The Toronto International Film Festival is almost here, and my watchlist is already getting dangerously long.
TIFF returns to Toronto from September 10–20 for its 51st edition, once again bringing together major world premieres, awards-season contenders, international discoveries, television premieres, and the kind of late-night genre madness that makes a film festival special.
I’ll be in Toronto covering TIFF 2026 with reviews, interviews, red carpets, and plenty more throughout the festival. Before everything gets underway, I’ve gone through this year’s massive lineup and picked out the movies and series sitting at the very top of my watchlist.
And horror fans are being treated especially well this year. Mike Flanagan is bringing Carrie to Toronto, Friday the 13th is returning with Crystal Lake, River is opening Midnight Madness, and that doesn’t even begin to cover all of the genre offerings TIFF has waiting for us.
From movies I’ve been anticipating for months to complete wild cards that could become the discoveries of the festival, these are the TIFF 2026 titles I can’t wait to experience.
Vintage Violence
Of everything playing at TIFF this year, Vintage Violence may be the movie I’m most excited to see.
Directed by Eugene Kotlyarenko, the filmmaker behind Spree, the film stars Cole Sprouse and Kiko Mizuhara and follows a livestreamer whose discovery of vintage denim ultimately brings him to Japan and into conflict with the Yakuza. It will make its world premiere as part of TIFF’s Midnight Madness lineup.
That’s such a bizarre premise that I almost don’t want to know anything else. Kotlyarenko has a knack for taking internet culture to some truly uncomfortable places, and putting that sensibility inside a Japanese-set action-comedy/thriller sounds completely unpredictable. This is exactly the type of movie I want to discover for the first time with a packed Midnight Madness crowd.
River
Put Jessica Rothe and Jane Levy together in a survival slasher and you already have my attention.
River marks the feature directorial debut of Joshua Giuliano and follows three estranged siblings who reunite following their father’s death and head onto a remote river to scatter his ashes. Naturally, things don’t go according to plan. Dane DiLiegro and Max Mattern also star.
Rothe and Levy are two performers I have wanted to see back at the center of horror, and getting them together makes this one of my easiest must-sees of TIFF. Even better, River has been selected as the Opening Night film of Midnight Madness, which might be the perfect environment to experience a movie like this.
Carrie
Mike Flanagan adapting Stephen King again? You don’t have to ask me twice.
Flanagan’s eight-episode Carrie series stars Summer H. Howell as Carrie White and Samantha Sloyan as her mother, Margaret. Matthew Lillard, Amber Midthunder, Alison Thornton, Siena Agudong, Josie Totah, and Thalia Dudek are among the ensemble. Flanagan is joined behind the camera by directors including Axelle Carolyn, Kate Siegel, Kyra Sedgwick, and Hiromi Kamata.
There have been multiple adaptations of King’s first novel, and Brian De Palma’s 1976 film remains a horror classic, but Flanagan has repeatedly shown how deeply he understands King’s work. Giving him eight episodes to explore Carrie White, her relationship with her mother, and the cruelty surrounding her makes this adaptation especially intriguing.
Carrie premieres on Prime Video October 7, but getting an early look at TIFF makes this one of the festival’s biggest events for me.
Crystal Lake
Speaking of major horror franchises, Camp Crystal Lake is open again.
The Friday the 13th franchise has been absent from our screens for far too long, making Crystal Lake one of the television projects I’ve been most excited about since it was announced. Rather than simply trying to recreate another Jason Voorhees slasher movie, the series has the opportunity to dig deeper into the mythology surrounding Crystal Lake and the Voorhees family.
I’m also a huge Linda Cardellini fan, so seeing her step into the role of Pamela Voorhees has me even more excited. Pamela is such an iconic part of Friday the 13th history, and Cardellini is an incredible actress who I can’t wait to see bring her own take to the character. Getting to experience the beginning of this new chapter for the franchise at TIFF makes Crystal Lake one of my absolute must-sees of the festival.
Between Carrie and Crystal Lake, TIFF’s Primetime lineup is giving horror fans plenty to be excited about this year.
Below
Give me a sea monster and I’m there.
Created by Jesse McKeown, Netflix’s six-episode Below takes place in a small Newfoundland town being terrorized by a mysterious creature lurking in the water. Josh Hartnett stars as fisherman Calvin, alongside Mackenzie Davis as marine biologist Fonda and Charlie Heaton as Calvin’s son Wade.
Creature features are one of my favorite corners of horror, so this immediately shot up my list. The coastal setting, isolated community, and mystery surrounding what’s actually beneath the water all make Below sound right up my alley.
The series hits Netflix on October 8, but I’ll be looking forward to going beneath the surface early at TIFF.
Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo
Takashi Miike taking on Bad Lieutenant is the kind of pairing that sells itself.
Miike has spent his career refusing to be boxed into one genre, and the prospect of seeing his sensibilities collide with the morally corrosive world associated with Bad Lieutenant makes Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo one of TIFF’s biggest wild cards for me.
