TIFF24 Schedule

Seeds

Kaniehtiio Horn (Alice, Darling, TIFF ’22) wrote, directed, and stars in Seeds, a tense thriller that weaves Kanienʼkehá꞉ka connections to the land with a cat-and-mouse game.

Will & Harper

This heartfelt documentary from director Josh Greenbaum (Barb and Star Go to Vista Del Mar) follows Saturday Night Live alumni and close friends Will Ferrell and Harper Steele as they traverse the US by car following Steele’s announcement of her transition.

Matt and Mara

Struggling with a new baby and a distracted husband, an academic is more than happy to hang out with a college pal who crashes back into her life. But what sort of relationship are they resuming, precisely?

Ernest Cole: Lost and Found

Drawing upon a trove of unpublished images, this moving portrait of South African photographer Ernest Cole from director Raoul Peck (I Am Not Your Negro) offers a harrowing history of Apartheid and chronicles the life of an artist in exile.

Sweet Angel Baby

Eliza is an unassuming and beloved member of a small fishing community in Newfoundland who sees all of her relationships put in jeopardy after her secret social media persona is exposed.

Freedom Way

A start-up faces unfavorable government laws and police harassment, causing a ripple effect in the lives of nine individuals, setting them on a collision course.

Bonjour Tristesse

Bonjour Tristesse, Durga Chew-Bose’s adaptation of Françoise Sagan’s unforgettable coming-of-age novel of the same name, is a sun-soaked heralding of a singular artist.

Rumours

Cate Blanchett (The New Boy, TIFF ’23) joins a strong ensemble cast and plays the German chancellor in Rumours, an absurd satire of a G7 world leaders meeting that spins wildly out of control — the latest from co-directors Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson, and Galen Johnson.

Riff Raff

With an all-star ensemble that includes Ed Harris, Gabrielle Union, Jennifer Coolidge, and Bill Murray, the latest from director Dito Montiel (Man Down, TIFF ’15) is a pitch-black comedy about family, loyalty, and murder.

Went Up the Hill

Dacre Montgomery (Stranger Things) and Vicky Krieps (The Dead Don’t Hurt) deliver haunting performances in Samuel Van Grinsven’s atmospheric ghost story that explores the legacy of loss and dark family secrets.

The Mother and the Bear

When her grown daughter Sumi has a bad fall in Winnipeg, anxious widow Sara (Kim Ho-jung) travels from Korea to be with her — and discovers she doesn't really know Sumi at all.

The Mountain

Rachel House’s heartfelt debut film follows a brave trio on the journey of a lifetime, where they learn the true meaning of friendship and the power of their cultural legacy. Executive produced by Taika Waititi.

Men of War

“Rambo meets Fyre Fest” could be the pitch for this tragicomedy from filmmakers Billy Corben and Jen Gatien about American-trained mercenaries who try to overthrow the Venezuelan government.

Paying For It

A cultural snapshot of turn-of-the-millennium Toronto with subtle comic energy and a great cast, Sook-Yin Lee’s adaptation of Chester Brown’s autobiographical 2011 graphic novel is a movie only Lee could make… because it’s her story, too.

Dead Talents Society

A meek and newly dead teen (Gingle Wang) learns from an undead diva (Sandrine Pinna) how to haunt the living, in this bloody and hilarious supernatural comedy from writer-director John Hsu (Detention).

Piece by Piece

The life of singer and producer Pharrell Williams is told through LEGO pieces in this animated feature debut from Morgan Neville, featuring the voices of Gwen Stefani, Kendrick Lamar, and Jay-Z.

Mother Mother

United by tragedy in rural Somalia, a widowed camel farmer and a young American must find common ground in this drama from Somali Canadian recording artist K’naan Warsame.

Elton John: Never Too Late

With candid interviews and newly revealed archival footage, co-directors R.J. Cutler and David Furnish, Sir Elton John's husband, paint a riveting and highly intimate portrait of a musical icon and trailblazer.

Village Keeper

After a massive loss, an overwhelmed Toronto mother discovers a very unusual way to process her grief.

