TIFF 2026 Films Directed, Produced, Starring & Featuring Black Talent
As the Venice Film Festival and Telluride Film Festival concluded recently, it’s the Toronto International Film Festival where most people travel to and catch up on some of the hotly anticipated films that with hit theaters and streamers this Fall. Some are coming in with Oscar aspirations on the horizon. The 51st Toronto International Film Festival runs from September 10 to September 20, 2026.
There's a slew of movies that's going to be playing at the Toronto International Film Festival, including Chris Rock's Misty Green, which stars Rosalind Eleazar as an actress trying to get her bearings back and get back in the game. It's Chris Rock's first movie that he directed that's playing at the festival since he brought Top Five over a decade ago. Another movie that's going to be premiering out there will be I Play Rocky, which is directed by Peter Farrelly, who last came
with Green Book and won the Best Picture Oscar for it. In this movie, this is a story of how Rocky the movie was made, in which Stephan James is playing Carl Weathers. Once Upon a Time in Harlem, directed by William Greaves and his son, David Greaves, will be playing at the festival after winning accolades at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. Making this world premiere, is The Julia Set starring Chase Infinity, Carmen Ejigo, and Chloe Bailey. One of the movies that's made buzz and it's being talked about The Debut, directed by Jesse Eisenberg and featuring Halle Bailey
You also have Your Mother, Your Mother, Your Mother starring two-time Oscar winner, Mahershala Ali. He’s coming back since he did Green Book, which won his second Oscar for Best Supporting Actor.
Here’s a selection of 2024 TIFF films directed by, produced by, starring and featuring Black talent. The synopsis comes from the TIFF guide.
GALA PRESENTATIONS
Babies| Lauren Miller Rogen | USA
World Premiere
Cast: Anna Kendrick, Seth Rogen, Issa Rae, Dan Stevens, Kate Berlant, Zach Cherry, Ed Helms, Ashley Park, Sharon Stone, David Strathairn
After 17 years of happy coupledom, Annie (Kendrick) and Aaron (Rogen) routinely get the question: are you two going to have kids? Their answer is always a solid “maybe.” But they’re about to get an opportunity for some serious field study. Having just left her husband Luke (Stevens), their pal Eliza (Kate Berlant) comes to stay while she looks for a new home — and brings her young daughter along with her. Will witnessing the joys and sorrows of parenting up close tip the scales one way or another? Will ambivalence reign until Annie and Aaron simply age out?
Misty Green | Chris Rock | USA
World Premiere
Cast: Rosalind Eleazar, Adam Driver, Daniel Kaluuya, Anna Kendrick, Chris Rock, Anthony Anderson
Misty (Eleazar) is on the verge of a comeback, if only she could curb her worst habits. In a narcotic-fuelled mania, she went from winning an Emmy to losing a big project helmed by ace director Jordan (Rock). Jordan, however, is ready to give Misty another chance with his forthcoming remake of Dreamgirls. It’s a coveted opportunity, but Misty has competing concerns, such as her looming eviction and her brother (Kaluuya), navigating life with bipolar disorder, who gets into serious trouble. As pressure to procure funds mounts, Misty finds herself considering an offer by her former flame (Driver) that’s simultaneously heinous and lucrative beyond her wildest dreams.
Prima Facie | Susanna White | Australia, United Kingdom
World Premiere
Cast: Cynthia Erivo, Daniel Ings, Noma Dumezweni, Toheeb Jimoh, Elizabeth Dulau, Harry Treadaway, Khalid Abdalla, Elliot Levey, Simon Russell-Beale, Sarah Junillon
Having risen from a working-class background to a successful career in law, Tessa (Erivo) does not suffer fools. She is a formidable presence in the courtroom, expertly dismantling opposing arguments, uncovering vulnerabilities, and holding her adversaries to the highest standards of jurisprudence. For Tessa, the nature of a client’s alleged crime is irrelevant: she believes the legal system operates optimally when all parties are given the strongest possible representation. However, her life is turned upside down when she is sexually assaulted by a colleague, forcing her to experience first-hand just how merciless — and misogynistic — the law can be toward already-traumatized women who are merely seeking justice.
