Toronto Film Festival 2026: Read All Of Deadline’s Reviews

The 2026 Toronto Film Festival kicked off Thursday, September 10, and features a slew of world premieres including the official opening-night film Being Heumann, Oscar winner Siân Heder‘s follow-up to her Best Picture winner CODA. The event’s 51st edition features 10 days of premieres, gala presentations and more as the third leg of the fall festival tour (along with Venice and Telluride) that helps set the agenda for awards season.

Among the fest’s world premieres are the latest from such filmmakers as Green Book double Oscar winner Peter Farrelly (I Play Rocky), Shakespeare in Love Oscar nominee John Madden (Onwards and Sideways), Chris Rock (Misty Green) and Anton Corbijn (A Talent for Murder).

TIFF also will feature the world debuts of Prima Facie, from British director Susanna White starring three-time Oscar nominee Cynthia Erivo, and The Assassin(s) from Korean filmmaker Hur Jin-ho, whose A Normal Family played Toronto in 2023.

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Among others screenings are Friends star Courteney Cox directing debut Evil Genius, Tim Blake Nelson’s prison thriller The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd, One Battle After Another breakout Chase Infiniti’s The Julia Set and director Rebel Wilson’s The Deb follow-up Girl Group.

Scroll below to read about Deadline’s reviews out of TIFF 2026, and click on the link to read the full versions. Keep checking back as we add more.

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Section: Special Presentations
Directors: Scarlett Bermingham and Andrew Rhymer
Cast: Annie Murphy, Cooper Raiff, Zosia Mamet, Christine Baranski, Bill Irwin, John Gemberling, Finn Wittrock
Deadline’s takeaway: Married directing couple Scarlett Bermingham and Andrew Rhymer know just how to stir this pot without drifting into the clichés of the rom-com genre but still give us what we want and expect. I didn’t expect much, but I got more than I bargained for: These are people I genuinely enjoyed spending time with, and Annie Murphy and Cooper Raiff are a fine pair. — PH

Section: Special Presentations
Directors: David Zellner, Nathan Zellner
Cast: Léa Seydoux, Dave Bautista, Kelvin Harrison Jr, Lily-Rose Depp, Doona Bae, Riley Keough, Chris Pine, Cate Blanchett
Deadline’s takeaway: The range Alpha Gang displays, from stylish to stupid, is beyond eclectic, like a crazy mash-up of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s World on a Wire and Mel Brooks’ Spaceballs, with a tip of the peaked leather cap to Kenneth Anger, whose seminal Scorpio Rising is clearly a huge influence. The Zellner brothers’ love for the bizarre, the cool and the crazy is, like the epidemic of emotions facing the Alpha Gang, wildly infectious. — DW

Section: Gala Presentations
Director-screenwriter: Lauren Miller Rogen
Cast: Anna Kendrick, Seth Rogen, Issa Rae, Dan Stevens, Kate Berlant, Zach Cherry, Ed Helms, Ashley Park, Sharon Stone, David Strathairn
Deadline’s takeaway: A sincere comedy about the ups and downs of life, Babies offers a balanced critique of parenthood that gives good parents their due while also celebrating the beauty of chosen family, as well as the joys of being able to go to the movies alone in the middle of the day, smoke a joint in your own home, and have sex whenever you want with the bedroom door unlocked. — GG

Section: Special Presentations
Director: Takashi Miike
Cast: Shun Oguri, Lily James, Shotaro Mamiya, Liv Morgan, Jun Kunimura, Hiroshi Tachi
Deadline’s takeaway: In short, this is classic Takashi Miike, not at his most shocking but certainly as slick as he’s ever going to get. The film’s limited resources become a little more obvious toward the end, but the filmmaker wears his low-budget bona fides with pride, and the lo-fi production values only add to the grittiness of its urban setting — DW

Section: Gala Presentations
Director: Siân Heder
Cast: Ruth Madeley, Mark Ruffalo, Dylan O’Brien, Madeline Delp, Rob Delaney, Ray Fisher, Michael Patrick Thornton, Antwan Tolliver, Daniel Durant, Jon Beavers, Roberta Colindrez, Russell Harvard
Deadline’s takeaway: While the title is a reference to disability rights activist Judy Heumann’s tireless efforts in legislating accessibility, this biopic is better viewed as an ensemble piece that captures the entire movement she championed. Its two-hour runtime is somewhat excessive but perhaps prudent to capture the sit-in’s grueling length. — GG

