CGMagzine just spent the better part of two weeks in downtown Toronto seeing well over 50 movies at the Toronto International Film Festival. Dayna Eileen, Brendan Frye, Ridge Harripersad and Shakyl Lambert split up the hard work and went their separate ways at TIFF 2025, checking out movies across all genres and audiences.
Whether it was a film featuring TIFF fan-favourite, Brendan Fraser, like Rental Family, a gruesome look at love and desire, like Obsession or a truly heartbreaking story about a classic historical figure like Hamnet, there was absolutely something for everyone. Each of us chose our top three films from TIFF 2025.
Here is our Best of TIFF 2025:
Charlie Harper
Writer: Dayna Eileen
Written by Tom Dean, who also wrote TIFF 2025’s Carolina Caroline, Charlie Harper was one of my Best of TIFF 2025 films for sure! It was one of the first movies I saw at the festival, and I knew it would make it onto this list. The story is two retellings of the love story of Charlie and Harper. The film is a series of clips—which Dean called a montage—of their relationship from beginning to end. The way each scene means something different after new details were introduced felt so smart to me, and it made me want to watch out for more of Dean’s work. He writes a great script!
Eternity
Writer: Dayna Eileen
Lucky for me, I saw Eternity right after watching the devastating Hamnet. It was the perfect pick-me-up after something so heavy. Following a couple who need to choose how to spend eternity after they die a week apart, Joan (Elizabeth Olsen) has to choose between her husband of 65 years, Larry (Miles Teller) or her first husband, who died in the war, Luke (Callum Turner), who has been waiting for her for 67 years. Watching Teller and Olsen bicker as 80-somethings in 30-something bodies is worth the price of admission alone. Eternity was creative, hilarious and just an all-around great time.
Hamnet
Writer: Dayna Eileen
I said it in my review, but Hamnet at TIFF 2025 was one of the best films I have seen at the festival to date. Going in on very little, I was absolutely floored by how truly tragic the story was. Jessie Buckley was at her best in a role that will forever be in her top credits. But the best of all was little Jacobi Jupe, who played the titular Hamnet. I don’t know where someone that young gets that good at acting, but he has a very serious future ahead of him. No wonder Hamnet won the people’s choice award at TIFF 50!
Rental Family
Writer: Ridge Harripersad
If you want to feel good about life and humanity, Rental Family covers these themes. While there are some heartbreaking moments, watching Brendan Fraser help as many people as he can is like watching Ted Lasso spread positivity wherever he goes. HIKARI captures many issues that many Japanese face, including legalities with same-sex marriage and single mothers finding workarounds to provide for themselves and their child (without a husband or male partner). Bring some happy tissues to this one!
The Christophers
Writer: Ridge Harripersad
Steven Soderbergh returns to TIFF with a chamber comedy, pitting the great Sir Ian McKellan’s long, rambunctious, and comical monologues against Emmy award-winning Michaela Coel’s quick-witted, deadpan, humorous zings. McKellen flawlessly embodied a self-aggrandizing artist of his time, showing a masterclass of an older man who only hypes himself up. Coel does not fade into the background; rather, she cleverly uses her deadpan humour to orchestrate a beautiful character who is grappling to understand a celebrity artist. Those looking for some intelligent humour and an entertaining premise that plays out throughout will find a lot of entertainment in this film.
Tuner
Writer: Ridge Harripersad
Canadian director Daniel Roher brings jazz, comedy, romance, crime, thriller, and heartwarming moments—Tuner has it all. Starring Oscar-winning actor Dustin Hoffman, he plays the piano-tuning mentor role in a very charming manner. Leo Woodall is the star of this film, meticulously playing a character dealing with a hearing impairment along the lines of hyperacusis—a sensitivity to particular sounds and loud sounds. The two create an endearing relationship, contrasting with the raw and real antagonist role from Lior Raz. Part rom-com and part crime-thriller, this is a film that is a non-stop ride that will end sooner than you think.
Normal
Writer: Brendan Frye
Normal stands out among TIFF 2025’s Midnight Madness selections, combining insane genre thrills with sharp social commentary, delivering one of the most fun films of this year’s festival. Ben Wheatley’s inverted neo-western explores a seemingly idyllic Midwestern town harbouring dark secrets, pitting Bob Odenkirk’s vulnerable lawman against an entire community steeped in corruption. Subverting classic Western tropes, Wheatley and screenwriter Derek Kolstad create a narrative where the criminals are unexpectedly sympathetic and the townsfolk threaten with explosive consequences.
