TIFF's Best Hidden Gems 2026
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The Toronto International Film Festival returns from September 10–20, 2026, offering moviegoers the chance to discover exciting films from emerging filmmakers and distinctive voices from around the world. Beyond the festival’s major premieres and high-profile titles, TIFF is also a great place to uncover hidden gems—films that may fly under the radar but deserve a spot on your watchlist!
TOY GUN BANDIT
TOY GUN BANDIT
After bragging about stealing from a convenience store, Félix is pulled in by his new friend Dave into a plan to rob a local bank. Hungry for recognition, he dives in without hesitation. But the thrill fades fast as things unravel, and the guns turn out to be all too real. This is almost a true story.
DIRECTOR: RÉMI ST-MICHEL
WORLD PREMIERE | 102m | CENTREPIECE & TIFF NEXT WAVE SELECTS
“He wanted to be noticed. He got much more attention than he bargained for.”
Small-Town Boredom. Big-Time Trouble.
Rémi St-Michel’s Toy Gun Bandit starts with a simple teenage prank and quickly gets way out of hand. Set outside Quebec City, the film follows 15-year-old Félix (Félix Munger), a bored, restless kid who pretends to rob a convenience store for his birthday. What starts as a game soon turns into something much more serious.
Félix isn’t really a criminal. He’s a teenager looking for attention, excitement and, more than anything, a place to fit in. When he meets Dave (David Beaudoin), an aspiring gangster, he suddenly finds the kind of attention he’s been craving. Add Sara (Sara Montpetit) to the mix, and the three end up on a reckless run of bank robberies that gets harder to control with every step.
St-Michel keeps things moving with handheld camerawork, quick cuts and an energetic soundtrack that mirrors Félix’s impulsive state of mind. There’s a real sense of being swept along as one bad decision leads to another. The film has some of the same nervous, chaotic energy associated with the Safdie brothers, but it still feels very much like its own coming-of-age story.
Félix Munger is the big surprise. He gives Félix just the right mix of swagger, vulnerability and teenage innocence. Even when Félix does something you know is completely wrong, you can still understand why he’s doing it. Beaudoin and Montpetit are equally fun to watch, and the three develop an odd but believable friendship.
The best thing about Toy Gun Bandit is that underneath all the robberies and chaos, it’s really about a kid who wants to matter. Félix thinks crime will give him excitement and belonging, but the film slowly shows him the difference between being noticed and actually being cared about.
The story does hit some familiar crime-movie beats, and the nonstop energy can occasionally feel like a lot. But the performances keep it grounded, especially Munger, who gives the film its heart. The result is less a traditional heist movie than a psychological portrait of a kid discovering too late that pretending to be dangerous and actually facing danger are two very different things.
BLEEDING HEARTS
BLEEDING HEARTS
A music-driven love story about real-life couple Zella Day and Jesse Woods, the musicians behind Chaparelle. Following their first year together, they chase a shared dream while facing pressures that could spark a breakup—or a breakthrough.
DIRECTOR: ANDREW MORGAN
WORLD PREMIERE | 97m | TIFF DOCS
“A soulful music doc about falling in love and trying to make it work.”
Andrew Morgan’s Bleeding Hearts is a warm music doc about love, creativity and what happens when the two get tangled together. The film follows Zella Day and Jesse Woods as they fall in love and form the alt-country band Chaparelle, capturing both the excitement of making music and the pressure that comes with doing it as a couple.
Morgan keeps things refreshingly personal, moving between recording sessions, performances, arguments and quieter moments of uncertainty. The black-and-white cinematography gives it a dreamy, old-school feel, while Day and Woods bring plenty of chemistry and tension throughout.
What makes Bleeding Hearts work is that it’s not really about making it big. It’s about two people trying to build a life, a relationship and a band at the same time, and discovering how difficult that can be. Tender, messy and often surprisingly funny, it’s a music documentary with a real heart.