Section: Special Presentations
Director: Cody Fern
Cast: Sarah Paulson, Naomi Watts, Dianne Wiest, Toby Wallace, Odessa A’zion
Deadline’s takeaway: Cody Fern’s movie about mothers and motherhood in its most unattractive light (at least on the surface) reminds of a time when this kind of soapy melodrama was a big seller at the box office. I am not sure Closing Night will play as well as those did, but if casting counts this one has the goods. — PH

Section: Gala Presentations
Director: Courteney Cox
Cast: Patricia Arquette, David Harbour, Michael Chernus, Garret Dillahunt, Ryan Eggold, Gregory Alan Williams, Tom McCarthy, Owen Teague, Harlow Jane, David Rasche, Dascha Polanco, Danielle Macdonald, Thomas Michael Allen
Deadline’s takeaway: More than a decade after her directorial debut, Courteney Cox packs a heavy punch with Evil Genius thanks to an incredible, committed ensemble and a faithful approach to the true story that still offers moments of levity during the dark tragedy captured onscreen. — GG

Section: Midnight Madness
Director-screenwriter: Anna Biller
Cast: Jonah Hauer-King, Kristine Frøseth, Ellie Bamber, Leo Suter, Ben Radcliffe, Bella Heathcote
Deadline’s takeaway: Anna Biller’s cinematic ode to Hollywood’s technicolor era and the tragic beauty of an original Kabuki tale has provided another fix for cinephiles craving some good old-fashioned filmmaking with a contemporary feminist heartbeat. — GG

Section: Special Presentations
Director: Paul Andrew Williams
Cast: Erin Doherty, James McAvoy, Liv Hill, Smylie Bradwell
Deadline’s takeaway: The latest from British indie stalwart Paul Andrew Williams is an emotional chamber piece with a slow-burn supernatural twist that punches well above its weight, especially when star Erin Doherty’s heartbreaking performance reaches chilling new heights of what can only be described as “raw.” — DW

Section: Gala Presentations
Director: Rebel Wilson
Cast: Rebel Wilson, Randall Park, Sheridan Smith, Melanie Chisholm, Nicole Scherzinger, Jamie-Lee O’Donnell, Shaznay Lewis, Ashley Roberts, Judi Love, Guz Khan, Chabely Ponce, Daniela Couso, Lilah Pate, Mia Kaplan, Bailey Stender, Loren Gray, Miracle Washington, Ana Yi Puig, Keith Duffy, Chris Colfer, Bechill, Jolene, Sally Hawkins, Jennifer Coolidge
Deadline’s takeaway: Rebel Wilson has returned to her roots with a fun, character-driven musical comedy, and she hits all the right notes as both star and director. Girl Group is an addictively enjoyable film blends heart and humor and is sure to appeal to anyone who couldn’t stop singing “Cups (When I’m Gone)” for the majority of 2011. — GG

Section: Special Presentations
Director: Ben Shirinian
Cast: Naomi Watts, Luke Evans, Tye Sheridan, Lena Olin, Michael Imperioli, Ron Leo
Deadline’s takeaway: In an enormously tricky and risky performance, Naomi Watts is stunning as a seemingly typical 1950s Queens housewife who harbors a horrific secret, and Ben Shirinian’s impressive debut feature stands out as it tries to show how one person can embody the worst, most monstrous aspects of humanity and then lock it away. — PH

Section: Special Presentations
Director: Peter Farrelly
Cast: Anthony Ippolito, AnnaSophia Robb, Toby Kebbell, P.J. Byrne, Jay Duplass, Matt Dillon, Stephan James, Tracy Letts, Kiki Seto
Deadline’s takeaway: Peter Farrelly has said he would not have made the film without Sylvester Stallone’s blessing, which he got, and he has, with Peter Gamble’s beautifully structured and crafted screenplay and an uncanny performance by Anthony Ippolito, made one of the best movies ever about Hollywood moviemaking. — PH

Section: Special Events
Director: Zack Snyder
Cast: Stuart Martin, Fra Fee, Costanza Andrade, Marlon Moreno, Quique Mendoza
Deadline’s takeaway: The Last Photograph is high on testosterone and centers on an almost ridiculously deadpan fella-drama bromance, but it’s good to see Zack Snyder trying something so far out of his wheelhouse (well, at least a bit far out of it), sharpening his sometimes rusty storytelling skills without the safety net of superhero pyrotechnics. — DW

Section: Gala Presentations
Director: Tim Blake Nelson
Cast: Amanda Seyfried, Scoot McNairy, William Jackson Harper, Devyn Tyler, Wunmi Mosaku, Missi Pyle, Grant Harvey, Elizabeth Marvel
Deadline’s takeaway: The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd is extremely well acted, well written and well directed. In the end however it was all too much: the abuse of Amanda Seyfried’s Karen, the unthinkable crimes of Scoot McNairy’s Wilson Shedd, the wasted lives. There is a point where a movie can go too far. — PH