The Life and Deaths of Wilson Shedd | Tim Blake Nelson | USA
World Premiere
Cast: Amanda Seyfried, Scoot McNairy, Wunmi Mosaku, Devyn Tyler, Missi Pyle, Grant Harvey, William Jackson Harper, Tim Blake Nelson, Elizabeth Marvel
Karen (Seyfried) is a teacher who finds work at a maximum security prison. It’s there that she encounters Wilson (McNairy), an inmate whose arresting charisma and unexpected tenderness pierce the emotional armour Karen has cultivated over the course of her abusive marriage. The charge between the two is undeniable, leading Karen to risk everything for the possibility of Wilson’s freedom.
The Only Living Pickpocket in New York | Noah Segan | USA
Canadian Premiere
Cast: John Turturro, Giancarlo Esposito, Will Price, Tatiana Maslany, Steve Buscemi
A craftsman pickpocket from the old school, Harry (Turturro) adheres to a routine, operates alone, and doesn’t own a smartphone. He works mainly on public transport, sells his spoils to his pawnbroker pal Ben (Buscemi, also at this year’s Festival in Wild Horse Nine), and goes home to his Bronx apartment every night to look after his ailing spouse. But hubris gets the best of Harry: he winds up stealing from Dylan (Will Price, TIFF ’25’s Eleanor the Great), the insufferable scion of a connected crime family, and must traverse the city in an attempt to crawl out of a potentially deadly bind before the day is through.
Up Against It | Trudie Styler | United Kingdom
World Premiere
Cast: Antonio Banderas, Forest Whitaker, Úrsula Corberó, Eva Birthistle, Arinzé Kene, Eden Hamilton
Álvaro (Banderas) and Saffron (Birthistle) are very divorced. Their marriage was a disaster from which the only good thing to emerge was their beloved daughter Rose (Eden Hamilton). Their mutual abhorrence is such that they can barely endure the minimal communication required to share custody, so they’re thrown for a serious loop when it’s discovered that, not only does Rose have a rare form of leukemia, but that, given the nature of Rose’s genetic disorder, their best bet at keeping the child healthy and alive is to for Álvaro and Saffron to produce a second child who could provide a transfusion. The ex-spouses balk at the idea — and their new partners don’t fancy it either — but they may have no choice but to bury the hatchet (in bed).
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
Alpha Gang | David Zellner, Nathan Zellner | USA
International Premiere
Cast: Léa Seydoux, Dave Bautista, Kelvin Harrison Jr., Lily-Rose Depp, Doona Bae, Riley Keough, Chris Pine, Cate Blanchett
The Zellners’ titular Alpha Gang includes Léa Seydoux, Riley Keough, and Dave Bautista. Decked out in ’50s-era leather jackets, they look like a badass group of old-school bikers. Here to conquer, their plans begin to falter when they start to feel just how the human world can shift perspectives. Moments of intimacy, art, joy, and sadness start to seep into the gang and the intended directives become muddled. As they experience the pleasures of music and dance, and observe the beauties of the natural world — down to even the smallest ant colony — each becomes far more impacted by Earth than they could have ever expected.
Clarissa | Arie Esiri, Chuko Esiri | Nigeria, USA
North American Premiere
Cast: Sophie Okonedo, David Oyelowo, India Amarteifio, Toheeb Jimoh, Jude Akuwudike, Danny Sapani, Fortune Nwafor, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Joke Silva, Ayo Edebiri
While preparing for a big reception, Clarissa recalls her teenage years (with the younger Clarissa played in these scenes by India Amarteifio). At that time, her heart was torn between Richard and Peter, a promising young writer (Toheeb Jimoh and touchingly played as an older man by David Oyelowo) who has suddenly reappeared in Clarissa’s life.
The harmful impacts of World War I are ingeniously transposed onto the fight against Boko Haram, which has been ravaging northern Nigeria since 2009. Septimus (Fortune Nwafor, impressive), a soldier suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, crosses paths with one of Clarissa’s guests who is distraught over what happened to him.
Club Kid | Jordan Firstman | USA
Canadian Premiere
Jordan Firstman, Reggie Absolom, Diego Calva, Cara Delevingne, Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Colleen Camp, Vicki Pepperdine, Nigil Whyte, Eldar Isgandarov, Saturn Risin9, Miss Benny, Alaska Riley
For Peter Green (Jordan Firstman), a promoter and purveyor of… shall we say… stimulating party favours in the queer New York club scene, the party never stops. Each revelry blurs into the next, with restraint and responsibility perpetually foisted upon others, especially his fed-up business partner Sophie (Cara Delevingne). But on the precipice of losing another decade to the rhythm of the night, reality bites in the form of his surprise parentage to 10-year-old Arlo (Reggie Absolom), the result of a half-remembered hookup. When his mother unexpectedly dies, the boy is thrust straight into Peter’s carousing care.