The supporting cast, including Lena Headey and Henry Winkler, helps flesh out a world both familiar and bizarre. Wheatley’s direction delivers a relentless pace and spectacle—bullets, blood, and betrayals abound—making for one of TIFF’s most entertaining rides. Normal won’t win points for introspection, but its vivid characters and genre-bending absurdism ensure it stands tall as pure, bombastic fun, with enough commentary on community complicity and moral reversals to keep the Midnight Madness and genre fans very happy.
Obsession
Writer: Brendan Frye
Obsession delivers one of TIFF 2025’s most chilling and memorable horrors, transforming the classic monkey’s paw premise into a haunting exploration of desire and accountability. Curry Barker’s directorial debut moves swiftly from quirky romance to gut-punch terror, anchored by standout performances from Michael Johnston and Inde Navarrette. The story dives deep into the consequences of wishful thinking, as a supernatural gadget amplifies romantic longing into something disturbingly inhuman.
Navarrette’s portrayal of Nikki, forced into obsessive devotion by Bear’s (Michael Johnston) wish, is both tragic and terrifying; Barker’s atmospheric direction sharpens each moment of dread. The film eschews easy thrills for a raw, uncompromising look at how the loss of autonomy twists both love and identity. Echoing the full review’s tone, Obsession lingers powerfully as a horror tale of ideas and emotions, a feverish exploration of the dangers of unchecked desire, leaving TIFF audiences shaken while never losing the core message in the process.
Dead Man’s Wire
Writer: Brendan Frye
Gus Van Sant’s Dead Man’s Wire electrifies TIFF 2025 with its meticulous recreation of a true-crime standoff, balancing raw suspense and social critique. Bill Skarsgård delivers a standout, deeply human performance as Tony Kiritsis, a man whose fury against capitalist injustice spirals into a high-stakes hostage ordeal set in 1977 Indiana. Van Sant’s direction traffics in claustrophobic tension and period authenticity, turning familiar tropes and media spectacle into tools for both condemnation and empathy.
Al Pacino and Colman Domingo enhance a supporting cast that fills out a world steeped in anxiety and opportunism. The film explores not only the extremes of desperation but also the human cost of ambition and the consequences of failed redemption. Dead Man’s Wire resonates for its relevant, unsettling questions about economic disillusionment, social compulsion and the real lives behind sensational headlines. It cements itself as one of the festival’s most gripping entries, one that is hard to forget.
The Furious
Writer: Shakyl Lambert
Back in 2011, The Raid premiered at TIFF’s Midnight Madness and subsequently blew the doors off the action genre. I strongly believe The Furious will do the same thing. Directed by legendary action choreographer Kenji Tanigaki, The Furious is simple in story–Xie Miao and Raid alum Joe Taslim play a mute tradesman and a journalist on a warpath to take down a child trafficking ring– and the English dubbing is questionable at best.
But neither of those things matters when The Furious is packed with gleefully over-the-top action sequences, all choreographed with precision by Kensuke Sonomura. The finale alone features a relentless five-man brawl that stands as one of the greatest displays of cinematic combat I’ve ever witnessed. There is even a Raid rematch between Taslim and perpetual scene-stealer Yayan Ruhian. Add in a high-energy score by Flying Lotus, and the result is an instant classic.
Frankenstein
Writer: Shakyl Lambert
Guillermo del Toro loves his monsters. His empathy for misunderstood creatures has never been more apparent than in his adaptation of Mary Shelley’s classic novel. Divided into two distinct halves, del Toro frames the story as one of the sins of the father. Victor Frankenstein’s ambitious pursuit of cheating death defies his father’s teachings, yet he cannot help but repeat his father’s abusive methods with his own creation.
As strong as Oscar Isaac is as the titular scientist, it is Jacob Elordi who delivers a truly phenomenal, awards-worthy performance as the monster. The combination of striking production design, an emotionally resonant throughline and even a splash of gnarly gore makes Frankenstein an easy choice as one of the standouts of TIFF 2025.
No Other Choice
Writer: Shakyl Lambert
It is easy to read a description of No Other Choice and find similarities to another former TIFF selection, Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite. Yet even with both being darkly comedic capitalist satires, Park Chan-wook’s story of a former paper company manager who is suddenly fired and turns to murdering his competition to secure a new job feels like an entirely different beast.
Man-soo’s obsession with maintaining his family’s cushy lifestyle proves to be as sad as it is laugh-out-loud funny, and Lee Byung-hun adapts seamlessly to the film’s shifting tones with his performance. The film also boasts some of the best camerawork and editing I have seen, not just at TIFF, but in any release this year.
