Yearly, the town of Toronto hosts greater than 250 movies, with over 1,000 screenings, attracting tons of of 1000’s of individuals from the leisure business, press, and movie lovers worldwide. 2025 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the Toronto Worldwide Movie Competition, and after a number of years hampered by COVID and the SAG-AFTRA strike, TIFF returned in full pressure. Tickets had been laborious to come back by, blocked-off streets had been packed, theaters had been full, and complete casts and crews confirmed up for star-studded Q&As. Better of all, many of the motion pictures had been fairly good!
Whereas Hamnet, which premiered at Telluride and never TIFF, took the Folks’s Alternative Award, and Frankenstein, which launched at Venice, was named runner-up, Wake Up Useless Man: A Knives Out Thriller positioned third. Every of Rian Johnson’s Knives Out movies has premiered in Toronto. All three of these titles had been anticipated to go over effectively with TIFF crowds.
Different high-profile movies that screened first at TIFF, reminiscent of Christy, Roofman, Rental Household, Nuremberg, Good Fortune, The Christophers, and Hedda, obtained blended to constructive reactions. Highlights from Cannes, like Sentimental Worth and It Was Simply an Accident, continued to garner good buzz. However the actual enjoyable of movie festivals is discovering hidden gems, or discovering out that an anticipated characteristic was really significantly better (or worse) than you’d hoped. To that impact, these had been probably the most shocking hits and misses from TIFF 50.
Hit: ‘No Different Alternative’
It wasn’t essentially a shock that No Different Alternative is sweet. Park Chan-wook is a beloved filmmaker with a fan base that extends effectively past his native South Korea. His newest obtained rave evaluations at Venice, however when it did not win any of the jury’s prizes, it threatened to be overshadowed, at the very least globally and for awards functions, by an more and more robust worldwide slate. The Voice of Hind Rajab was Venice’s runner-up. It, together with Sentimental Worth, It Was Simply an Accident, and formidable contenders like Sound of Falling and Homebound, all competed at TIFF for the pageant’s first-ever Worldwide Folks’s Alternative Award.
When the winners had been revealed on Sunday morning, No Different Alternative was the victor. The movie is a dangerous mix of social satire, darkish comedy, and thriller. Comparisons have already been and will probably be made to Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite, however No Different Alternative is its personal story and maybe one which’s extra uniquely suited to probably the most present financial anxieties, as monopolization and synthetic intelligence threaten livelihoods throughout the category spectrum. Right here, Man-soo is laid off from his job within the paper business after a long time of service. Unwilling to easily fade into poverty and obscurity, he devises a morally-compromised plan to make sure his future success.
Miss: ‘Sacrifice’
It is robust to do satire in a world that is as unintentionally ridiculous as ours will be. Romain Gavras’ Sacrifice, in contrast, failed to realize the identical degree of success as No Different Alternative. Eat-the-rich tales, in addition to environmental parables, have grow to be more and more widespread in recent times, from Do not Look Up to Triangle of Unhappiness to The Menu. Sacrifice needs to be the kind of movie that may make you giggle, gasp, and assume all on the similar time. However, regardless of its stacked forged and doubtlessly fascinating premise, its precise script is inconsistent, each in high quality and by way of what it is attempting to say, making it some of the disappointing premieres at TIFF.
Anya Taylor-Pleasure is Joan, a cult-like determine who needs to avoid wasting the world. Her unconventional plan is to kidnap Mike Tyler (Chris Evans), an actor whose star is fading, and throw him right into a volcano as a kind of providing. Salma Hayek, Vincent Cassel, John Malkovich, and Charli XCX additionally seem. As of now, Sacrifice would not have distribution, however for individuals who assume they’d reply effectively to its themes, Yorgos Lanthimos’s Bugonia is eerily related.
Hit: ‘Eternity’
A24’s afterlife rom-com was a TIFF world premiere, nevertheless it got here into the pageant with much less hype. Whereas tickets for many titles bought out earlier than they had been accessible to most people, a few of Eternity‘s screenings remained on sale even after the pageant had begun. However shortly after its first displaying, phrase obtained out that Eternity was an actual crowdpleaser. Vital evaluations and Letterboxd logs had been favorable, and on the bottom, Eternity was some of the talked about movies at TIFF, a lot in order that when rumors leaked that it could have gained the Folks’s Alternative Award, they had been plausible.
David Freyne’s high-concept comedy ought to be capable to parlay that goodwill into a point of field workplace success this Thanksgiving. Eternity is an ideal vacation break film. Elizabeth Olsen performs a girl who dies, solely to seek out that each of her already deceased husbands (Miles Teller and Callum Turner) are ready for her on the opposite facet. Whereas there’s a romance (or two) on the heart of Eternity, what units it aside and provides it true four-quadrant attraction is its virtually Simpsons-esque humorousness and manufacturing design. Eternity is not certain by the actual world, and it is higher for it.
Miss: ‘Ballad of a Small Participant’
German director Edward Berger has rapidly grow to be one thing of a crucial darling. His 2022 remake of All Quiet on the Western Entrance premiered at TIFF, and his follow-up, final yr’s Conclave, performed there as effectively. Each movies had been nominated for a number of Academy Awards, together with Finest Image. Thus, Ballad of a Small Participant, tailored from a novel of the identical identify and starring the at all times dependable Colin Farrell, was some of the anticipated movies of the autumn. Farrell’s pretty much as good as ever, however the film is a surprisingly messy misfire from Berger.
Ballad introduces us to Farrell’s Lord Doyle, a big-dollar card participant in Macao. He is drunk on champagne, overdue on his lodge invoice, and about to gamble away the final of his fortune simply because the Chinese language Competition of the Hungry Ghost is about to start. What occurs subsequent is meant to be tense, twisty, and mysteriously ambiguous. As an alternative, it is typically uninteresting, apparent, and underdeveloped. Each Farrell’s and Berger’s skills are wasted on a challenge that appears to misconceive its supply materials and the tradition by which it is set.
Hit: ‘Poetic License’
TIFF has served as a launching pad for actors who wish to strive their hand at directing, and most of the time, the outcomes counsel they need to maintain their day jobs. Mix that with the general public’s tendency to roll their eyes at “nepo infants,” and Maude Apatow’s directorial debut appeared doomed to fail. The daughter of Judd Apatow and a frequent star of his movies, Maude introduced together with her a movie known as Poetic License, which simply occurred to characteristic her mom, Leslie Mann. The shock of the pageant? This school-set comedy finally grew to become one of many best-reviewed entries at TIFF and was simply as warmly obtained by audiences.
Poetic License stars fellow gifted nepo child Cooper Hoffman and Andrew Barth Feldman as pals who each vie for the eye of the middle-aged mother who’s auditing their poetry class. It delves into points like psychological well being, however is mild on its ft and avoids clichés. As of now, Poetic License would not have distribution, however this gratifying, well-acted, and well-made comedy undoubtedly deserves to be seen by movie lovers outdoors of TIFF.