I Play Rocky| Peter Farrelly | USA
World Premiere
Cast: Anthony Ippolito, AnnaSophia Robb, P.J. Byrne, Toby Kebbell, Tracy Letts, Jay Duplass, Matt Dillon, Stephan James, Kiki Seto
Sylvester (Ippolito) dreams of being an actor, but he grew up poor, shuttled from home to home, and at one point lived on the street. Now in his twenties, the closest he's come to the big screen is acting in a porno and working as an usher. Then he sees Muhammad Ali fight Chuck Wepner, and inspiration hits: in a few fevered days, he writes a screenplay about an underdog boxer who goes the distance. Studio executives love it — but they balk at Sylvester’s stipulation that he play the hero. The production of this ambitious indie film will prove more arduous than anyone could have imagined.
Love of Your Life | Rachel Morrison | USA
World Premiere
Cast: Margaret Qualley, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Aaron Pierre, Gabriel Basso, Catherine Keener, Tamara Lawrance, Corey Johnson
Maya (Qualley) is a 26-year-old Boston nurse when she falls in love with Charlie (A House of Dynamite’s Gabriel Basso). Emotions deepen quickly, the couple marries, but all things fall tragically apart with the onset of the pandemic. Maya abruptly flees her life in the US, severing all her connections — including her best friend Jason (Patrick Schwarzenegger, TIFF ’26’s Bunker). She becomes a digital nomad in Portugal, where she meets Felix (Aaron Pierre, TIFF ’22’s Brother), who revives her capacity for intimacy and prompts a move to England. But can any amount of transformation or new beginnings stave off the ghosts Maya seems determined to run from?
Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People?| Shinya Tsukamoto | Japan
North American Premiere
Cast: Rodney Hicks, Geoffrey Rush, Mark Merphy, Tatyana Ali, Lily Franky
Years in the making, the film recounts the experiences of Vietnam War veteran Allen Nelson (Rodney Hicks, with newcomer Mark Merphy portraying the younger Allen). Born into poverty in Brooklyn, Nelson joins the Marines at eighteen and is sent to Vietnam. Combat destroys his belief in military heroism and leaves him profoundly traumatized. Decades later, after losing his family and becoming homeless, he is forced to confront the memories he has tried to suppress, aided by a Veterans Affairs psychologist and challenged by a child’s devastating question: “Mr. Nelson, did you kill people?”
The Debut | Jesse Eisenberg | USA
International Premiere
Cast: Julianne Moore, Paul Giamatti, Halle Bailey, Jesse Eisenberg, Cara Buono, Craig Bierko, Eldar Isgandarov, Bernadette Peters
Mona Friedman (Julianne Moore) feels stuck in her tedious suburban housewife life. When a role with a community theatre company arises, she jumps at the chance to try out. To her surprise, she lands a spot in the production.
Hard-headed theatre director Jerry (Paul Giamatti) sees a spark in Mona and pushes her to test the limits of what she can bring to the role. Which she does, obsessing over nailing her first performance.
The Julia Set | Niki Byrne | USA
World Premiere
Cast: Chase Infiniti, Christopher Briney, Nina Hoss, Carmen Ejogo, Chloe Bailey, Nico Hiraga, Liz Lin, Alex Dillard, Jason Isaacs, Gillian Anderson
For Julia (Chase Infiniti), mathematics has always come naturally. But growing up, she learned to downplay her abilities to draw attention away from her high-needs sibling and perhaps not disrupt the expectations of others. Before long though, her intellectual talents are recognized by a teaching assistant, Pascal (Christopher Briney), who recruits her into an elite group of student prodigies training for a highly prestigious undergraduate mathematics competition, The Putnam Exam.
Julia is thrown into the deep end, training with an infamously tough professor (Nina Hoss) who has already picked her favourites. Among them is Pascal, whose father (Jason Isaacs) is a giant in the field of mathematics. Unfortunately, his way of passing the baton is through intimidation. As the competition nears, tensions rise, sending Pascal spiralling but bringing out the best in slow and steady Julia.
