TIFF 50
This year’s lineup is on fire. Outside the hotly anticipated Colin Hank’s doc, John Candy: I Like Me, and Rian Johnson’s latest, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, here are 5 films we’re keeping our eyes on in the festival’s 50th year!
- Honorary Chair and Award Winners: Actor Brendan Fraser is this year’s Honorary Chair. Other award winners include Idris Elba, Jodie Foster, Guillermo del Toro, and Channing Tatum.
- The 50th Toronto International Film Festival, presented by Rogers, will run September 4–14, 2025. Celebrate with the best of Canadian and global cinema, special events and talks with stars, plus TIFF’s Industry Conference. TIFF 50
DUST BUNNY
SYNOPSIS: In visionary creator Bryan Fuller’s (Hannibal, Pushing Daisies) fantastical and wickedly inventive feature directorial debut DUST BUNNY, a 10 year-old girl who joins forces with her hitman neighbor to confront each other’s monsters.
Ten year-old Aurora has a mysterious neighbor (Mads Mikkelsen) who kills real-life monsters; he’s a hitman for hire. So when Aurora needs help killing the monster that she believes ate her entire family, she procures his services. Suspecting that Aurora’s parents may have fallen victim to assassins gunning for him, the neighbor guiltily takes the job. To protect her, he’ll need to battle an onslaught of assassins and accept that some monsters are real.
IN THEATERS: December 5, 2025
DIRECTOR: Bryan Fuller
WRITER: Bryan Fuller
CAST: Mads Mikkelsen, Sigourney Weaver, David Dastmalchian, Sophie Slone
RUN TIME: 106 minutes TIFF 50
CAROLINA CAROLINE
In his latest slice of anarchic Americana, writer-director Adam Carter Rehmeier first introduces us to the always effervescent Samara Weaving (Guns Akimbo, TIFF ’19) as Caroline. Listless and living a small life in a small town, she dutifully cares for her single father (Jon Gries) though she longs to break from her dusty and dull world. But when she observes a handsome drifter (Kyle Gallner) pull a sly con for a few bucks, her curiosity sparks an introduction that ignites an apprenticeship. Before long, their lucrative, if untenable, criminal enterprise dovetails into a passionate romance.
CALIFORNIA SCHEMIN’
Actor James McAvoy makes his directorial debut with this irresistible, feel-good underdog tale about two Scottish men pretending to be Americans to achieve their dreams of hip-hop stardom. It’s based on a true story that’s stranger than fiction.
LILITH FAIR: Building a Mystery
![Lilith Fair_ Building a Mystery - [tiff.net]](https://i0.wp.com/reelnewsdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/Lilith-Fair_-Building-a-Mystery-tiff.net_.png?resize=678%2C344&ssl=1)
This galvanizing documentary from director Ally Pankiw (I Used To Be Funny) takes us behind the scenes of Sarah McLachlan’s legendary all-women music festival and features interviews with performers including Bonnie Raitt, Erykah Badu, Olivia Rodrigo, and Emmylou Harris.
TUNER
A talented piano tuner’s meticulous skills for tuning pianos lead him to discover an unexpected aptitude for cracking safes, turning his life upside down.
For TIFF coverage from years past, click here!
TIFF 50
Fantasia 2025![Touch Me (2025) - [www.imdb.com]](https://i0.wp.com/reelnewsdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/Touch-Me-2025-www.imdb_.com_.png?resize=678%2C473&ssl=1)
Writer/director Addison Heinmann follows up his 2022 Fantasia hit 
When a young woman faces a deadly diagnosis, she seeks dark magic from a witch in the woods… but every cure has costs. Written and directed by John and Zelda Adams and Toby Poser (The Adams Family), who also star, shot, edited, and scored, MOTHER OF FLIES is the latest creation from the filmmaking family behind such singular landmarks as 
In one of 2025’s major genre breakouts, four college friends find themselves on an infinite, unending road, forcing each of them to decide how to confront their fate in an unnerving journey into the unknown. Writer/director Alex Ullom and his gifted cast work miracles and offer a compelling, constantly intriguing, and often terrifying road trip into adulthood. Official Selection: SXSW 2025, Overlook 2025. 
Desperate to avenge her daughter’s murder, Irene Kelly (Michaela McManus) journeys through parallel dimensions to repeatedly track down and annihilate her killer (Jeremy Holm). A tense sci-fi vengeance thriller unlike any other, REDUX REDUX is the latest creation by Kevin and Matthew McManus, the Peabody award-winning writers and producers of AMERICAN VANDAL and COBRA KAI, and writers/directors of FUNERAL KINGS (Fantasia 2012) and THE BLOCK ISLAND SOUND (Fantasia 2020). Official Selection: SXSW 2025. Neuchâtel International Fantastic Film Festival 2025. 
After coming to Fantasia as a short film selected for the Frontierés Market Shorts to Features Lab in 2022 and Sitges Fanpitch that same year, directing duo Deanna Milligan and Ramsey Fendall expand the world of Mia Sunshine Jones in their darkly trippy feature, LUCID. Mia is a rebellious art student who struggles to create the ultimate project for a demanding professor. Desperate to find her artistic voice, she takes Lucid, a candy elixir, to access her creativity, but taps into something much darker. Starring Caitlin Acken Taylor, who reprises her role from the short, and Georgia Acken (star of the 2023 Fantasia hit THE SACRIFICE GAME), Milligan and Fendall create a surreal nightmare with a vintage look that fully embraces the 90s grunge era with a punk art aesthetic. Using live on-set music, an eclectic cast, and loads of experimental and haunting visuals, the World Premiere of LUCID will be a nightmare-come-true. 
