From The Hollywood Reporter · · 40s
Fall Festivals' Top Films
Critics' picks from Venice, Toronto and Telluride shine this fall.
In brief
Critics' picks from Venice, Toronto and Telluride shine this fall. The Hollywood Reporter highlights five documentaries and six narrative films as top picks for 2026 fall festivals. Originally reported by The Hollywood Reporter.
Fall Festival Films
Fall festivals like Venice and Toronto often preview Oscar contenders.
Documentary Picks
Five documentaries cover journalism in Russia, queer cinema, Gaza war, fraud queens and NYC delivery workers.
Narrative Films
Julianne Moore, John Malkovich and Mahershala Ali get standout roles in new films.
Rosalind Eleazar
Rosalind Eleazar scores a star-making performance in a new film.
Ilya Khrzhanovsky
Ilya Khrzhanovsky's film on Russian physicist Lev Lendau wins critics' praise.
“At once immense and intimate, political, historical and personal, Ilya Khrzhanovsky’s loose biopic of Russian physicist Lev Lendau is the kind of shoot-for-the-moon feature that rarely happens anymore, and certainly not like this (the shoot relocated hundreds of actors and thousands of extras inside a giant simulacrum of the Soviet era, their daily interactions captured by a roving team of camera and sound technicians).”
The headline
The Hollywood Reporter highlights five documentaries and six narrative films as top picks for 2026 fall festivals.
