day. Still, Del Toro knows there’s a time and place to boast: At the film’s Toronto premiere at the Princess of Wales Theatre, he playfully accused his local below-the-line crew of being too humble and made them stand up for applause. “Stop being so Canadian,” he teased.

Del Toro told the audience that when he first saw Karloff’s creation as a boy, he thought to himself, “That’s my messiah, that’s the guy I’m going to follow like Jesus.” But the prize for the most idol-worshipping film in the festival belongs to Baz Luhrmann’s “EPiC,” which stands for “Elvis Presley in Concert.” Constructed from hours of previously unseen live footage from Presley’s stint in Las Vegas, its rapturous showing felt like attending the church of Elvis.

Luhrmann insists that “EPiC” is neither a concert film nor a documentary. I don’t see the issue with calling it either, but it’s also fair to consider it a companion piece to Luhrmann’s 2022 “Elvis.” It certainly shows that Austin Butler’s Oscar-nominated portrayal of the King wasn’t one rhinestone over the top. Here, the real Presley is charismatic as hell, and looks great beaded in sanctified sweat. Whenever he throws a damp scarf into the audience, the women go so crazy you’d think it was the Shroud of Turin.

Luhrmann continues to be outraged that Col. Tom Parker constricted Presley’s artistic growth by parking him in the city of buffet tables rather than letting him tour the world. Presley only did one week of international concerts during his entire career: five shows in Canada, two of them just a 10-minute drive from my theater. You can hear Presley’s resentment toward the better-traveled (and at the time, better-respected) artists stealing his spot on the charts. “It’s so dry in here, I feel like I’ve got Bob Dylan in my mouth,” he jokes. Later, he slings a guitar around his neck to strum “Little Sister,” and then speeds up the tempo and starts belting the Beatles’ “Get Back,” a subtle dig that the boys from Britain weren’t always that original.

A scene from the movie “A Useful Ghost.”

(TIFF)

Speaking of, I can’t wrap up my final dispatch from this year’s Toronto International Film Festival without mentioning the most creative Oscar contender I saw all week: “A Useful Ghost,” which won the Grand Prix of Critics’ Week at Cannes and will be Thailand’s entry for an Academy Award. Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke’s arch hybrid of horror, comedy, romance and political thriller starts when a self-described “academic ladyboy” (Wisarut Homhuan) discovers that his new vacuum cleaner is possessed. From there, the movie defies prediction at every turn.

I ducked into “A Useful Ghost” on a whim, wondering how it would pair with TIFF’s world premiere of “Dust Bunny,” a nice and nasty Roald Dahl-esque adventure in which a little girl hires Mads Mikkelsen to battle a man-eating monster under her bed. I came out of the theater abuzz with energy. Even though some of this season’s noisiest awards hopefuls are rooted in classic genres, there are still directors making movies that feel entirely new — and still audiences delighted to cheer for a big swing.

TORONTO — Welcome to a special daily edition of the Envelope at TIFF, a newsletter collecting the latest developments out of Canada’s annual film showcase. Sign up here to get it in your inbox.

Christina House, our staff photojournalist, continues to kill it with her portraits out of the Toronto International Film Festival. In the last day alone, she’s seen Angelina Jolie, Jacob Elordi and the cast of “Frankenstein,” Jodie Foster and more.

Or maybe you’d rather watch a video interview with Angelina Jolie and the cast and director of the inspiring fashion film “Couture?” Follow us on Instagram for all of our daily posts.

‘Blood will be shed. Possibly even a tear’: Our critic on Rian Johnson’s new ‘Knives Out’ mystery

Josh O’Connor, left, and Daniel Craig in Rian Johnson’s “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery.”

(Netflix)

Amy Nicholson had fun with “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery.”

She’s also noticing a fair amount of Canadian pride at her screenings. It’s been an unusually loaded moment for foreign relations with our neighbors to the north.

Amy weighs in on the scene from the first four days, her favorite (and less-than-favorite) movies at TIFF and a few surprises.

The day’s buzziest premieres

‘The Smashing Machine’

Emily Blunt and Dwayne Johnson in the movie “The Smashing Machine.”

(Ken Hirama / A24)

Sunday saw the TIFF schedule loosen up its restrictions regarding films that premiered at other festivals and audiences started to see more major titles from competing fests.

Take for example the Monday night premiere of “The Smashing Machine,” which just won the directing prize at Venice for Benny Safdie.

Making his solo debut apart from brother Josh — their most recent collaboration was “Uncut Gems” — Benny turns in a surprisingly heartfelt sports story based on mixed marital arts fighter Mark Kerr.

Taking the leading role is none other than wrestler-turned-actor Dwayne Johnson, in a part seemingly tailor-made to play off his own career arc and give him a prestige boost he has never had before.

Add Emily Blunt to the mix, as Kerr’s supportive partner, along with boutique studio A24 and the film seems like it should land the right combinations. — Mark Olsen

‘Exit 8’

A scene from the movie “Exit 8.”

(TIFF)

Ever fear that you’re racing around but going nowhere — that you’re in such a rush to make your way through the world that you’re barely seeing it?

