TIFF 2026, RITCHIE PO, HELEN SIWAK, FOLIOYVR, FILM FESTIVAL WRAPUP, TORONTO, ON

Ten Days at TIFF 2026: Red Carpets, Rapturous Crowds, and the Films Worth Remembering

We just spent an action-packed 10 days at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), full of great (and not so great) films, red carpets, celebrities, and pure crowd energy. It is always great to see the city out in full force to celebrate cinema and art collectively. Our journey this year included our first ever media pass, where we blasted through 16 films, half a dozen talks and panels, numerous brand and press tours, and countless movie stars, acclaimed writers and directors, and Oscar winners.

Red carpet ready | Photography: George Pimentel

Our Five Favourite Films of TIFF 2026

Here were our five favourite films from this year’s TIFF 2026. Elsinore. Simon Stone‘s story about how the late great Ian Charleson mounted a lavish production of Hamlet in the final months of his life, as he was dying of AIDS, was the absolute class of this year’s offerings. An incredible British cast featuring Olivia Colman, Billie Piper, Juliet Stevenson, Joe Locke, and Johnny Flynn brought this to life, anchored by Andrew Scott‘s once-in-a-generation performance as the late great Charleson. The five-minute standing ovation at the premiere was one of the longest at TIFF this year. Elsinore is this year’s winner of TIFF‘s International People’s Choice Award. Take note: Andrew Scott is coming hard for that Oscar. The Debut. Speaking of Oscars, former Best Actress winner Julianne Moore delivers a go-for-broke performance in Jesse Eisenberg‘s raucous comedy about a meek, neglected housewife who takes on a small part in a community theatre production hoping for escapism from her humdrum life and ends up finding herself and discovering the artist within.

Celebrity Arrivals | | Photography: Spring Morris

Stories From Around the World

Look Back. Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda expands the beloved anime into a live-action version that plays to his artistic sensibility perfectly. It is wistful, bittersweet, but also full of hope and light. As TIFF‘s International Feature Programmer Giovanna Fulvi said when she introduced the film, “a TIFF without a Kore-eda film is just not the same”.

Bunker. A stacked roster including Oscar winners Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz, and director Florian Zeller led this meditative and tense domestic drama contemplating the nature of art, legacy, and what we owe to each other as part of the social contract. It goes to some unexpected places, but the emotional and philosophical journey was worth it.

Always Lalisa. What does it take to become and stay a global musical megastar? K-Pop singer Lalisa of South Korea‘s Blackpink takes us behind the scenes of the year she took time off between the band’s projects as she mounted her solo album, the smash Alter Ego. It is always the work behind the scenes that enriches the artist’s legacy.

Director Sue Kim | Always Lalisa | Image courtesy of TIFF

Conversations at the TIFF Market

The new TIFF Market, which is open to industry buyers in an open film marketplace, played host to a series of conversations with creatives such as Jordan Firstman (whose Club Kid was a sensation), Danny Boyle (whose Ink was the hottest premiere mid-week), and Seth Rogen. We managed to get into the opening talk with Sir Gary Oldman, who regaled us with stories of his younger days in his career and his ongoing work with the beloved series Slow Horses. Given that I did not see Oldman when his Oscar-winning role in Darkest Hour played at my first TIFF in 2017, seeing him at last was a full circle moment.

Seth Rogen & Reanu Reeves | Good Fortune | Image courtesy of TIFF

Seeing Double

Javier Bardem | Image: Ritchie Po

We literally saw Javier Bardem at the premieres for both Bunker and his other TIFF entry, the acclaimed The Beloved. At some point I thought I would run into him at the grocery store. Seeing double again, our friends at Retail Insider took us to the world premiere of Chris Rock‘s latest directorial effort Misty Green (starring Rosaline Eleazar, who deservedly won a TIFF Tribute Award for her performance) on Saturday night, and on Sunday morning we were at Chris‘s In Conversation With … talk as he discussed his career.

A Stacked Celebrity Roster

The celebrity roster was stacked. We saw Sebastian Stan presenting the Cannes Palme d’or winner Fjord on opening night, and Lalisa popped up at the very end of the Q&A for the Saturday morning screening of Always Lalisa, at which point the BLINKs melted down collectively. Rami Malek opened the Canadian premiere of Ira Sachs‘s The Man I Love, and we took a wrong turn, ending up at the back of the Princess of Wales theatre in time to see the Elsinore team meet the fans and head off in their rides.

A Permanent Home for Criterion

The Criterion Closet | Photography: Spring Morris

The Criterion Collection followed up last year’s popular Criterion Closet activation with a permanent home in Cinema Cellar. Thankfully, unlike last year, we did not have to queue 7 hours in advance just to get in, and we look forward to maxing out our credit cards there on our next visit.

Fandom in Full Force

The crowds went into an absolute frenzy for Hudson Williams‘s talk at the Making Waves presentation, where he discussed his rapid rise to fame of the last year. His entrance was an event in and of itself, and when he crossed his legs to reveal the red soles on his Christian Louboutin boots, the crowd cheered. (Also, he ended up dining at the famed Thai eatery Pai immediately after and en route to the world premiere of Yaga, which was why nobody could get a table that night.)

Still from Yaga | Image courtesy TIFF

Comparatively, the K-drama stans went absolutely feral for Korean superstar Lee Min-Ho at his In Conversation With … interview. The Princess of Wales was besieged by K-drama stans, and the atmosphere was nothing short of electric. The actual ICW talk was repeatedly interrupted by audience members shouting their love for Lee in Korean and English, and he received more than one marriage proposal! His exit from the venue after the talk stopped traffic, and hundreds of fans literally wept in his presence. (This may be the closest I will ever get to the same experience as a BTS concert.)

The Ones That Got Away

Still from I Play Rocky | Image courtesy of TIFF

Sadly, we were not able to get tickets or into press screenings for in-demand favourites such as I Play Rocky (TIFF Audience Award, first runner-up), Club Kid (which won the Queer Palme at Cannes this year), and the 2026 TIFF Audience Award winner, the Spanish-language queer musical La Bola Negra. Since 2008, all but two of the Audience Award winners went on to receive Best Picture Oscar winners, and five have won the big prize, so this bodes well for La Bola Negra.

Already planning VIFF! | Image: Ritchie Po

Demand for both public and media & industry screenings was overwhelming for these titles, but we look forward to seeing these hot titles at next month’s VIFF. See you there, and check out our 2026 preview HERE!

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.