By Hudson Moura
First published: August 26, 2026
Last updated: September 28, 2026
The 51st Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) took place from September 10 to 20, 2026, bringing together Canadian and international cinema across 11 days of premieres, discoveries, established auteurs, and emerging filmmakers. My coverage encompassed 26 films, ranging from major international productions to Canadian cinema and less-publicized discoveries. I would also like to extend my sincere thanks to Mariam and Netta from the TIFF Press Office for their generous support throughout the festival and this coverage.
Several films emerged as major highlights, particularly Fjord, Elsinore, On Behalf of My Son, Soumsoum, A Good Little Soldier, Minotaur, Coward, and Bitter Christmas. The festival’s audience awards also intersected closely with my coverage: La Bola Negra received the People’s Choice Award, while Elsinore won the International People’s Choice Award, with Possible Love and The Assassin(s) recognized as runners-up. The success of two films centred on gay lives and histories was particularly meaningful, reflecting the openness of Toronto audiences to queer stories told through very different cinematic and historical perspectives.
There were also significant disappointments. Some highly anticipated films presented ambitious subjects and compelling ideas but were undermined, in my view, by problems of screenplay, dramatic construction, direction, or performance. These ranged from the narrative flatness I experienced in some films to the weaknesses of The Man I Love, Djinn Wedding, Glaxo, and The World Before. This also raises a broader question about TIFF’s programming strategy. A more rigorous curatorial selection could mean fewer titles of more consistently high quality, with more screenings devoted to each film. With almost 300 titles compressed into 11 days, too many films received too few opportunities to reach the public. Celebrated Iranian Kurdish filmmaker Bahman Ghobadi’s Trees Are Watching was a striking example: despite Ghobadi travelling to Toronto to present its world premiere, the film had only one public screening. A more concentrated programme could increase availability, reduce scheduling conflicts and ticket scarcity, and potentially make ticket prices more accessible — one of the recurring criticisms I heard throughout the festival. The problem was particularly evident among younger audiences: one of my film students told me that she waited 12 hours in the rush line to see Fjord because regular ticket prices were simply beyond what she could afford. An international public film festival should make it easier, not harder, for the next generation of filmmakers, critics, and cinephiles to participate in its cultural life.
Beyond questions of access, there is a cultural consequence to this programming model. A festival is not simply a succession of screenings but a space in which films acquire a life through their audiences. When the programme is so vast and individual titles have so few screenings, viewers are dispersed and films can disappear before word of mouth has had a chance to develop. A discovery at an early screening should generate curiosity and allow others to see the film later, creating the shared experience from which conversation, disagreement, enthusiasm, and critical debate emerge. This is particularly important for smaller or less-publicized films, which often need precisely that time to find an audience. For a festival as important as TIFF, success should therefore be measured not simply by the number of films it can present, but by the cultural space it creates for those films to be discovered, experienced, and discussed.
Below are my 26 reviews and ratings out of five, offering a selective portrait of TIFF 2026 — its discoveries, ambitions, contradictions, triumphs, and disappointments.