by Tim Gordon
Each September, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) serves as the launchpad for some of the year’s most anticipated films, a place where auteurs unveil their latest visions, rising stars announce themselves, and audiences discover the stories that will carry us through awards season and beyond.
This year’s TIFF was no different. What stood out this year was how filmmakers leaned into reinvention: reimagining classics, reframing genre staples, and transforming familiar material into something bold, urgent, and resonant.
Across the festival, I found myself drawn to films that not only entertained but also challenged, works that asked us to see legacy, identity, and even cinema itself in a new light. From Chloé Zhao’s intimate reexamination of grief and art to Kenji Tanigaki’s furious reinvention of martial-arts spectacle, this year’s slate reflected both the diversity of global storytelling and the endurance of timeless themes.
After a whirlwind of screenings and reflection, here are the 50th Anniversary’s Top Ten Films:
1. Hamnet
Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet strips away Shakespeare’s legend to reveal the grief and love that may have birthed his greatest work. Jessie Buckley is mesmerizing as Agnes, the mystic wife so often relegated to history’s margins, while Paul Mescal matches her beat for beat as Will, a man struggling under the weight of expectations and loss. Zhao’s still, contemplative style builds to a third act that is nothing short of cathartic, reframing Hamlet not as a literary genius but as an act of mourning. One of the most emotionally devastating and inspiring films of the year.
2. The Lost Bus
Paul Greengrass (United 93, Captain Phillips) brings his trademark intensity to this real-life survival drama. Matthew McConaughey stars as a bus driver who, alongside America Ferrera’s teacher, shepherds children through California’s deadly Camp Fire. Greengrass balances edge-of-your-seat tension with deep humanity, capturing not just the logistics of survival, but the emotional resilience of ordinary people caught in extraordinary circumstances.
3. Christy
Sydney Sweeney delivers a career-defining turn as Christy Martin, boxing’s first female superstar. Transforming herself physically and emotionally, Sweeney embodies both Christy’s explosive power in the ring and her vulnerability outside of it. Ben Foster and Merritt Wever complicate the story as Christy’s abusive husband and overbearing mother, while the boxing sequences pop with raw energy. A sports biopic with bruises, heart, and grit.
4. Scarlet
Mamoru Hosoda’s Scarlet is an animated odyssey that fuses Hamlet-esque tragedy with themes of forgiveness, love, and peace. Following a sword-wielding princess on a time-bending quest, the film dazzles with lush visuals and ambitious storytelling. Hosoda has long blended fantasy with emotion (Mirai, Belle), but here he achieves something operatic and animated meditation on vengeance and the possibility of a world without war.
5. The Furious
Kenji Tanigaki’s martial-arts spectacle reinvigorates the “taken child” formula by centering a mute handyman whose “fists of fury” speak louder than words. Mo Tse anchors the film with quiet ferocity, while Joe Taslim and martial arts legends Yayan Ruhian and Jeeja Yanin provide memorable support. The choreography is breathtaking, culminating in a finale featuring a “human bowling ball” of a character who storms through opponents like a force of nature. Sharp, visceral, and relentlessly entertaining.
6. Fuze
David Mackenzie (Hell or High Water) once again proves himself a master of slow-burning tension. Fuze begins with the discovery of a WWII bomb in London but unspools into a layered heist thriller where loyalties shift with every beat. Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Theo James, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw headline a taut ensemble, while Mackenzie weaves themes of trust, survival, and betrayal into the ticking-clock setup. A reminder of how genre films can thrill while still probing the human condition.
7. Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
Rian Johnson returns to his whodunnit universe with a story set in a Catholic parish, where Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc must untangle the ideological clash between two priests (Josh O’Connor and Josh Brolin). The film mirrors the spirit of the original Knives Out, mixing satire and deduction with larger philosophical debates. The ensemble cast, Glenn Close, Kerry Washington, and Mila Kunis, each get their moment to shine in a story that balances intrigue with reflection.
8. The Christophers
Steven Soderbergh dives into the art world with his trademark cool precision, but it’s Michaela Coel who sets the film ablaze. As Lori, an art forger working for Ian McKellen’s manipulative patriarch, she delivers wit, poise, and sly ambiguity. James Corden and Jessica Gunning round out the dysfunctional family dynamic, while Soderbergh skewers the commodification of art with dry, biting humor. A stylish, satirical caper that lingers.
9. Youngblood
Hubert Davis reimagines the 1986 hockey drama for today, centering on a Black Canadian junior player facing racism, hazing, and toxic masculinity. Ashton James is a revelation as Dean, while Blair Underwood brings generational weight as his father. The father-son bond grounds the film with emotional depth, making this less a sports underdog tale and more a powerful exploration of race, identity, and perseverance in Canada’s most sacred sport.
10. Good Fortune
Aziz Ansari’s directorial debut is a quirky body-swap comedy that wears its inspirations (Defending Your Life, Heaven Can Wait) on its sleeve. Keanu Reeves is inspired casting as Gabriel, a bumbling angel who nearly loses his wings after meddling with mortals. Seth Rogen and Ansari bring the laughs, but it’s Reeves’ self-aware turn that makes the film soar. Not always consistent, but undeniably charming.
TIFF ’25 showcased a rich spectrum of cinema from Zhao’s heartbreaking meditation on grief in Hamnet to Tanigaki’s kinetic fury and Davis’ urgent reworking of Youngblood. What ties these films together is reinvention: of history, of genre, of legacy. Some played safe, others swung wildly, but each carried the sense that cinema is still evolving, still surprising, and still finding ways to speak to the moment.