Japan turned that feeling into a best-selling video game in which commuters are condemned to roam an underground subway station until they learn to pay attention to their surroundings.

Now Genki Kawamura has transformed that game into a movie. In Kawamura’s emboldened adaptation, our main player, the Lost Man (Kazunari Ninomiya of the pop band Arashi) is an aimless young slacker who is stuck both physically and emotionally.

If he ever wises up and escapes, he’s got to make better choices.

I’ve got a few quibbles with the film’s mechanics, but “Exit 8” is a moving metaphor for the art of giving things a close, appreciative watch. On day five of a film festival, we could all use a reminder to look sharp. — Amy Nicholson

TORONTO — Welcome to a special daily edition of the Envelope at TIFF, a newsletter collecting the latest developments out of Canada’s annual film showcase. Sign up here to get it in your inbox.

Our photo gallery’s latest includes Angelina Jolie, Dustin Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Richard Linklater and more.

But click through for our video interviews, including Mark Olsen’s sit-down with Sydney Sweeney and the crew of her boxing movie “Christy,” which required a total transformation.

Sydney Sweeney in “Christy,” a portrait of boxing champ Christy Martin, having its world premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival.

(Allie Fredericks / TIFF)

Here’s a taste of their exchange:

Sydney, people are already really talking about the physical transformation you make in the movie, the training that you did. What was it about the role that made it seem like you wanted to make that kind of commitment?

Sydney Sweeney: I mean, I couldn’t let Christy down, and I also love transforming for characters. That’s the whole reason of being an actor, is to be something different from yourself and to challenge ourselves.

So I had like two months of training. I built gyms in my house and I had a boxing trainer, I had a weight trainer, I had a nutritionist and would work out and train every single day.

And it was amazing. I loved it. Being able to completely lose yourself for somebody else and then have that person there next to your side. It was transformative.

Katy O’Brian, co-star: It was exhausting watching her do it.

Ben Foster, co-star: And in tribute to Syd, we’d shoot a 12-hour day that was dense, we’ll say, that would be a gentle word. She would then go train and choreograph the fights that she would do back-to-back after, one after another.

Sweeney: I’d be put in the middle of a ring and I’d have like nine girls and they would just drill me with all the different fights, one after the other for like two hours after we would wrap.

Because I really wanted the choreography to match the exact fights that she had in real life. So we would watch all the footage from her fights and memorize all the combinations and then implement those into the fight.

So everything you see were her actual fights. And so I’d wrap, I would do that for two hours, and then I would weight train.

David, there is something very unflinching about the movie. Why was it that you wanted to tell Christy’s story in a way that wasn’t afraid to explore these really dark and disturbing moments in her life?

David Michôd, director: In a way, the dark and disturbing was what made me want to make the movie. I had a clear sense that in this really wild and colorful story of a ’90s boxing pioneer was actually, underneath, it was a very important story to tell about how these coercive control relationships function.

And trying to wrap my brain around what keeps them functioning over, in this case, 20 years. And I knew that where Christy’s story went, it was harrowing.

And what the challenge for me then as a filmmaker was just to go, how do I do this being very conscious of not wanting to step into a world of representations of violence against women and all that kind of stuff, but not shying away from the horror that is very much there and is very palpable.

I could see a big sprawling movie that would start almost as a kind of conventional underdog pioneering sports movie and then morph into something that was deeply moving and important.

Sydney, Ben, what was it like for the two of you performing some of those darker scenes in the film and how did you keep some sense of humanity between the two of you?

Sweeney: There were so many conversations around a lot of those moments, and both Ben and I, we don’t like to rehearse and we kind of just want to feel it. And I think we both became very connected to who we were portraying and —

Foster: Listening.

Sweeney: We just listened

Foster: And Dave created a space where we could do that. And we would block it, we did a lot of talk privately, and then we would come in and jam and nudge. But the truth is Dave is quality control and would fine-tune moments.

The day’s buzziest premieres

‘EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert’

Elvis Presley performing live, as seen in Baz Luhrmann’s archival concert movie “EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert.”

(TIFF)

How deep did Baz Lurhmann go researching his 2022 movie “Elvis”? Forty stories. That’s the depth of the Kansas salt mine where Warner Bros. had stored 59 hours of unseen recordings from Elvis Presley’s seven-year stint in Las Vegas.

Lurhmann studied it for his Oscar-nominated biopic, which mourned Presley as an artist in a cage and wondered who the curious, music-loving boy from Tupelo might have become if Col. Parker had let him, say, visit an ashram with the Beatles.

This time, the “Moulin Rouge!” director has said that he wants to use found footage to “let Elvis sing and tell his story” — as in, Lurhmann’s own spectacular sensibilities will cede center stage to Presley himself, who can still wow a crowd even during a late-career moment when his own fans feared he had more jumpsuits than ambition.

I’ll definitely be at the premiere to pay my respects to the King. — Amy Nicholson

‘Hamnet’

Jessie Buckley, center, in director Chloé Zhao’s “Hamnet.”

