TIFF 2025 marks a milestone year for one of the world’s most influential film festivals, a global showcase where emerging voices and established auteurs shape the conversations that define contemporary cinema. Its 50th edition underscored why TIFF remains essential: a place where discovery, diversity, and artistic risk all converge on Toronto’s biggest screens.
Here’s a quick taste of eight standout movies I saw at the 50th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2025, all worth keeping on your radar as they hit the cinema or streaming platforms.
Synopsis: The renowned psychiatrist Lilian Steiner mounts a private investigation into the death of one of her patients, whom she is convinced has been murdered.
Director: Rebecca Zlotowski
Stars: Jodie Foster, Virginie Efira
Rebecca Zlotowski’s A Private Life is a sly, frisky noir that threads psychoanalysis, grief, and midlife reinvention into a briskly entertaining mystery. Jodie Foster—speaking fluent French—anchors the film with a magnetic, lightly sardonic performance as Lilian Steiner, a psychiatrist convinced that her patient’s apparent suicide masks something darker. What begins as a sombre character study gradually tilts into a witty, almost Woody Allen–esque detective caper, buoyed by Zlotowski’s sharp tonal control and a terrific supporting cast including Daniel Auteuil and Virginie Efira.
Having Foster and Efira share the screen is a gift for lovers of film.
The film’s blend of black comedy and psychological intrigue doesn’t always land with equal force, but its confidence, elegance, and Foster’s César‑nominated turn make it one of the more distinctive French genre hybrids of the year.
Grade: B
Synopsis: A struggling primary school teacher begins to make some questionable decisions after one of her students is injured.
Director: Jonatan Etzler
Stars: Saoirse Ronan, Eddie Waller
Saoirse Ronan plays an elementary school teacher, Maria, with a kid named Danny (Eddie Waller). Danny is a troublemaker and exercises her patience at every turn. A series of events lands Maria in an unfortunate predicament.
Etzler has cast Ronan in a film where she is playing a very different character, but she delivers. Bad Apples is an odd love letter to what teachers go through, but also an entertaining dark comedy.
Grade: B
Synopsis: Tells the story of Lorenz Hart’s struggles with alcoholism and mental health as he tries to save face during the opening of “Oklahoma!”.
Director: Richard Linklater
Stars: Ethan Hawke, Bobby Cannavale, Andrew Scott, Margaret Qualley
Ethan Hawke is fantastic as Lorenz Hart in Blue Moon. Imagine leaving the work lottery group, and they win $50 million shortly thereafter . . . . that’s pretty much what Hart endures, and Hawke plays this role amazingly well. Every bit of insecurity and uncertainty is delivered powerfully in one of the best performances of Hawke’s career.
Grade: B
Synopsis: A young woman joins a charming con man on the run, leaving a trail of crime and passion as they hustle through the Southeast in search of her estranged mother.
Director: Adam Rehmeier
Stars: Samara Weaving, Kyle Gallner, Kyra Sedgwick, Jon Gries
Gallner plays a charming grifter who meets Caroline (Weaving). She is on the hamster wheel of life, stuck in a dead-end job and with limited options. This new man romances her, and they run off together and become somewhat of a Bonnie and Clyde as their crimes become more and more significant. This coupling is magic on-screen, and Rehmeier delivers such intensity in this film.
Carolina Caroline touches on people’s hopes and dreams and what they are willing to do when things don’t work out.
Grade: A-
Synopsis: In 1970s Detroit, John Miller falls for a local gangster’s girl. In retaliation, the gangster enacts a frame job to send the innocent man to prison. Life ruined, Miller plots a revenge campaign against the man who took his girl away.
Director: Potsy Ponciroli
Stars: Alan Ritchson, Shailene Woodley, Pablo Schreiber, Ben Foster
This dialogue-free revenge thriller stars Alan Ritchson (Reacher). His life is turned upside down by Ben Foster’s character, and now he is out for revenge. Shailene Woodley completes the missing piece in this love triangle. Motor City is set in the 1970’s and does a great job of capturing the essence of that time.
Motor City also scores top marks for the dialogue, or lack thereof, which isn’t missed, leaving viewers with a unique experience not seen in most current films.
With an incredible soundtrack and solid performances, this was an unexpected pleasure at TIFF.
Grade: B+
Synopsis: Centres on a temporary small-town sheriff who uncovers dark mysteries after a local bank robbery.
Director: Ben Wheatley
Stars: Bob Odenkirk, Reena Jolly, Brendan Fletcher
Odenkirk ends up in Normal, Minnesota, to serve as the town’s sheriff. Unfortunately, he doesn’t realize there is a lot more to this small town than meets the eye.
The good people of Normal have been harbouring a secret that they are willing to protect at all costs.
What begins as a quaint film takes a sharp turn into an action film that is both entertaining and violent.
From the writer of the Odenkirk series ‘Nobody’ comes another action flick for everyone’s favourite former attorney.
Grade: B
Synopsis: Grandfather and retired Israeli general Noam Tibon rescue his family from Hamas terrorists invading their home during the October 7, 2023, massacre — a coordinated assault on Israel, sparking an ongoing conflict.
Director: Barry Avrich
Stars: Gali Mir-Tibon, Noam Tibon
With the tensions in the Middle East, there was a lot of controversy at TIFF for showing this film, but little to no outrage when it was released.
The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue follows a father and former Israeli military, who tries to rescue his son and his family when Israel is attacked by Hamas during the October 7 attacks.
Avrich captures a very intense film from the father’s point of view, a standout documentary at TIFF that won the People’s Choice Documentary Award.
Grade: B
Synopsis: A talented piano tuner’s meticulous piano-tuning skills lead him to discover an unexpected aptitude for cracking safes, turning his life upside down.
Director: Daniel Roher
Stars: Leo Woodall, Dustin Hoffman, Havana Rose Liu
Leo Woodall plays a piano turner who has a condition that makes him extremely sensitive to sound. A skill he also uses to crack safes.
Woodall has a nice charm in his performance and handles himself well, paired with Hollywood vet Dustin Hoffman.
His character is balancing his morals with the ‘better life’ he has dreamed of.
Tuner is a strong narrative debut from Daniel Roher (Navalny). He stages the film around subjective sound design, using muffled tones, sudden silences, and sharp audio cues to pull the audience inside the protagonist’s fractured perception.
Grade: B
