The Toronto International Film Festival kicked off Thursday for its 51st edition, running through September 20, and a couple of days in, a handful of premieres are already generating real buzz beyond the usual festival-circuit chatter.
The one getting the most crossover attention: Always Lalisa, an intimate documentary centered on BLACKPINK’s Lisa, which had its world premiere this week. For a festival built mostly around awards-season contenders, a K-pop documentary landing here is a notable swing, and it’s already pulling in a fanbase that doesn’t always show up for TIFF coverage.
Also turning heads: Rebel Wilson’s directorial debut, Girl Group, a musical comedy she wrote, directed and stars in. Wilson stepping fully behind the camera (and staying in front of it) is exactly the kind of festival story that tends to generate outsized attention, win or lose critically.
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Beyond those two, the festival’s Gala and Special Presentations lineup is stacked: Siân Heder’s Being Heumann, starring Ruth Madeley as disability rights activist Judith Heumann, opened the festival at Roy Thomson Hall — a notable follow-up for Heder after CODA‘s Best Picture win.
Apple’s Slow Horses also got a red carpet moment at the festival ahead of its Season 6 premiere, and Anton Corbijn’s A Talent for Murder, starring Helen Mirren, Alden Ehrenreich and Olivia Cooke, is generating some of the stronger early word among the festival’s thriller offerings.
This year’s TIFF is also notably bigger than usual: 293 feature films, 45 shorts, and 32 world premieres across seven venues, plus a new industry-focused expansion called TIFF: The Market. Nearly 800 guests are expected across the festival’s run, and organizers have said they’re specifically trying to draw a younger audience this year, which the Lisa documentary and Rebel Wilson’s film both seem to be doing a lot of the work on.
TIFF runs through September 20. We’ll keep an eye on which titles start picking up real distribution buzz as the festival continues.
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