(Agata Grzybowska / Focus Features)

You’re going to be hearing a lot of Oscar buzz in the coming months about various movies, along with people insisting that — seriously — this is the one you need to see. “Hamnet” is, far and away, that film, for three specific reasons.

First, Paul Mescal has now done three masterful turns, between this, “Aftersun” and “All of Us Strangers” confirming what a truly special talent he is. Mescal and the “Hamnet” crew came through our TIFF studio.

Clockwise from right: Paul Mescal, Noah Jupe, Jacobi Jupe, director Chloé Zhao, Jessie Buckley and Emily Watson, photographed in the Los Angeles Times Studios at RBC House during the Toronto International Film Festival.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Second, I needed director Chloé Zhao to rebound after the mess that was “Eternals” to the confidence she displayed on “Nomadland” — and she’s done exactly that. Read our Telluride interview with her.

Finally, Jessie Buckley has uncorked one of the year’s most impressive turns: a grief-stricken plunge that elevates her to the level of Casey Affleck in “Manchester by the Sea.” Do not be surprised if, like Affleck, she goes all the way. — Joshua Rothkopf

Toronto, Ontario, Canada, September 5, 2025 — Elle Fanning from the film “SENTIMENTAL VALUE,” photographed in the Los Angeles Times Studios at RBC House, during the Toronto International Film Festival, (TIFF) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on Friday, Sept. 5, 2025. (Christina House/Los Angeles Times)  (Christina House/Los Angeles Times)

TORONTO — Welcome to a special daily edition of the Envelope at TIFF, a newsletter collecting the latest developments out of Canada’s annual film showcase. Sign up here to get it in your inbox.

Have you seen the images from our photo gallery? Staff photographer Christina House and her crew are truly capturing the best of the fest.

There are wonderful shots up now, including Elle Fanning, Ethan Hawke, Channing Tatum and more, but this link will be updated periodically with others.

Expect Cillian Murphy, the cast of Rian Johnson’s ‘Wake Up Dead Man,’ Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Cillian Murphy and more surprises!

The day’s buzziest premieres

‘Good Fortune’

Aziz Ansari, left, and Keanu Reeves in the movie “Good Fortune.”

(Eddy Chen/Lionsgate/Eddy Chen / Lionsgate)

A low-level guardian angel righting a wrong feels like the set-up to a classic comedy. But amid a premise motivated by income inequality, there’s a distinctly current edge to “Good Fortune,” the debut feature of writer-director-star Aziz Ansari.

A struggling film editor who makes ends meet as a food delivery driver, Arj (Ansari) is at the end of his rope when said angel Gabriel (Keanu Reeves) switches his life with Jeff (Seth Rogen), a wealthy, self-important tech investor.

Except, instead of realizing things are tough all over, Arj decides he likes Jeff’s life better and doesn’t want to switch back. Which is only the beginning of the complications for these three lost souls.

Looking for hope in an out-of-balance world while laced with a righteously indignant anger (and set against distinctly L.A. locations), “Good Fortune” is social satire with a big heart. — Mark Olsen

‘Canceled: The Paula Deen Story’

Paula Deen in the documentary “Canceled: The Paula Deen Story.”

(TIFF)

Hungry for a brisk, witty documentary that’s as easy to enjoy as a plate of hot biscuits? Filmmaker Billy Corben analyzes the tabloid feeding frenzy that chewed up celebrity TV chef Paula Deen when she admitted to using a racial slur.

Going in, I only knew two things about Deen: the 2013 scandal and her staunch devotion to butter. Her full story is fascinating, especially buttressed by contemporary interviews with Deen and her two sons, Bobby and Jamie, who all specialize in Southern-fried zingers: “It came on like a snowball full of chainsaws,” says Jamie of the media blitz.

A complex schematic of the cancelation machine, “Canceled” argues that Deen was punished double that summer because Trayvon Martin’s killer wasn’t punished at all. The great archival footage makes you get why audiences once loved Deen — and it’s evident how much her family and friends still do, even if Corben greases her mea culpa to the point that you feel a little queasy. — Amy Nicholson

‘Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery’

Josh O’Connor, left, and Daniel Craig in Rian Johnson’s movie “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery,” having its world premiere as part of the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival.

(Netflix)

One of the real pleasures of the witty, surprising films made by writer-director Rian Johnson starring Daniel Craig as Southern gentleman detective Benoit Blanc is that, within the confines of the murder mystery, they could take place just about anywhere: a patriarch’s creaky mansion, a billionaire’s private island and now a small town’s historic church.

Or at least that’s the best we know from the scant details made public about the new “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery” ahead of its TIFF world premiere tonight. Craig returns as Blanc but joining the cast this time are Josh O’Connor, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Kerry Washington, Jeremy Renner, Daryl McCormack, Cailee Spaeny, Thomas Haden Church, Andrew Scott and Glenn Close.

The festival has been a good luck charm so far, with the previous two “Knives Out” movies premiering at TIFF in the same theater, day and time slot and both going on to Oscar nominations for their screenplays. — Mark Olsen

They couldn’t stop talking, even before the cameras for ‘Poetic License’ were rolling

Andrew Barth Feldman, left, Cooper Hoffman and Leslie Mann in “Poetic License,” having its world premiere as part of the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival.

