The Toronto International Film Festival is turning 50 this year, and to pull out all the stops for fans in September, TIFF 2025 has revealed its first five world premieres.
As is the norm every year, the Toronto International Film Festival has begun teasing fans with information about the upcoming annual festival celebration, which takes place in early September. This is a significant year for TIFF 2025, as it marks the 50th edition of the festival, a milestone anniversary for the global film culture celebration. The first five world premiere films of the festival have been unveiled, and these films hail from Canada, Spain/Italy, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States, reflecting the global cultural perspective and artistic excellence that have defined the festival for five decades.
The CEO of TIFF 2025, Cameron Bailey said “These first five films of our Official Selection reflect the innovation, heart, and global perspective that have made our Festival a home for great cinema over the past 50 editions,” adding “We’re excited to kick-off our Special Presentations with Chandler Levack’s Mile End Kicks, a young, Canadian director who has very close ties to TIFF in addition to these established directors. We can’t wait to share more in the weeks ahead as we celebrate this historic year with audiences and filmmakers from around the world,” regarding the 2025 festival.
The Toronto International Film Festival has proudly celebrated some of the best films in the industry, with the North American world premiere of the Oscar-winning film, The Whale, landing in TIFF 2022 theatres. Academy Award-winning premieres are quite normal for the festival, with prestigious TIFF award-winning films being traced back to the North American premiere of American Beauty at TIFF in 1999.
Elevation Pictures proudly announces Canadian native Chandler Levack’s second directorial effort, Mile End Kicks, and reveals the film is about Grace Pine, a 23-year-old music critic from Toronto who moves to Montreal in the summer of 2011 to write a 33 and a third book about Alanis Morrisette’s third studio album, Jagged Little Pill. What happens instead is she falls for two guys in the same band, so she becomes their publicist. Aside from Mile End Kicks, four other films have been revealed today and they’re listed below.
- The Captive from Director Alejandro Amenábar | Spain / Italy
World Premiere - The Christophers from Director Steven Soderbergh | UK
World Premiere - Good News from Director Sung-hyun Byun | South Korea
World Premiere | Special Presentation - Hedda from Director Nia DaCosta | USA
World Premiere - Mile End Kicks from Director Chandler Levack | Canada
World Premiere
These Official Selection films join the previously announced Opening Night Film, John Candy: I Like Me, and the venues supporting TIFF 2025 include the iconic TIFF Lightbox and Roy Thomson Hall, with other venues: the Visa Screening Room at the Princess of Wales Theatre, Cineplex’s Scotiabank Theatre Toronto, Glenn Gould Studio at the Canadian Broadcast Centre, Cinema Park at David Pecaut Square, and the Royal Alexandra Theatre making the cut.
TIFF 2025, the 50th edition of TIFF, runs from September 4 until September 14, 2025. The seventh edition of the TIFF Tribute Awards Gala will take place right in the middle of the festival on September 7, 2025, at the Fairmont Royal York Hotel. The full festival schedule is set to be released on August 12, and ticketing for the general public will go on sale starting on August 25. Fans can head to the official TIFF 2025 website for more details.
Make sure to stay tuned to CGMagazine for all of our TIFF 2025 coverage.