AH GIRL
AH GIRL
Singapore, 1994. Ah Girl is a curious 7-year-old girl. Since her parents separated, she lives in a small flat with her younger sister, Ah Tian, her easygoing Pa who works nightshifts, and her irritable Grandmother. They see their needy and unreliable Mum on weekends. One weekend, drunk Mum asks if Ah Girl wants to live with her when she gets a bigger flat. This question disrupts Ah Girl’s sense of the world, and the rest of the film unfolds as she struggles with the decision. She becomes increasingly aware that her family life is far from normal.
DIRECTOR: ANG GECK GECK PRSCILLA
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE | 99m | CENTREPIECE & TIFF NEXT WAVE SELECTS
“Sweet, funny and moving, Ah Girl captures the things children notice but adults overlook.”
Ang Geck Geck Priscilla’s Ah Girl is a tender, quietly heartbreaking family drama told through the eyes of a seven-year-old girl growing up in 1990s Singapore.
Swee Swee doesn’t fully understand why her parents have separated, but she sees and feels the tension around her. Ong Xuan Jing gives a wonderfully natural performance, letting small looks and silences do much of the work. Her bond with her younger sister also brings some much-needed warmth and humor.
The filmmaking is simple and understated, which makes the emotional moments hit harder. Rather than turning divorce into melodrama, Ah Girl captures the confusion of being a child in an adult world. Sweet, funny and genuinely moving, it’s a lovely reminder that kids notice far more than adults think.
SUNBURN
SUNBURN
When a citywide blackout knocks out the power on one of the hottest days on record, a group of neighborhood kids set out in search of relief, unaware that the day will quietly mark the end of their childhood.
DIRECTOR: SERVILLE POBLETE
WORLD PREMIERE | 82m | CENTREPIECE & TIFF NEXT WAVE SELECTS
“Sometimes childhood doesn’t end with a bang, but on a hot summer afternoon.”
Sunburn turns one sweltering Toronto blackout into a tender snapshot of childhood slipping away.
Serville Poblete’s coming-of-age drama follows Shay and his friends through a restless summer day of crushes, jokes, shifting friendships and things left unsaid. When the power goes out, their phones die and the kids spill into the streets, suddenly forced to simply hang out and confront the changes they’ve been avoiding.
The film’s strength is its atmosphere. Sticky heat, crowded apartments and long stretches of summer daylight give everything a fleeting, nostalgic glow. There’s no big coming-of-age revelation; instead, Sunburn finds emotion in the little ruptures; a friend preparing to leave, a friendship starting to drift, a carefree afternoon that may quietly be one of the last.
Warm, intimate and effortlessly nostalgic, Sunburn captures the bittersweet moment when you’re still living in childhood but can already feel it disappearing.
ELEPHANTS IN THE FOG
ELEPHANTS IN THE FOG
In a small Nepalese village nestled in the heart of a forest populated by wild elephants, Pirati is the matriarch of a Kinnar community. She dreams of escaping to a “normal” life with the man she is in love with. But when one of her daughters disappears, she must investigate and choose between love and responsibility to her communitY.
DIRECTOR: ABINASH BIKRAM SHAH
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE | 108m | CENTREPIECE
“The biggest mystery lies between love and duty.”
Elephants in the Fog is a haunting, atmospheric drama that blends mystery, folklore and intimate family storytelling into a portrait of belonging.
Set in a remote Nepalese village, Abinash Bikram Shah’s film follows Pirati, the matriarch of a Kinnar community, whose search for a missing daughter forces her to confront the fragile balance between her chosen family and her desire for a life of her own. Wild elephants roaming the surrounding forest add a constant sense of danger, while the dense landscape gives the film an almost dreamlike quality.
Puspa Thing Lama, making her screen debut, gives the film its emotional center. Her performance as Pirati feels lived-in rather than performed, carrying both the character’s fierce protectiveness and her quiet longing. The relationships within the Kinnar community are also portrayed with warmth and complexity, avoiding easy stereotypes.
Shah keeps the storytelling deliberately restrained, allowing the mystery to unfold alongside questions of identity, love and sacrifice. The elephants become a striking parallel to the film’s human tensions; feared, revered and pushed away simply because they cannot be easily controlled.