(TIFF)

Mark Olsen has a fun interview with the banter-ific Andrew Barth Feldman and Cooper Hoffman, costars of Maude Apatow’s new movie “Poetic Licence.” They were friends before they shot the film and their verbal mutual affection — honed to a crazy degree of anticipation — is something to behold. They’ve raised bromance to an art form.

His apocalyptic art film ‘Sirât’ dances in the face of oblivion. That’s why people love it

Director Oliver Laxe, photographed in the Los Angeles Times Studios at RBC House during the Toronto International Film Festival.

(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)

Director Oliver Laxe has made a truly unique art film about a restless group of ravers who drive out in the the desert on the eve of what could be the end of the world. Since its debut at Cannes, “Sirât” is acquiring superfans — critics and audiences alike — wherever it plays. On the occasion of his first TIFF screening, Laxe spoke to me about his commitment to risk.

Nothing says “awards season” like a fall film festival. The Times’ reporters, critics, videographers and photographers are on the ground at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, bringing you all the news from TIFF’s 50th edition. Our coverage includes our TIFF Daily newsletter, along with photo and video highlights from the Los Angeles Times Studio.

Bookmark this site and revisit all weekend to see new actors, directors, documentarians and international icons who couldn’t wait to say hi to us. And be sure to check out our complete coverage of TIFF 2025 throughout the festival.

Elle Fanning from the film “Sentimental Value.”

(Christina House/Los Angeles Times)

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1. Back row left to right, Nadia Latif and Willem Dafoe. Front row left to right, Anna Diop and Corey Hawkins from the film “The Man in My Basement.” 2. Anna Diop.

Channing Tatum, Kirsten Dunst and Derek Cianfrance from the film “Roofman.”

Back row left to right, Anita Afonu and Ben Proudfoot. Front row left to right, Nana Adwoa Frimpong and Ghanaian Brandon Somerhalder from the film “The Eye of Ghana.”

Pete Ohs from the film “Erupcja.”

Left to right, Lisa Barros D’sa, Glenn Leyburn and Eanna Hardwicke from the film “Saipan.”

Director Oliver Laxe from the film “Sirât.”

Kirsten Dunst from the film “Roofman.”

Stephen Amell, left, and Sean Astin from the film “Little Lorraine.”

Elle Fanning and Stellan Skarsgard from the film “Sentimental Value.”

than Hawke from the film “The Lowdown.”

Riz Ahmed and Aneil Karia from the film “Hamlet.”

Left to right, Thomas DeGrezia, Director Eif Rivera, Brad Feinstein and Christina Weiss Lurie and Diego Boneta from the film “Killing Castro.”

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1. Jay McCarrol. 2. Matt Johnson from the film “Nirvana: The Band – The Show – The Movie.”

Connor O’Malley, Vanessa Bayer, Kate Berlant, Claudia O’Doherty, Eric Rahill and John Early from the film “Maddie’s Secret.”

Channing Tatum from the film “Roofman.”

Left to right, Samara Weaving, Kyle Gallner, seated, and Adam Carter Rehmeier from the film “Carolina Carolina.”

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1. Samara Weaving from the film “Carolina Carolina.”

Left to right, Idan Weiss and Agnieszka Holland from the film “Franz.”

Left to righy, Chris Candy, Jennifer Candy and Colin Hanks from the film “John Candy: I Like Me.”

Potsy Ponciroli from the film “Motor City.”

Back row, co-Director Tom Dean and Emilia Jones. Front row, co-Director Mac Eldridge and Nick Robinson from the film “Charlie Harper,”

Left to right, Megan Lawless, Cooper Tomlinson, Curry Barker, Michael Johnston and Inde Navarrette from the film “Obsession.”

Back row, Chandler Levack and Juliette Gariepy. Middle row, Stanley Simons and Barbie Ferreira. Front row, Devon Bostick from the film “Mile End Kicks.”

TORONTO — Kicking off Thursday night, the Toronto International Film Festival marks its 50th edition this year, bringing together a heady combination of art, business and celebrity.

The festival has become a reliable launching pad for films in North America, particularly those looking to enter the Oscar race. Though TIFF’s status as an awards-season kingmaker has found fiercer competition in recent years from adjacent events in Telluride and Venice, it unquestionably still matters, remaining an essential spot on the annual calendar of any movie year.

“I think TIFF is a really adaptable festival,” said Robyn Citizen, the festival’s director of programming, over Zoom this week. “We can’t always tell where the industry’s going, but we do want to be able to still serve our audiences and our industry the best we possibly can.”

Here are just a handful of reasons why TIFF has maintained such a significant role for so long.

