Toronto film festival 2025 preview: Screen’s guide to the Gala titles

Screen International rounds up the world and international premieres in the Toronto International Film Festival’s Gala programme, with details on each title including sales contacts.

TIFF runs September 4-14.

Adulthood (US)

Dir. Alex Winter
Screenwriter Michael MB Galvin co-wrote SXSW 2012-launched Fat Kid Rules The World, directed by Matthew Lillard. His latest screenplay Adulthood is likewise directed by a man best known as an actor, although Bill & Ted star Winter’s extensive directing credits include several features, docs Zappa and Showbiz Kids among them. The comedy stars Kaya Scodelario and Josh Gad as siblings who discover a dead body long-buried in their parents’ basement, sending them down a rabbit hole of crime and murder. CAA Media Finance sold North America territory rights to Paramount’s Republic Pictures.
Contact: Rocket Science  

The Choral (UK-US)

Dir. Nicholas Hytner
Director Hytner and writer Alan Bennett make their fourth feature together following The Madness Of King George (1994), The History Boys (2006) and 2015 TIFF premiere The Lady In The Van — which were variously based on Bennett plays and a memoir. This first original from the duo, set in 1916, stars Ralph Fiennes and Roger Allam as elders of a Yorkshire town’s choral society, which recruits teenagers for an Elgar performance after its young men enlist to fight in the First World War; the cast also includes Mark Addy, Emily Fairn, Alun Armstrong and Simon Russell Beale. Sony Pictures Classics finances, and produces alongside Kevin Loader, Damian Jones and Hytner, with BBC Film also in the mix.
Contact: Sony Pictures Classics

Driver’s Ed (US)

Dir. Bobby Farrelly
As a solo director, Farrelly made 2023’s Champions (based on the 2018 Spanish film Campeones) and 2024 Paramount+ Christmas comedy Dear Santa — respectively starring Woody Harrelson and Jack Black. His latest comedy sees a group of teens steal their school’s driver’s ed car to go on a road trip to help a high-school senior track down his college freshman girlfriend and win her back. The cast includes Ella Stiller and Sam Nivola, with Alyssa Milano, Kumail Nanjiani and Molly Shannon in adult roles. Brother Peter Farrelly’s Green Book launched at TIFF in 2018, winning the People’s Choice Award before going on to win the best picture Oscar.
Contact: AGC International 

Eternity (US)

Dir. David Freyne
In an afterlife where souls have one week to decide where to spend eternity, a woman (Elizabeth Olsen) faces a tough choice between the man she spent her life with (Miles Teller) or her first love who prematurely died (Callum Turner). This is the first US production for director Freyne, whose second feature was admired Irish teen comedy Dating Amber (2020), and it’s written by Freyne and Patrick Cunnane, from the latter’s 2022 Black List screenplay. Tim White and Trevor White (King Richard) produce for their Star Thrower Entertainment, with Oscar winner Da’Vine Joy Randolph (The Holdovers) also in the cast. A24 releases in the US in November and sells everywhere else.
Contact: A24

Fuze (UK)

Dir. David Mackenzie
Mackenzie played TIFF last year with Relay, and previously with Outlaw King (2018), Starred Up (2013), The Last Great Wilderness (2002) and Young Adam (2003). The Scot’s latest unites a cast of Aaron Taylor-­Johnson, Theo James and Gugu Mbatha-Raw for a London-set heist thriller, centring around construction workers who discover an unexploded Second World War bomb. Regular collaborator Gillian Berrie produces for Sigma Films, with Sebastien Raybaud and Callum Grant for Anton, and Anton fully financing. Sky Cinema will release in UK-Ireland.
Contact: Anton (international); UTA Independent Film Group, WME Independent (North America)

Glenrothan (UK)

Dir. Brian Cox
Two estranged brothers reunite in the Scottish Highlands to make amends and save their family’s whisky distillery in Succession star Cox’s feature directing debut, which he also stars in and produces. The cast also includes Alan Cumming and Shirley Henderson, while the other producers are Neil Zeiger, Crystine Zhang, Phin Glynn, Nic Crum, James Cabourne and Vladimir Zemtsov. Financing comes from Screen Scotland, Oval-5, Gold Rush Pictures, Head Gear, Infinity Hill and Lionsgate. Cox is no stranger to Toronto as an actor, starring in the likes of Catherine Hardwicke’s Prisoner’s Daughter (2022).
Contact: Protagonist Pictures

Good Fortune (US)

Dir. Aziz Ansari
After a May 2023 Los Angeles shoot was shut down by WGA pickets, the Lionsgate-­backed comedy saw cameras rolling again in early 2024. Keanu Reeves stars as a well-­meaning but inept angel who interferes in the fates of a struggling gig worker (Ansari) and a wealthy venture capitalist (Seth Rogen) — switching their lives. Keke Palmer and Sandra Oh also star, while Alan Yang — who co-created Master Of None with Ansari and earned various credits on the actor’s breakout show Parks And Recreation — is among the producers. Lionsgate releases in North America and the UK on October 17.
Contact: Lionsgate

Hamnet (UK)

Dir. Chloé Zhao
Maggie O’Farrell’s novel Hamnet — named for Shakespeare’s son, who died aged 11 in 1596 — proved a publishing sensation in 2020, and yielded a Royal Shakespeare Company stage version in 2023. This film, which Zhao co-wrote with O’Farrell, stars Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley as the playwright and his wife, with a cast also including Joe Alwyn, Emily Watson and Jacobi Jupe as Hamnet. Hera Pictures’ Liza Marshall optioned the book, partnering with Neal Street Productions’ Pippa Harris and Sam Mendes, plus Amblin Entertainment’s Steven Spielberg in association with Zhao’s Book of Shadows. Focus Features/Universal Pictures distributes, and a Canadian premiere designation suggests a Telluride launch.
Contact: Focus Features 

