50 Anticipated Films at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival (Part 2)

The Toronto International Film Festival is just one week away, and public tickets are now on sale starting today. After reviewing the selections announced so far, I have chosen 50 films worth anticipating. I've already introduced the first 17, and now I'd like to present another 17 for you.

Hamnet

This film is directed by Oscar-winning director Chloé Zhao (Nomadland), who co-wrote the script with Maggie O'Farrell, the author of the novel it's based on. The cast includes Olivier Award winner Jessie Buckley (I’m Thinking of Ending Things), BAFTA Best Actor winner Paul Mescal (Normal People), European Film Award Best Actress winner Emily Watson (Breaking the Waves), and Joe Alwyn (Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk). Nomadland won the People's Choice Award at TIFF back then, so we'll see if this film can repeat that success.

The movie tells the story of Shakespeare's wife, Agnes, and her life with Shakespeare after the death of their son.

If I Had Legs I'd Kick You

Written and directed by Mary Bronstein, this film premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival and was also shown at the Berlin International Film Festival, where its star, Venice Film Festival Best Actress Rose Byrne (The Goddess of 1967), won Best Actress. The cast also includes talk show host Conan O'Brien, Danielle Macdonald (Bird Box), and rapper ASAP Rocky.

For Linda (Rose Byrne), being a working wife and mother in Montauk is not a life of serenity and joy but stress and anxiety. Her daughter is suffering from an unknown disease and is hooked up to a constantly beeping medical device. Her husband is away at sea working and unable to alleviate the crippling pressure weighing on her every minute. Tensions escalate when a hole in the ceiling bursts, a problematic event that metaphorically sums up the immense strain she's under.

Then there are the patients where she works as a counsellor at the Center for Psychological Arts and Mom Talk, and an aloof contractor not providing much help at the house. The repairs send Linda and her daughter to a motel where a calm, supportive superintendent (A$AP Rocky, very good) offers space to breathe. But Linda’s mental health continues to spiral, the stresses of her life accumulating.

It Was Just an Accident

This film won the Palme d'Or, the highest honor at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. Iranian director Jafar Panahi had previously won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival for The Circle in 2000 and the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival for Taxi in 2015. This new award makes him only the fourth director in history to win the top prize at all three major European film festivals. Panahi's films have been banned in Iran, and he was arrested by the Iranian government in 2010 and banned from filmmaking for 20 years, so this movie was made in secret.

Eghbal (Ebrahim Azizi), is heading home with his wife (Afssaneh Najmabadi) and daughter (Delmaz Najafi) when he hits a dog, killing the poor animal and destroying his engine. Seeking roadside assistance, he wanders into a warehouse. Here, a worker named Vahid (Vahid Mobasseri) spots him, and it's possible they are not meeting for the first time. Vahid’s life has been in shambles since his hellish time in prison, due to the actions of a torturer he calls Pegleg — and he thinks Eghbal is this man. While his impulse for revenge is swift-acting, doubt is sewn by his captive, and Vahid must seek out help from other survivors including Shiva (Mariam Afshari), a spitfire wedding photographer, and a bride named Golrokh (Hadis Pakbaten) who brings her groom (Majid Panahi) and their impetuous friend (Mohamad Ali Elyasmehr) along for the ride. Confronting the man they believe was a sadistic torturer, the group faces an ethical dilemma. What should they do now?

Kokuho

Directed by Sang-il Lee, the director of the Kinema Junpo Award winning films Hula Girls and Villain, the film's script is by Satoko Okudera, who collaborated with Mamoru Hosoda on many animated films including The Girl Who Leapt Through Time. Based on the novel of the same name by Shuichi Yoshida, the film stars Ryo Yoshizawa (Reach Beyond the Blue Sky), Ryusei Yokohama (Faceless), Mitsuki Takahata (Our Dearest Sakura), Shinobu Terajima (Caterpillar), Min Tanaka (Perfect Days), and Ken Watanabe (the Godzilla franchise).