At times, the film’s slow pace softens the thriller elements, but its atmosphere and emotional honesty linger. Elephants in the Fog ultimately becomes less about solving a disappearance than about the difficult price of choosing between the family that gave you a home and the life you still dream of.
L’AUTRE
L’AUTRE
Bedridden following a severe cancer, a man sees his recovery falter when his young roommate begins to stir up his deepest fears.
DIRECTOR: ALEXANDRE FRANCHI
WORLD PREMIERE | 98m | CENTREPIECE & UNHIDDEN GEMS PRESENTED BY REDBREAST
“A hospital nightmare”
L’autre turns a hospital room into a bizarre, claustrophobic nightmare. Alexandre Franchi (Happy Face) follows Stan, a cancer patient recovering from surgery, whose paranoia grows after a mysterious gunshot victim arrives in the bed beside him.
Part medical thriller, part body horror and dark comedy, the film gets increasingly strange as Stan loses his grip on what’s real. Pierre-Yves Cardinal gives the chaos an emotional center, bringing plenty of vulnerability to a man struggling with his own mortality.
Not every genre shift works, but the film’s unsettling mix of fear, absurdity and physical horror gives it a distinctive edge. L’autre is messy, uncomfortable and occasionally very funny. A strange film about how terrifying it can be to lose control of your own body.
EVERYTHING ELSE IS NOISE
EVERYTHING ELSE IS NOISE
Lo demás es ruido
Rosa, a contemporary music composer, agrees to give her first television interview at her colleague Tere’s apartment to keep it secret from her husband. What begins as a simple professional conversation turns into an absurd and comic portrait of rivalries and affections among three women.
DIRECTOR: NICOLÁS PEREDA
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE | 71m | WAVELENGTHS
“Finds the humor in the messy business of making art.”
Nicolás Pereda’s Everything Else Is Noise is a dry, offbeat comedy about artists and their egos as they clash behind the camera. When composer Rosa sits down for a TV interview at her friend Tere’s apartment, technical problems and unexpected interruptions quickly derail the whole thing into chaos.
Pereda keeps things loose, blurring the line between documentary and fiction while finding plenty of humor in awkward silences, messy personalities and the absurdities of the art world. It’s short, playful and occasionally surreal, with a sharp eye for the ways women are talked over or underestimated.
At just 70 minutes, the film moves quickly and leaves behind a mix of comedy, music and mischief. In the end, nothing says artistic integrity like a completely disastrous interview.
THE DAUGHTERS OF ABRAHAM
THE DAUGHTERS OF ABRAHAM
A young Muslim woman raised in Marseille reunites with a young Jewish woman after a period of estrangement, reconnecting as friends over summer break. When a sudden tragedy disrupts their carefree holiday, the pair face the similarities and differences that strengthen and threaten their relationship together.
DIRECTOR: HANAËL EL YOUSFI
INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE | 94m | DISCOVERY
“Some wounds are inherited. Others are chosen.”
The Daughters of Abraham is a standout drama about friendship, faith and trying to figure out who you are when everyone around you has expectations.
The film follows Myriam and Eva, two childhood friends who reconnect in Marrakech after years apart. What starts as a fun, carefree reunion slowly gets more complicated as secrets and family pressures begin to surface. Myriam is Muslim and Eva is Jewish, but the more time they spend together, the more apparent it becomes that their differences are less important than the shared desire to live on their own terms.
That freedom is gradually disrupted when a secretly filmed sexual encounter becomes a source of conflict.
Mélissa Guers and Ava Baya give the film much of its emotional pull. Their chemistry makes the friendship believable even when Myriam and Eva clash, and their performances capture the complicated mix of affection, frustration and loyalty that comes with knowing someone for years.
What ultimately makes The Daughters of Abraham work is its understanding that identity is rarely as simple as the labels placed on us. Myriam and Eva may come from different backgrounds, but both are wrestling with the same basic question: how do you become yourself without losing the people and communities that shaped you?
THE SMELL OF APPLES
THE SMELL OF APPLES
In the white utopia of 1970’s Apartheid South Africa, a young boy’s summer holiday becomes a test of his love for his father.