Section: Special Presentations
Director: Rachel Morrison
Cast: Margaret Qualley, Gabriel Basso, Aaron Pierre, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Catherine Keener
Deadline’s takeaway: In a way I wasn’t surprised to see Ryan Gosling is a producer on this as Love of Your Life could be summed up as The Notebook meets Eat Pray Love. Though meandering at times, Rachel Morrison and Nyad screenwriter Julia Cox’s screenplay give it its own alternating rhythms, and it always is engaging thanks to Margaret Qualley’s undeniable screen presence. — PH

Section: Gala Presentations
Director-screenwriter: Chris Rock
Cast: Rosalind Eleazar, Anna Kendrick, Adam Driver, Chris Rock, Daniel Kaluuya, Topher Grace, Rich Sommer, Amy Landecker, Anthony Anderson
Deadline’s takeaway: Even in a movie about a down-on-her-luck former TV star that is not the sum of all its parts, many of those parts are pretty good, and Chris Rock has delivered a film that will be remembered as the one that gave us a glimpse of the movie star Rosalind Eleazar is about to become. — PH

Section: Gala Presentations
Director: Susanna White
Cast: Cynthia Erivo, Daniel Ings, Toheeb Jimoh, Noma Dumezweni, Simon Russell Beale, Elliot Levy, Khalid Abdalla
Deadline’s takeaway: The list of reforms to the legal system sparked in part by Susanna Miller’s Olivier and Tony-winning play is impressive, but I can’t help but think that in this more literal film version something may have gotten lost in translation. Still, if it can help the cause showing the injustice for rape victims everywhere, the more power to Miller and White in trying to bring the issue to a wider audience. — PH

Section: Midnight Madness
Director: Joshua Giuliano
Cast: Jane Levy, Jessica Rothe, Max Mattern, Dane Di­Liegro
Deadline’s takeaway: There’s an eerie simplicity that separates Joshua Giuliano’s debut feature film from others in the slasher genre, only leaning into tropes when it makes sense, and not falling into the trap of overly stylizing for the sake of appealing to under-stimulated horror fans. — GG

Section: Discovery
Director: Theo Rhys
Cast: Jodie Comer, Harry Melling
Deadline’s takeaway: “Sweeney Todd with taxidermy” is the high-concept pitch behind this doozy of a musical black comedy that, ambitiously, attempts to make a serious point about modern-day loneliness and, thanks to its terrific core cast, pretty much succeeds. Hal Ashby’s Harold and Maude is about as close a comparison as you might find in this very niche genre. — DW

Section: Centerpiece
Director-screenwriter: Dr. Roshan Sethi
Cast: Michelle Yeoh, Martin Freeman, Laurie Davidson, Yuri Kolokolnikov, Joseph Mydell
Deadline’s takeaway: Roshan Sethi shows his bona fides by making a truly original action flick that may be the most informative trip inside the body since Fantastic Voyage. It also is a tailor-made vehicle guaranteed to turn up the temperature for Michelle Yeoh fans everywhere all at once. — PH

Section: Helen Mirren, Alden Ehrenreich, Olivia Cooke
Director-screenwriter: Anton Corbijn
Cast: Helen Mirren, Alden Ehrenreich, Olivia Cooke
Deadline’s takeaway: This flawed but very entertaining two-hander belongs in the unique subgenre of literary biographies in which a cult author’s life is investigated through the highly specific prism of their work. Helen Mirren, playing wildly against type, is a revelation here. — DW

Section: Gala Presentations
Director-screenwriter: Trudie Styler
Cast: Antonio Banderas, Eva Birthisle, Eden Hamilton, Richard E. Grant, Forest Whitaker, Úrsula Corberó, Arinzé Kene
Deadline’s takeaway: With the help of a screenplay that doesn’t resort to clichés, Trudie Styler has pulled off a smart and sophisticated story of dysfunctional adults who, in the worst of times, must learn the true definition of love and family and what really matters. It’s a handsome-looking film with excellent performances. — PH

Section: Special Presentations
Director-screenwriter: Bassam Tariq
Cast: Mahershala Ali, John Cho, Abubakr Ali, Adia, Giancarlo Esposito
Deadline’s takeaway: Your Mother will find an audience for sure, but this largely dour attempt to inject a little self-reflection to the traditional hitman setup will be a hard sell, being far too intelligent for a mindless action movie and not arty enough for those intrigued by its heady promise of violence and theosophy. — DW