Kokuho opens in Nagasaki in 1964 and unfolds over five tumultuous decades. It follows Kikuo — the son of a slain yakuza boss — who, at fourteen, is taken in by a celebrated kabuki master and raised alongside Shunsuke, the master’s son and designated heir. Their bond — part brotherhood, part rivalry — drives an epic saga of ambition, sacrifice, scandal, and devotion, culminating in the emergence of a singular kokuho: a living “national treasure.”

LOVE+WAR

Directed by E. Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, the Oscar-winning directors of the documentary Free Solo, this film profiles the Pulitzer Prize–winning photojournalist as she risks her life for that mission. We follow her on several trips to Ukraine in recent years and trace her past two decades in the war zones of Afghanistan, Iraq, Sierra Leone, and Libya — where she was kidnapped by Muammar Gaddafi’s troops — among others.

Photojournalism has long been dominated by adrenaline-chasing men who frequently succumb to addiction, divorce, or death. Can Addario forge a different path? That’s a question at the heart of the film. We watch her commute from multi-week trips in combat zones back to her domestic life in London with her two young sons and her journalist husband Paul de Bendern.

The Lost Bus

Directed by Paul Greengrass, the BAFTA-winning director of United 93, and written by him and Brad Ingelsby, the creator of the Critics' Choice Award-winning limited series Mare of Easttown. The film stars Oscar Best Actor winner Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club), Emmy Best Actress winner America Ferrera (Ugly Betty), Yul Vazquez (The Outsider), and Ashlie Atkinson (Mr. Robot).

“Another dry and windy day in paradise” is rapidly transforming Northern California into something close to an inferno. Fires are spreading and huge plumes of smoke fill the horizon. School bus driver Kevin McCay (McConaughey) is ending his day when he gets a call requesting help for 23 children stranded at Ponderosa Elementary School. As the disaster escalates, Kevin knows that navigating his way toward the school could prove perilous, but a sense of responsibility, along with memories of personal loss, send him hurtling into harm’s way.

Lovely Day

Written and directed by Philippe Falardeau, the Canadian Screen Award winner for Best Motion Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay for Monsieur Lazhar. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Alain Farah.

Though his bride-to-be, Virginie (Rose-Marie Perreault), is a steadying influence, Alain (Neil Elias) has no lack of sources for his overwhelming state of consternation. Among the culprits are his unreliable best friend and best man Édouard (Hassan Mahbouba) and his long-divorced parents, Yolande (Hiam Abou Chedid) and Elias (Georges Khabbaz). Yet as the day unfolds — which, thanks to the film’s unconventional structure, happens more than once, the timeline becomes as jumbled as the thoughts in poor Alain’s head — deeper reasons surface and each casts a new light on his actions and reactions.

The Lowdown

This series is created and directed by Sterlin Harjo, the creator of the Independent Spirit Award winner for Best New Scripted Series, Reservation Dogs. It stars Independent Spirit Award Best Actor winner Ethan Hawke (First Reformed), Ryan Kiera Armstrong (Star Wars: Skeleton Crew), Kaniehtiio Horn, Tim Blake Nelson (Captain America: Brave New World), Jeanne Tripplehorn (The Terminal List), Golden Globe Best Actor winner Kyle MacLachlan (Twin Peaks), and Keith David (Nope).

Lee Raybon (Ethan Hawke) lives, owns, and works in a rare bookstore in Tulsa, Oklahoma. His compulsion to learn the truth about Tulsa’s unofficial aristocracy, along with his disinterest in letting so-called rules of conduct get in his way, keep him in steady trouble.

When Lee’s latest exposé about a powerful and potentially corrupt Tulsa family, the Washbergs, results in a tragedy involving the household’s black sheep (Tim Blake Nelson), he quickly realizes he has uncovered something. This new development pulls Lee deeper into the city’s underbelly, and away from his day-to-day responsibilities, which include taking care of his 14-year-old daughter Francis (Ryan Kiera Armstrong), who has inherited her father’s curiosity.

She joins him as he follows potential suspects like the “grieving” widow Betty Jo (Jeanne Tripplehorn) and the deceased’s brother-in-law Donald (Kyle MacLachlan). Lee’s ex Samantha (Kaniehtiio Horn) is tired of his truth-seeking escapades. But like their daughter, she sees the good in his intentions.

The Man in My Basement

Directed by Nadia Latif, who co-wrote the script with crime novelist Walter Mosley, based on his novel of the same name. The film stars Corey Hawkins (In the Heights), Venice Film Festival Best Actor winner Willem Dafoe (At Eternity's Gate), Anna Diop (Titans), and Tamara Lawrance.

Charles Blakey’s (Corey Hawkins) life is falling apart. He’s lonely, he can’t find work, and he’s boozing way too much and about to lose his family’s Sag Harbor home. When a mysterious white man, Anniston Bennet (Willem Dafoe), offers to rent his basement for a hefty sum, a hesitant Blakey acquiesces despite serious doubts, especially about the decidedly odd accommodations Bennet requests.

While prepping the room for his tenant, Blakey discovers some mysterious heirlooms, possibly African tribal masks, which hint at a history he knows absolutely nothing about. An antiques buyer (Anna Diop) is able to fill in the gaps while embodying a compassionate counterpoint to his apathetic views.

My Father's Shadow

Directed by Akinola Davies Jr. and starring Sope Dirisu (Gangs of London), this film premiered at the Cannes Film Festival this past May to very positive reviews.

It’s a deeply personal family story set against the turbulence of 1993 Lagos during a pivotal national election promising a shift from military rule to democracy in Nigeria. When young brothers Remi and Akin unexpectedly accompany their oft-absent father to the city to collect his long-overdue salary, what unfolds is a rich journey through memory, masculinity, and a country on the cusp of fragile transformation.

Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie

Directed by Matt Johnson, the Canadian Screen Award winner for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay for BlackBerry. The film is written by him and Jay McCarrol, the Best Original Score winner for BlackBerry. They also star in the film along with Jared Raab, the Best Cinematography winner for BlackBerry.

The film is an adaptation of their web series Nirvana the Band the Show from more than a decade ago, in which the two creators portrayed hyperactive, hap-witted versions of themselves as a musical duo desperately failing to book a gig at the storied Toronto venue The Rivoli. Their hilarious misadventures continued a decade later in the television series Nirvanna the Band the Show.

In the film, “Nirvanna the Band” are older, but none the wiser. When Matt presses Jay to partake in their most death-defying publicity stunt yet, it goes spectacularly sideways, and the fallout inspires Jay to strike out on his own. But thanks to Matt’s inadvertent intervention with a short-lived Canadian novelty beverage (remember Orbitz?), the boys find themselves travelling through time where they risk compromising their very own origin story.

No Other Choice

Directed by Park Chan-wook, a three-time Blue Dragon Film Award Best Director winner for Joint Security Area, Oldboy, and Decision to Leave, and a Cannes Film Festival Best Director winner, this film is an adaptation of Donald Westlake's novel The Ax. The film's impressive cast includes four-time Grand Bell Award winner Lee Byung-hun (Squid Game), two-time Grand Bell Award winner Son Ye-jin (Crash Landing on You), Baeksang Arts Award winner Park Hee-soon (1987: When the Day Comes), Grand Bell Award winner Lee Sung-min (The Spy Gone North), three-time Baeksang Arts Award winner Yum Hye-ran (When Life Gives You Tangerines), Baeksang Arts Award winner Cha Seung-won (Jail Breakers), and Yoo Yeon-seok.

The film takes place in present-day South Korea, where seniority counts for little and looking for employment proves to be a cutthroat business.

Man-soo (Lee Byung-hun) had it all: a loving wife, two talented children, two happy dogs. He even bought the beautiful forest-enclosed house where he grew up. Then, after 25 years of dedicated work for Solar Paper — where he was awarded Pulp Man of the Year in 2019 — Man-soo is suddenly given the axe.

Soon he is falling behind on his mortgage payments and his wife Mi-ri (Son Ye-jin) insists they put the house up for sale. Man-soo is desperate to scoop a coveted position with Moon Paper, but he knows there are other job seekers who match his pedigree. So he hatches a plan: invent a phony paper company, reach out to each of his rivals, lure them into a meeting… and, one by one, dispatch the competition.

Related News: Park Chan-wook's New Film No Other Choice Unveils First Trailer, Headed to Venice Film Festival!

