FILM FOOD STUFF-TIFF 2026 - Shortlist Picks

FILM FOOD STUFF 

MY TIFF 2026 - SHORTLIST

29 films, 1 Primetime and 1 In Conversation

Getting ready for TIFF—the Toronto International Film Festival—feels a lot like preparing for a marathon. You have to build up enough energy to be everywhere at once, stand in long lines, run up the stairs for rush films, and generally spend a lot of time doing a lot of things before you even get to watch anything. Going into my 26th year of TIFF’s 51-year history, I try to approach it smarter. I’m not sure I’ve ever reached my goal of doing everything I want to during the 11 days.

This is my second year with Media Accreditation, and I’m still trying to volunteer a bit—less than usual, but enough to stay involved. I’m clearing as many festival days as possible so I can do as much as my body will allow. It’s no longer about how many films I can squeeze into a day; it’s about how many my body will tolerate before it starts screaming at me.

This shortlist reflects films I chose based on subject matter, directors I like, or actors whose work I find compelling.

Working on Real to Reel for a couple of years taught me that everyone sees films differently; art is deeply subjective. The hosts agreed on about 70% of their picks, and often I loved a film they disliked—or vice versa. So I always encourage people to develop their own taste. These are my choices, and sometimes they line up with Oscar nominations, and sometimes they don’t get any attention at all. You never really know until you watch the whole film. Sometimes you connect with something, and sometimes you don’t.

Last year felt overwhelmingly heavy—every major Academy-nominated film seemed dark or depressing. This year, I’m hoping for more variety, and I’m optimistic I’ll find it.

I hope you use this list as a starting point when exploring TIFF’s extensive lineup. I can only see so many films, so I tend to skip very experimental selections, Midnight Madness, and some international titles I don’t always connect with. If those are your favourites, you might not agree with my list—and that’s perfectly fine.

01. Drifter — Sung Kang (United States)

02. Bunker — Florian Zeller (France, Spain)

03. Girl Group — Rebel Wilson (United States, United Kingdom)

04. Always Lalisa — Sue Kim (United States)

05. Babies — Lauren Miller Rogen (United States)

06. Misty Green — Chris Rock (United States)

07. Pretenders — Joss Crowley (United Kingdom)

08. Up Against It — Trudie Styler (United Kingdom)

09. Being Heumann — Siân Heder (United States)

10. Evil Genius — Courteney Cox (United States)

11. The Only Living Pickpocket in New York — Noah Segan (United States)

12. In Conversation With… Chris Rock  

13. Slow Horses — Adam Randall (United Kingdom, United States)

14. Alpha Gang — David Zellner, Nathan Zellner (United States)

15. Bitter Christmas — Pedro Almodóvar (Spain)

16. I Play Rocky — Peter Farrelly (United States)

17. Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother — Bassam Tariq (United States)

18. Closing Night — Cody Fern (Australia, Canada)

19. The Debut — Jesse Eisenberg (United States)

20. Everybody Wants to Fck Me* — Jonathan Schey (United Kingdom, France)

21. The Stunt Driver — Michael Dowse (Canada)

22. Whatcha Want — Mina Shum (Canada)

23. Bucking Fastard — Werner Herzog (United States)

24. Faith — Paul Andrew Williams (United Kingdom)

25. The Housewife — Ben Shirinian (United States)

26. Ink — Danny Boyle (United Kingdom, France, United States)

27. Neil Peart: No One’s Disciple — Scot McFadyen, Sam Dunn (Canada)

28. Wild Horse Nine — Martin McDonagh (United States, Chile)

29. Darlene Love: I Know Where I’ve Been — Barry Avrich (Canada)

30. Low Lies the Land — Emanuele Gerosa (Denmark, Italy)

31. Musk — Alex Gibney (United States)

TIFF Runs from September 10th to the 21st this year.

Check out www.tiff.net for more info and all the film schedules and tickets.

The Salt Path- a challenge of a lifetime

 

THE SALT PATH

Opens August 28 in Toronto, September 4 in Vancouver

Directed by Marianne Elliott

Starring Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs

2024- Not Rated- Running Time 1hr 55m

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Gillian Anderson and Jason Isaacs star in THE SALT PATH, a challenging life story about a middle‑aged couple, Raynor (Anderson) and Moth (Isaacs), who are forced to leave their home in England due to financial hardship. With no money and nowhere to go, they decide to simply walk, embarking on a 630‑mile trek along the English coast from Dorset to Somerset.

Compounding their financial crisis is Moth’s recent diagnosis of Corticobasal degeneration (CBD), an untreatable and terminal neurodegenerative condition.

Their two grown children have moved on with their own lives, leaving Raynor and Moth without any ties to keep them rooted in one place.

Mother Nature becomes the third challenge they must face, confronting them with ever‑changing, brutal storms as they struggle to stay warm, dry, fed, and hydrated.

