# 17 Movies to Watch at Toronto This Year > Helen Mirren as a maybe-murderer, Chris Rock's return, and a Blackpink doc walk into an 11-day festival. - Title: 17 Movies to Watch at Toronto This Year · Vanity Fair - Summary: Helen Mirren as a maybe-murderer, Chris Rock's return, and a Blackpink doc walk into an 11-day festival. Toronto's 51st edition is where fall's awards… - Keywords: film festivals, toronto, movies, awards season, premieres, Watch, Year, Vanity Fair - Source: Vanity Fair — https://vanityfair.com/story/toronto-film-festival-preview - Author: John Ross - Published: 2026-09-10T14:02:09.748+00:00 - Read time: 3 min - Topics: film festivals, toronto, movies, awards season, premieres ## Toronto's 51st edition More than 100 films across 11 days, plus a new buyers' market modeled on Cannes and Berlin. Apple's Being Heumann opens, and Amazon MGM's I Play Rocky gets its world premiere. ## Studios are pulling back Many studios stepped away from fall festivals this year, so Toronto leaned into world premieres and picked up Telluride films that played to tiny crowds out west. ## Looking for the next Obsession Last year's Midnight Madness pick became one of 2025's biggest films and the festival's proudest success story. Everyone is scanning this lineup for a repeat. ## A Talent for Murder Alden Ehrenreich and Helen Mirren in a psychological thriller about Patricia Highsmith, who may have been an actual killer. Anton Corbijn directs from Joanna Murray-Smith's play Switzerland. > It felt a bit like it was going to be about nice flowers in the meadows. It didn't feel dark enough. ## Always Lalisa A doc trailing Blackpink's Lisa through her solo debut album Alter Ego and her acting turn in The White Lotus season three. The red carpet may outdraw the film. ## Babies Lauren Miller Rogen writes and directs Seth Rogen in a comedy about a couple arguing over parenthood. Anna Kendrick, Kate Berlant, Issa Rae, and Sharon Stone fill out the cast. ## Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo Takashi Miike takes the third swing at a franchise Abel Ferrara and Werner Herzog already bent out of shape. Shun Oguri plays a gambling cop, Lily James the FBI agent on the case. ## Being Heumann Siân Heder follows CODA with the story of disability rights leader Judy Heumann, played by Ruth Madeley. Set in 1977, with Mark Ruffalo as the official refusing to sign. ## Closing Night Sarah Paulson plays a movie star who summons her estranged family to her Broadway opening. Naomi Watts is the resentful sister, in Cody Fern's directing debut. ## The Debut Jesse Eisenberg follows A Real Pain with Julianne Moore as a shy woman who cannot perform, pulled in by Paul Giamatti's community theater director. ## Everest: The Other Side Free Solo directors Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin follow Jim Morrison and Hilaree Nelson as they try to ski Everest's North Face. National Geographic releases it on IMAX October 30. ## Elsinore Andrew Scott plays Ian Charleson, the actor who performed Hamlet at the National Theatre before dying of AIDS in 1990. A People's Choice win could push him to the front of the best actor race. ## The Face of Horror Anna Biller follows The Love Witch with a Japanese ghost story, Yotsuya Kaidan, relocated to 14th-century England. Shot on 35mm using her Technicolor tricks. ## I Play Rocky Anthony Ippolito plays Sylvester Stallone fighting to get Rocky made. Peter Farrelly directs, and Green Book took the People's Choice Award here in 2018. ## The Julia Set Chase Infiniti plays a math student training for the Putnam Exam under a perfectionist professor, Nina Hoss. Jason Isaacs is the intimidating math dad. > Way of passing the baton is through intimidation. ## The Last Photograph A late addition from Zack Snyder about an ex-DEA agent seeking revenge in the South American jungle. TIFF's own site warns of extreme violence. ## Magazine Alexandra Pechman's debut drops Lily McInerny into New York's literary scene in 2011, all slush piles and exclusive parties. Jake Lacy plays the publisher. ## Misty Green Chris Rock directs for the first time in 12 years, following a struggling actor's comeback. Adam Driver, Daniel Kaluuya, and Anna Kendrick costar, but Rosalind Eleazar carries it. ## Prima Facie Cynthia Erivo takes the role that won Jodie Comer a Tony: a lawyer who defends men accused of sexual assault, then is assaulted herself. The film dramatizes what the stage kept in her head. ## Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother Mahershala Ali plays a reluctant hit man, with John Cho and newcomer Adia as his daughter. Bassam Tariq blends hard action with comedy, the title drawn from an Islamic hadith. ## Key takeaway Toronto's 51st edition is where fall's awards contenders and populist crowd-pleasers get their first real audience, and last year's Midnight Madness sleeper proves anything can break out.