John Candy: I Like Me (US)

Dir. Colin Hanks
Actor-filmmaker Hanks has directed two previous documentary features — one in 2015 about Tower Records, the other in 2017 about Eagles Of Death Metal, best known as the band performing at the Bataclan during the 2015 Paris terror attacks. He now explores the life and legacy of the titular Canadian actor and comedian who died of a heart attack in 1994 at the age of 43. Producers on the Amazon MGM Studios-backed doc include Maximum Effort trio Ryan Reynolds, George Dewey and Johnny Pariseau, Zipper Bros Films’ Glen Zipper, and Hanks and Sean M Stuart at Company Name.
Contact: Amazon MGM Studios

Lilith Fair: Building A Mystery (Can)

Dir. Ally Pankiw
Following her 2023 indie comedy-­drama I Used To Be Funny and tele­vision directing stints on the likes of Feel Good, Black Mirror and The Great, Canada’s Pankiw presents her debut feature documentary — celebrating Sarah McLachlan’s late-1990s all-female travelling music festival. Behind-the-scenes footage combines with perspectives from performers including Olivia Rodrigo, Erykah Badu, Bonnie Raitt, Sheryl Crow and Jewel. The film — based on the 2019 Vanity Fair oral history of Lilith Fair — heads to Hulu, Disney+ and Canada’s CBC following its TIFF launch.
Contact: White Horse Pictures 

Nuremberg (US)

Dir. James Vanderbilt
Producer and writer Vanderbilt (Zodiac, White House Down) presented his previous feature as director — biographical drama Truth — at TIFF in 2015, ahead of a Sony Pictures Classics release. Adapted from Jack El-Hai’s 2013 non-fiction book The Nazi And The Psychiatrist, his follow- ­up stars Rami Malek as Douglas Kelley, who must determine whether Hermann Göring (Russell Crowe) is fit to stand trial. Nuremberg’s starry cast also includes Leo Woodall, Michael Shannon, Richard E Grant, Colin Hanks and John Slattery. Sony Pictures Classics releases in North America, and Sky Cinema in the UK.
Contact: WME Independent 

Palestine 36 (Pal-UK-Fr-Den-Qat-Saudi-Jord)

Dir. Annemarie Jacir
Set in a 1936 Palestine under British mandatory control, Jacir’s historical drama follows the build-up and culmination of the Palestinian Arab Revolt. Her 2008 debut Salt Of This Sea launched in Cannes Un Certain Regard, 2012 follow-up When I Saw You at TIFF, and her third feature Wajib won several prizes at Locarno in 2017. Jacir’s collaborator Ossama Bawardi produces for Philistine Films, with a cast including Jeremy Irons, Billy Howle, Succession’s Hiam Abbass and The Blue Caftan’s Saleh Bakri. Backers include the BFI, BBC Film and the Doha Film Institute.
Contact: Lucky Number; mk2 Films 

Roofman (US)

Dir. Derek Cianfrance
Cianfrance’s fifth feature as a writer/director tells the true story of “rooftop robber” Jeffrey Manchester (Channing Tatum), who robbed multiple McDonald’s restaurants and lived undetected in a North Carolina Toys “R” Us store after escaping from prison. Regular Cianfrance partners Jamie Patricof, Lynette Howell Taylor and Alex Orlovsky are among the producers, and the cast also includes Kirsten Dunst, LaKeith Stanfield, Juno Temple and Peter Dinklage. Miramax boarded last October, with Paramount taking US and UK rights in deals negotiated by CAA Media Finance. Cianfrance — who co-writes with Kirt Gunn — was last in TIFF with 2019’s Sound Of Metal, which he produced.
Contact: FilmNation Entertainment (international)

Swiped (US)

Dir. Rachel Lee Goldenberg
Goldenberg’s two previous features — HBO Max comedy-drama Unpregnant and jukebox-­musical remake Valley Girl — both landed in Covid-era 2020, and before that she honed her craft with Funny Or Die shorts and episodic TV. She enjoys her first big festival launch with this biographical drama about the founder and former CEO of dating platform Bumble, Whitney Wolfe Herd (Lily James, who is among the film’s producers). The 20th Century Studios production — which also stars Dan Stevens and Myha’la — will stream on Hulu in the US and Disney+ everywhere else.
Contact: 20th Century Studios

Two Pianos (Fr)

Dir. Arnaud Desplechin
Swiftly following up his intensely cinephilic 2024 Cannes premiered Filmlovers!, enduring French auteur Desplechin (Esther Kahn, Kings & Queen) turns to another of his enduring loves, music, in the story of a concert pianist returning from exile to his native Lyon, where he re-encounters his first love. Francois Civil — recently seen in the Three Musketeers films and Gilles Lellouche’s French domestic hit Beating Hearts — co-stars with Nadia Tereszkiewicz (The Crime Is Mine, Red Island), Charlotte Rampling and Hippolyte Girardot. Pascal Caucheteux produces for Why Not Productions.
Contact: Flavien Eripret, Goodfellas 

TIFF profiles by Charles Gant, Tim Grierson, Nadiya Jackson, Rebecca Leffler, Lee Marshall, Tara Nimmoneser, Jonathan Romney, Michael Rosser, Mona Tabbara, Silvia Wong

• The lowdown on the 2025 Toronto lineup