It’s the ultimate one-stop shop

There will be more than 200 features screening at this year’s festival. Among those having their world premieres are Aziz Ansari’s wealth-inequality comedy “Good Fortune,” Nia DaCosta’s updated Ibsen adaptation “Hedda,” Derek Cianfrance’s true-crime caper “Roofman,” Hikari’s family drama “Rental Family,” Nic Pizzollatto’s Las Vegas-set “Easy’s Waltz,” David Michôd’s Sydney Sweeney-starring boxing drama “Christy” and Rian Johnson’s latest Benoit Blanc adventure “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery.” The festival will open with Colin Hanks’ documentary “John Candy: I Like Me,” also having its first screening ever.

Tessa Thompson stars in director Nia DaCosta’s “Hedda,” an adaptation of Ibsen’s “Hedda Gabler.” The movie will have its world premiere at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival.

(Prime Video)

TIFF remains valuable for more than just its world premieres, though. Among those titles playing at Toronto after having just bowed last week at Venice or Telluride (or even both) are Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein,” Chloé Zhao’s Shakespeare-inspired “Hamnet,” Mona Fastvold’s historical musical “The Testament of Ann Lee” and Edward Berger’s gambling drama “Ballad of a Small Player.”

Movies that played even earlier in the year at festivals such as Sundance, Berlin or Cannes are also featured in the lineup: Joachim Trier’s “Sentimental Value,” Mary Bronstein’s “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You,” Rebecca Zlotowski’s “A Private Life,” Jafar Panahi’s Palme d’Or-winning “It Was Just an Accident” and Richard Linklater’s “Blue Moon” and “Nouvelle Vague” will all be at TIFF.

It is exactly that combination of the best from different festivals and different parts of the calendar that makes TIFF unique. The event was originally known as the “Festival of Festivals,” meaning that it has always been a part of its mission to present a curated selection of the year’s best films. For better or worse, TIFF is often trying to be something for everyone.

“It’s important to us to curate with an attention to films that we know our audience may want to see, but that also includes films that we think our audience needs to see,” said Citizen. “We want to be that bridge between the filmmakers, the industry and the audience.”

Journalists covering the event can catch up with films from earlier in the year, get a jump on awards-season titles just beginning to find their way to audiences and even see projects that may not be released until a year or more later.

Add to that spirit of efficiency the fact that for increasingly budget-conscious U.S. media outlets, sending reporters to Toronto can often be a more cost-effective choice than pricier destinations such as Cannes, Telluride or Venice.

These are the festival world’s friendliest audiences

Toronto-born writer-director Chandler Levack will be world-premiering her “Mile End Kicks,” which stars Barbie Ferreira in a story based on Levack’s own experiences as a young music journalist. Levack said she is excited to see how a moment when Ferreira’s character flips off Toronto’s landmark CN Tower plays to a local audience.

Levack has experienced TIFF from multiple perspectives, first as a film student waiting in line for last-minute tickets, then as a journalist hustling for interviews, then working for the festival as a writer and now as a returning filmmaker.

Barbie Ferreira in Chandler Levack’s “Mile End Kicks.”

(TIFF)

“I think it still sets the tone for the cultural conversation in cinema,” said Levack. “The ways that I’ve seen movies at TIFF with those audiences — the way those films hit me and affected me — they’ve been really the most profound cinematic experiences of my life.”

TIFF is often referred to as an audience festival, meaning that the audiences there are particularly receptive, giving warmly enthusiastic responses. The area of the festival’s downtown core around King Street where some of the key venues are located can often be jam-packed with fans trying to catch an autograph, a selfie or even just a glimpse of some of their favorite stars. The most significant prize given by the festival is its People’s Choice audience award, which has often been a strong bellwather for its winner’s chances at the Oscars.

The distributor Sony Pictures Classics has eight movies playing in this year’s edition alone, including “Blue Moon,” Haifaa Al Mansour’s “Unidentified” and Scarlett Johansson’s “Eleanor the Great.” Over the years the company has brought more than 400 titles to TIFF.

“The audience is one of the most sophisticated in the world, for my money,” said Tom Bernard, who along with Michael Barker is co-founder and co-president of Sony Pictures Classics. “They get every nuance of every tick in a film, be it a comedy, a drama, a gasp that happens where they gasp with it. When you go see a movie in Toronto, you have to be careful because the reaction is so enthusiastic that many times you say, ‘Well, wow, that movie would be great.’ But it might be a little more difficult than the way that it plays in that town.”

The road to the Oscars often goes through Toronto

Though none of them had their world premieres at the festival, last year’s winners “Anora,” The Brutalist,” “Emilia Pérez,” “Conclave,” “Flow,” “I’m Still Here,” “The Substance” and “No Other Land” all played there. The Oscar nominated film “Sing Sing” had its world premiere at the 2023 edition of TIFF.

“Wake Up Dead Man” is the third film in director Rian Johnson’s series of mysteries starring Daniel Craig; all three premiered at TIFF. This marks the fifth time producer Ram Berman and Johnson have premiered one of their films at the festival. Both previous “Knives Out” mysteries earned Oscar nominations for Johnson for original screenplay.

Josh O’Connor, left, and Daniel Craig in the movie “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery.”

