True North 2025: Thoughts as I Head Back to the Toronto International Film Festival

Folks, greetings once again from Toronto! Depending on when you read this, I’m either en route or have settled into my Airbnb here in Canada, in preparation for the Toronto International Film Festival. The 2025 edition of TIFF kicks off tomorrow for me bright and early. As always, it’s going to be something, especially now that we’ve gotten past years that had to deal with COVID or the SAG and WGA strikes going on during. Film screenings, fancy parties, movie premieres (plus the accompanying stars), and simply being in another country. There’s nothing else quite like it. This is my fifth year attending, with many years in my future still to come. Coming hot on the heels of the Telluride Film Festival once again, and while the Venice Film Festival is still going on, there’s a bit of festival whiplash occurring. I wasn’t at the fest in Venice, obviously, but I was in Telluride, as you all know. Now, I’m in Toronto and about to see several more of the year’s most hotly anticipated titles.

Four years ago, my TIFF experience was very different than most. One, it was still a COVID festival, so most opted to take it in virtually. So, it was a fairly low key fest. Two, I was there with an ex-girlfriend, so it was a bit more relaxing and closer to a vacation in some ways. That’s all in the past, and there were tons of great films I saw, including Belfast, The Power of the Dog, and Spencer, but it will always feel like a unique memory to me. Anyway, onward and upward.

Three years ago, I was on my own, obviously, but saw some great movies. My summary here has the goods, but the highlights included The Fabelmans, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, and The Whale. There were plenty of others, but those flicks were my cream of the crop for the 2022 incarnation of the fest.

Two years ago, the strikes made the festival feel smaller than usual, but the quality was still there. I got into it all here, but in terms of the best films, they included Anatomy of a Fall, Dumb Money, Flora and Son, Hit Man, Origin, and Woman of the Hour. It was a top heavy TIFF, to be fair, but I certainly felt like it was time well spend, without question.

Last year, my favorite film of the fest was Anora, though I had already seen that at Telluride, alongside other Toronto standouts like Conclave and Saturday Night. As for TIFF debuts, Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band was my top pick, though I also enjoyed Heretic, The Last Republican, Nightbitch, The Order, and We Live in Time.

This year, there are once again tons of titles up north. Among the things I’m either interested in, have seen, or will be seeing include Arco, Bad Apples, Ballad of a Small Player, Blue Moon, Charlie Harper, Christy, The Christophers, Cover-Up, Dead Man’s Wire, Driver’s Ed, Eleanor the Great, Eternity, Frankenstein, Glenrothan, Good Fortune, Hamlet, Hamnet, Hedda, I Swear, If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, It Was Just an Accident, John Candy: I Like Me, The Lost Bus, Motor City, The Napa Boys, No Other Choice, Nouvelle Vague, Nuremberg, Orphan, Poetic License, A Private Life, Rental Family, Roofman, The Secret Agent, Sentimental Value, The Smashing Machine, Sound of Falling, The Testament of Ann Lee, Train Dreams, Tuner, Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery, The Wizard of the Kremlin, and many more. It’s obviously an eclectic lineup, one that I’m only scratching the surface of here.

So, strap in for some more festival coverage. I’m thrilled to be there, so hopefully you’re excited for my reviews out of TIFF. There won’t be a shortage of them, either, that’s for sure. Sit tight for everything from my time up in Toronto this year, starting up on Friday!

Stay tuned for all of my coverage from the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival!