TIFF 2023 kicks off on September 7, with a full slate of over 200 films set to play over the 10-day event.

In what's become a tradition, we asked the programming staff to pick their own favourites. The selections run the gamut, from experimental to sobering to broadly entertaining to full-on bonkers, giving viewers a constellation of cinema that's ripe for exploration.

Here are some must-see movies at TIFF 2023 according to the festival programmers.

Cameron Bailey - CEO, TIFF; Gala Presentations

The Boy and the Heron

Already acclaimed as a masterpiece in Japan, Hayao Miyazaki's new film begins as a simple story of loss and love and rises to become a staggering work of imagination.

Solo

Set in Montreal's vivacious drag scene, this tender character study from writer-director Sophie Dupuis focuses on a talented young performer whose past and present merge in unexpected ways.

Anita Lee - Chief Programming Officer

A Normal Family

Based on the best-selling novel "The Dinner" by Dutch author Herman Koch and artfully directed by Korean auteur Hur Jin-hon, this is a stylish drama about family, privilege, and moral decline where two Korean families confront a heinous crime that builds to shocking revelations.

American Fiction

Written and directed by Cord Jefferson, this satirical comedy about race and representation in the publishing industry is both timely and provocative, sure to spark debate and conversation.

Sisterhood HLM Pussy

This audacious feature debut by French filmmaker Nora El Hourch is a powerful drama about three teenage girls who decide to confront a predator in their community on their own terms. More than a coming-of-age story, the film shines a light on young womanhood today.

Geoff Macnaughton, International Programmer, Primetime

All the Light We Cannot See

Canadian Shawn Levy brings Anthony Doerr's Pulitzer Prize–winning novel to the screen with a stellar ensemble cast including Mark Ruffalo and Hugh Laurie.

Bargain

After an earthquake hits the auction house for an organ trafficking operation, buyers and sellers alike scramble to survive in this high-octane Korean series.

Robyn Citizen, Director of Programming & Platform Lead

Les Indésirables

In his follow-up to Academy Award-nominated Les Misérables, filmmaker Ladj Ly offers a tense, blistering examination of the abuses of local politicians attempting to gentrify a working-class suburb, resulting in a powerful film by one of the most exciting new voices in cinema.

Dear Jassi

The first Indian film from Tarsem Singh Dhandwar is based on the true and tragic love story of Indo-Canadian Jassi and Sukhwinder Sidhu. Swooningly tender and acutely disturbing.

Jane Schoettle, Senior Programmer, Special Presentations

Chuck Chuck Baby

Director Janis Pugh has created a completely engaging story of love, loss, and female community.  It's the romantic lesbian musical set in a chicken-packing plant in north Wales that you never knew you needed.

Woman of the Hour

This auspicious directorial debut from Anna Kendrick centres on the true crime story of serial killer Rodney Alcala's appearance on The Dating Game in the middle of his 1970s murder spree. A potent statement on the way women are forced to navigate their encounters with men.

Sing Sing

Directed by Greg Kwedar and based on the real-life "Rehabilitation Through the Arts" programme at Sing Sing prison, we witness a group of inmates find joy in working together on a play, with a cast that includes formerly incarcerated actors for this unique and powerful project.

Close To You

Elliot Page stars as Sam, visiting his family in Coburg for the first time since his transition. As he contends with their well-intentioned clumsiness, a serendipitous encounter with a high school friend leads to an unresolved past bubbling to the surface, making way for a tender new connection.

Andréa Picard, Senior Curator, Wavelengths & Classics

The Beast

A century-spanning, sci-fi dystopian melodrama-cum-thriller by French visionary Bertrand Bonello, this film stars Léa Seydoux as a woman who uses artificial intelligence to purify her DNA and rid herself of emotions. This is 2023's quintessential film about existential dread.

L’amour fou

Jacques Rivette's formally inventive and psychologically-lacerating film has previously been near impossible to see as its original camera negatives were destroyed in a fire. Free to the public, tickets are first come, first served.

Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World

A skewering satire and no-holds-barred attack on capitalism, repression, exploitation, and contemporary image culture in modern-day Bucharest. It's also one of the year's most thrilling films, collapsing genres into a breathless Godardian collage.

Music

The latest by German auteur Angela Schanelec is quite possibly the year's most gorgeous and aesthetically exacting. An oblique take on the Oedipus myth told between the Greek Peloponnese and Berlin, the film is mysterious, moving, and a must-see on the big screen.

Giovanna Fulvi, Senior International Programmer (East Asia)

Snow Leopard

Pema Tseden's last film completed just before his untimely death earlier this year explores the socio-political complexities of modern Tibet through the magical tale of a Snow Leopard and its complicated relationship with the communities of the Tibetan plateau.

Mimang

A condensed Korean indie counterpart to Richard Linklater’s Before series, Kim Taeyang's feature debut is shot over four years and follows a man and a woman who meet by chance and stroll through Seoul's changing streets.

Great Absence

Shot on 35mm, the latest by emerging Japanese filmmaker and TIFF alumnus Kei Chika-ura is the smartly-observed, touching story of the reconciliation of a long-estranged father grappling with dementia and his son.

