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Toronto International Film Festival · 2025

Toronto International Film Festival 2025

Centrepiece

Programme

21 films · 12 reviews

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Blue Heron

A young girl and her family move from Hungary to Canada in the 1990s, where her brother disrupts their new life. In the present, she seeks answers from the past.

(Country: Canada, Hungary; Year: 2025; Director: Sophy Romvari; Writer: Sophy Romvari; Stars: Eylul Guven, Iringó Réti, Ádám Tompa, Edik Beddoes, Amy Zimmer)

Blue Moon

Review preview for Blue Moon

As Blue Moon progresses it becomes clear that the one thing Hart really wants is to be wanted.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
On the evening of March 31, 1943, legendary lyricist Lorenz Hart confronts his shattered self-confidence in Sardi’s bar as his former collaborator Richard Rodgers celebrates the opening night of his groundbreaking hit musical Oklahoma!.

(Country: US; Year: 2025; Director: Richard Linklater; Writer: Robert Kaplow; Stars: Margaret Qualley, Andrew Scott, Ethan Hawke, Bobby Cannavale, Patrick Kennedy, Simon Delaney, John Doran, Elaine O'Dwyer, Cillian Sullivan, Ian Dillon)

Full review

The Blue Trail (O Ultimo Azul)

Review preview for The Blue Trail

When you get old, hope you find someone who looks at you the way Mascaro looks at Tereza and Roberta.

Amber Wilkinson · 4.5 out of 5
To maximise economic productivity, the government orders the elderly to relocate to distant housing colonies. Tereza, 77, refuses – and instead embarks on a journey through the Amazon that will change her destiny forever.

(Country: Brazil, Mexico, Netherlands, Chile; Year: 2025; Director: Gabriel Mascaro; Writer: Tibério Azul, Murilo Hauser, Heitor Lorega, Gabriel Mascaro; Stars: Denise Weinberg, Rodrigo Santoro, Miriam Socarras, Adanilo)

Full review See: Interview with Gabriel Mascaro about The Blue Trail

Dandelion's Odyssey (Planètes)

Review preview for Dandelion's Odyssey

Animator Momoko Seto primarily deserves praise for imbuing each seed with a distinctive personality so that although the film is without dialogue we always know which of our adventurers we’re observing.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
Dendelion, Baraban, Léonto and Taraxa - four dandelion achenes that survive from a series of nuclear explosions destroying Earth - are propelled into the cosmos. After crash-landing on an unknown planet, they set out in search of soil where their species might survive.

(Country: France, Belgium; Year: 2025; Director: Momoko Seto; Writer: Mariette Désert, Alain Layrac, Momoko Seto)

Full review

Eagles Of The Republic

(Country: France, Sweden, Denmark; Year: 2025; Director: Tarik Saleh; Writer: Tarik Saleh; Stars: Fares Fares, Cherien Dabis, Lyna Khoudri, Zineb Triki, Sherwan Haji, Hassan El Sayed, Pedram Hajigholi, Suhaib Nashwan, Mohammed Nehmi, Haitham Elsaadani)

Follies (Folichonneries)

A couple in a relationship for 16 years and parents of two children, are no longer able to connect sexually. They decide to open up their relationship in order to experience "fun" experiences that will allow them to learn more about themselves. Polyamory, libertinism, BDSM, and sexual fluidity ensue.

(Country: Canada; Year: 2025; Director: Eric K Boulianne; Writer: Alexandre Auger, Eric K Boulianne; Stars: Eric K Boulianne, Catherine Chabot, Florence Blain Mbaye, Étienne Galloy, Sarah Chouinard Poirier, Simone Bellemare-Ledoux, Agathe Ledoux, Sophie Letourneur, Antonin Mousseau-Rivard, Ève Landry, Éric Robidoux, Julie Le Breton, Nathalie Coupal, Ambre Jabrane, Carolanne Foucher, Erin Margurite Carter, Jacques L'Heureux, Rose-Anne Déry, Rémi St-Michel)

Honey Bunch

Review preview for Honey Bunch

There’s a genuine unpredictability to Honey Bunch, both structurally and thematically.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
Diana’s husband is taking her to an experimental trauma facility deep in the wilderness, but she cannot remember why ... As her memories begin to creep back in, so do some unwelcome sinister truths about her marriage.

(Country: Canada, UK; Year: 2025; Director: Dusty Mancinelli, Madeleine Sims-Fewer; Writer: Dusty Mancinelli, Madeleine Sims-Fewer; Stars: Jason Isaacs, Kate Dickie, Julian Richings, Grace Glowicki, India Brown, Ben Petrie, Jimi Shlag)

Full review See: Interview with Dusty Mancinelli and Madeleine Sims-Fewer about Honey Bunch

Left-Handed Girl

Review preview for Left-Handed Girl

The title stops being metaphor and becomes a wound you can watch forming in real time.