(Netflix)

Their company, T-Street Productions, also produced “American Fiction,” which premiered at the fest in 2023 and won the coveted People’s Choice audience award (other recent winners include “The Fabelmans,” “Belfast,” “Nomadland” and “Jojo Rabbit”), beginning a wave that took the film all the way to five Academy Award nominations, including best picture and winning the Oscar for adapted screenplay.

Though the new “Knives Out” film has been finished for a few months, Bergman said the plan was always to premiere again in Toronto, even playing in the same theater on the same day at the same time as the previous two films.

“I like going to Toronto and premiering there because the audience is always great,” said Bergman. “And really that’s who we make the movies for. We are not in the game, we’re not strategizing awards or anything, we just want people to have fun. We’ve always had a great time playing the movies in Toronto, so we should continue playing the movies in Toronto. It’s really that simple.”

Provocative documentaries often stir the pot

Nonfiction has always been a big part of Toronto’s identity going back to its very beginnings, which saw the likes of “Harlan County, USA.” and “Roger & Me” playing the festival.

Oscar-winner Laura Poitras returns to Toronto with “Cover-Up,” a portrait of investigative journalist Seymour Hersh that she co-directed with Mark Obenhaus. “Free Solo” directors Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin also return with “Love+War,” a look at the life of photojournalist Lynsey Addario.

This year, Ben Proudfoot’s “The Eyes of Ghana,” a portrait of African cinematographer Chris Hesse, will have its world premiere. Proudfoot previously won two Oscars for the documentary shorts “The Queen of Basketball” and “The Last Repair Shop.” (the latter a film that LA Times Studios co-distributed).

Cameraman Chris Hess in Ben Proudfoot’s documentary “The Eyes of Ghana.”

(TIFF)

“Canceled: The Paula Deen Story,” a look at the rise and fall of the food-world star, will have its world premiere, as will “EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert,” Baz Luhrmann’s documentary.

Documentaries that touch on hot button issues can raise problems for the festival as well. Last year Anastasia Trofimova’s film “Russians at War,” for which the filmmaker embedded herself with Russian soldiers to depict the war in Ukraine, sparked public outcry, threats of protest and safety concerns that caused the festival to ultimately show it after the main TIFF event had officially ended.

This year the festival initially invited the documentary “The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue,” about a hostage rescue mission undertaken by a retired Israel Defense Forces officer following the Hamas attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The festival then withdrew the film, directed by Toronto filmmaker (and former TIFF board member) Barry Avrich, from the lineup and following public uproar subsequently rescheduled it for a single public showing.

“This is the world we live in,” said Thom Powers, lead programmer of TIFF docs, about the way in which impassioned controversy erupts over films people have not even seen yet — the result of overly politicized environments and the short fuses of the social media era. “We can see this at many festivals.”

A proven half-century track record

For the first four years that Sony Classics’ Bernard brought films to Toronto, he would play then-festival chief Wayne Clarkson in tennis, with the loser paying for talent’s travel expenses. (Bernard won most of the time.)

He also recalled the time that he was able to have the training staff of the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs come right to the hotel room of Spanish auteur Pedro Almodóvar to reset his back.

But mainly there are memories of movies, times the festival’s specific magic cast its spell.

“I remember sitting in the theater watching ‘Il Postino’ and the guy who’s selling it is sitting next to me,” said Bernard of the 1994 film that would go on to be nominated for five Oscars, winning one. “And as the movie continues, the guy’s smile is getting bigger and bigger and bigger because he knows he’s going to be able to jack the price up way beyond anything I could pay.

“On the other hand, I remember being at the end of the festival and sitting in ‘Orlando’ and nobody was there but me,” he said of Sally Potter’s 1992 film that was a breakthrough for performer Tilda Swinton. “And I sent it back to the office, everybody saw it and it’s one of those all-time movies just because we were hanging around.”

For Levack, the festival has already provided a launching pad. After her first feature “I Like Movies,” premiered at the festival in 2022, it eventually made its way to the attention of Adam Sandler. Levack is currently finishing “Roommates” for Sandler’s Happy Madison production company.

“TIFF was unbelievably instrumental in making our film not only exist but matter,” said Levack of the response to her debut. “We really broke out and became sort of a viral unexpected hit at that festival and that really made my entire career from that point exist.”

Even as Toronto has weathered the changing fortunes of the film business and grappled with competition from other festivals, there is still something unique that happens when some of the year’s most anticipated new films meet these audiences.

“People say, ‘We’re going to put it in Toronto and then we’re getting into the Oscar game,’” said Bernard. “But it’s the audience [that decides]. You don’t fool anybody in Toronto.”

We’re a week away from Labor Day weekend and we have one movie slotted in as a best picture Oscar nominee.

That leaves nine spots and whole lot of sharp elbows as we begin the fall film festival circuit next week in Venice and Telluride.

I’m Glenn Whipp, columnist for the Los Angeles Times and host of The Envelope newsletter. Worst freeway in Southern California? There is only one correct answer, but it’s not the one in our rankings. And that answer is just another reason why, like Sal Saperstein, we dread going anywhere near LAX.