More than anything, I’m excited because I genuinely don’t know what a Takashi Miike Bad Lieutenant movie is going to look like. That’s a pretty great reason to buy a ticket.
Alpha Gang
Look at this cast: Cate Blanchett, Chris Pine, Dave Bautista, Léa Seydoux, Riley Keough, Lily-Rose Depp, Kelvin Harrison Jr., and Bae Doona.
Now add the fact that they’re playing alien invaders disguised as a 1950s biker gang who come to Earth prepared to conquer humanity — only to begin experiencing the very human problem of emotions. That’s Alpha Gang.
David and Nathan Zellner direct the sci-fi comedy, which arrives at TIFF as an international premiere in Special Presentations.
Everything about this sounds weird in exactly the right way. With that ensemble and premise, Alpha Gang has the potential to be one of the festival’s biggest crowd-pleasers.
Love of Your Life
Rachel Morrison’s Love of Your Life comes to TIFF for its world premiere with another fantastic cast led by Margaret Qualley and Aaron Pierre, alongside Gabriel Basso, Catherine Keener, and Patrick Schwarzenegger.
The romantic drama follows Maya, a nurse whose life takes an unexpected trajectory after she is swept into an all-consuming love.
TIFF is always a great place to find the emotional counterprogramming to my horror-heavy schedule, and the combination of Morrison, Qualley, and Pierre has Love of Your Life high on my list.
Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother
Bassam Tariq and Mahershala Ali finally getting to collaborate after their unrealized Blade project makes Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother fascinating before you even get to its premise.
Ali plays Latif, a contract killer and devout Muslim whose wife’s sudden death leaves him raising their infant daughter alone. His search for breast milk ultimately puts him on a collision course with Hwan Yoon, a far-right religious leader played by John Cho.
That’s one of the more unexpected setups in the entire TIFF lineup. The film receives its world premiere as a Special Presentation, and I’m incredibly curious to see what Tariq and Ali have created together.
Everybody Wants to Fck Me*
With a title like Everybody Wants to Fck Me*, how am I supposed to leave this off the list?
Jonathan Schey’s dark comedy-thriller stars Taron Egerton, Jessica Henwick, and Mia McKenna-Bruce and dives into the nightmare of modern dating through a man who has essentially engineered himself into everybody’s ideal partner.
It’s a great title, a killer trio of leads, and a premise that sounds like it could become increasingly twisted. I’m sold.
The Face of Horror
Anna Biller finally follows The Love Witch with The Face of Horror, and TIFF is giving the film the Midnight Madness treatment.
Set in medieval England, the gothic horror film follows a murdered wife who rises from the grave to take revenge on her unfaithful husband. Biller’s new film stars Ellie Bamber, Clare Calbraith, Perdita Weeks, Leo Suter, Bella Heathcote, and Jonah Hauer-King.
Biller’s meticulous visual style combined with gothic romance, ghosts, revenge, and what TIFF is promising will be plenty of blood makes this another easy addition to my schedule. The Face of Horror will make its world premiere in Midnight Madness.
Kick On
Sometimes all I need is a simple pitch.
Nick Kozakis’ Kick On follows a group of young people whose attempt to buy drugs brings them into the lair of a mobster’s son. TIFF Midnight Madness programmer Peter Kuplowsky compared its setup to stretching the infamous Alfred Molina sequence from Boogie Nights across an entire movie.
That’s enough. I’m in.
Kick On makes its world premiere at TIFF, and this sounds like one of those movies where the audience could become just as important to the experience as what’s happening onscreen.
Babies
Seth Rogen and Anna Kendrick lead Babies, writer-director Lauren Miller Rogen’s comedy about one of the biggest questions couples eventually face: Do we actually want kids?
Rogen and Kendrick play a married couple surrounded by friends who have children, forcing them to confront their own uncertainty about parenthood. Issa Rae, Dan Stevens, Sharon Stone, David Strathairn, and others round out an absolutely stacked ensemble.
Babies has its world premiere at TIFF on September 12, and between Rogen and Kendrick’s comedic sensibilities and a subject that can be funny, terrifying, and deeply personal all at once, I’m excited to see what Miller Rogen does with it.
Drifter
Drifter is a particularly exciting one for me because I’ve already had the opportunity to spend some time with the team behind it.
Directed by Fast & Furious star Sung Kang, the film follows a solitary racetrack janitor with a natural gift for drifting who is given the opportunity to compete professionally. To succeed, however, he has to stop treating drifting — and life — as something he can do completely alone.
I’ve already spoken with members of the cast and creative team about the film, its practical approach to racing, and the community at the heart of the story. Now I’m excited to finally see how it all comes together when Drifter makes its world premiere at TIFF.
The Debut
Jesse Eisenberg returns behind the camera with The Debut, a comedy-drama starring Julianne Moore as Mona Friedman, a shy housewife whose small role in a community-theatre production turns her into an increasingly obsessive method actor.
Paul Giamatti stars as the production’s domineering director, while Halle Bailey, Cara Buono, and Eisenberg are among the ensemble. Eisenberg has described the story as deeply personal and inspired by his own experiences in community theatre.
