Recollections & Awards at TIFF 2026

It is funny how quickly the familiar becomes the unfamiliar in that there was a time I was spending five days a week travelling three hours back and forth to Toronto on public transit but with me getting used to remote way of living where I can conduct a interview via the Internet and afterwards start transcribing without having to move, the ways of past become a shock to system when they have to be revisited.  Such is the case each time I attend the Toronto International Film Festival when it is not unusual for me to get up at 5am and leave the house by 6 am to be able to arrive for an 8:30 am press screening.  Adding to the wait time is the desire to avoid having to step on or tripping over people’s feet while navigating towards an open seat; this meant trying to be as close to the front of line as possible. Thankfully, even when this strategy was undermined by way more individuals being eager to arrive earlier than me that I was still able to find an open row.  Out on the street one has to be prepared for not only for anxious cars and E-bikes but also fellow pedestrians who seem to come out of nowhere. The public transit system itself only had some delays which were minor in nature.  One surprise that I did encounter after watching Being Heumann was a GoTransit bus with a set of stairs which made it wheelchair inaccessible.  An unpredictable participant to the festivities is the weather which spared me getting drenched this time around.

Check out all of our TIFF coverageAs usual, there is a mixture of the good and bad. On the bad side is a significant reduction of press screenings that overlap with each other, being forced to select eight public screening tickets rather than being able to choose a couple, and a printer miscue that rendered several passes unscannable. On the positive side are the friendly and helpful volunteers and staff, getting the opportunity to meet people from around the world, and the general willingness for people to answer the question, ‘Have you seen anything of interest?’   The Metro Toronto Convention Centre was an interesting new addition as a hub and venue in particular the John Bassett Theatre which had an impressive number of seats (1200) and given its layout felt more like an auditorium than a theatre, making the screen resemble a postage stamp.  It is surprising the number of attendees who are programmers from other festivals.  Something that was different this time around for me is that I did not conduct in-person interviews in between screenings which was not due to a lack of trying as my efforts to speak with Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda have been deferred to a later date.  However, I did get to converse via Zoom with Na Hong-jin ahead of the Hope getting a special TIFF screening the day before the festival officially began. A unique opportunity was an exhibition coordinated between TIFF and Laika to promote Wildwood, which involved putting about six intricate puppets on display from the feature.  Also, there was the reintroduction of the virtual reality and multimedia programme which was intriguing to see how the technology has evolved over the decade-long gap.

As for the movies themselves, the highlight was The Assassin(s), an eye-opener in that authoritarian oppression was prevalent not only in North Korea but also in South Korea.  A pleasant surprise was The Daughters of Abraham as the entire cast was commendable as their performances felt in the moment.  The biggest disappointment was Magazine as it felt like watching a stage play as opposed to a day in the life of a literary magazine intern.  On the inventive side is A Talent for Murder which emphasizes how deeply psychologically intertwined author Patricia Highsmith was her fictional sociopathic creation, Tom Ripley.  Destined to be a crowd-pleaser is Being Heumann as it shows that defying the establishment is not entirely fruitless.   Filled with plenty of WTF moments is The Surgeon though I am not too sure how much they will hold up upon subsequent viewings when the shock is taken away.  In the what-could-have-been category is Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, as Mahershala Ali and Bassam Tariq demonstrated some wicked fight choreography that might have appeared in their aborted adaptation of Blade. Taking a hybrid genre approach is The Violinist which combines a wartime thriller with a celebration of music that tonally compliment one another.  When it comes to weirdness, seeing a subway poster for The Karate Kid: The Musical while I Play Rocky had its World Premiere at TIFF certainly had me thinking that we have gone way beyond the lowest of the low when it comes to creative ideas.

However, in the arena of public opinion, likes and dislikes vary greatly when you have 294 films from 72 countries screening.  I Play Rocky was the first runner-up and Being Heumann the second runner-up to the People’s Choice Award-winner La Bola Negra.  For People’s Choice Documentary Award, the victor was Darlene Love: I Know Where I’ve Been and People’s Choice Midnight Madness singled out Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney.  Awarded the Platform Prize was Angh for, “Its refreshing perspective, strength of filmmaking, and deeply resonant portrait of the world.”  The Special Jury Award was given to Brace Your Heart, FIPRESCI Prize to Ancestors and NETPAC Award to Thirteen in Gaza.  Honouring the cinematic talent north of the boarder is Best Canadian Discovery Award and Best Canadian Feature Film Award which were presented respectively to Smudge the Blades and Sunburn. But not everything is about feature films as the Short Cuts Award for Best International Short Film went to MAMMALIA, Short Cuts Award for Best Canadian Short Film to Fight Kid, and Short Cuts Award for Best Animated Short Film to Into The Betaverse.

“We have brought people together to experience the best in Canadian and international film and series,” stated Cameron Bailey, CEO, TIFF at the TIFF 2026 Awards Ceremony.  “This year TIFF’s inaugural Market was launched to imagine what’s next and continue to build the future of this festival together.  We have experienced stories that have challenged, delighted, surprised and sometimes scared us or brought us closer to one another.  We shared laughter and discussion, discovered new perspectives and reminded us of the unique power of seeing a story unfold together on the screen.”

The 51st Toronto International Film Festival runs September 10-20, 2026, and for more information visit tiff.net.   

Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer who currently resides in Canada; he can be found at LinkedIn.

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