Here are 12 festival faves you absolutely need to see at TIFF 2025

Decades after changing its name from being dubbed the "Festival of Festivals," TIFF continues to be a homecoming of sorts every September for some of the best and brightest world cinema that has already been showcased elsewhere on the festival circuit.

Cannes titles, as always, are highlights here, allowing these films which debuted in Southern France last May to be given an autumnal push here for North American audiences, with the likes of Anora and Parasite following a Cannes-to-TIFF-to-Oscar Best Winning path.

This year's selection of festival favourites includes everything from animated wonders to explosive rave-ups, making several of these the most obvious place to start when planning your TIFF 2025 schedule.

Here are 12 of the best festival films making their local debut at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival.

Arco

Cannes is no stranger to animated classics being part of their slate (last year's Oscar-winning, TIFF-playing Flow being an obvious example), and this striking film got plenty of attention following its premiere.

Ugo Bienvenue's trippy, colourful film about rainbows and time travel is produced and voiced by Natalie Portman (herself a long-time visitor to this festival), and its environmental messaging and travails of a young boy make this one of the family-friendly faves of this year's selection.

Blue Moon / Nouvelle Vague

Richard Linklater released two films at two prestigious European festivals within months of each other, and each is coming to Toronto to play for home audiences. Blue Moon, having debuted in Berlin, stars Ethan Hawke (a massive supporter of TIFF) and Andrew Scott as Rodgers and Hammerstein, the talents behind the iconic Broadway musical Oklahoma! that literally set the stage for the modern musical. 

Meanwhile, Cannes showcase Nouvelle Vague is a brisk, beautiful tale of the making of Godard's equally groundbreaking Breathless, making this pair of films, focusing on iconoclastic creators, a perfect pairing.

The Blue Trail

This Berlinale Silver Bear-winning film from Brazilian filmmaker Gabriel Mascaro follows an older woman who has been forced into retirement, and upends her life to pilot a boat up the Amazon.

The film offers a slightly askew take on reality, with the result a moving, at times uplifting look at resilience and tenacity in the face of a society too quickly discarding those past their prime.

If I Had Legs, I'd Kick You

Following a relatively rare Sundance-to-Berlin-to-TIFF path along the festival highway, the Canadian premiere of Mary Bronstein's challenging yet engaging tale brings with it a lot of well-deserved hype.

Rose Byrne took the top acting prize in Germany, and Toronto is primed to provide another vector to help celebrate her talents, perhaps even leading those to take closer notice come time to vote for these Oscar-worthy performances.

It Was Just an Accident

Rapturously received during its Cannes premiere, the ovations are sure to continue as Jafar Panahi's film makes its way to TIFF as its Canadian debut. The story of the director's own imprisonment overwhelms much of the talk of the film, yet this strange thriller is sure to be embraced just as readily here by an audience hungry for this Palme d'Or-winning tale.

The Little Sister

 The Cannes actress prize went to Nadia Melliti for her role as Fatima in Hafsia Herzi's complex tale of religion, sexuality and devotion. Based on Fatima Daas' celebrated novel, this quiet yet powerful film may shine even more away from the glare of Cannes, with Toronto audiences primed to embrace such a nuanced and rewarding tale.

The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo

The winner from the Un Certain Regard Cannes sidebar, director Diego Céspedes twists the genre tropes of the Western in this dusty Chilean tale.

Complex, provocative, and absolutely unique, this feature-length debut from an emerging filmmaker is precisely the kind of distinctive and groundbreaking international cinema that TIFF patrons crave.

The Secret Agent

Another South American film unafraid to mess with genre elements, Kleber Mendonça Filho's latest is a complex period piece that traces the sense of chaos that characterized Brazil's late-1970s dictatorial period.

A rare two-award winner from the Cannes jury for both Filho's direction and Wagner Moura's subtle yet powerful portrayal as the main protagonist Marcelo, this wild ride is one not to be missed.

Sirāt

If there's one film that benefits from the big screen, big sound experience at this year's TIFF, it's this explosive, Jury Prize-winning epic from Oliver Laxe. Owing much to the likes of Friedkin's brilliant Sorcerer, itself a reimagining of the classic French film Wages of Fear, this trucks-through-the-desert journey is as precarious as it is profound.

With a pounding soundtrack, a mix of professional and amateur performers and its wild shifts in tone and mood, this is easily one of the great international films of the year, and one best to go in as cold as possible to be wowed by its many surprising turns.  

Sound of Falling

Co-winner of the Cannes Jury Prize, Mascha Schilinski's richly realized film focuses on generations of inhabitants of one family farm.

Tracing the tumultuous history of the last century, the timelines braid like the hair of some of the women and girls the film focuses upon, each tale intertwining to craft a portrait not only of the individuals and how they are shaped by forces outside their control, but also the way they represent different facets of this chaotic period of German history.

Sentimental Value

Many felt that Joachim Trier's latest was deserving of the top prize at Cannes, but its runner-up status, garnering the silver-medal equivalent Grand Prix, is hardly an insult. Reunited with Renate Reinsve, this story about filmmaking and families will be catnip for Toronto audiences.

With a stellar take by Stellan Skarsgård, along with Elle Fanning and Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, this playful, sensitive, and occasionally darkly comic story is absolutely terrific.