Shook

Struggling writer Ashish is thrown for several loops when he falls for barista Claire and learns his estranged father has just been diagnosed with Parkinson’s, in Amar Wala’s first dramatic feature.

Lázaro at Night

In the sly and pleasurable Lázaro at Night from prolific Mexican Canadian auteur Nicolás Pereda, a love triangle between three actors elicits a reflection on the different roles one plays and the interplay between desire and realism.

40 Acres

In a post-apocalyptic future where food is scarce, the last descendants of a Black family of farmers who settled in Canada after the American Civil War must protect their homestead from an organized militia hell-bent on taking their land.

Shell

In this dark comedy and body horror about society’s obsession with youth and good looks, an actress (Elisabeth Moss) challenges a beauty firm CEO (Kate Hudson) over her company’s questionable science.

Eden

Oscar-winning director Ron Howard’s scintillating historical thriller stars Jude Law and Vanessa Kirby as high-minded Europeans who seek a new life on a previously uninhabited island in the Galápagos, only to discover that hell is other people.

Wishing on a Star

For his latest, full of star-crossed charm and earthly delights, veteran filmmaker and master of the hybrid form Péter Kerekes brilliantly combines the cinematic feel of a fiction film with cleverly captured real emotions from real people.

Relay

Lily James and Oscar winner Riz Ahmed star in this dazzlingly clever high-concept thriller directed by David Mackenzie (Hell or High Water) about a reclusive middleman for would-be whistleblowers seeking to settle with corporate malefactors.

The Wolves Always Come at Night

After a devastating storm wrought by climate change forces them from their home in the Mongolian countryside to the city, a young couple are forced to adapt to a new way of life in this breathtaking and heartbreaking hybrid film.

Blue Road - The Edna O'Brien Story

Emerging from rural Ireland, Edna O’Brien broke multiple taboos with her sexually provocative literature and equally adventurous love life. Here, she opens up about her past with additional perspectives offered by Gabriel Byrne, Walter Mosely, and others.

Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band

Bruce Springsteen narrates this evocative look at his band’s career, teaming up with longtime collaborator Thom Zimny to investigate the singular alchemy that produced such a tight-knit and enduring group.

Harbin

This historical spy-thriller directed by Woo Min-ho stars Hyun Bin as a independence activist and political assassin.

The Wild Robot

Featuring the voices of Pedro Pascal, Catherine O’Hara, Lupita Nyong’o, Stephanie Hsu, and Bill Nighy, this DreamWorks Animation sci-fi adventure follows a robot designed to assist humans who finds herself stranded on an island populated exclusively by beasts.

Heretic

Starring Hugh Grant, Sophie Thatcher, and Chloe East, this fiendishly irreverent chamber horror from writer-director duo Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (the celebrated scenarists behind A Quiet Place) considers how an innocent chat about theology can go terribly awry.

Edge of Night

Set in a climate of distrust where the state demands absolute — if not blind — loyalty and the only options are to adapt or rebel, Edge of Night is the captivating debut of writer-director Türker Süer.

The Last of The Sea Women

A spirited portrait of an endangered tradition and a galvanizing plea for better stewardship of our oceans, Sue Kim’s documentary dives deep into the culture of the haenyeo, the South Korean fisherwomen who have been harvesting seafood for their communities for centuries.

My Fathers' Daughter

Egil Pedersen’s delightful debut film follows the wistful teenaged Elvira (Sarah Olaussen Eira) as she discovers the truth about her father’s identity. Featuring Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (Game of Thrones).

The Courageous

Jasmin Gordon’s poignant and impeccably crafted feature film debut rattles our perceptions of motherhood and moral integrity with its intimate and complex portrait of a sort of woman who is rarely depicted.

Aberdeen

A tour-de-force performance by Gail Maurice (Bones of Crows, TIFF ’22) sees her inhabit the role of Aberdeen, a woman who must rise above hardships to save her grandkids, and herself.

Shepherds

A Montréal copywriter sets out to reinvent himself as a sheep herder in the French Alps despite knowing literally nothing about the centuries-old craft, in this adaptation from director and co-writer Sophie Deraspe.