The Man I Love| Ira Sachs | USA
North American Premiere
Cast: Rami Malek, Tom Sturridge, Rebecca Hall, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Luther Ford, Sasha Lane, Maisy Stella
The protagonist of Ira Sachs’ new drama, The Man I Love, is an actor and performance artist in 1980s New York who’s dying of AIDS. His diagnosis is central to the plot, but, just as Jimmy (Rami Malek, TIFF ‘25’s Nuremberg) remains the defiant author of his own life, Sachs eschews the familiar beats of a story about illness, instead excavating a naturalistic portrait of a group of artists in a very particular time and place.
As is fitting for such a mesmeric character, we hear about Jimmy before we see him. After a recent hospital stay, he feels more alive than ever, and is ready to concentrate his energy on a starring role in an adaptation of a work by Québécois playwright Michel Tremblay.
Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother | Bassam Tariq | USA
World Premiere
Cast: Mahershala Ali, John Cho, Abubakr Ali, Adia, Giancarlo Esposito
Latif (Ali) is a devout Muslim and a loving family man who also happens to be a contract killer. He has a strict code: he never uses guns and he only accepts targets the world would be better off without.
After his beloved wife dies, Latif resolves to end his criminal career and focus on caring for his three children — but his longtime employer Mike (Laith Nakli) has other plans. Latif is having a hard enough time finding breast milk for his baby girl and wants no part in Mike and cowboy Haun Yoon’s (John Cho) rapidly escalating feud but, as his bloodstained past comes back to haunt him, he may have no choice in the matter.
2026 Platform programme
The Smell of Apples| John Trengove | South Africa, Netherlands, Chile
World Premiere
Cast: Dawian van der Westhuizen, Hilton Pelser, Maude Sandham, Celeste Matthews Wannenburgh, Wian Carstens, Karoline Watson, Alejandro Goic
In 1974, in an insulated and sunny white apartheid South Africa, 11-year-old Marnus (Dawian van der Westhuizen) lives his best life. His amazing father (Hilton Pelser) plays a lot with him, his beautiful mother (Maude Sandham) is a devoted spouse, his friend Frikkie (Wian Carstens) is almost a brother and his nanny Doreen (Celeste Matthews Wannenburgh) discreetly takes care of everyone.
But when Mr. Smith (Alejandro Goic), a secretive Chilean colleague of his father, turns up at their home, the peaceful harmony of Marnus’s idyllic life is suddenly shattered. In just five days, his wonderful world begins to crumble. Realizing that the beauty around him is actually tinged with cruelty and oppression, Marnus comes to see that everything he once believed was nothing more than a mirage.
2026 Discovery programme
Voices | Deantè Gray | USA
International Premiere
Cast: Francis Edemobi, Ezekiel Ajeigbe, Raél Ba, Pedro Louis, Joe Maye, Jamal Averett
In an unassuming Detroit motel room a stone’s throw from Motown Records, circa 1967, Jordan (Francis Edemobi), a starry-eyed bellhop with a song in his heart, shoots his shot after overhearing that an up-and-coming musical act is checking in ahead of their local debut. Enthusiastically waiting on them in the hopes that they will throw him a break, he is instead met with condescension and derision. But when an accident cuts the duo's career suddenly short, Jordan devises a brash plan to assume their identity and seize their gig.
Zjili: A Story of Sisterhood and The Burdens of Excess | Christine Boateng, Hajara Musah Chambas | Ghana
World Premiere
Cast: Esinam Semordzi, Zaharawu Fuseini, Rahana Abdallah
In Zjili: A Story of Sisterhood and the Burden of Excess — “zjili” means“heavy” in Dagbani, spoken in northern Ghana — ambitious teenager Zoya (Abdullah Rahana) leaves her village by herself and settles in Old Fadama, a precarious settlement in Accra straddling both the world’s largest secondhand clothing market and an enormous e-waste dumpsite. There, Zoya hopes to earn enough money to continue her education. She meets Teiya (Esinam Semordzi), a young mother and part-time kayayo who dreams of owning a hairdressing salon, and Charpang (Zarahawu Fuseini), a landlady haunted by painful memories. The three, drawn together by the harsh realities of urban life, powerfully represent intergenerational threads connecting women.