The landscapes they traverse are magical, majestic, and at times brutally difficult.

With nothing left to lose, they embrace the beauty of the coastline and the strength they find in each other. Along the way, they discover resilience—and unexpectedly, the journey seems to benefit Moth’s illness. So they keep moving, staying one step ahead of what might come.

All they have now is time: time to reflect, to think about survival, and to accept the path their lives have taken.

Based on a true story, it’s hard to imagine making the choices they did. But when life tests you and options are few, you do what you must.

 

THE SALT PATH will be released in Canadian theatres by Mongrel Media.

Nimrods - A wild trip to get to Green Day

Nimrods

2025 – Release Date: Aug 14, 2026

Rated R

Run time: 1hr 42 minutes

Director: Lee Kirk

Writers: Lee Kirk, Green Day, Billie Joe Armstrong

Stars: McKenna Grace, Mason Thames, Jenna Fischer

Nimrods originally premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2025. 
It will be released on Aug 14, 2026.

This film was aptly named. It's the story of three "Nimrods" high school friends who are in a band called Analog Dogs — which people keep calling Anal Dogs. These three idiots are obsessed with Green Day, who happen to be visiting their town in Kansas. They try everything they can to get close to the band.

They finally get their opportunity at a meet-and-greet autograph-signing session. This is their big break. They've recorded a demo of their one and only song and bring the tape with them. When they step up to the table where the band is signing, they stumble and mutter their way through the moment before finally spitting out that their band has a demo they'd love for Green Day to hear. Billie Joe Armstrong takes the tape and encourages them to keep playing.

They are overjoyed and convinced that fame is just around the corner.

Then, a couple of days later, one of their delinquent brothers pranks them by claiming that a guy from the band called and wants them to open for Green Day on New Year's Eve in California. They try to convince anyone they can to drive them to the concert, but no one is willing. Tommy (Mason Thames), who doesn't have a driver's license, decides the only way to get there is to steal his brother's old cab — the one he used to drive as an Uber. And just like that, the three Nimrods embark on the road trip of a lifetime.

Things, as usual, never go according to plan. With a few hilarious detours along the way, they somehow make it to LA — only to discover it was all a prank and they were never on the bill to open for Green Day. But somehow, they find their way in, and it all works out. Their band may not have taken the stage, but they walked away with something far greater.

The film draws inspiration from a real band that once opened for Green Day and the bidding war among record labels over their demo tape in the '90s.

This is a feel-good teenage adventure comedy — the kind that takes you right back to when you were young and stupid, leaping headfirst into situations that made absolutely no sense. It's a fun ride.

INSTAGRAM: @nimrodsmovie

US Release date: Aug 14, 2026

It Premiered at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival.

American Doctors unite against the War in Gaza

 

AMERICAN DOCTOR 

by Academy Award-Nominee Poh Si Teng

Runtime 93 min

Year of Completion 2026

Production countries: United States of America, Malaysia, Qatar, Denmark, Palestine

I will never understand why someone would decide to start or participate in a WAR.  As someone who is a generation away from family who suffered through a war, to me the whole thing is senseless.  Nobody ever wins.   

Even if you make money on weapons, you destroy generations of people and destroy the world by the effects of all of the destruction, both physically and emotionally.

This documentary focuses on 3 American Doctors, Dr. Thaer Ahmad, Dr. Mark Perlmutter and Dr. Feroze Sidhwa who go to Gaza during the war in 2025 to try and help at the the Hospital in Gaza while Israel continued to send various weapons of destruction around Gaza and eventually on the hospital where the 3 Palestinian, Jewish, and Zoroastrian doctors tried to come together to save the lives of the patients brought in after each attack.

The war becomes more of a political activist exercise and social media push to try and get the truth out into the media than it is to save lives.

Their efforts become futile as the ceasefire pact ends in even bigger horror.

This documentary isn't for the faint of heart.  Children are the ones who pay the highest price.

No child should be exposed to war in any way, shape, or form.  No journalist, doctor, civilian, or institution should become collateral damage in this idiotic game of chicken ordered by greedy and cruel leaders. 

These documentaries are brutal, unflinching, and absolutely essential.  They force you to sit with the full weight of what war actually looks like.  Not the media, political spin, CGI-created videos, or biased opinions from people who aren't even there to bear witness.

No border dispute or ideology justifies the lives erased or the cities reduced to rubble.  

A country isn't just land; it's the people, the memories, the culture, and the lives lived.  War takes all of those memories away and replaces them with pain and suffering.

Wars should never be funded by other countries that continue to perpetuate these wars for years until they obliterate everything and everyone.  And then what, when everything and everything is destroyed,  what are these power-hungry leaders who just order people to do their bidding going to do then? 

THEATRICAL RELEASE BEGINS 
AUGUST 14, 2026
Exclusively at the TIFF Lightbox in Toronto
Followed by VIFF Cinema August 28, 2026