The Party's Over

In southern Spain, a wealthy divorcée’s life is upended when a young Senegalese immigrant takes refuge in her tool shed. Though it explores harsh realities, Elena Manrique’s directorial debut blends humour and vulnerability to create a poignant story.

The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire

Inspired by the life of the eponymous Martinican writer and activist, Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich’s feature debut, The Ballad of Suzanne Césaire, is a sumptuous, critical reflection on art, love, and politics — employing the spells of cinema to contend with an elusive legacy.

Russians at War

Russian Canadian filmmaker Anastasia Trofimova’s gripping first-person documentary takes us beyond the headlines to join Russian soldiers in Ukraine placing themselves in a battle for reasons that become only more obscure with each gruelling day.

Really Happy Someday

A rising musical-theatre star before his transition, Z (Breton Lalama) has to figure out how to sing in his new register in order to return to the thing he loves most — and, in the process, integrate his past and present selves.

Friendship

Channelling the cringe comedy of his hit sketch series I Think You Should Leave, Tim Robinson portrays a suburban dad obsessively pursuing camaraderie with his charming neighbour (Paul Rudd).

Universal Language

Matthew Rankin’s second feature is a lovingly detailed, charmingly impossible story of a Canada where Persian and French are the two official languages, and loneliness is the common currency.

Escape from the 21st Century

Three high-schoolers gain the ability to sneeze themselves 20 years into the future in this maximalist martial-arts time-travel caper from writer-director Yang Li (Lee’s Adventure).

Living Together

Halima Elkhatabi’s disarming documentary eavesdrops on dozens of Montrealers as they interview one another in the hopes of finding a roommate they won’t want to change the locks on after a week.

Sharp Corner

After a car crashes into his front yard, a family man develops an unhealthy obsession with being ready for the next accident. And the next.

SATURDAY NIGHT

Director Jason Reitman captures the frenzied lead-up to the very first episode of Saturday Night Live as a motley bunch of then-unknown and untrained young comedians prepare to step into a revolutionary spotlight that will change history and make them all stars.

Daughter's Daughter

This emotionally faceted, masterfully assembled second feature from Huang Xi stars screen legend Sylvia Chang as a woman forced to decide the fate of her recently deceased daughter’s embryo.

A Sisters' Tale

In A Sisters’ Tale, seven years in the making, director Leila Amini films her sister Nasreen in Tehran as she pursues her dreams of becoming a singer in a country where women are banned from performing in public.

You Are Not Alone

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The Gesuidouz

From rising cult filmmaker Kenichi Ugana, a misfit horror-themed rock band moves to the Japanese countryside to write the greatest punk anthem in the world.

Can I Get A Witness?

Keira Jang, Joel Oulette, and Sandra Oh star in this introspective live-action and animated feature set in the near future when technology and travel are almost completely banned, and nobody is allowed to live past age 50.

Do I Know You From Somewhere?

A committed couple finds their life slipping away, not because they’ve done anything in particular, but because their history is unwriting itself. Sort of.

So Surreal: Behind the Masks

So Surreal: Behind the Masks unveils the fascinating connection between the work of famed Surrealist artists and Yupʼik and Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw ceremonial masks, and the quest to bring some of the masks back home.

The Shrouds

Still grieving the loss of his wife, a technological entrepreneur (Vincent Cassel) finds what’s left of his world collapsing into a nightmare of sex, paranoia, and grief in David Cronenberg’s most personal film.

Millers in Marriage

An ensemble drama with a stunning cast, Edward Burns’ latest follows the thorny emotional lives of three siblings adrift in middle age, surveying the vagaries of long-term love while championing the possibilities for personal change.

Ink Wash

The debut from director Sarra Tsorakidis follows a painter approaching her 40th birthday and reeling from a breakup. A difficult professional job offers crucial insights into her personal life, a reminder that the only way out of the woods is going through them.

Linda

Self-assured, mysterious, and captivating Linda agrees to work at an affluent home in Buenos Aires. Her charm sparks strong sexual attraction among all members of the family, exposing how fragile their externally happy veneer really is.