2026 Primetime programme
Crystal Lake | Brad Caleb Kane, Michael Lennox | USA
World Premiere
Cast: Linda Cardellini, William Catlett, Devin Kessler, Cameron Scoggins, Gwendolyn Sundstrom
Camp Crystal Lake: to the uninitiated, the name sounds pastoral, serene, perhaps even a little nostalgic. To those who know the name Jason Voorhees, it’s ground zero for what will become the many horrors of Friday the 13th. The tragic drowning of young Jason (Callum Vinson), and its impact on his loving mother Pamela (Linda Cardellini, Green Book, TIFF ’18; DTF St. Louis), spark a spiral of violence that will come to have a very high body count.
Pam is a devoted single mom: she works hard at her job in the camp’s kitchen, glad to be able to stay close to Jason but wary of the other kids’ cruelties. When negligent counsellors leave the kids unsupervised in the lake, tragedy strikes: Jason disappears in the water, surely having drowned. As time goes by and the town moves on, Pam struggles to cope; she’s encouraged to rejoin the community by one of her few friends, local chief of police Levon Brooks (William Catlett, A Thousand and One). But when shadowy figures from Pam’s past come knocking at her door, her paranoia doesn’t seem so far-fetched. Pushed to the brink of grief, how far will Pam go to protect herself and avenge her son?
YAGA| Kat Sandler, Rachel Talalay, David Frazee | Canada
World Premiere
Cast: Hudson Williams, Carrie-Anne Moss, Noah Reid, Clark Backo, Sheila McCarthy
Carson (Clark Backo, The Changeling) is a local detective, at once weary and protective of the small coastal town she serves and its inhabitants. After the disappearance of commercial fishery heir and local party boy Henry Park (Hudson Williams, Heated Rivalry), Carson begrudgingly partners up with Rapp (Noah Reid, Cardinals, TIFF ’17), a private investigator hired by the Park family. Rapp arrives on the scene with a bemused swagger and a personal connection to the case that immediately raises Carson’s hackles. When their initial lines of questioning lead them to an enigmatic and seductive university professor (Carrie-Anne Moss, TheMatrix franchise), it becomes clear that it’s going to require all hands on deck to uncover the truth hidden underneath these shrouds of secrecy.
2026 Centrepiece programme
Ben’Imana | Marie-Clementine Dusabejambo | Rwanda, Gabon, France, Norway
North American Premiere
Cast: Isabelle Kabano, Kesia Kelly Nishimwe, Clémentine U. Nyirinkindi
For her first feature film, Marie-Clémentine Dusabejambo follows in this tradition. Drawing on the accounts of women she met within the country, Dusabejambo decided to bring the gacaca courts — popular tribunals based in Rwandan traditional practice that were tasked with finding justice and promoting reconciliation after the genocide — to the screen. Is it really possible to forgive when your entire family has been wiped out or your body has been tortured? What about those who must carry the child of their abuser and raise it amid the perpetual shame of the trauma they have suffered?
Congo Boy | Rafiki Fariala | Central African Republic, France, Democratic Republic of Congo, Italy
North American Premiere
Cast: Bradley Fiomona Dembeasset, Christy Djomanda Louba, Pétruche Mbomba, Rosiana Kotozia, Gloria Ambacko, Dieufera Sana
Robert (Fiomona Dembeasset) is still a teenager, but he’s always hustling. Civil war forced his family to flee the Democratic Republic of Congo and try to make a new life in the Central African Republic, leaving Robert to look after his four siblings while going to high school and doing whatever work he can to make ends meet to pay for food and an exam to go to medical school, following in his father’s footsteps.
As a way of finding inner peace, Robert writes poetry and seeks opportunities to perform as a rapper in the city’s small but vibrant clubs. Robert is advised by those around him to keep his heritage hidden, but for Robert, owning his roots might be the key to artistic self-actualization.
Future Tense | Jenna Cato Bass | South Africa, Australia
World Premiere
Cast: Lawrence Maleka, Kristen Raath, Qondiswa James
Cape Town, South Africa. In a near future on the brink of climate collapse, Lwando (Lawrence Maleka) and his girlfriend Tara (Kristen Raath) are among the privileged few who win the opportunity to travel back to 1647 and a pre-colonial past to experience nature in its wildest form. Lwando is an underground activist who dreams of changing the course of history. Tara wants to save her relationship with him. Together, the couple must choose whether to risk life as they know it for a potentially better world.
