12 Must-Watch Films at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival
With nearly 300 films showing at TIFF, these are the 12 movies we're most excited about.
The Toronto International Film Festival begins Thursday, and with it comes this year’s crop of Oscar and fall premiere hopefuls. After last week’s fireworks at Venice and Telluride, we’re eager to see what fire our Canadian audiences will think of the recent raves.
We’ll also be excited to get second-chance viewings of many of the earlier festivals’ favorites, including key titles that premiered at Sundance, Berlin, and Cannes like Sundance favorite Josephine and Cannes standout La Bola Negra. There’s also a special presentation of 2025 TIFF’s marquee title, Obsession, which upended box offices across the country when it went wide earlier this year. This year’s TIFF also includes featured conversations with names like Hudson Williams, Andrew Scott, Lee Min-ho, Seth Rogen, and Gary Oldman.
With nearly 300 films expected to screen over the 10-day event, we’ve singled out the films we think will earn the most buzz. Here’s hoping one of our selections takes home the People’s Choice Award — and becomes a bona fide Best Picture contender. Twelve of the last 15 audience award winners have gone on to a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars. Last year’s winner, Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet, signaled its incredible impact on audiences when it took the prize before Jessie Buckley eventually earned her first Oscar nomination for Best Actress.
Read on for our picks for the most buzzed titles showing at TIFF, and be sure to check back for our Scorecard later this week, which chronicles critical reception of every film premiering.
The Toronto International Film Festival runs September 10 to September 20.
Babies
While also shaping The Studio‘s next season and starring in one of the biggest hits of the summer, The Invite, Seth Rogen is taking no time off as he stars alongside Anna Kendrick in his wife Lauren Miller Rogen’s next directorial feature, Babies. The dramedy looks to be a laugh-out-loud comedy about the age-old question: to parent or not to parent. Since Rogen is being directed by his real-life wife, who also penned the screenplay, we can assume this is a slightly semi-autobiographical tale from a couple who have been vocal about their choice to remain child-free. We’ve seen plenty of examples of people embracing (or struggling with) parenthood no matter the circumstances, but few titles are brave enough to show a couple who struggle against the choice to have kids at all.
Elsinore
Elsinore lit up Telluride with its heartfelt and heartbreaking portrayal of Ian Charleson’s final performance at London’s National Theatre, and it’s also set to screen at TIFF. Based on the incredible true story, Andrew Scott stars as the Chariots of Fire actor who courageously battles a terminal AIDS diagnosis while playing Hamlet just weeks before he succumbs to the disease. Those who have witnessed it are already raving, and many are already calling it a career-best turn for Scott. Carla Renata of The Curvy Critic calls Scott “magnificent” and says Elsinore is “cinema [that honors] the on and offstage worlds of live theater and its community.” We’re excited to check it out at TIFF to see if it lives up to the already mounting hype.
Everybody Wants to F*ck Me
Let’s be honest, the title captured our attention with this one, but Everybody Wants to F*ck Me looks to give us more than just a provocative name. In it, Taron Egerton plays a man determined to no longer be relegated as the “nice guy,” but as the ideal catch in what we assume to be a careful and shrewd skewering of the tropes and tribulations of modern dating. We can only hope it takes a keen eye to see how many men, in pursuit of the opposite sex, flatter themselves as much as those they are pursuing. Perhaps it will serve as an interesting companion piece to Emerald Fennell’s Promising Young Woman. Everybody Wants to F*ck Me might let us see the internal dialogue of the men in that film proclaim to themselves before they turn out to be the villains we witness later.
I Play Rocky
The casting here alone has us ready to call up the Academy (which we can with the new Achievement in Casting category that debuted at last year’s ceremony), because these actors in I Play Rocky look pitch-perfect to play one of the most recognizable groups of actors ever to grace the silver screen. For director Peter Farrelly, the task was unenviable: not only to pay a fitting tribute to one of Hollywood’s most beloved films, but to do so accurately while telling the behind-the-scenes story, drama, and intrigue that led to the Oscar-winning Rocky. One of the best discoveries we spied in the trailer is Anthony Ippolito as Sylvester Stallone, in an almost uncannily similar portrayal in both mannerisms and look. If the film can give us half the magic of Rocky, we will be in good hands.
Tender Loving Care
Seven-time Academy Award nominee Mike Leigh has signaled that Tender Loving Care will likely be his last film, and early whispers suggest it could be the perfect final film to close out his storied career. Kate O’Flynn (Widow’s Bay) stars as a steadfast social worker who puts her heart and soul into caring for those in need, but finds her home life is as difficult as the people she tries to help. If you’re a fan of Leigh’s works, Tender Loving Care is part Happy-Go-Lucky and Hard Truths. It’s also a homecoming of sorts for Flynn who also starred in Happy-Go-Lucky alongside Oscar nominee Sally Hawkins.