Fall festivals preview

In case you were wondering — but I think you already know — the movie already assured a best picture nomination is Ryan Coogler’s exuberant horror hit, “Sinners,” a film as entertaining and provocative as anything I’ve seen in a theater in the last couple of years. It was my favorite summer movie, even if it did come out in April. Watching it in Imax 70mm felt like an event, the kind of blockbuster moviegoing experience I’ll remember years from now.

The Venice Film Festival starts Wednesday. On Thursday, I’ll be flying to Telluride. The 50th Toronto International Film Festival begins the following week. Dozens of movies will be premiering at these festivals. Standing ovations will be meticulously — and ridiculously — timed. And when the smoke clears, we’ll have the makings of a slate of contenders that we’ll be covering and debating for the next six months.

Here are some of the world premieres at each festival that I’ll be watching most closely, movies that could be made — or broken — by the next time you hear from me.

Venice

Haute couture. Water taxis. Endless Aperol spritzes.

“Frankenstein”: For Guillermo del Toro, Pinocchio and Frankenstein have always been two sides of the same coin, creations made by an uncaring father, released into the world without much care. Del Toro tackled Pinocchio with his last film, which won the Oscar for animated feature. And now he’s adapting the Mary Shellley classic, promising to include parts of the tragic story never before seen on screen. If anyone can make us shout “it’s alive” again, it’s Del Toro.

“A House of Dynamite”: A new political thriller from Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow is an event, particularly because it’s her first film since “Detroit” eight years ago. “Dynamite” deals with U.S. leaders scrambling for a response after a missile attack. I’m hoping to embark on a two-hour ride firmly fixed in the fetal position.

“Jay Kelly”: Famous actor (George Clooney) and his devoted manager (Adam Sandler) travel through Europe, pondering regrets (they’ve had a few) and the times they’ve loved, laughed and cried. Noah Baumbach directs from a script he co-wrote with Emily Mortimer. His last movie, 2019’s “Marriage Story,” earned six Oscar nominations, with Laura Dern winning supporting actress. Time for the Sandman to finally get an invitation to the party?

“No Other Choice”: Park Chan-wook adapts the provocative Donald Westlake thriller “The Ax,” which Costa-Gavras adapted in 2005 — but Park apparently wasn’t aware of that movie when he decided to make his own film. Park has been working on it for years, calling it his “lifetime project,” the movie he wanted to stand as his “masterpiece.” He has made some great films — “The Handmaiden” and “Decision to Leave” among them — so it’s hard not be intrigued.

“The Smashing Machine”: I have seen the trailer for this Benny Safdie drama about MMA fighter Mark Kerr so many times that I feel like I have already seen the movie. The blend of Safdie grittiness and Dwayne Johnson star power is sure to generate buzz, but there are whispers that the film simply isn’t all that good. From that trailer, I’m inclined to believe them … but hope to be proved wrong.

Telluride

High altitude, fleece pullovers, repeated discussions about hydration. Lineup not officially announced until Thursday. These are just “rumors.”

“Ballad of a Small Player”: Edward Berger premiered “Conclave” at Telluride last year and it worked out fine, going on to earn eight Oscar nominations and emerging as a viable, sillier alternative for those looking to vote for something other than “Anora.” Berger’s latest is about a high-stakes gambler (Colin Farrell) holed up in China, desperate for a way out of his debts and past sins. As awards voters loved “Conclave” and Berger’s misbegotten “All Quiet on the Western Front,” attention must be paid.

“Hamnet”: Paul Mescal is everywhere. And now he’s playing William Shakespeare in a drama about the Bard and his wife rediscovering each other after the death of their 11-year-old son, Hamnet. Why not? Especially when the film is directed by Chloé Zhao (“Nomadland”) and has the brilliant Jessie Buckley on board as Shakespeare’s better half.

“Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere”: Bruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuce! Jeremy Allen White plays Springsteen as he goes lo-fi making his acclaimed album “Nebraska.” History tells us that actors starring in music biopics are rewarded handsomely, and, given what we’ve seen of White on “The Bear,” he seems a perfect choice to play a brooding Bruce.

Toronto

Weather that veers between spring, summer and fall in the course of a week. Poutine. Splashy premieres of movies that have already played at other festivals.

“Christy”: Sydney Sweeney has been in the news lately. Maybe you’ve heard? But she’s about to make a serious awards-season play in this sports biopic about boundary-shattering boxer Christy Martin, a young gay woman fighting to establish an identity that runs counter to her conservative upbringing. Will the work be good enough to rise above the noise around the actor?

“The Lost Bus”: Paul Greengrass, like Bigelow, has been absent from the conversation for a bit. His last movie, the fine western “News of the World,” was swallowed by the pandemic. Now he’s back with a survival drama, one with California roots, as a father (Matthew McConaughey) and a teacher (America Ferrera) try to bring a bus full of school children to safety during the deadly 2018 Camp fire.

The program for the upcoming Toronto International Film Festival came into sharper view with Monday’s announcement of the majority of titles for the event’s galas and special presentations section. Along with TIFF’s news, some of the larger fall festival and awards season is also beginning to take shape.