Marie Madeleine | Géssica Généus | France, Haiti, Belgium, Canada, Luxembourg
North American Premiere
Cast: Géssica Généus, Béonard Monteau, Mélissa Moldort, Ginou Jules, Luchue Mesidor, Gaëlle Bien-Aimé, Edouard Baptiste
In the follow-up to her 2021 narrative feature debut Freda, Gessica Généus boldly reimagines the Biblical tale of Mary Magdalene set in vibrant Jacmel, Haiti. Marie Madeleine (played by Généus), a fiercely independent sex worker, carries a razor in her mouth during dates with clients and lives a bohemian lifestyle alongside the other women in her brothel.
After Marie collapses in the street, she is rescued by Joseph (Béonard Monteau), the dutiful and sexually repressed son of an evangelical preacher. He attends to her while harried nurses casually call her “whore” in the hospital hallway.
Soumsoum, The Night of the Stars | Mahamat-Saleh Haroun | Chad, France
North American Premiere
Cast: Maïmouna Miawama, Ériq Ebouaney, Achouackh Abakar Souleymane
Kellou (Maïmouna Miawama), a young adult living alone with her father (Ériq Ebouaney, Lumumba, TIFF ’00), has haunting visions. She can see the past but also the future — a gift that no one looks upon favorably and that must not be revealed. In her village, Kellou lives, runs, thrives, and above all, loves. But Kellou is mocked as a “girl of blood,” the daughter of a woman who died in childbirth.
Struggling with this ostracism, Kellou meets Aya (Achouackh Abakar Souleymane, Lingui, TIFF ’21 ), a single woman who has been herself rejected by the community that blames her for all its ills. As they grew closer, Aya teaches Kellou how to shape her view of the world.
Tangles| Leah Nelson | Canada, USA
North American Premiere
Cast: Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Abbi Jacobson, Bryan Cranston, Beanie Feldstein, Seth Rogen, Samira Wiley, Pamela Adlon, Sarah Silverman, Bowen Yang, Wanda Sykes, Phil Rosenthal, Adam Shapiro, Pat Finn, Sugar Lyn Beard, Fern Grandin
Sarah Leavitt’s graphic memoir Tangles: A Story about Alzheimer’s, My Mother and Me comes to life in hand-drawn 2D animation, in director Leah Nelson’s deeply moving feature debut.
Set in San Francisco in the ’90s, Tangles follows the story of Sarah, a young woman whose life is just beginning to tip into the stuff her dreams are made of — new opportunities to illustrate, a new romance with a bad-ass motorcycle-riding girlfriend named Donimo — when the pull of responsibility calls for her. Sarah’s lively mother Midge is battling Alzheimer’s disease, and the rest of the family is struggling to come to terms with the diagnosis.
The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives | Daniel Oriahi | Nigeria
World Premiere
Cast: Odunlade Adekola, Omowunmi Dada, Iyabo Ojo, Mercy Aigbe, Bimbo Ademoye
Baba Segi (Odunlade Adekola), a wealthy and haughty patriarch, has spent years building a household, marrying several women in the process: first wife Iya Segi (Iyabo Ojo), second wife Iya Tope (Mercy Aigbe), third wife Iya Femi (Bimbo Ademoye), and the most recent and youngest, university-educated yet naïve Bolanle (Omowunmi Dada). The new wife upsets the tentative balance struck by the first three wives, who have been locked into rivalries, secrets, and mutual survival strategies, each trying to solidify their own status. When Bolanle fails to conceive, Baba Segi enlists doctors to find out what is wrong with her, setting off a chain of revelations that unravel the fragile order holding the household together.
Wavelengths Features
Once Upon a Time in Harlem | William Greaves, David Greaves | USA
Canadian Premiere
Cast: Arna Bontemps, Ida Mae Cullen, James Van Der Zee, Richard Bruce Nugent, Aaron Douglas, Ernest Crichlow, Romare Bearden, Noble Sissle, Leigh Whipper, Richard B. Moore, Louise Thompson Patterson
One afternoon in August 1972, at the behest of legendary, genre-defying filmmaker William Greaves, a coterie of luminaries from the Harlem Renaissance gathered — with cameras rolling — for an intimate party in Duke Ellington’s townhouse. Fifty years later, completed by Greaves’ son David, Once Upon a Time in Harlem has emerged as a rapturous living archive of one of the most important artistic movements of the 20th century and, posthumously, one of the most important works in the Greaves filmography.
