With most of the greatest fall competition premieres formally on the calendar, each subsequent lineup announcement leans increasingly in the direction of the sicko cinephiles amongst us. You in all probability already knew that the 2025 Toronto Worldwide Movie Competition would characteristic “The Sound of Falling,” “The Smashing Machine,” and “Frankenstein,” however the newly introduced Wavelengths lineup guarantees to supply loads of hidden gems you’ve by no means heard of. And naturally, there are a couple of favorites from different 2025 festivals that Toronto audiences haven’t had an opportunity to see.
The famously avant-garde part of the competition options 9 options and 14 shorts from around the globe, every of which pushes the boundaries of cinematic storytelling indirectly. Highlights embody Kahlil Joseph’s genre-bending artwork piece “BLKNWS: Phrases & Situations” (which premiered to rave opinions at Sundance), Ben Rivers’ “Mare’s Nest” (which may even be taking part in NYFF), and the Gael García Bernal-led historic epic “Magellan.”
Over the previous few weeks, TIFF has introduced nearly all of its choices, together with Colin Hanks’ opening evening documentary “John Sweet: I Like Me,” plus new movies from Steven Soderbergh, Nia DaCosta, Chandler Levack, Alejandro Amenábar, and Sung-hyun Byun, the addition of 11 starry titles within the Gala and Particular Displays program (plus that full lineup), the discharge of the Platform jury and lineup, the full Discovery slate, the always-wild Midnight Insanity lineup, its sturdy documentary slate, the TV-centric Primetime lineup, plus the skills being celebrated at this 12 months’s Tribute gala.
2025 Wavelengths Options (in alphabetical order):
“BLKNWS: Phrases & Situations” | Kahlil Joseph | USA Canadian Premiere
“Copper (Cobre)” | Nicolás Pereda | Canada/Mexico North American Premiere
“Dry Leaf” | Alexandre Koberidze | Germany/Georgia North American Premiere
“Levers” | Rhayne Vermette | Canada World Premiere
“Magellan (Magalhães)” | Lav Diaz | Portugal/Spain/France/Philippines/Taiwan North American Premiere
“Mare’s Nest” | Ben Rivers | France/UK/Canada North American Premiere
“The Seasons (As Estações)” | Maureen Fazendeiro | Portugal/France/Spain/Austria North American Premiere
2025 Wavelengths Pairings:
“With Hasan in Gaza” | Kamal Aljafari | Palestine/Germany/France/Qatar North American Premiere
preceded by
“It’s So Lovely Right here” | Basma al-Sharif | Palestine Worldwide Premiere
2025 Wavelengths Shorts:
Wavelengths 1: Map of Traces
Ten Mornings Ten Evenings and One Horizon” | Tomonari Nishikawa | Japan Rojo Žalia Blau | Viktoria Schmid | Austria
World Premiere
“Disappeared” | Sohrab Hura | India/Nepal Canadian Premiere
“09/05/1982” | Jorge Caballero, Camilo Restrepo | Mexico/Spain North American Premiere
“Map of Traces (記憶座標)” | Chan Hau Chun | Hong Kong World Premiere
“En Traversée” | Vadim Kostrov | France Canadian Premiere
Wavelengths 2: Into the Blue
“I Noticed the Face of God within the Jet Wash” | Mark Jenkin | UK North American Premiere
“From My Cloud (구름으로부터)” | Minjung Kim | South Korea World Premiere
“Cairo Streets” | Abdellah Taïa | France North American Premiere
Wavelengths 3: Slightest Pretense
“Land of Barbar (بلاد البربر)” | Fredj Moussa | Tunisia World Premiere
“Conditio Humana” | Friedl vom Gröller | Austria World Premiere
“Slightest Pretense (わずかな見せかけ)” | Eri Saito | Japan World Premiere
“CONFERENCE” | Björn Kämmerer | Austria World Premiere
“Morgenkreis” | Basma al-Sharif | Canada/United Arab Emirates Worldwide Premiere
“FELT” | Blake Williams | Canada World Premiere
The fiftieth version of the Toronto Worldwide Movie Competition, introduced by Rogers, runs September 4–14, 2025. Extra competition particulars will probably be shared within the coming weeks.