Shadow of Fire

Shinya Tsukamoto's latest examines the lives of Japanese citizens in the immediate post–World War II period. Part chamber drama, part road movie, this is a powerful story of a small boy coming of age amid unimaginable hardship.

Thom Powers, Lead Programmer, TIFF Docs

Copa 71

In 1971, Mexico City held an international women's soccer tournament that preceded the official World's Cup by two decades. It attracted over 100,000 spectators setting a record for women's sports to this day, but was then erased from history.

Flipside

Documentary filmmaker Chris Wilcha sets out to rescue the used record store he worked as a teenager. He speaks to Ira Glass, Judd Apatow, and others about navigating a mid-life crisis.

Defiant

Oscar-nominated filmmaker Karim Amer embeds with Ukraine's foreign minister and other government officials for a unique look at how the country is defending itself in a war of disinformation and diplomacy.

Silver Dollar Road and Stamped From the Beginning

Both films explore Black resistance to racial injustice. One tells a contemporary family saga over a battle for property, the other adapts the best-selling book by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi.

Jason Anderson, International Programmer & Short Cuts Lead (Nordic Countries and Benelux)

Together 99

The past and present members of the commune are back together to revive old rivalries and stumble back into unresolved emotional entanglements.

A Happy Day

This story of three young friends who long to escape from a detention centre for asylum seekers in northern Norway simultaneously succeeds as an absurdist tragicomedy, a bittersweet parable about the refugee experience, and an homage to the golden age of Hollywood teen movies.

WOACA | Short Cuts 2023 Programme 05

Mackenzie Davis delivers a satire about a woman's ill-fated skincare regime that’s sharp, funny, and wholly outrageous.

Motherland | Short Cuts 2023 Programme 06

Jasmin Mozaffari, the Toronto filmmaker who made a big impact with the suitably explosive Firecrackers at TIFF 2018, returns with this new drama about a young Iranian man facing personal complications and a very hostile political climate while living in America in 1979.

Kelly Boutsalis, International Programmer (Canada)

Hey, Viktor!

This outrageous mockumentary follows an out-of-work actor trying to self-produce a sequel to the film he starred in as a child, Smoke Signals. First-time director Cody Lightning plays a fictionalized version of himself going on a hilarious quest to reunite the original cast while losing friends and family along the way.

Ru

Based on the novel by Kim Thuy, this beautiful film follows the journey of a family leaving Vietnam amidst turmoil. Told from the POV of the young girl in the family, this lush film doesn't shy away from the horrors the family escaped and the alien feeling of picking up the pieces in Quebec.

Tautuktavuk (What We See)

What appears at first to be a documentary about living through the pandemic turns out to be a fictional film that goes much deeper than that. Starring the directors as sisters, one in Nunavut and one in Quebec, their connection and experiences unfold over video chats before they're reunited.

Diana Cadavid, International Programmer (Latin America, Southern Europe, the Caribbean)

A Ravaging Wind

After a mechanical problem with their car and their home, a travelling Protestant Reverend, his young daughter, and assistant get help from and spend time with another father and his young son who live in an isolated region of the Argentinian countryside.

La Suprema

Teeming with irrepressible energy, this World Premiere takes us back to 2001 Colombia and a tiny and remote village in the Caribbean region that’s far from any beach and seemingly lost in time.

Toll

Cementing herself as one of Brazil's clearest voices in current cinema, director Carolina Markowicz returns with a film about a toll booth attendant who realizes she can use her job to help a gang of thieves, unwittingly triggering a chain of events.

Wild Woman

In what will very likely be the longest day of her life, Yolanda, a Cuban woman, goes from dancing her heart out late at night at a house party, to running against the clock and struggling to find her son and skip town.

Nataleah Hunter-Young, International Programmer (Africa and Arab West Asia)

I Do Not Come to You By Chance

This blockbuster comedy from returning director Ishaya Bako is an adaptation of Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani's award-winning 2009 novel about a struggling Nigerian university graduate whose only surefire path forward seems to be abetting his shady uncle's fraudulent email scam.

Hajjan

Egyptian Austrian director Abu Bakr Shawky brings the energy of an American Western to the deserts of Western Asia, crafting a renegade, mythic coming-of-age adventure set in the legendary high-stakes world of Bedouin camel racing.

Yellow Bus

In this powerful feature debut from American writer-director Wendy Bednarz, an Indian woman living in the Arabian Gulf embarks on a search for truth and accountability after her daughter is left to die on a school bus in the sweltering desert heat.

Banel & Adama

Premiering in this year's Cannes competition, writer-director Ramata-Toulaye Sy crafts a tragic romance of two young lovers on a quest for self-possession, both eager to begin their adult lives away from the stifling demands of tradition and their families in Northern Senegal.

Peter Kuplowsky, International Programmer, Midnight Madness

NAGA

No other Midnight Madness movie opens with a more shocking bang than the prologue to Meshal Aljaser's debut feature. One of the most unpredictable films in this year's roster, it belongs in the pantheon of great "one crazy night" movies, up there with Scorsese's After Hours and the Safdies' Good Time.