A towering constellation of artists, poets, painters, musicians, scholars, and other notables appear throughout — among them Aaron Douglas, Arna Bontemps, Richard Bruce Nugent, James Van Der Zee, and Countee Cullen’s widow, Ida Mae Cullen. Free from any institutionalized gaze and structure, they congregate around a large punch bowl to drink, reminisce, banter, and passionately debate their legacy. The conversations we’re privy to flow naturally and candidly, marked variously by humour, fervour, reflexive insight, and not a bit of melancholy, as they take stock of their achievements in their older age.
2026 TIFF Docs programme
Darlene Love: I Know Where I’ve Been | Barry Avrich | Canada
World Premiere
Cast: Darlene Love, Steven Van Zandt, Bruce Springsteen, Cher, Dionne Warwick, David Letterman, Nancy Sinatra, Paul Shaffer, Lou Adler, Marc Shaiman, Robert Smigel, Jimmy Fallon
Darlene Love generously shares her story in the latest of director Barry Avrich’s many engaging music docs, which include David Foster: Off The Record (TIFF ’19) and Oscar Peterson: Black + White (TIFF ’21).
Now in her eighties and still utterly magnetic on camera and on stage, Love recounts her journey, starting with her early days singing in a church choir in Los Angeles. Then came the many years she spent providing lead and background vocals, often uncredited, for some of the biggest hits of the 1960s while under contract to Phil Spector, the superstar producer who became her nemesis. Indeed, Spector’s machinations sparked decades of intense professional and personal struggles. Yet, despite every setback, Love weathered the storm to claim the centre-stage spotlight she has always deserved.
Rapinoe | Rebeca Huntt | United Kingdom, USA
World Premiere
Cast: Megan Rapinoe, Sue Bird, Jess Fishlock, Colin Kaepernick, Alex Morgan, Briana Scurry
Megan Rapinoe gets a documentary treatment that’s as bold and original as her career. Her play making was crucial to the US women’s team that won two World Cups and an Olympic gold medal. Off the pitch, she’s been a trailblazer in calling out injustice when she sees it.
Rapinoe could have easily picked a safe director for a predictable portrait. Instead she handed editorial control to filmmaker Rebeca Huntt, known for her dazzling debut Beba (TIFF ’21). Huntt has a talent for decoding the family dynamics that forge character. Always playful, Rapinoe lays down on a couch as if she’s doing therapy. It’s a joke, but Huntt is catching Rapinoe at a deeply introspective moment as she ends her professional career and starts looking back.
Re/ Pair / Lacey Schwartz Delgado
“I don’t think it’s hyperbolic to say that now we’re in a crisis around Black and Jewish community,” says Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors who sits in discussion with her former camp counselor, Rabbi Susan Goldberg. This is just one of many riveting talks that are staged in Re/Pair between members of American Black and Jewish communities.
Filmmaker Lacey Schwartz Delgado has a stake in both identities, a personal history she explored in her documentary Little White Lie. Here, she creates a lively format to foster communication, by pairing up prominent Black and Jewish personalities from across different disciplines in conversation with one another. They include writers W. Kamau Bell and Adam Mansbach; commentators Van Jones and Batya Ungar-Sargon; actors Harry Lennix and David Schwimmer — to name a few of the 19 different pairings. Their conversations are interwoven into a wide-ranging discourse characterized by respect, candor, and humour.
2026 TIFF Short Cuts programme
Short Cuts Programme 03
Dough Man | Brittney Gavin, Amy Mielke | Canada
World Premiere
When a quirky newcomer moves in, the eldest of three sisters, Evelyn, becomes convinced he’s a witch. Her middle sister dismisses it, the youngest falls for him, and Evelyn descends into a string of increasingly absurd attempts to prove her theory, ending with one final test.
Short Cuts Programme 06
Call Me Tim | Shamier Anderson | Canada
World Premiere
Cast: Stars Shamier Anderson and Amanda Brugel, alongside a hybrid cast of real people and professional actors, plus a special appearance by Fefe
A city transplant buys a rural hunting shop and inadvertently starts a bitter rivalry with a local animal-rights activist.[1]
