In 2026, Film Festival Programming Will Mirror Our Weaknesses in the Face of History

Last September, bolstered by its 291 films, its 480,000 attendees, and the presence of prestigious guests including Angelina Jolie, Keanu Reeves, and Natalie Portman, the Toronto International Film Festival was already reflecting a heavy global mood. No fewer than five films addressed the situation in Palestine, among them the searing Palestine 36 by Annemarie Jacir, presented in a world premiere—a historical drama retracing the British origins of the Palestinian people’s territorial dispossession.

The festival also shone a spotlight on Asian cinema, awarding among others the poignant No Other Choice, a South Korean adaptation by Park Chan-wook of Donald E. Westlake’s American novel The Ax—a story probing the alienation and dehumanization brought on by the mechanization of labor, previously adapted by Costa-Gavras in 2005.

A record number of Indigenous productions were also featured in Toronto this year, such as Meadowlarks by Tasha Hubbard, following siblings separated during Canada’s Sixties Scoop, and Uiksaringitara (Wrong Husband) by Zacharias Kunuk, winner of the Best Canadian Feature Film award, which explores ancient Inuit narratives. As for the film Ni-Naadamaadiz: Red Power Rising by Shane Belcourt and Tanya Talag, it revisits the history of Indigenous activism, indirectly touching on women’s rights—a theme close to the festival’s heart, and one that also appeared in the programming through the Spanish film Tratamos demasiado bien a las mujeres, dealing with feminicide.

A shadow on the horizon, perhaps? The Israeli documentary The Road Between Us, briefly removed from the selection, seems to stand at odds with the general tenor. Despite the controversy surrounding the film and accusations of censorship following its withdrawal, its inclusion may, in retrospect, reflect a lineup torn between a desire to take a stand and a sense of duty to remain neutral.