The Tornoto International Film Festival has selected 55 movies for its Centrepiece programme of the 50th fest, movies which are a “global showcase of compelling cinema from around the world” per this AM’s release. TIFF, presented by Rogers, runs from Sept. 4-14.
Titles from close to 50 countries including Bolivia, Brazil, Bulgaria, Chad, Colombia, Côte d’Ivoire,
France, Germany, Iraq, Ireland, Kenya, Mexico, Poland, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand are reflected in the curation.
Those filmmakers with works in this part of the lineup, and that also includes North American premieres, are Hubert Davis, Mathieu Denis, Hasan Hadi, Chie Hayakawa, Anders Thomas Jensen, Jan Komasa, Richard Linklater, Sergei Loznitsa, Pietro Marcello, Christian Petzold, Potsy Poncirol and Álvaro Olmos Torrico.
Centrepiece has 19 world premieres including:
Blood Lines, Gail Maurice’s sophomore feature, a pastoral drama of family and reconnection
Carolina Caroline, directed by Adam Carter Rehmeier, an outlaw romance starring Samara Weaving
and Kyle Gallner
Erupcja, directed by Pete Ohs, features a combustible chemistry between a Polish florist (Lena
Góra) and a British tourist (Charli xcx)
Good Boy, by Jan Komasa, a twisted thriller about freedom and identity, starring Stephen Graham,
Andrea Riseborough, and Anson Boon
‘I Swear’
I Swear, from Kirk Jones, the inspirational true story of John Davidson, a trailblazer whose honesty
and humour helped the world better understand what it means to live with Tourette Syndrome
Nomad Shadow, Eimi Imanishi’s poignant debut feature about a refugee to Spain who’s forced to
return to Western Sahara
Palimpsest: the Story of a Name, from Mary Stephen (Shades of Silk), a deeply personal story
about her family’s complicated history and their Western surname
Saipan, from filmmakers Glenn Leyburn and Lisa Barros D’Sa, about a rift between star player Roy
Keane and manager Mick McCarthy on the eve of the 2002 World Cup, starring Éanna Hardwicke
and Steve Coogan
The Condor Daughter, from Álvaro Olmos Torrico, about a young woman who inherits the sacred
art of midwifery but dreams of conquering the city with her voice
The Cost of Heaven, a film from Quebec’s Mathieu Denis (whose TIFF ’16 film Those Who Make
Revolution Halfway Dig Their Own Graves was awarded that year’s Best Canadian Feature), starring
French actor Samir Guesmi
The President’s Cake, from a multiple award winner at Cannes, Iraqi filmmaker Hasan Hadi, a
heartbreaking and unforgettable look at a country crushed by poverty and international sanctions
— and ruled by a sadistic, greedy and vain tyrant
Unidentified, the latest from Saudi Arabian director Haifaa Al Mansour (Wadjda), an iconoclastic
crime thriller that questions our collective fascination with tales of femicide
Wasteman, Cal McMau’s debut feature, which peels back the conventions of the prison drama,
featuring rising star David Jonsson (Alien: Romulus)
Whitetail, from Dutch filmmaker Nanouk Leopold, a slow-burn thriller with a haunting performance
from Natasha O’Keeffe (Peaky Blinders)
Youngblood, directed by Hubert Davis, starring Blair Underwood and Shawn Doyle, and co-written
by the late Charles Officer, is a powerful tribute to the Toronto filmmaker, and a reimagining of the
original 1986 film
Margaret Qualley and Ethan Hawke in ‘Blue Moon’
Sony Pictures Classics
Notable North American premieres include: French animation director Ugo Bienvenu’s Arco, Thai filmmaker Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke’s A Useful Ghost, Barrio Triste, from music video director STILLZ, Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon, Chadian director Achille Ronaimou’s surprising debut feature Diya, Genki Kawamura’s Exit 8, Quebec screenwriter, actor and director Eric K. Boulianne’s Follies, Taiwanese actor and director Shu Qi’s Girl, Iraqi filmmaker’s Mohamed Jabarah’s Irkalla: Gilgamesh’s Dream, Shih-Ching Tsou’s Left-Handed Girl, co-written by Sean Baker, Lucky Lu by Korean-Canadian writer-director and 2025 TIFF–CBC Films Screenwriter Award recipient Lloyd Lee Choi, German auteur Christian Petzold’s Miroirs No. 3, Italian filmmaker Francesco Sossai’s The Last One for The Road, Danish filmmaker Anders Thomas Jensen’s The Last Viking, Diego Céspedes’ The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo. Hafsia Herzi’s The Little Sister, and other Centrepiece selections are: Duse, an International Premiere from visionary Italian auteur Pietro Marcello (whose Martin Eden won TIFF’s 2019 Platform prize) and Hamlet, a Canadian Premiere from director Aneil Karia.
