Screen highlights a selection of acquisition titles screening at Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in the coming days.
TIFF runs September 10-20.
Alpha Gang (US)
Special Presentations
Dirs. David Zellner, Nathan Zellner
The absurdist sci-fi comedy premiered in Telluride and follows aliens who invade Earth posing as a biker gang in the 1950s. A stellar cast includes Cate Blanchett, Dave Bautista, Chris Pine, and Lea Seydoux.
Contact: CAA Media Finance (North America) filmsales@caa.com; mk2 films; (int’l) intsales@mk2.com
Back In Black (Can)
Centrepiece
Dir. Ron Murphy
Christopher Walken stars in a mouthwatering prospect as a foul-mouthed mortician in a small town where the population’s low death rate is incompatible with his business model.
Contact: Embankment Films (worldwide) info@embankmentfilms.com
Bucking Fastard (UK-Ire)
Special Presentations
Dir. Werner Herzog
Fresh from Venice and Telluride, Herzog’s latest film arrives for its Canadian premiere in TIFF and stars real-life siblings Rooney Mara and Kate Mara as very unusual sisters who fall for the same man (Orlando Bloom).
Contact: HanWay Films (int’l) info@hanwayfilms.com; Gersh (US) info@gersh.com
Closing Night (Australia-Can)
Special Presentations
Dir. Cody Fern
Naomi Watts, Sarah Paulson, Odessa A’zion and Dianne Wiest star in Australian actor Fern’s feature directorial debut about a hard-hearted film star who reunites with the messy family she abandoned decades ago.
Contact: mk2 intsales@mk2.com
Everybody Wants To F*ck Me (UK-Fr-US)
Special Presentations
Dir. Jonathan Schey
Taron Egerton stars alongside Jessica Henwick in a darkly comedic appraisal of modern dating in which a young man becomes irresistibly attractive to others. Parkville Pictures, Studiocanal, Film4, and LuckyChap produced. The film has already sold widely, including Studiocanal distributing in UK-Ireland, France and Australia-New Zealand, with North America available at time of writing.
Contact: Studiocanal Margaux.audouin@canal-plus.com
Evil Genius (US)
Gala Presentations
Dir. Courteney Cox
True crime saga based on the notorious 2003 Pizza Bomber case in which a delivery driver was forced to rob a bank with a bomb clamped around his neck. David Harbour and Patricia Arquette star.
Contact: August Night Pictures info@augustnightpictures.com
The Face Of Horror (UK)
Midnight Madness
Dir. Anna Biller
The director of 2016’s The Love Witch transfers Japanese ghost story Yotsuya Kaidan to a campy 14th-century England Technicolor tribute about two women betrayed by a knight errant. Kristine Frøseth, Bella Heathcote, and Jonah Hauer-King star.
Contact: Embankment Films (worldwide) info@embankmentfilms.com; WME Independent (US co-rep) sales@wmeagency.com
The Housewife (US)
Gala Presentations
Dir. Ben Shirinian
Naomi Watts and Tye Sheridan star in the 1960s New York-set drama based on a true story about an investigative reporter who becomes close to the wife of a man suspected of being a Nazi during the Second World War. Luke Evans and Michael Imperioli also star.
Contact: Neon International, CAA Media Finance (US) filmsales@caa.com
Inherit (Thai)
Centrepiece
Dir. Banjong Pisanthanakun
Davika Hoorne, last seen in Cannes Critics’ Week 2025 award-winner A Useful Ghost, plays an 80-year-old grandmother who returns to her family looking as young and beautiful as when she disappeared 50 years prior. Possessed by an ancient demon, she seeks a new host, with teenage granddaughter Oui firmly in her sights.
Contact: Barunson E&A contact@barunsonena.com; GDH559 inter@gdh559.co.th
The Julia Set (US)
Special Presentations
Dir. Niki Byrne
All eyes will be on One Battle After Another breakout star Chase Infiniti as a maths prodigy who falls for a teaching assistant while preparing for a prestigious academic competition. Jason Isaacs, Gillian Anderson, and Christopher Briney also star.
Contact: HanWay Films (international sales) info@hanwayfilms.com; Gersh (US) info@gersh.com
The Life And Deaths Of Wilson Shedd (US)
Gala Presentations
Dir. Tim Blake Nelson
Amanda Seyfried stars opposite Scoot McNairy in the drama about a teacher in an abusive marriage who gets work in a prison and falls for a charismatic inmate.
Contact: WestEnd Films (intl) info@westendfilms.com; WME Independent (US) sales@wmeagency.com
Paradise Lost (S Kor)
Dir. Yeon Sang-ho
Following his Cannes selection and box office hit zombie thriller Colony, Korean auteur Yeon returns with a dramatic thriller about a mother who recreates her deceased son using AI — only for the real child to return nine years later. Based on Oh Seongeun’s 2025 novel Black Inferno, the film stars Bae Hyun-Sung and Kim Hyun-joo from Yeon’s Netflix series Hellbound. Produced by Yeon’s company Wowpoint, a local release is set for October through CJ ENM. The director attended TIFF last year with The Ugly.
Contact: CJ ENM filmsales@cj.net
Thirteen In Gaza (Pal)
Centrepiece
Dir. Hosam Abu Dan
The first fiction feature filmed entirely in Gaza in 12 years shot with a local Palestinian cast and crew under wartime conditions. The story centres on a teenage girl in a displacement camp who must deal with puberty, grief and the loss of privacy while her father is forced to make difficult moral choices.
Contact: MAD World Info@madworld.film
Pretenders (UK)
Gala Presentations
Dir. Joss Crowley
Pretenders frontwoman and rock legend Chrissie Hynde talks about career, early life and tragedy. Crowley shot the Shania Twain documentary Not Just A Girl.
Contact: Submarine Entertainment info@submarine.com
Stuffed (UK)
Discovery
Dir. Theo Rhys
A Wales-set musical about a taxidermist starring Jodie Comer and Harry Melling. Agile Films and Fresh Fish Films produce.
Contact: Cornerstone Film, office@cornerstonefilm.com
Vintage Violence (US-Japan)
Midnight Madness / TIFF Next Waves Selects
Dir. Eugene Kotlyarenko
The unfolding romance between star-crossed lovers plays out against the fight for a coveted pair of expensive vintage jeans while a deranged Yakuza enforcer seeks revenge. Cole Sprouse and Kiko Mizuhara play the leads.
Contact: WME International sales@wmeagency.com
Wild Wild East (Pol)
Platform
Dir. Jan Holoubek
Joanna Kulig from Cold War stars in the wartime thriller set in Poland where a Nazi officer arrives on the hunt for a missing Jewish lawyer. Warner Bros is distributing in Poland.
Contact: Global Constellation sales@filmconstellation.com
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