Working Class Goes to Hell

This Mladen Đorđević-inspired satire is about a labour union turning to Satanism after all else fails to get what is owed to them from their corrupt employers. A compelling intersection of genre and arthouse sensibilities, this sardonic comedy would have been very much at home in the festival's retired Vanguard section.

Aggro Dr1ft

Harmony Korine's latest may alienate audiences expecting a more conventional action flick, as it's far more elliptical and poetic in its surrealist execution than his last two films. But if you prepare yourself for something in the tradition of Lynch or Jodorowsky, you'll bear witness to a new aesthetic frontier.

Dorota Lech, International Programmer and Discovery Lead (Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and Caucasus Regions)

Arthur&Diana

Writer-director Sara Summa stars alongside her real-life brother Robin Summa in this playful auto-fictional road trip from Berlin to Paris. Creative, adventurous, and utterly charming!

Without Air

In her absurdist debut feature, Katalin Moldovai takes on the administration of conservative Hungary in her depiction of a high school teacher accused of promoting homosexual values to her students. Timely and incredibly powerful. 

Achilles

In Farhad Delaram's feature debut, two fugitives in contemporary Iran encounter citizens across the country, all wounded by the same corrupt government and united in their willingness to help the pair survive. Unforgettable film and Delaram is a major talent to watch.

Holiday

Set in a picturesque Italian seaside town, this film by writer-director Edoardo Gabbriellini reveals a high-profile unsolved case in flashbacks. Bold storytelling with chilling results.

Norm Wilner - Acting Lead Programmer for Canada and Industry Selects

I Don't Know Who You Are

After a sexual assault, a Toronto musician must scrape together $900 he doesn't have for an HIV-preventive PEP treatment in the event that he's been exposed to the virus. Writer-director M.H. Murray and producer-star Clennon deliver a powerhouse drama about a man in crisis.

The Queen of My Dreams

In 1999, the sudden death of her father sends queer college student Azra back to her ancestral home in Pakistan, where her stern mother demands she play the role of perfect grieving daughter. Fawzia Mirza's first feature is a bright, energetic debut about the chasm between individual desires and cultural expectations.

Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make-Believe

Robert McCallum's documentary looks at the life and work of Ernie Coombs, the nerdy American artist who became one of the CBC's most beloved children's personalities. This is a celebration of kindness, compassion, inclusion, and empathy. And puppets.

Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person

Quebec filmmaker Ariane Louis-Seize graduates to features with this deadpan horror comedy about a young Montreal bloodsucker who can only feed on people for whom she feels sympathy, leading her to befriend a mopey teenager who happily volunteers to be her next meal. The most purely charming vampire picture I've seen in years.

Meenakshi Shedde, Senior Programme Advisor, South Asia

Lost Ladies

Kiran Rao's second feature conjures up a delicious, feminist, rural satire about two newlywed brides who get lost from the same train. The ensuing chaos is both funny and moving and sparks a journey of immense discovery about themselves, womanhood, and life itself.

The World Is Family

Anand Patwardhan's deeply moving personal documentary portrait of his family legacy depicts his parents’ families involvement with Mahatma Gandhi and the independence movement, exploring how the values he inherited have rapidly eroded in the right-wing, deeply islamophobic India of today.

A Road to a Village

Nabin Subba's moving Nepali film feels deeply for dying, traditional bamboo crafts, values, and way of life.

June Kim, Associate International Programmer, Southeast Asia

Andragogy

A righteous middle-aged woman sticks to her beliefs until a misunderstanding ruins everything, including her reputation and family. A social commentary from Indonesia on the impact of social media and cancel culture.

Your Mother's Son

Jun Robles Lana returns to TIFF with a disturbing and shocking drama about an intimate and unconventional relationship between a mother and a son.

Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell

A young man sets off on an unexpected spiritual odyssey against the backdrop of picturesque and dreamy rural Vietnam. A mesmerizing first feature and a title that won the Caméra d’Or at Cannes this year.

Jesse Cumming, Associate Curator, Wavelengths

He Thought He Died

The latest feature by local experimental filmmaker and artist Isiah Medina, this deconstructed heist film in which a painter's attempts to steal his work back from an institution invites broader questions of creativity and commerce.

Quiet As It's Kept | Wavelengths 1: Quiet As It's Kept

A contemporary response-meets-addendum to Toni Morrison’s novel "The Bluest Eye," Ja’Tovia Gary expands the novel's themes of internalized racism into a grand, kaleidoscopic testament to Black artistry and solidarity.

The Human Surge 3

Shot between Peru, Taiwan, and Sri Lanka using a 360-degree camera, with the footage then retrofitted for the cinema, this is the mind-bending experimental film event of the year, and one of its true cinematic trips.

Trailer of the Film That Will Never Exist: Phony Wars | Wavelengths 3: Outlines - Akerman/Costa/Godard

The final short film authored by the great Jean-Luc Godard before his passing in 2022 is a raw but rousing cinematic scrapbook that returns to his ongoing interest in art, music, literature, and perhaps above all, language.