With the full TIFF 2025 programming out this week, we have some top contenders for five of the most anticipated films.
To celebrate the Toronto International Film Festival’s (TIFF) 50th anniversary, the organizers are bringing the best movies with the biggest stars—with many first-time premieres. With the full TIFF 2025 programming out this week, we have some top contenders for five films to check out at TIFF this year. This list considers the hype, the actors, and some that are underrated or should be talked about. Some are expected, while others may have flown under the radar.
Some of the films below are widely known to be premiering at TIFF 2025, but there are so many good ones coming for this 50th anniversary. One of which is Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon, starring Ethan Hawke, Andrew Scott, Bobby Cannavale, and Margaret Qualley. Another highly anticipated title includes Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery. Fans and literary scholars will realize this sequel will be riffing on Edgar Allan Poe’s The Murders in the Rue Morgue. On a more wholesome level, Rental Home stars Oscar winner Brendan Fraser as an American actor in Tokyo who suffers a colossal case of impostor syndrome when he becomes a professional surrogate in the wise and whimsical dramedy from director HIKARI.
For those looking for some high-stakes love, Jonathan Edwards brings Carolina Caroline, starring Kyle Gallner, Samara Weaving, and Jon Gries. The sweet, slick road movie about a woman yearning to find herself is a guaranteed entertaining flick. On the animation side, Ugo Bienvenu’s Arco is about a world where rainbows are time travellers from our future. The story follows 10-year-old boy Arco, who mistakenly gets lost in time. Natalie Portman produced the film (and voices a character), and the visuals and storytelling were said to be reminiscent of Hayao Miyazaki’s works. I could go on and on about all the great films premiering at TIFF 2025, but here is a list of some of our must-watch films.
Christy
Forget about her American Eagle jeans, Sydney Sweeney is supposedly bringing her best performance yet in Christy. Take a look at Eden, and you will also find Sweeney at the top of her game. Ben Foster co-stars, bringing one of his best performances as well, coming off of last year’s Sharp Corner. By turns devastating and triumphant, the latest from Australian auteur David Michôd chronicles the astonishing life of pioneering women’s boxer Christy Martin. Foster exposes the darkness driving the man who was first Christy’s champion and then her tormenter, but the heart of this film lies with Sweeney, who disappears into this role of a woman who confronted many demons as she fought her way to the top.
Frankenstein
Oscar award-winning director and the man with the keys to Toronto, Guillermo del Toro returns to TIFF 2025 with another stunning horror-monster flick. Some are calling this adaptation of Mary Shelley’s iconic tale del Toro’s magnum opus. Oscar Isaac plays Victor Frankenstein, a brilliant scientist tortured by ambition and his own raging passions. Pushing his work beyond scientific certainty to the boundary between life and death, he brings a new being into existence in a spectacular moment of creation. Played in a completely original fashion by Jacob Elordi, Frankenstein’s monster begins as a powerful, dangerous beast but carries the equally dangerous capacity to learn from human behaviour. It puts both Frankenstein and his fiancé Elizabeth (Mia Goth) in jeopardy.
Good Fortune
Actor-writer-director Aziz Ansari co-stars with Keanu Reeves, Seth Rogen, Sandra Oh, and Keke Palmer in this hilarious modern fantasy in which the angel Gabriel, dissatisfied with performing minor acts of divine intervention, attempts to improve the lives of several struggling mortals. In this case, a junior angel named Gabriel steps in. Pained by the unfairness of Arj’s situation, he forces Arj and billionaire Jeff to swap lives, believing that each can learn something from walking a mile in the other’s shoes. If managed to catch Freakier Friday already, this might be on a similar alley—but a more NSFW, ungodly version. Strangely and honestly, this film captures commentary on modern social inequities.
Motor City
Motor City is a visceral revenge tale set against the industrial backdrop of 1970s Detroit. John Miller (Alan Ritchson from TV’s Reacher), a blue-collar auto worker, has his world ripped apart when he’s framed by a ruthless local gangster (a supremely unsettling Ben Foster) and sent to prison. Emerging hardened and haunted years later, Miller sets out to reclaim the life — and love (Shailene Woodley)—that was stolen from him, unleashing a violent reckoning in the process. Ritchson always brings action-packed physicality to his performances and choreography. TIFF 2025 audiences will not be bored, as the brutal fights are backed by Grammy award-winning rock musician Jack White’s score.
No Other Choice
Director Park Chan-wook is no stranger to the film festival, bringing a dark workplace satire, No Other Choice, to TIFF 2025. Megastar and Squid Game actor Lee Byung Hun plays Man-soo, who had it all: a loving wife, two talented children, and two happy dogs. He even bought the beautiful forest-enclosed house where he grew up. Then, after 25 years of dedicated work for Solar Paper—where he was awarded Pulp Man of the Year in 2019—Man-soo is suddenly given the axe. The story is adapted from Donald E. Westlake’s novel, Payback.
CGMagazine was proudly invited to attend TIFF 2025, so be sure to check back in on all our film reviews! Follow us on all our socials for Red Carpet interviews and other TIFF 2025-related content: @cgmagonline or @cgmagazine on most socials.
