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TIFF 2026 Preview: From Musk to Murdoch, the Films Setting the Agenda

It is that time again: as the leaves turn brown, Hollywood decamps up north for the Toronto International Film Festival. After last year’s 50^th anniversary, TIFF continues to bring the star power to Canada.

The 2026 lineup seems to hearken TIFF’s future, with a heavy emphasis on international and provocative filmmaking. Not for nothing is the festival considered the unofficial launching pad for prestigious fall cinema, culminating next March at the Academy Awards. Let us not forget the winner of last year’s coveted TIFF Audience Award was Chloe Zhao’s Hamnet, which earned Jessie Buckley the Best Actress Oscar.

With that in mind here are some of the buzziest titles from TIFF 2026!

The Buzziest Titles

Musk | Courtesy of TIFF

Musk: Alexander Dibney, no stranger to controversy (see his expose on Scientology, 2015’s Going Clear), is bringing an ambitious four-hour(!) documentary about Elon Musk. Its namesake subject has already expressed his displeasure at the prospect, but only at TIFF will you get a documentary a red -carpet premiere and – perhaps the most audacious step of all – an intermission(!!).

Ink: In continuing with controversial subject matter, Oscar winner Danny Boyle brings Ink, a new biopic about Rupert Murdoch starring Jack O’Connell in the lead, backed by Guy Pearce and The Crown’s Claire Foy. Boyle is a TIFF favourite: in 2008, he brought an unheralded little film called Slumdog Millionaire to the festival, which caused a sensation and won the coveted Audience Award before sweeping the Oscars the following spring.

Ink | Courtesy of TIFF

Prima Facie: Cynthia Erivo goes from strength to strength as she plays the lead in the cinematic version of the Tony-winning one-woman Broadway show. She plays a criminal defense barrister specializing in defending accused sex offenders who herself becomes the victim of sexual assault. Erivo already has an Emmy, Tony, and Gammy: will Prime Facie bring her, a three-time Oscar nominee (most recently for Wicked) bring her the coveted gold statuette at last and get her to EGOT?

Being Heumann | Courtesy of TIFF

Being Heumann: The last time Sian Heder made a film about social issues, it was 2021’s CODA and it netted her Oscars for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay. This year, she brings her much-anticipated follow-up, this time it is the life story of disability rights activist Judith Heumann, AKA the “Mother of the Disability Rights Movement”, starring Ruth Madeley and Mark Ruffalo. Sure to be a crowd-pleaser, Being Heumann is the TIFF 2026 official Opening Night Gala selection.

Misty Green: Legendary comedian and superstar Chris Rock brings his latest feature, a film about a struggling actress in L.A. who makes one last-ditch attempt at making it. Starring Rosaline Eleazar in the titular role, the film also features Adam Driver, Anna Kendrick, Topher Grace, and Oscar winner Daniel Kaluuya.

Always Lalisa: In recent years (and especially after Parasite swept the Oscars), pop culture from South Korea has exploded in popularity. It is not surprise then that Lalisa, one of the members of the K-Pop sensation Blackpink, has become the subject of her own documentary about her beginnings in Thailand to one-fourth of one of the world’s biggest pop groups. If presentations in years past of Hyun Bin, Park Chan-wook, and Lee Byung-Hun are any indication, Always Lalisa will surely bring out the K-pop stans, cineastes, and ajumas all at once for what is sure to be one of TIFF’s hottest (and coolest) tickets.

Conversations And Panels

In addition to the screenings, there is plenty more at the festival. This year’s popular “In Conversation With…” series, where TIFF invites a film luminary to talk about their career and craft for an hour, includes four fascinating subjects. In addition to Chris Rock, the “ICW” series also includes Rachel Morrisson, the first women ever nominated for the Best Cinematography Oscar (for her work on Mudbound). Additionally, the series includes Andrew Scott, whose new film Elsinore will premiere at TIFF and where we can expect him to discuss such works as Sherlock, Fleabag, and All of Us Strangers, amongst his many works.

If you cannot get into the ICW series, TIFF is introducing the ultimate Canadian heat store as Heated Rivalry star Hudson Williams is the focus of a one-off panel discussion called “Making Waves”, where he will discuss his incredibly meteoric rise to fame over the last year. He is also part of the team presenting the new Crave series YAGA as part of the TIFF Primetime series.

La Bola Negra | Courtesy of TIFF

Celebrity Sightings

And what is a film festival without a few (dozen) celebrity sightings? This year’s films includes the usual bewildering array of stars, and the TIFF guest list will include no less than Glenn Close, Julianne Moore, Rami Malek, Isabelle Huppert, Jodie Comer, Rebel Wilson, Jesse Eisenberg, Simu Liu, Christopher Walken, Jane Curtin, Annie Murphy, Jon Hamm, Jordan Firstman, Taron Egerton, Olivia Colman, Renata Reinsve, Sebastian Stan, Halle Bailey, Paul Giamatti, Bernadette Peters, John Cho, Mahershala Ali, Ming-Na Wen, Cate Blanchett, Helen Mirren, Amanda Seyfried, Rebecca Hall, Courtney Cox, and Sylvester Stallone.

And perhaps most intriguingly, the Spanish Oscar-winning husband-and-wife duo of Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz will each bring a pair of films to the festival. Cruz has a strong supporting role in the recent Cannes queer favourite La Bola Negra (AKA “The Black Ball”), Bardem will star in Rodrigo Sorogoyen’s The Beloved, and they will both appear in Bunker, Florian Zeller’s latest film.

All photography provided by TIFF. Hero Image from Always Lalisa.

Author Profile

Ritchie Po, Correspondent: Ritchie Po is a privacy consultant, cybersecurity lawyer, and AI ethics advisor passionate about the intersections of technology, creativity, and culture. Ritchie is also a cineaste who draws inspiration from his love of music and figure skating—often fuelled by the avant-garde genius of Björk.