TIFF's INTERNATIONAL Watchlist 2026
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The Toronto International Film Festival returns from September 10–20, 2026, bringing together filmmakers and audiences from around the world for a diverse celebration of international cinema. Keep the films below on your watchlist!
WHERE THE RIVER BEGINS
WHERE THE RIVER BEGINS
Fleeing violent Bogotá, a young Indigenous mother, her daughter, and a young gang member embark on a cathartic journey to the depth of the Andágueda River where only the jungle will decide their fate.
DIRECTOR: JUAN ANDRÉS ARANGO GARCIA
WORLD PREMIERE | 102m | CENTREPIECE
“The destination matters less than what the journey forces you to remember.”
Juan Andrés Arango’s Where the River Begins is a quiet, atmospheric drama about running from violence and finding your way back home. Yajaira leaves Bogotá with her young daughter and heads toward the rainforest where she grew up, but the journey gets complicated when a young gang member comes along.
The film really clicks once they leave the city behind. Arango lets the jungle take over, filling the screen with lush landscapes, natural sounds and long, patient shots that give the journey an almost dreamlike quality.
It’s definitely a slow burn, but the unhurried pace fits the story. What starts as a grounded story about displacement gradually becomes something more poetic and mysterious. Where the River Begins isn’t really about where the journey ends: it’s about what happens when you finally return to a place, and a part of yourself, you thought you had left behind.
THIRTEEN IN GAZA
THIRTEEN IN GAZA
A nuanced and deeply human portrait of a father and his teenage daughter navigating everyday life in a refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.
DIRECTOR: HOSSAM HAMDI ABU DAN
WORLD PREMIERE | 77m | CENTREPIECE & TIFF NEXT WAVE SELECTS
“Battles rage beyond the camp, while another tears through it from within.”
Hosam Abu Dan’s Thirteen in Gaza is a quiet human drama about a father and his teenage daughter trying to hold onto some sense of normal life in a displacement camp.
The film keeps things simple, focusing on everyday struggles such as finding food and water, dealing with family tensions, and a 13-year-old trying to navigate adolescence while war is happening all around her. Meanwhile, the sounds of drones and explosions hang over everything. The film doesn’t turn the violence into spectacle; it shows how war can become part of the background of everyday life.
Mary Ziyara is terrific as Raghad, bringing both teenage attitude and vulnerability to the role, while Feras Al Masri gives her father a warmth that makes his increasingly difficult choices hit harder.
Shot entirely in Gaza, the film has a raw immediacy that works in its favor. Thirteen in Gaza isn’t interested in spectacle. It’s about childhood, family and the ordinary moments people hold onto when almost everything else has been taken away.
DOROTHY
DOROTHY
Set in a world shaped by caste, violence, and toxic masculinity, two childhood friends grow up inseparable in rural Tamil Nadu. Their lives are transformed by the arrival of Dorothy, a woman whose compassion quietly challenges the world around them.
DIRECTOR: KARTHIK SUBBARAJ
WORLD PREMIERE | 150m | CENTREPIECE
“Dorothy is anything but predictable.”
Karthik Subbaraj’s Dorothy is one of those movies that keeps surprising you. What starts as a gangster story set in 1990s rural Tamil Nadu gradually shifts into a romance, thriller, road movie and even a musical.
At the center are childhood friends Karthi (Rishikanth) and Subbu (Sananth), whose lives have been shaped by violence, machismo and the movies they grew up watching. Then Dorothy (Keerthy Suresh) enters their world, challenging the rules they’ve always taken for granted.
The film is at its best when it focuses on the friendship between Karthi and Subbu. Rishikanth and Sananth have great chemistry, while Suresh brings warmth and strength to Dorothy. Ilaiyaraaja’s music and the rural setting add plenty of atmosphere.
It can get a little messy and heavy-handed, but that’s also part of the fun. Dorothy is unpredictable, stylish and often surprisingly tender. A movie that refuses to stay in one genre for very long.
NOSOTROS
NOSOTROS
Romero, a 23-year-old Indigenous man who used to drive a three-wheeled mototaxi (TucTuc) in his rural town, flees local gang extortion and migrates to Guatemala City. He finds a job as a security guard at a commercial center, where he falls in love with a trans woman who runs a local business. Together, they build an emotional sanctuary, but their bond is quickly threatened by the deep-seated prejudice and hostility of his coworkers.
DIRECTOR: JOAQUÍN RUANO
WORLD PREMIERE | 79m | DISCOVERY
“Sometimes finding yourself starts with finding someone who sees you.”
Nosotros is a gentle, understated romance about two lonely people who find an unexpected connection in the middle of a busy, unforgiving city. Romero, an Indigenous Guatemalan security guard, meets Nubia, a transgender woman running a cellphone shop, and their relationship gradually becomes something deeper.