For her debut feature film, FOREIGNER, Ava Maria Safai (Zip) expertly harnesses the power of identity, social acceptance, horror, and comedy. It’s 2004, and Iranian immigrant Yasamin, or Yasi, is the new girl. Her high school experience is daunting, as she tries to improve her English by watching her favorite sitcom and befriends a trio of pastel-clad girls who feed Yasi’s need to fit in. Desperate for acceptance, she dyes her hair blonde and, in doing so, also attracts a demonic force. With a fun retro setting, great performances by Rose Dehgan as Yasi, Chloë MacLeod as the creepy high school “Queen Bee” Rachel, and a blend of our favorite teen horrors, FOREIGNER takes up space as a new entry to “bubblegum horror,” bringing a fresh narrative to the Canadian immigrant experience. The film has been referred to by some as Mean Girls meets The Exorcist and Ava is definitely a young director to watch. 
A woman (Dakota Gorman) wakes in the back of a moving camper trailer. A voice (Todd Terry) from the truck towing it tells her they must reach a mysterious doctor within the hour. Thus begins HELLCAT, the feature debut of writer/editor/director Brock Bodell, who previously cut the mind-bending 
SXSW 2025
Director: Gerard Johnson, Producers: John Jencks, Isabel Freer, Matthew James Wilkinson, Patrick Tolan, Screenwriters: Gerard Johnson, Austin Collings
Director: Elaine Epstein, Producers: Elaine Epstein, Robin Hessman
Directors/Screenwriters: Helena Ganjalyan, Bartosz Szpak, Producers: Maria Gołoś, Monika Matuszewska
Director/Screenwriter: Alex Scharfman, Producers: Drew Houpt, Lucas Joaquin, Alex Scharfman, Lars Knudsen, Tyler Campellone, Tim Headington, Theresa Steele Page
Director: Yana Alliata, Producer: Jack Forbes, Screenwriters: Yana Alliata, Amy Miner
Director: Jessica Earnshaw, Producers: Holly Meehl Chapman, Jessica Earnshaw
Director: Eli Craig, Producers: Marty Bowen, John Fischer, Wyck Godfrey, Screenwriters: Carter Blanchard, Adam Cesare, Eli Craig
Director/Screenwriter: Kaspar Astrup Schröder, Producers: Maria Helga Stürup, Katrine A. Sahlstrøm
Director/Screenwriter: Amy Landecker, Producers: Amy Landecker, Bradley Whitford, Valerie Stadler, Jenica Bergere, James Portolese
Director/Screenwriter: Geremy Jasper, Producers: Michael Gottwald, Noah Stahl
Director: Kahane Corn Cooperman, Producers: Innbo Shim, Kahane Corn Cooperman
Director: Anayansi Prado, Producers: Ina Fichman, David Goldblum, Screenwriters: Anayansi Prado, Pablo Proenza
Director: Matt Johnson, Producers: Matthew Miller, Matt Greyson, Screenwriters: Matt Johnson, Jay McCarrol
Director: Ari Gold, Producers: Michelle Stratton, Starr Sutherland, Screenwriters: Ari Gold, Ethan Gold, Lara Louise, Brian Bell, Herbert Gold, Tongo Eisen-Martin, John Flanigan
Director/Screenwriter: Chelsea Christer, Producers: Clinton Trucks, Alexa Rocero, David B. Lyons
Director/Screenwriter: Lucy Davidson, Producers: Vanessa Batten, Amy Upchurch
Addison Heimann is a queer genre filmmaker currently residing in Los Angeles. His first feature, Hypochondriac, premiered at the 2022 SXSW Film Festival and was distributed by XYZ Films. His goal is to tell queer stories that explore mental health in the genre space.
Evan Twohy was raised on Hitchcock and opera on the edge of a forest outside Berkeley, California. From an early age, he found himself drawn to absurdist theater and began writing plays in New York City prior to making his first feature, Bubble & Squeak.
DIG! XX
To find out more information on all things Sundance 2024, head to 
Something terrifying is happening off the coast of Block Island. A strange force is thriving, influencing residents and wildlife alike. Birds are dropping out of the sky. Some people have been dropping too, into inexplicable emotional collapse. Harry Lynch (Chris Sheffield, THE STANFORD PRISON EXPERIMENT) has always been a bit of an outsider in town. Now, he watches in dread as his father (Neville Archambault, 13 CAMERAS) grows increasingly forgetful and confused. And angry. Very, very angry. His sister Audry (Michaela McManus, THE VILLAGE), whose work in marine biology will soon prove invaluable, returns to town with her daughter and immediately sees what Harry sees. Her explorations into the increasingly grisly wildlife phenomena intersect with the triggers of her father’s actions, leading them all towards chilling revelations that no one is prepared for. Revelations that will affect her family in unimaginable ways.
To give you an idea of why Fantasia International Film Festival is my favorite redheaded stepchild of a festival, here are a few films from my youth that still haunt/entertain the crap out of me. 1. Poltergeist: the film my father thought a 2-year-old should watch. 2. The Rocky Horror Picture Show: because a sci-fi musical with Tim Curry in drag should be shown in every Kindergarten class on the planet I inhabit. 3. Princess Bride: one of the most quotable and inconceivable films, I mean that with the utmost respect and if you say otherwise I will fight you (with a sword). 4. Pulp Fiction: a film whose dialogue is filled with sermon, innumerable expletives, drug overdose, and bloody violence for days was just the beginning of a long career of effed up magic. Love it or hate it, it was original. So, for me, Fantasia encompasses all that is weird, wonderful, wacky, wtf, and any other “w” descriptor I’m missing out on in this precise moment.
You must be logged in to post a comment.