Nuns vs. The Vatican

Directed by Emmy-winning documentarian Lorena Luciano (It Will Be Chaos), this film exposes a scandal that’s growing in momentum inside the Catholic Church.

Orphan

Directed by László Nemes, the director of the Oscar Best Foreign Language Film Son of Saul, and co-written by him and Clara Royer (Son of Saul). The film stars Bojtorján Barabas, Grégory Gadebois, and Andrea Waskovics.

The film takes place amongst the ruins of the violently suppressed Hungarian Revolution of 1956, in which thousands of anguished citizens challenged the USSR-backed dictatorship and were met with Soviet tanks and troops. The resultant violence and high death tolls led to nearly a quarter of a million Hungarians fleeing the country.

Living with his stoic and forbearing mother, Klára (Andrea Waskovics), in Budapest, Andor (Bojtorján Barabas) is desperately searching for his identity. Although 11 years have passed since the liberation of the camps, his father has not returned. The family of two are members of the close-knit Jewish community, which — under the thumb of the Axis-aligned regime that preceded Soviet occupation — languished at the best of times and at the worst times disappeared. Although settled in their historic family home, they are under close observation by the current regime, which suspects their connection to at-large members of what remains of the underground resistance. Meanwhile, the family receives visits from Berend Mihály (Grégory Gadebois), a pompous and brutish man from the nearby countryside, linked to Klára’s mysterious past, who Andor begins to suspect holds the key to the true story of his mother’s survival during World War II.

Rental Family

Directed by Hikari, who directed episodes of the Emmy-winning limited series Beef. The film stars Oscar winner Brendan Fraser (The Whale), Takehiro Hira (Shōgun), Mari Yamamoto (Monarch: Legacy of Monsters), Shannon Gorman, and Japanese Academy Award Best Actor winner Akira Emoto.

Philip (Brendan Fraser) has lived in Japan for seven years. During this time, his biggest claim to fame has been a toothpaste commercial in which he’s costumed as a cross between Superman and Gumby. Everything changes when he’s recruited to play “sad American” at an actual funeral. Thus begins Philip’s tenure with a company that hires actors as surrogates to help clients through some of life’s biggest challenges.

Through Philip’s surrogate roles, we become intimately immersed in a web of intriguing characters and lives across the city of Tokyo. We also grow to know the inner workings of the agency and the people who run it. On the surface, surrogate work seems to benefit all involved, but unexpected complexities soon set in and Philip finds himself intricately entangled. Through much trial and error, Philip is forced to face inwards when he realizes that the role of a lifetime is being himself.

Rose of Nevada

Written, directed, shot, edited, and scored by Mark Jenkin. The film stars George MacKay (1917), Callum Turner (the Fantastic Beasts franchise), Rosalind Eleazar, Francis Magee, and Mary Woodvine.

Set in a remote Cornish fishing village, the film opens with the unexplained reappearance of the vessel Rose of Nevada thought lost three decades prior. Two disparate men who sign on to crew the resurrected boat.

Sacrifice

Directed by Romain Gavras (Athena), who co-wrote the script with Will Arbery (Succession). The film stars Golden Globe Best Actress winner Anya Taylor-Joy (The Queen's Gambit), Chris Evans (the Captain America franchise), Salma Hayek (Eternals), César Award Best Actor winner Vincent Cassel (Mesrine, Westworld), Ambika Mod (One Day), Sam Richardson (Veep), singer Charli XCX, and John Malkovich (Being John Malkovich).

After the fiery death of their mother, Joan (Anya Taylor-Joy) and her siblings, driven by a mysterious volcanic prophecy, believe it is their duty to cleanse the Earth. Their radical group hijacks a glamorous charity gala and takes three unlikely hostages for a sacrificial ritual: their hero, movie star Mike Tyler (Chris Evans); their villain, pragmatically cold billionaire Ben Bracken (Vincent Cassel); and their lover, an unlucky performer named Katie (Ambika Mod). As the night descends into chaos, both an inward journey and an outward adventure ensue, where the line between performance and belief, salvation and sacrifice, begins to blur.

If you are interested in upcoming movies to be released in Canada, please visit the Movie Release Schedule page on this website!

Photo and Source: TIFF