The full Centerpiece lineup in alphabetical order:
2025 CENTREPIECE PROGRAMME (in alphabetical order)
A Useful Ghost | Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke | Thailand/France/Singapore/Germany
North American Premiere
Arco | Ugo Bienvenu | France
North American Premiere
Barrio Triste | STILLZ | Colombia/USA
North American Premiere
Blood Lines | Gail Maurice | Canada
World Premiere
Blue Heron | Sophy Romvari | Canada/Hungary
North American Premiere
Blue Moon | Richard Linklater | USA/Ireland
North American Premiere
Carolina Caroline | Adam Carter Rehmeier | USA
World Premiere
Dandelion’s Odyssey | Momoko Seto | France/Belgium
North American Premiere
Diya | Achille Ronaimou | Chad/France/Germany/Côte d’Ivoire
North American Premiere
Duse | Pietro Marcello | France/Italy
International Premiere
Eagles of the Republic | Tarik Saleh | Sweden/France/Denmark/Finland/Germany
North American Premiere
Erupcja | Pete Ohs | USA/Poland
World Premiere
Exit 8 | Genki Kawamura | Japan
North American Premiere
Follies | Eric K. Boulianne | Canada
North American Premiere
Girl | Shu Qi | Taiwan
North American Premiere
Good Boy | Jan Komasa | Poland/UK
World Premiere
Hamlet | Aneil Karia | UK
Canadian Premiere
Honey Bunch | Madeleine Sims-Fewer, Dusty Mancinelli | Canada
North American Premiere
I Swear | Kirk Jones | UK
World Premiere
In Search of The Sky | Jitank Singh Gurjar | India
World Premiere
Irkalla: Gilgamesh’s Dream | Mohamed Jabarah Al-Daradji | Iraq/United Arab
Emirates/France/UK/Qatar/Saudi Arabia
North American Premiere
Left-Handed Girl | Shih-Ching Tsou | Taiwan/France/USA/UK
North American Premiere
Little Amélie or the Character of Rain | Maïlys Vallade, Liane-Cho Han | France
North American Premiere
Lucky Lu | Lloyd Lee Choi | USA
North American Premiere
Mama | Or Sinai | Israel/Poland/Italy
North American Premiere
Memory of Princess Mumbi | Damien Hauser | Kenya/Switzerland/Saudi Arabia
North American Premiere
Milk Teeth | Mihai Mincan | Romania/France/Denmark/Greece/Bulgaria
North American Premiere
Miroirs No. 3 | Christian Petzold | Germany
North American Premiere
Motor City | Potsy Ponciroli | USA
North American Premiere
My Father’s Shadow | Akinola Davies Jr. | UK/Nigeria
North American Premiere
New Year’s Rev | Lee Kirk | USA
World Premiere
Nomad Shadow | Eimi Imanishi | USA/Spain/France
World Premiere
Olmo | Fernando Eimbcke | USA/Mexico
North American Premiere
Orphan | László Nemes | Hungary/France/Germany/UK
North American Premiere
Palimpsest: the Story of a Name | Mary Stephen | France/Hong Kong/Taiwan
World Premiere
Renoir | Chie Hayakawa | Japan/France/Singapore/Philippines/Indonesia/Qatar
North American Premiere
Saipan | Lisa Barros D’Sa, Glenn Leyburn | Ireland/UK
World Premiere
Space Cadet | Kid Koala | Canada
North American Premiere
The Blue Trail | Gabriel Mascaro | Brazil/Mexico/Chile/Netherlands
North American Premiere
The Condor Daughter | Álvaro Olmos Torrico | Bolivia/Peru/Uruguay
World Premiere
The Cost of Heaven | Mathieu Denis | Canada
World Premiere
The Fox King | Woo Ming Jin | Malaysia/Indonesia
World Premiere
The Last One for The Road | Francesco Sossai | Italy/Germany
North American Premiere
The Last Viking | Anders Thomas Jensen | Denmark/Sweden
North American Premiere
The Little Sister | Hafsia Herzi | France/Germany
North American Premiere
The Love That Remains | Hlynur Pálmason | Iceland/Denmark/Sweden/France
North American Premiere
The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo | Diego Céspedes | Chile/France
North American Premiere
The President’s Cake | Hasan Hadi | Iraq/USA/Qatar
North American Premiere
The Sun Rises On Us All | Cai Shangjun | China
North American Premiere
Two Prosecutors | Sergei Loznitsa | France/Germany/Netherlands/Latvia/Romania/Lithuania
North American Premiere
Under The Same Sun | Ulises Porra | Dominican Republic/Spain
World Premiere
Unidentified | Haifaa Al Mansour | Saudi Arabia
World Premiere
Wasteman | Cal McMau | UK
World Premiere
Whitetail | Nanouk Leopold | Netherlands/Belgium/Ireland
World Premiere
Youngblood | Hubert Davis | Canada
World Premiere