Edin Custo · 4 out of 5
A single mother and her two daughters return to Taipei to open a night market stand. Three generations of family secrets begin to unravel after the youngest daughter who’s left-handed is told by her traditional grandfather to never use her "devil hand”.

(Country: Taiwan, France; Year: 2025; Director: Tsou Shih-Ching; Writer: Sean Baker, Tsou Shih-Ching; Stars: Janel Tsai, Nina Ye, Huang Teng-Hui, Ma Shi-Yuan, Akio Chen, Chao Xin-Yan)

Full review

Little Amélie (Little Amélie Or The Character Of Rain)

Review preview for Little Amélie

Amélie doesn’t just narrate but completely dominates this film as a personality.

Jennie Kermode · 4 out of 5
Amélie is a little Belgian girl born in Japan. Thanks to her friend Nishio-san, the world is full of adventure and discovery. But on her third birthday, an event changes the course of her life. For Amélie, everything is at stake at that age, happiness as well as tragedy.

(Country: France; Year: 2025; Director: Liane-Cho Han Jin Kuang, Mailys Vallade; Writer: Amélie Nothomb, Liane-Cho Han Jin Kuang, Aude Py, Mailys Vallade, Eddine Noël; Stars: Loïse Charpentier, Victoria Grobois, Yumi Fujimori, Cathy Cerda, Marc Arnaud, Laetitia Coryn, Haylee Issembourg, Isaac Schoumsky, François Raison, Emmylou Homs)

Full review See: The makers of Little Amélie on why perceptions about animation are changing

The Little Sister (La Petite Dernière)

Fatima, 17, the youngest of three daughters, treads carefully as she searches for her own path, grappling with emerging desires, her attraction to women, and her loyalty to her caring French-Algerian family.

(Country: France, Germany; Year: 2025; Director: Hafsia Herzi; Writer: Fatima Daas, Hafsia Herzi; Stars: Park Ji-min, Aloïse Sauvage, Némo Schiffman, Vincent Pasdermadjian, Sophie Garagnon, Olivia Courbis, Rita Benmannana, Victorien Bonnet, Elisa Libri, Luna Ribeiro, Anouar Kardellas, Nacer Bouhanni)

The Love That Remains

A year in the life of a family as the parents navigate their separation. Through both playful and heartfelt moments, the film portrays the bittersweet essence of faded love and shared memories amidst the changing seasons.

(Country: Iceland, Denmark, Sweden, France; Year: 2025; Director: Hlynur Pálmason; Writer: Hlynur Pálmason; Stars: Ingvar Sigurdsson, Sverrir Gudnason, Anders Mossling, Ída Mekkín Hlynsdóttir, Katla M. Þorgeirsdóttir, Saga Garðarsdóttir, Halldór Laxness Halldórsson, Grímur Hlynsson, Þorgils Hlynsson, Kristinn Guðmundsson)

Lucky Lu

A New York City delivery rider's world is turned upside down when he loses his only source of income.

(Year: 2025; Director: Lloyd Lee Choi; Writer: Lloyd Lee Choi; Stars: Alex Veadov, Fala Chen, Chang Chen, Perry Yung, Laith Nakli, Sarah Baskin, Jenni Ruiza, Joanna Carpenter, Fiona Fu, Tom Ukah, Marcos A. Gonzalez, Danny Borbon, John Ramaine, Carabelle Manna, Shing Moussa Chung)

Mama

Review preview for Mama

Sinai portrays the situations one might find quite common and “close to home” with precision and emotional clarity.

Marko Stojiljkovic · 3.5 out of 5
After many years working far from home, Mila is forced to temporarily leave her seaside mansion - and her secret romance - to return to her family in a remote Polish village. But the long-awaited reunion is far from what she imagined.

(Country: Israel, Poland, Italy; Year: 2025; Director: Or Sinai; Writer: Or Sinai; Stars: Evgenia Dodina, Chelli Goldenberg, Meir Suissa)

Full review See: Dual identity

Mirrors No.3 (Miroirs No.3)

Review preview for Mirrors No.3

As is true of many a tale, not all motivations are on the table right away, and finding rescue and respite with strangers can only last a mere while.

Anne-Katrin Titze · 5 out of 5
On a weekend trip to the countryside, Laura miraculously survives a car crash. Physically unhurt but deeply shaken, she is taken in by a local woman who witnessed the accident and now cares for Laura with motherly devotion. When her husband and adult son also give up their initial resistance to Laura's presence, the four of them slowly build up some family-like routine. But soon they can no longer ignore their past...