Boong

In her debut film, Lakshmipriya Devi crafts a vibrant and poignant portrayal of childhood resilience following a schoolboy, Boong, as he defies borders and ethno-racial discord in Manipur to reunite his family.

Tata

Filmed across Italy, Moldova, and Romania, Tata is a raw portrait of a family locked in a relentless struggle against toxic masculinity and the tale of a daughter’s poignant quest to break the cycle for herself, the next generation, and even for the one who hurt her.

Your Tomorrow

Ali Weinstein’s documentary captures the final year of Toronto’s celebrated Ontario Place, as the beloved provincial park is sectioned off for redevelopment while visitors keep showing up to walk its trails, enjoy the lake, or just check on the tomatoes they’re cultivating by the shore.

Takin' Care of Business

In this brisk, fun ride, Canadian rock legend Randy Bachman tells the stories of how he rose to the top of the charts with The Guess Who and Bachman-Turner Overdrive, married a Mormon, and launched an obsessive quest when his beloved Gretsch guitar disappeared.

Love In The Big City

No one believes roommates Jae-hee and Heung-soo are just friends, but they’re used to being misunderstood. Kim Go-eun and Steve Sanghyun Noh star in this romance exploring how young adults live and love in the big city of Seoul.

The Order

Featuring startling performances from Jude Law and Tye Sheridan, this riveting historical thriller from director Justin Kurzel (Nitram) follows the FBI’s investigation into a domestic terrorist group determined to impose their racist ideology onto mainstream society.

An Unfinished Film

Lou Ye recalls the days of the Chinese lockdown through a hybrid of documentary, web videos from the COVID era, and fragments from his past films, spinning a powerful drama in recognition of a nation’s collective trauma.

It Doesn't Get Any Better Than This

Indie filmmakers Nick Toti and Rachel Kempf investigate an abandoned duplex with downright evil vibes in this eerie and ecstatic found-footage fright fest.

The Life of Chuck

Mike Flanagan takes a detour from the macabre with this adaptation of a uniquely structured Stephen King novella that unravels a seemingly ordinary accountant’s world.

The Freedom of Fierro

At 63, newly freed César Fierro must rebuild his life after being wrongfully convicted in Texas 40 years earlier. In this documentary, the audience accompanies Fierro on his journey, observing his often painful transition back into society.

Dahomey

The Golden Bear winner at this year’s Berlinale, Mati Diop’s Dahomey traces the historic repatriation of 26 royal treasures from France to Benin, simultaneously forging a speculative and political reflection on cultural heritage, collective memory, and the implications of restitution.

Queer

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Viktor

All screenings of this film will be presented with open captions.

Fusing rigorous reportage with innovative cinematic subjectivity, this bold documentary from veteran war photographer Olivier Sarbil is a uniquely intimate portrait of a Deaf person’s experience of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight

In this adaptation of Alexandra Fuller's memoir, actor-director Embeth Davidtz examines the collapse of colonialism through the eyes of eight-year-old Bobo as Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) approaches its pivotal 1980 election, marking the end of white rule.

The Shadow Strays

From action auteur Timo Tjahjanto (Headshot, TIFF ’16, The Night Comes For Us), a young assassin breaks rank from her clandestine organization to rescue a young boy from gangsters with ultra-violent repercussions.

Sudan, remember us

In spring 2019, filmmaker Hind Meddeb captures a jubilant moment of defiance among young Sudanese activists in Khartoum after the overthrow of a long dictatorship, and then chronicles the military crackdown that followed.

Nightbitch

An overworked stay-at-home mom (Amy Adams) tries to catch a break, any break, while caring for her rambunctious toddler. Also, she might be turning into a dog.

Measures for a Funeral

Measures for a Funeral brilliantly spotlights a young academic’s run towards one woman — acclaimed early 20th-century Canadian violinist Kathleen Parlow — as she simultaneously flees from another, her failed musician mother.

Souleymane’s Story

An undocumented Guinean immigrant (Abou Sangare, whose work here won the Un Certain Regard Best Actor prize at Cannes) in Paris tries to juggle his responsibilities as a food delivery bike courier with the preparations needed for his asylum review hearing.