15 TIFF acquisition titles to tempt buyers

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 the UK, France, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Poland, Benelux and Italy, with North America available at time of writing.
Contact: Studiocanal chloe.marquet@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 sales@neonrated.com; 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

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

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

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: Best Friend Forever (international) sales@bffsales.eu; WME International (US) 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@globalconstellation.eu

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