(Year: 2025; Director: Christian Petzold; Writer: Christian Petzold; Stars: Paula Beer, Barbara Auer, Matthias Brandt, Enno Trebs, Victoire Laly)

Full review See: Christian Petzold on Miroirs No. 3 (Mirrors No. 3)

The Mysterious Gaze Of The Flamingo

1982. Eleven-year-old Lidia lives with her beloved queer family in a desert mining town in northern Chile. As an unknown and deadly disease begins to spread, legend has it that it is transmitted between two men, through a simple glance, when they fall in love. While people are accusing her family, Lidia must find out whether this myth is real or not.

(Country: Chile; Year: 2025; Director: Diego Céspedes; Writer: Diego Céspedes; Stars: Tamara Cortes, Matías Catalán, Paula Dinamarca)

My Father's Shadow

Set over the course of a single day in the Nigerian capital Lagos during the 1993 Nigerian election crisis, it follows a father, estranged from his two young sons, as they travel through the city.

(Country: UK, Nigeria; Year: 2025; Director: Akinola Davies; Writer: Akinola Davies, Wale Davies; Stars: Sope Dirisu, Efon Wini, Chibuike Marvelous Egbo, Godwin Egbo)

The President's Cake

Review preview for The President's Cake

Nayyef and Qasem are marvellous, completely natural and without a hint of self-consciousness.

Jennie Kermode · 4.5 out of 5
While people struggle daily to survive under sanctions in Saddam's Iraq, nine-year-old Lamia must use her wits to gather ingredients for a cake to celebrate President Saddam Hussein's birthday or face the consequences.

(Country: Iraq; Year: 2025; Director: Hasan Hadi; Writer: Hasan Hadi; Stars: Banin Ahmad Nayef, Sajad Mohamad Qasem, Waheed Thabet Khreibat, Rahim AlHaj)

Full review See: Slice of life.. and fable

Renoir

Suburban Tokyo, 1987. Eleven-year-old Fuki’s father, Keiji, is battling a terminal illness, and in and out of hospital. Her mother, Utako, is constantly stressed out from caring for Keiji while holding down a full-time job. Left alone with her rich imagination, Fuki becomes fascinated by telepathy and falls ever deeper into her own fantasy world…

(Country: Japan, France; Year: 2025; Director: Chie Hayakawa; Writer: Chie Hayakawa; Stars: Yumi Kawai, Lily Franky, Ryôta Bandô, Charlie St. Cyr, Hikari Ishida, Ayumu Nakajima, Yui Suzuki)

Space Cadet (Robot, Celeste & das All)

Review preview for Space Cadet

A film that gently tackles adult themes including grief, being an empty nester and memory but in ways that make it accessible to all ages.

Amber Wilkinson · 4 out of 5
Robot’s sole purpose has always been to nurture Celeste into the brilliant scientist she has now become. But as the young astronaut sets off on her first interstellar mission, Robot is left behind.

(Director: Eric San (aka Kid Koala); Writer: Mylène Chollet)

Full review See: Eric San - aka Kid Koala - on minimalism and cherishing the moment in Space Cadet

Two Prosecutors

Review preview for Two Prosecutors

Chillingly restrained and quietly devastating

Stephen Dalton · 4 out of 5
Soviet Union, 1937. Thousands of letters from detainees falsely accused by the regime are burned in a prison cell. Against all odds, one of them reaches its destination... the desk of a newly appointed local prosecutor, who embarks on a quest for justice.

(Country: France, Germany, Romania, Latvia, Netherlands, Lithuania; Year: 2025; Director: Sergey Loznitsa; Writer: Sergey Loznitsa; Stars: Aleksandr Kuznetsov, Aleksandr Filippenko, Anatoliy Beliy, Andris Keišs)

Full review

A Useful Ghost (Pee Chai Dai Ka)

Review preview for A Useful Ghost

Not only ambitious – a term often used to damn films with faint praise – but successfully so.

Amber Wilkinson · 4.5 out of 5
March is mourning his wife Nat who has recently passed away due to dust pollution. He discovers her spirit has returned by possessing the vacuum cleaner. But to become a useful ghost, she first needs to get rid of the useless ones.

(Country: Thailand; Year: 2025; Director: Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke; Writer: Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke; Stars: Wanlop Rungkumjad, Wisarut Himmarat, Apasiri Nitibhon, Wisarut Homhuan)

Full review See: Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke on mixing things up in A Useful Ghost