In the insulated bubble of white Apartheid South Africa, Marnus, a sheltered 11-year old boy accuses the grandson of his family’s domestic worker of steeling his fishing rod. A brutal chain of events is set in motion, shattering the illusion of his family’s wholesome facade.
DIRECTOR: JOHN TRENGOVE
WORLD PREMIERE | 104m | PLATFORM
“A slow-burn drama that finds horror in the ordinary.”
The Smell of Apples is a quiet coming-of-age drama that slowly reveals just how dark its world really is. Set in 1970s South Africa, it follows a young boy whose sheltered family life starts to fall apart as he becomes more aware of the racism and violence surrounding him.
The movie takes its time, but the slow pace really helps build the tension. What makes the film so effective is the way it approaches its story through a child’s perspective. Marnus is still young enough to accept much of what the adults around him say without questioning it, but he’s also old enough to start noticing that things don’t quite add up. The performances feel natural and there’s something genuinely disturbing about watching a child slowly lose his innocence.
The adult performances are just as important because the film is interested in how children absorb the attitudes and prejudices of the people around them. Hilton Pelser and Maude Sandham bring a convincing sense of normality to the family, which makes the darker aspects of their environment even more disturbing. The film isn’t presenting evil as something that always looks obvious or dramatic. Instead, it shows how cruelty and prejudice can exist alongside everyday life and become normalized.
Beautifully shot and increasingly disturbing, The Smell of Apples is a haunting film that sticks with you.
I AM MARIO
I AM MARIO
Mario is a trans taxi driver who gets pregnant. He has the possibility of fulfilling his desire to become a father, but this confronts him with his expectations regarding his masculinity. Before exposing himself to a “macho” and prejudice-filled society, he must face himself.
DIRECTOR: SHARON KLEINBERG
INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE | 98m | DISCOVERY
“Fatherhood takes an unexpected turn.”
Sharon Kleinberg’s I Am Mario takes a pretty unusual route into a familiar story about wanting to become a parent. Mario (Oustin de León) is a 40-year-old transgender taxi driver in Mexico City who has always dreamed of being a father. When he unexpectedly becomes pregnant, that dream suddenly gets a lot more complicated.
The film is less interested in making it an issue-driven drama than in getting to know Mario. His pregnancy forces him to think about his identity, masculinity and how the people closest to him see him. Some of the best moments are the quieter ones, when Mario struggles with how, and whether, to share what’s happening with his family.
De León is terrific in his first feature role. His performance is understated and natural, giving Mario a toughness that gradually gives way to vulnerability. The supporting cast also brings warmth, especially in the family scenes.
The movie does get a little uneven towards the end, and some of the drama feels more predictable than the setup deserves. But Kleinberg keeps the story grounded and avoids turning Mario into a symbol rather than a person.
Warm, thoughtful and quietly moving, I Am Mario is ultimately about something pretty universal: wanting to be loved, understood and given the chance to build the family you imagine for yourself.
SALVATION
SALVATION
A tenacious aspiring guru must go to extreme measures to pay off the debts he’s accrued from trying, and failing, to set up an online life-coaching business in a post-industrial Scottish town.
DIRECTOR: TOM NICOLL
WORLD PREMIERE | 91m | DISCOVERY & UNHIDDEN GEMS PRESENTED BY REDBREAST
“A life coach who desperately needs life coaching.”
Salvation is a darkly funny character study of a guy who drowns in his own ambition.
Liam Harkins is great as Danny, a struggling guy who becomes convinced he can make it as a life coach after discovering the world of online self-help. What starts as an awkward attempt to build a business slowly spirals as his debts grow and he starts manipulating the people around him.
The movie does a nice job balancing comedy with darker moments, and Danny is interesting because he’s not simply portrayed as a complete idiot or villain. You can actually see why people might believe him, which makes his eventual downfall hit harder. Set in a worn-down Greenock, the surroundings reflect Danny’s frustration with his life and his obsession with becoming something more. The visual style stays close to Danny, often putting us right inside his increasingly warped perspective.
An uncomfortably funny debut with a strong central performance. Salvation is less interested in mocking life coaches than in asking why people are so desperate to find someone who can tell them how to live.