Joaquín Ruano keeps the storytelling intimate, building the romance through quiet conversations, awkward moments and subtle glances. There’s also a nice tension between Romero’s guarded personality and Nubia’s warmth and confidence.
The film moves at a relaxed pace and doesn’t push for easy answers, but that simplicity is part of its charm. Nosotros is a tender story about love, identity and finding a little freedom with someone who makes you feel seen.
OUR LOVES
OUR LOVES
Multiple lives intersect and transform during a single day as terror strikes on October 7, 2023, forever altering the paths of those caught in the chaos.
DIRECTOR: AVI NESHER
WORLD PREMIERE | 117m | CENTREPIECE
“A Crisis reveals what really holds people together”
Our Loves is an ensemble drama that follows several people dealing with messy relationships, family problems and personal secrets just before their lives are suddenly changed by the events of October 7, 2023.
Avi Nesher contrasts everyday relationship drama with the shock of a national tragedy. Once the attack happens, the characters’ smaller problems take on a different meaning, and their connections become a matter of survival.
The film can lean a little too heavily into melodrama, and some storylines feel familiar, but the performances give it an added weight. Ultimately, Our Loves is about what happens to ordinary people when life changes without warning and how they find strength in each other.
THE BETRAYERS
THE BETRAYERS
A former Israeli politician and Soviet dissident finds his betrayer at a Crimean resort, sparking a confrontation with past wounds and questions of justice and forgiveness.
DIRECTOR: DAVID BEZMOZGIS
WORLD PREMIERE | 90m | CENTREPIECE
“A quiet reckoning with a very loud past.”
The Betrayers is a low-key political thriller about old grudges, betrayal and the ghosts we carry with us.
The story follows a former Soviet dissident who unexpectedly comes face-to-face with the man who betrayed him years earlier. Instead of relying on big twists, the film builds tension through uncomfortable conversations and the complicated history between the two men.
The pacing is deliberate, but the performances keep things moving. More than a revenge story, The Betrayers looks at guilt, loyalty and how difficult it can be to escape the past.
KRUX
KRUX
In a German village near war’s end, women struggle to maintain normalcy as corpses appear along the river. When ordered to leave no Germans alive for arriving Russians, villagers face brutal choices about survival and humanity.
DIRECTOR: TONY VAHL
WORLD PREMIERE | 92m | DISCOVERY
“A haunting slow burn”
Krux is an unsettling WWII drama that slowly gets under your skin. Instead of focusing on big battles, it stays close to a small German village dealing with the paranoia and collapse of the Nazi regime that starts tearing the community apart.
It’s eerily shot, atmospheric, and genuinely tense without relying on constant turns. The slow pace won’t work for everyone, but the creeping sense of dread is hard to shake. The performances are strong, especially Jella Haase, who brings a quiet intensity to her role, while the supporting cast makes the village feel like a believable group of people slowly coming apart.
Not an easy watch, but a compelling one. Krux is the kind of film that sticks with you more for its mood and ideas than its plot.
CHILDREN UNTOLD
CHILDREN UNTOLD
War may be over, but for the children of Miwa Nishikawa’s latest film — adapted from her forthcoming novel — survival has only begun.
DIRECTOR: MIWA NISHIKAWA
WORLD PREMIERE | 150m | PLATFORM
“A film about what remains when childhood is taken away.”
Miwa Nishikawa’s Children Untold is a moving look at childhood in the aftermath of war. Set in postwar Tokyo, it follows 12-year-old Kotoko (Ami Koyae), an orphan who disguises herself as a boy and joins a group of children trying to survive on the streets.
Koyae is the standout, giving Kotoko a tough exterior while letting us see the scared kid underneath. The rest of the young cast is strong across the board making it easy to feel for these kids who were forced to grow up far too quickly. Fumi Nikaidō, meanwhile, brings added emotional weight as Kotoko’s former teacher.
What works especially well is that the film doesn’t turn these children into simple victims. They steal, lie and fight to survive, but they also joke around, form friendships and look out for one another. There are some genuinely touching moments of kindness amid all the hardship.
The film doesn’t shy away from the harsh realities of postwar Japan, but it also finds moments of kindness and hope along the way. Nishikawa creates a vivid sense of time and place, with Tokyo itself becoming part of the story.
At nearly two and a half hours, Children Untold can feel a little long, especially when it moves away from Kotoko’s story. But when the focus stays on her, the film is genuinely affecting.
Sad without being hopeless, Children Untold is ultimately a story about children trying to hold on to each other and to whatever pieces of childhood they have left. A moving reminder that when a war ends, that doesn’t mean the suffering suddenly stops.