The Assassin(s)
We have to give it up to South Korea. They really know how to dial up historical drama with movie thrills, and The Assassin(s) is set up to be another credible entry into their pantheon of high-tension history molded into cinematic gold. Director Hur Jin-ho’s latest film tells the story of the attempted assassination of South Korean President Park Chung-hee and is a large-scale, high-concept procedural about the police and the journalists working tirelessly to uncover a conspiracy woven into the fabric of every institution. The taut action thriller stars Lee Min-ho, who folks will remember from the Apple TV+ show Pachinko, as well as other illustrious names from South Korean cinema. Definitely one for fans of period-piece heists.
The Debut
Following up on his Oscar-winning film A Real Pain, Jesse Eisenberg returns to the director’s chair with The Debut, a dark comedy about a suburban housewife who finds renewal and purpose later in life by acting in community theater. Julianne Moore, who was also in Eisenberg’s first directorial film, When You Finish Saving the World, stars opposite a lovable, grumpy theater director, played by Paul Giamatti, in a casting that seems built in heaven. It’s one part actors’ studio, one part farce, and we’re more than intrigued to see what dry laughs Eisenberg has in store. With three films now under his belt, the Zombieland star’s tone and technique as a filmmaker come into sharper focus as equally playful and poignant, and we’re excited to see how far he can go. The Debut is another film that already debuted to rave reviews at Telluride so we’ll have to wait and see if the Canadian crowd finds it just as rapturous.
The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd
Character actor Tim Blake Nelson returns to directing in The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd, which stars Amanda Seyfried and Scoot McNairy in a gritty prison drama about crime, punishment, and love. Seyfried, who was in the Oscar race just last year for The Testament of Ann Lee, and McNairy, whom we’ve long stanned as one of the most underrated working actors today, look to take center stage in a film tailored to showcase all their talents. With an actor of Nelson’s pedigree behind the camera, we have to assume this one will bring the goods in the performance department.
Your Mother, Your Mother, Your Mother
It would be reductive to say that Your Mother, Your Mother, Your Mother is Mahershal Ali’s version of John Wick, but it would also be silly not to acknowledge the similarities. Honestly, for this one we’re mostly excited to see what could have been, as the film includes many of the people behind the now-scrapped Blade feature at Disney, which also had Ali at the top of the call sheet. We’ll be watching, if for nothing else, to see how foolish it was that Disney couldn’t find a way to make this combination of director, actor, and stakeholders work on the big screen.
The Surgeon
As much as we’ve loved Michelle Yeoh’s filmography in recent years, where she’s morphed into the incredible character actress we’ve seen in films like Crazy Rich Asians, Wicked, and Everything Everywhere All at Once (for which she won her historic Best Actress Oscar), we’d be remiss not to say we really, really just like watching Yeoh kick some butt. The Surgeon looks to give us exactly what we’ve been missing with a pulse-pounding thriller about a kidnapped surgeon forced to perform an operation. This one will take us back to the early days of Yeoh in Hong Kong action thrillers that first brought her to our attention. We got glimpses of it in Everything Everywhere All at Once, but we won’t be sad about a film that gives it to us for its entire 90-minute runtime.
Misty Green
Chris Rock’s latest directorial film, Misty Green, is definitely one folks will have their eyes on. Starring Daniel Kaluuya, Adam Driver, Anna Kendrick, and Rock himself, the film is a noir-like dive into the darker side of modern Hollywood. Misty Green, which is also written by Rock, is a scathing satire of the life and misadventures of a young working actress in Hollywood, and the internet is already speculating it may be inspired by real-life events. Misty Green, however, doesn’t look like a redemptive hero’s journey; instead, it centers on a character as complicated as she is captivating, in what looks like a star-making performance from Rosalind Eleazar. If Rock’s camera direction and screenplay can just meet the level of the actors he’s cast, this should be one we’re also talking about come Oscar time next year.
Arrested Memory
Who doesn’t love a good farce? Arrested Memory might be the one this year to give us just that. An absurd crime caper about a dementia patient who finds himself pursued by both cops and crooks when he unknowingly wanders into a multimillion-dollar ransom, the setup alone is worth the price of admission. It’s a premise that grabs you almost instantly, harkening back to the early days of ’90s films like Guy Ritchie’s Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. What can we say? We’re a sucker for a crime caper, and one that’s richly baked with production design and cultural flair is even better.