Toronto, long known as a powerful showcase for launching awards-hungry and commercially ambitious fall titles, has been seen as losing some of its strength in recent years to festivals in Cannes, Venice and Telluride. This year’s TIFF program, which marks its 50th edition, will be closely watched for how its titles are received not only at the festival itself, but in the months ahead.

Among the notable world premieres in Monday’s announcement are Aziz Ansari’s feature directorial debut “Good Fortune,” a comedy of identity-swapping and self-discovery starring Ansari and Seth Rogen with Keanu Reeves as an inept angel, and James Vanderbilt’s “Nuremberg” starring Russell Crowe as imprisoned Nazi Hermann Göring, with Rami Malek as the psychiatrist tasked with interviewing him.

Maude Apatow will make her feature directorial debut with “Poetic License,” starring her mother Leslie Mann alongside Andrew Barth Feldman and Cooper Hoffman. “True Detective” creator Nic Pizzolatto will also make his feature directing bow with “Easy’s Waltz,” a drama of down-on-their-luck entertainers starring Vince Vaughn and Al Pacino.

TIFF will host the world premiere of Bobby Farrelly’s comedy “Driver’s Ed,” starring Kumail Nanjiani, Sam Nivola and Molly Shannon. Alex Winter directs and also appears in the comedy “Adulthood” alongside Josh Gad, Kaya Scodelario and Billie Lourd. David Mackenzie’s crime thriller “Fuze” stars Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Sam Worthington, Theo James and Gugu Mbatha-Raw.

Baz Luhrman will unveil “EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert,” which utilizes previously unseen footage the director discovered while researching his 2022 film “Elvis.” The result is what Luhrman has described as “not specifically a documentary, nor a concert film.”

Saoirse Ronan stars in “Bad Apples,” which is premiering at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival.

(Republic Pictures )

Other world premieres include Jonathan Etzler’s “Bad Apples,” starring Saoirse Ronan; David Michôd’s “Christy,” starring Sydney Sweeney as boxer Christy Martin; and Alice Winocour’s fashion world drama “Couture,” starring Angelina Jolie.

At this stage in the season, interpreting how a Toronto title is announced can give some clues as to where it may be popping up beforehand. “International Premiere” can mean a title is also first playing a week earlier at Telluride, while “North American Premiere” can mean something is playing first at Venice. “Canadian Premiere” means it is likely playing both Telluride and Venice (or already premiered at Cannes) before coming to Toronto.

The only title listed as an international premiere is Clint Bentley’s “Train Dreams,” which premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival.

North American premieres likely headed to Venice include Gus Van Sant’s “Dead Man’s Wire,” starring Bill Skarsgård and Colman Domingo; Guillermo del Toro’s “Frankenstein,” starring Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi; Mark Jenkin’s “Rose of Nevada,” starring Calum Turner and George MacKay; Mona Fastvold’s “The Testament of Ann Lee,” starring Amanda Seyfried; and Benny Safdie’s “The Smashing Machine,” starring Dwayne Johnson.

Canadian premieres include Edward Berger’s “Ballad of a Small Player” starring Colin Farrell; Jafar Panahi’s Cannes-winning “It Was Just an Accident”; Richard Linklater’s “Nouvelle Vague,” about the making of Jean-Luc Godard’s “Breathless”; Kleber Mendonça Filho’s “The Secret Agent,” which won best actor at Cannes for Wagner Moura; Daniel Roher’s “Tuner,” starring Leo Woodall and Dustin Hoffman; and Joachim Trier’s “Sentimental Value,” starring Stellan Skarsgård and Renate Reinsve.

Michaela Coel, left, and Ian McKellen star in “The Christophers,” which is premiering at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival.

(Department M / Butler & Sklar Production)

Toronto’s previously announced titles include the opening night selection “John Candy: I Like Me,” a documentary on the beloved Canadian-born actor, directed by Colin Hanks and produced by Ryan Reynolds, as well as the world premiere of Rian Johnson’s third Benoit Blanc film starring Daniel Craig, “Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery.”

Other previously announced world premieres include Derek Cianfrance’s “Roofman,” starring Channing Tatum and Kirsten Dunst; Nicholas Hytner’s “The Choral,” starring Ralph Fiennes; Paul Greengrass’ “The Lost Bus,” starring Matthew McConaughey; Hikari’s “Rental Family,” starring Brendan Fraser; Nia DaCosta’s “Hedda,” starring Tessa Thompson; Steven Soderbergh’s “The Christophers,” starring Ian McKellen and Michaela Coel; and Agnieszka Holland’s “Franz,” a biopic of Franz Kafka.

Other titles already announced for TIFF that will be premiering elsewhere include the Canadian premiere of Chloé Zhao’s highly anticipated “Hamnet,” starring Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley; and the North American premiere of Rebecca Zlotowski’s “A Private Life,” starring Jodie Foster, which premiered at Cannes.

More of the Toronto program will be announced in the coming days and weeks, including the Platform section for emerging voices and the popular Midnight Madness section. This year’s Toronto International Film Festival runs from Sept. 4 to 14.