After what Eisenberg accomplished as a filmmaker with A Real Pain, I’m very interested to see him move into something that sounds considerably more eccentric.
I Play Rocky
We all know Rocky. I Play Rocky wants to tell the story of how an unknown Sylvester Stallone fought to make it.
Directed by Peter Farrelly, the film stars Anthony Ippolito as Stallone and follows the actor as he writes his underdog boxing movie and refuses to sell the screenplay unless he’s allowed to play Rocky Balboa himself. Stephan James, AnnaSophia Robb, Matt Dillon, P.J. Byrne, Tracy Letts, and Jay Duplass also star.
The movie will make its world premiere at TIFF, and a crowd in Toronto feels like a pretty great place to experience a movie about betting everything on yourself.
A Talent for Murder
Helen Mirren playing legendary crime novelist Patricia Highsmith immediately makes A Talent for Murder worth watching.
Directed by Anton Corbijn, the thriller is another of TIFF’s major world premieres this year.
Corbijn is a filmmaker with such a distinct visual sensibility, and putting Mirren at the center of a thriller involving the mind behind The Talented Mr. Ripley is an enticing combination.
Club Kid
Jordan Firstman’s feature directorial debut Club Kid arrives in Toronto after premiering in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard section.
Firstman stars as a washed-up party promoter forced to reevaluate his life when an unexpected visitor arrives, with Cara Delevingne, Diego Calva, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, and Colleen Camp joining him.
The premise may sound deceptively simple, but I’m interested to see what Firstman does with the collision between nightlife, identity, and having to figure out what happens when the party finally stops.
All That She Wants
Annie Murphy leading a modern romantic comedy is more than enough to get All That She Wants onto my schedule.
Directed by Scarlett Bermingham and Andrew Rhymer from a screenplay by Schitt’s Creek writer David West Read, the film follows a casual encounter between a millennial and a Gen Zer that produces some life-changing consequences.
TIFF schedules can get pretty heavy, so a promising rom-com with Murphy at the center sounds like exactly the kind of change of pace I’ll need.
Ink
Danny Boyle is back, and this time he’s tackling the rise of Rupert Murdoch’s The Sun.
Adapted by James Graham from his own play, Ink stars Guy Pearce as Murdoch, Jack O’Connell as editor Larry Lamb, and Claire Foy. The film chronicles Murdoch’s 1969 acquisition of the newspaper and the tabloid transformation that followed.
Boyle has always been one of the most energetic visual filmmakers working, so watching him bring that energy to a story about journalism, power, sensationalism, and the changing media landscape has me very intrigued.
So Much More Is on My TIFF Watchlist
Those are some of my biggest priorities, but they barely scratch the surface of what I’m hoping to see.
Josephine, Yaga, Arne Goes to Space, How We Stand, Inherit, The Juliet Set, The Surgeon, All of a Sudden, A Long Winter, Bedford Park, Furies, Future Time, Krux, Lemonade, Hope, Stuffed, Trees Are Watching, and Paradise Lost are all firmly on my radar as I attempt the impossible task of building my TIFF schedule.
And that’s part of the fun.
Every festival starts with movies you absolutely have to see. Then somebody tells you about the incredible movie they watched the night before, you completely rearrange your schedule, and suddenly one of your favorite films of the festival is something you knew almost nothing about when you arrived.
Don’t Sleep on the Rest of Midnight Madness
Genre fans should pay particular attention to the entire Midnight Madness slate this year. Beyond River, Vintage Violence, The Face of Horror, and Kick On, TIFF’s 2026 lineup includes Half, The Spiral, Anchors Aweigh, Arrested Memory, Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney, and closing-night selection Rogue Trooper.
That section has produced some of my favorite festival experiences because you’re not simply watching a movie — you’re watching it with an audience ready to completely lose its mind.
TIFF 2026’s Closing Night
TIFF will close out its 51st edition with Villeneuve: The Rise of a Legend, directed by Yan Lanouette Turgeon. The film is among the festival’s major Gala Presentations and will serve as the official Closing Night selection.
After 11 days of movies, interviews, premieres, and running around Toronto, closing out another TIFF is always bittersweet but I’m already ready for the ride.
Bring on TIFF 2026
That’s ultimately what makes TIFF so special. You can go into the festival with a list of movies you’ve been anticipating for months, only to walk away having discovered something completely unexpected.
Last year, TIFF gave me some unforgettable experiences. I got to see Eternity, which became my favorite rom-com in recent memory, experience the world premiere of Obsession with its original unedited cut, and discover so many other films that stayed with me long after the festival ended.
That’s what has me so excited to head back to Toronto. I already have a ridiculously long list of movies and shows I can’t wait to see, but some of my favorite experiences this year could very well be the ones I don’t see coming.
I’ll be covering TIFF 2026 throughout the festival with reviews, interviews, red carpets, reactions, and plenty more. I can’t wait to see what this year has in store.
See you in Toronto!
