50 films will mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Toronto International Film Festival this summer. TIFF released the titles for its TIFF 50 series screening at the Cinematheque in the lead-up to the 2025 festival. The titles span opening night choices, breakout hits that put the festival on the map, and People’s Choice Award winners, some of which went on to score Oscars and cement Toronto’s status as a launchpad for awards season.
“Fifty wasn’t enough!” Cameron Bailey, CEO of TIFF, says in a statement from the festival. “But putting together this list was as much fun as it was daunting. Guided by input from many of TIFF’s programmers and leaders of the past five decades, we landed on 50 films that tell the story of our festival’s obsessions, discoveries, and lasting influence. At the heart of it: those moments when TIFF’s curation met the Toronto audience and the world found a new movie to fall in love with.”
The series follows TIFF’s philosophy of offering “something for everyone” with a mini festival of festivals. On the documentary front, TIFF 50 includes Barbara Kopple’s canonical labour rights doc Harlan County, USA. The film about a miners’ strike screened at the inaugural Festival of Festivals in 1976 and went on to win the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature. Many critics, including this one, consider it the best documentary ever made.
Other doc landmarks from TIFF history that appear in the series include Michael Moore’s 1989 People’s Choice Award winner Roger & Me, his humorous endeavour to land an interview with General Motors’ executive Roger Smith when the collapse of production in Flint, Michigan devastates the people of Moore’s hometown. Also screening is Alanis Obomsawin’s landmark doc Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance, which won Best Canadian Feature at the 1993 festival. The film observes the standoff between Mohawk activists and Quebec provincial police in a case that sparked heightened awareness of, and sympathy for, Indigenous rights and land claims.
Meanwhile, festival favourite Guy Maddin gets a TIFF 50 spotlight with My Winnipeg, which won Best Canadian Feature at the 2007 festival. Maddin’s “docu-fantasia” ingeniously blurs fact, fiction, and creative license to conjure a dreamy ode to boring-old Winnipeg. The festival’s experimental side also gets representation in Wavelengths regular Ben Russell. His 2009 debut feature, Let Each One Go Where He May gives audiences a chance to see an audacious hybrid film told in 13 shots.
Two other festival regulars appear in the series: Raoul Peck’s 2016 People’s Choice Award winner for Documentary, I Am Not Your Negro, brings a local favourite to TIFF 50 for its story of writer James Baldwin and the fight for Black rights in America. The film went on to score an Oscar nomination after its TIFF debut and helped bring renewed interest to Baldwin’s enduring work. Finally, Werner Herzog’s ambitious 3D documentary Cave of Forgotten Dreams will screen at the festival in all three dimensions. The 2010 doc proved a breakthrough amid innovations in 3D technology and still marks a rare case for the tool’s success in documentary.
Some of the films will also stream on MUBI, while outdoor screenings will happen for select titles throughout the summer.
The TIFF Story in 50 Films (in order of screening date)
June 13: The Princess Bride (1987) dir. Rob Reiner, USA (People’s Choice Award winner)
June 14: Memories of Murder (2003) dir. Bong Joon-ho, South Korea
June 15: Antonia’s Line (1995) dir. Marleen Gorris, Netherlands (PCA winner)
June 18: In the Cut (2003) dir. Jane Campion, USA/Australia
June 19: My Beautiful Laundrette (1985) dir. Stephen Frears, United Kingdom
June 21: Rhymes for Young Ghouls (2013) dir. Jeff Barnaby, Canada
June 22: Viva Riva! (2010) dir. Djo Tunda Wa Munga, Congo – Kinshasa
June 22: The Shawshank Redemption (1994) dir. Frank Darabont, USA (*special presentation, Q&A with James and Roger Deakins moderated by Cameron Bailey)
June 24: Next of Kin (1984) dir. Atom Egoyan, Canada
June 28: Cave of Forgotten Dreams (2010) dir. Werner Herzog, France/Canada/USA/Germany/United Kingdom (*special presentation/ shown in 3D)
June 28: Jennifer’s Body (2009) dir. Karyn Kusama, USA
June 29: Love in the Time of Hysteria (1991) dir. Alfonso Cuarón, Mexico
July 2: Lady Macbeth (2016) dir. William Oldroyd, United Kingdom
July 4: My Winnipeg (2007) dir. Guy Maddin, Canada (*special presentation/live narration with Q&A)
July 5: Revenge (2017) dir. Coralie Fargeat, France
July 6: I Am Not Your Negro (2016) dir. Raoul Peck, France/USA/Belgium/Switzerland (PCA TIFF Docs winner)
July 10: Away from Her (2006) dir. Sarah Polley, Canada
July 11–13: Boogie Nights (1997) dir. Paul Thomas Anderson, USA (*special presentation/70mm print)
July 12: The Big Chill (1983) dir. Lawrence Kasdan, USA (PCA winner)
July 15: Phoenix (2014) dir. Christian Petzold, Germany
July 17: Matador (1986) dir. Pedro Almodóvar, Spain
July 18: Saint Maud (2019) dir. Rose Glass, United Kingdom
July 19: A Brighter Summer Day (1991) dir. Edward Yang, Taiwan
July 20: Whale Rider (2002) dir. Niki Caro, New Zealand/Germany (PCA winner)
July 20: Dead Ringers (1988) dir. David Cronenberg, Canada
July 24: Braindead (1992) dir. Peter Jackson, New Zealand
July 25: Drugstore Cowboy (1989) dir. Gus Van Sant, USA
July 26: The Killer (1989) dir. John Woo, Hong Kong
July 27: Highway 61 (1991) dir. Bruce McDonald, Canada
July 29: Sexy Beast (2000) dir. Jonathan Glazer, United Kingdom
August 1: The Raid: Redemption (2011) dir. Gareth Evans, Indonesia/France/USA (PCA Midnight Madness winner)
August 2: Eve’s Bayou – Director’s Cut (1997) dir. Kasi Lemmons, USA
August 2: After Life (1998) dir. Kore-eda Hirokazu, Japan
August 3: Let Each One Go Where He May (2009) dir. Ben Russell, USA
August 7: Maelström (2000) dir. Denis Villeneuve, Canada
August 8: Leaving Las Vegas (1995) dir. Mike Figgis, USA
August 9: Slumdog Millionaire (2008) dir. Danny Boyle, United Kingdom (PCA winner)
August 10: Roger & Me (1989) dir. Michael Moore, USA (PCA winner)
August 10: Water (2005) dir. Deepa Mehta, Canada/USA/India
August 14: A Soldier’s Story (1984) dir. Norman Jewison, USA
August 15: Maqbool (2003) dir. Vishal Bhardwaj, India
August 16: The Fabelmans (2022) dir. Steven Spielberg, USA (PCA winner)
August 17: Near Dark (1987) dir. Kathryn Bigelow, USA
August 19: Brothers (2004) dir. Susanne Bier, Denmark
August 21: The Secret in Their Eyes (2009) dir. Juan Jose Campanella, Argentina/Spain
August 22: Jallikattu (2019) dir. Lijo Jose Pellissery, India
August 23: Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance (1993) dir. Alanis Obomsawin, Canada
August 24: Thank You for Smoking (2006) dir. Jason Reitman, USA
August 26: Harlan County USA (1976) dir. Barbara Kopple, USA
August 27: The Boy and the Heron (2023) dir. Hayao Miyazaki, Japan
