Fall festival season is officially in full swing as organizers of the Toronto International Film Festival announced its newest slate of films set to screen at this year's festival.
The just-announced titles, five in total, will screen as part of the festival’s Special Presentations programming. They include David and Nathan Zellner's alien invasion comedy Alpha Gang; Benjamín Naishtat's Glaxo; Rachel Morrison's Amazon MGM Studios romantic drama Love of Your Life; Ben Shirinian's Naomi Watts and Luke Evans-led The Housewife; and Bassam Tariq's action-thriller Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother from Amazon MGM Studios and Orion. That last project stars Mahershala Ali and is the direct result of the disbandment of the pair's once highly touted Blade project for Marvel.
The newly added films, which boast an impressive lineup of top-tier talent, will undoubtedly fill King Street with energized fans hoping to catch a glimpse of some of Hollywood's biggest stars.
Alpha Gang, which stars Riley Keough, Cate Blanchett, Dave Bautista, Chris Pine, and Lily-Rose Depp, is making its international premiere in Toronto after a presumed—though not yet confirmed—world premiere at the 53rd Telluride Film Festival. The film is co-directed by David and Nathan Zellner, whose last feature, the low-budget, dialogue-free Sasquatch Sunset, became a breakout hit at Sundance in 2024. It will be interesting to see if this comedy can garner the same critical reception.
Glaxo hails from Argentine director Benjamín Naishtat, who returns to Toronto after his 2018 film Rojo premiered at the festival. Set in a small factory town, the film follows four friends whose lives begin to unravel after a retired police officer and his wife move into the community.
Rachel Morrison also returns to TIFF following 2024's The Fire Inside. Love of Your Life marks the cinematographer-turned-director's second feature and stars Margaret Qualley, Aaron Pierre, Patrick Schwarzenegger, and Catherine Keener. The romantic drama follows a nurse who is swept into an all-consuming love that sends her life down a path she never could have imagined. The Amazon MGM Studios release opens in select theaters on October 7 before streaming on Prime Video a week later.
First-time director Ben Shirinian's The Housewife stars Tye Sheridan as a New York Times journalist who tracks down a man believed to be a former Nazi officer living quietly in Queens. Naomi Watts plays the suspect's elegant and charming wife, whose budding friendship with the journalist has far-reaching implications for the investigation.
Bassam Tariq's Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother stars Ali as Latif, a religious hitman who, following his wife's untimely death, embarks on a journey across Houston to protect his children while confronting the mental and physical forces closing in around him.
"Each year, we strive to curate a selection of films that feels most relevant to the moment, with the power to spark a rich dialogue with our public audience, and these Special Presentations titles are true reflections of that," said Anita Lee, Chief Programming Officer, TIFF. "From debut directors to the most anticipated sophomore films of the year to vanguard voices, this group of films showcases the authenticity, the unexpected, and the ambition of cinema now. They are sure to be among the Festival's most talked-about titles, captivating audiences and generating buzz long after the credits roll. We're delighted to share these original works with TIFF audiences in September."
Additional titles will be announced over the next three weeks, with the full Gala and Special Presentations slates set to be unveiled on Monday.
The 51st Toronto International Film Festival, presented by Rogers, runs September 10–20 in Toronto.
