Reflections & Winners of TIFF 2025

Scarlet

After torrential rain led to a soggy outing on the first day of screenings as well as subway track work taking place over the entire weekend, there were certainly some glitches that had to be dealt with during the 50th Toronto International Film Festival but overall, it can be deemed a success.  The thematic trend this time around was the popularity of Hamlet as a direct and indirect inspiration, whether it be Hamlet, Hamnet or Scarlet.  A pleasant surprise was Tuner where a piano tuner with a hearing problem finds himself cracking safes, a major disappointment was Easy’s Waltz as despite a pedigree of great talent it hits a lot of flat notes, and dramatically compelling yet overwhelmingly nihilistic was Orphan.  A major perk of taking part in the festival is getting to meet filmmakers from around the world in-person which was the case with Mamoru Hosoda who I had previously talked to via Zoom.

Hamnet

It is always interesting to ask those sitting around you, what they have enjoyed with Hamnet, Sentimental Value, and No Other Choice frequently being mentioned.   Therefore, it is not surprising that Hamnet was given the People’s Choice Award while No Other Choice received the International People’s Choice Award.  Public protests were prominent last year which probably led to the skittish “are we going to or not going to screen” reaction to the documentary The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue where a retired Israeli general attempts to rescue his son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren from a kibbutz near the Gaza border during the Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel on October 7, 2023.  Everything worked out in the end as the controversial documentary was lauded with the People’s Choice Documentary Award.  As for the winner of the People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award, the honour was reserved for the uniquely titled Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie  

The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue

The Short Cuts Awards make sure that short films get to share the spotlight with Talk Me being presented with Best International Short Film, The Girl Who Cried Pearls with Best Canadian Short Film and To the Woods with Best Animated Short Film.  Other honourees were Forastera (FIPRESCI Prize), In Search of the Sky (Vimukt) (NETPA Award), Blue Heron (Best Canadian Discovery Award), Uiksaringitara (Wrong Husband) and (Best Canadian Feature Film Award).  And marking a decade of existence is the Platform Award.  “To The Victory! is the unanimous choice for this year’s Platform Award amongst a very strong selection,” stated the Platform jury.  “Bringing cinematic language to its roots and, at the same time, masterfully playing with audience expectations, this film dismantles convention to reveal deeply resonant universal emotions. Director Valentyn Vasyanovych has choreographed a mise-en-scène rendered with masterful precision, arriving at the kind of refined simplicity that can only be achieved with artistic maturity and bold vision. He has deftly used comedy to address a very complicated and complex situation into a work that is both audacious and profoundly beautiful. Ultimately, the film returns us to the very essence of cinema — reminding us why we are compelled to tell stories on film, and why we continue to do so.”

To the Victory

The 50th Toronto International Film Festival runs September 4-14, 2025, 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.