07/08/2025 - The former two strands have European world premieres galore alongside highlights from the year’s festival circuit, whilst the latter maintains its reputation as TIFF’s most transgressive section

The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), running from 4-14 September this year, always has a similar number of world premieres to the most prominent European festivals, and also cherry-picks the best from their line-ups. With almost one month until it kicks off, one of the last batches of its section announcements has arrived, with the Centrepiece and TIFF Docs sections unveiled yesterday and the day before, and its horror-heavy Midnight Madness slate unveiled last week.

Centrepiece, touted as the festival’s “global showcase of compelling cinema from around the world”, boasts 55 titles this year, 19 of which are world premieres. Nearly everything prominent from Cannes, Berlin and Venice is here that hadn’t already been granted a Gala or Special Presentation screening, as Toronto audiences will get to see what the fuss is all about from Berlin prizewinners The Blue Trail [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and Blue Moon [+see also:
film review
film profile], the Cannes Camera d’Or winner The President’s Cake, along with Orphan and Duse [+see also:
trailer
film profile], straight from the Venice competition.

The Centrepiece world premieres don’t stand out nearly as much, compared to the films with a PR footprint across the year, but we’ll highlight a handful here. Jan Komasa’s Good Boy – one of the year’s more hotly anticipated Polish titles – will launch in this section. It finds the acclaimed director uniting with celebrated British actors Stephen Graham and Andrea Riseborough in the tale of a 19-year-old criminal kidnapped and forced into rehabilitation by a married couple. Aneil Karia’s Hamlet, a contemporary London-set adaptation of Shakespeare’s play, will star Riz Ahmed in the title role, alongside Joe Alwyn (who’s also coincidentally in Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet at the festival). Alt-pop star Charli XCX unveils one of the first of her upcoming film roles in Peter Ohs’ Erupcja, a Polish co-production with the USA.

TIFF Docs looks very good on paper, its selection dotted with auteur-driven titles that may have otherwise landed in the festival’s more recognisable sections. The trio of Lucrecia Martel’s Landmarks, Gianfranco Rosi’s Below the Clouds [+see also:
trailer
film profile], and Laura Poitras and Mark Obenhaus’s Cover-Up all enjoy a follow-up date after Venice, along with the more under-the-radar Lido title The Tale of Silyan from North Macedonia’s Tamara Kotevska, the director of the Oscar-nominated Honeyland [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ljubomir Stefanov, Tamara K…
interview: Tamara Kotevska, Ljubomir S…
film profile].

Midnight Madness has only one European film, but it’s sure to count. Aleksandar Radivojević makes his directorial debut with Karmadonna, belatedly following up his screenplay for A Serbian Film [+see also:
interview: A Serbian Film, by Srdjan S…
film profile], one of the most notorious and grisly horror flicks of its era.

The full line-ups for all three sections are below:

Centrepiece

Unidentified - Haifaa al-Mansour (Saudi Arabia)
Saipan - Lisa Barros D’Sa, Glenn Leyburn (Ireland/UK)
Arco - Ugo Bienvenu (France)
A Useful Ghost [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke (Thailand/France/Singapore/Germany)
Follies - Eric K Boulianne (Canada)
The Sun Rises on Us All - Cai Shangjun (China)
Carolina Caroline - Adam Carter Rehmeier (USA)
The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo [+see also:
film review
interview: Diego Céspedes
film profile] - Diego Céspedes (Chile/France/Germany/Spain/Belgium)
My Father’s Shadow [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Akinola Davies Jr
film profile] - Akinola Davies Jr (UK/Ireland/Nigeria)
Youngblood - Hubert Davis (Canada)
The Cost of Heaven - Mathieu Denis (Canada)
Olmo - Fernando Eimbcke (USA/Mexico)
The President’s Cake - Hasan Hadi (Iraq/USA/Qatar)
Memory of Princess Mumbi - Damien Hauser (Kenya/Switzerland/Saudi Arabia)
Renoir [+see also:
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interview: Chie Hayakawa
film profile] - Chie Hayakawa (Japan/France/Singapore/Philippines/Indonesia/Qatar)
The Little Sister [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Hafsia Herzi
film profile] - Hafsia Herzi (France/Germany)
Nomad - Shadow Eimi Imanishi (USA/Spain/France)
Irkalla: Gilgamesh’s Dream [+see also:
film review
film profile] - Mohamed Jabarah Al-Daradji (Iraq/United Arab Emirates/France/UK/Qatar/Saudi Arabia)
The Last Viking - Anders Thomas Jensen (Denmark/Sweden)
I Swear - Kirk Jones (UK)
Hamlet - Aneil Karia (UK)
Exit 8 - Genki Kawamura (Japan)
New Year’s Rev - Lee Kirk (USA)
Space Cadet - Kid Koala (Canada)
Good Boy - Jan Komasa (Poland/UK)
Lucky Lu - Lloyd Lee Choi (USA)
Whitetail - Nanouk Leopold (Netherlands/Belgium/Ireland)
Blue Moon [+see also:
film review
film profile] - Richard Linklater (USA/Ireland)
Two Prosecutors [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sergei Loznitsa
film profile] - Sergei Loznitsa (France/Germany/Netherlands/Latvia/Romania/Lithuania)
Duse [+see also:
trailer
film profile] - Pietro Marcello (Italy/France)
The Blue Trail [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Gabriel Mascaro (Brazil/Mexico/Chile/Netherlands)
Blood Lines - Gail Maurice (Canada)
Wasteman - Cal McMau (UK)
Milk Teeth - Mihai Mincan (Romania/France/Denmark/Greece/Bulgaria)
Orphan - László Nemes (Hungary/France/Germany/UK)
Erupcja - Pete Ohs (USA/Poland)
The Condor Daughter - Álvaro Olmos Torrico (Bolivia/Peru/Uruguay)
The Love That Remains [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Hlynur Pálmason
film profile] - Hlynur Pálmason (Iceland/Denmark/Sweden/France)
Mirrors No. 3 [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Christian Petzold
film profile] - Christian Petzold (Germany)
Motor City - Potsy Ponciroli (USA)
Under the Same Sun - Ulises Porra (Dominican Republic/Spain)
Girl - Shu Qi (Taiwan)
Blue Heron [+see also:
film review
film profile] - Sophy Romvari (Canada/Hungary)
Diya - Achille Ronaimou (Chad/France/Germany/Côte d’Ivoire)
Eagles of the Republic [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Tarik Saleh
film profile] - Tarik Saleh (Sweden/France/Denmark)
Dandelion’s Odyssey [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Momoko Seto
film profile] - Momoko Seto (France/Belgium)
Honey Bunch - Madeleine Sims-Fewer, Dusty Mancinelli (Canada)
Mama - Or Sinai (Israel/Poland/Italy)
In Search of the Sky - Jitank Singh Gurjar (India)
The Last One for the Road [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Francesco Sossai
film profile] - Francesco Sossai (Italy/Germany)
Palimpsest: the Story of a Name - Mary Stephen (France/Hong Kong/Taiwan)
Barrio Triste - Stillz  (Colombia/USA)
Left-Handed Girl - Shih-Ching Tsou (Taiwan/France/USA/UK)
Little Amélie or the Character of Rain [+see also:
trailer
interview: Maïlys Vallade, Liane-Cho Han
film profile] - Maïlys Vallade, Liane-Cho Han (France)
The Fox King - Woo Ming Jin (Malaysia/Indonesia)

TIFF Docs

The Eyes of Ghana - Ben Proudfoot (USA) (opening film)
Modern Whore - Nicole Bazuin (Canada)
Ni-Naadamaadiz: Red Power Rising - Shane Belcourt (Canada)
Still Single - Jamal Burger, Jukan Tateisi (Canada)
Canceled: The Paula Deen Story - Billy Corben (USA)
A Simple Soldier - Juan Camilo Cruz, Artem Ryzhykov (Ukraine/USA/UK)
The Balloonists - John Dower (USA/United Kingdom/Austria)
Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk - Sepideh Farsi (France/Palestine/Iran)
Flana - Zahraa Ghandour (Iraq/France/Qatar)
Powwow People - Sky Hopinka (USA)
The Tale of Silyan - Tamara Kotevska (North Macedonia)
Nuns vs. The Vatican - Lorena Luciano (USA)
Landmarks - Lucrecia Martel (Argentina/USA/Mexico/France/Denmark/Netherlands)
While the Green Grass Grows: A Diary in Seven Parts - Peter Mettler (Canada/Switzerland)
Aki - Darlene Naponse (Canada)
Whistle - Christopher Nelius (Australia)
Orwell: 2+2=5 - Raoul Peck (USA/France)
Cover-Up - Laura Poitras, Mark Obenhaus (USA)
Below the Clouds [+see also:
trailer
film profile] - Gianfranco Rosi (Italy)
There Are No Words - Min Sook Lee (Canada)
True North - Michèle Stephenson (USA/Canada)
A Life Illuminated - Tasha Van Zandt (USA)
LOVE+WAR - Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin (USA)

Midnight Madness

Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie - Matt Johnson (Canada) (opening film)
Obsession - Curry Barker (USA)
The Napa Boys - Nick Corirossi (USA)
Dust Bunny - Bryan Fuller (USA)
JUNK WORLD - Takahide Hori (Japan)
Karmadonna - Aleksandar Radivojević (Serbia)
Fuck My Son! - Todd Rohal (USA)
The Furious - Kenji Tanigaki (Hong Kong/China)
Normal - Ben Wheatley (USA/Canada)
Dead Lover - Grace Glowicki (Canada) (closing film)