Every year, the Toronto International Film Festival becomes the ground for some of the most daring, inventive and conversation-starting films of the year. The 2025 edition was no exception. Alongside buzzy premieres and Oscar hopefuls, the festival lineup was stacked with stories that span continents, genres and eras, from Shakespeare reimagined in present-day London to a psychological horror born from a viral video game.
If you’re not sure where to start, we’ve rounded up 10 of the movies we loved most and that you should keep an eye out for.
Hamlet
Director: Aneil Karia
Starring: Riz Ahmed, Morfydd Clark, Joe Alwyn, Art Malik, Timothy Spall, Sheeba Chaddha
A bold reinvention of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, this version relocates the tragedy to present-day London, featuring a largely and very impressive South Asian cast. It’s led by Riz Ahmed’s Hamlet, who returns home on hearing of his father’s death, only to discover his mother, Gertrude, is preparing to marry his uncle Claudius, presumably so he can take over the family empire. As the story goes, Hamlet’s father returns to him in ghost form, asking him to venge his death. What follows is a sweeping tale of loyalty and revenge, but for an entirely new audience, that will have you realizing just how brown Shakespeare is. It’s the stuff Bollywood is made of.
Palestine 36
Director / Writer: Annemarie Jacir
Starring: Hiam Abbass, Kamel El Basha, Karim Daoud Anaya, Yasmine Al Massri, Liam Cunningham, Jeremy Irons
Set in Palestine while under British rule, Palestine 36 weaves multiple character arcs to explore escalating tensions over land, identity, colonial rule and resistance. We follow Yusuf (Karim Daoud Anaya), a villager navigating the political upheaval alongside villagers, British officials, Zionist settlers, and media figures whose lives intersect amid conflict. Jacir aims to root the story in human experience even as the film carries strong echoes of contemporary struggles. Of course, the historical epic feels chillingly relevant today, and will leave you aching long after the credits roll. Also: Hiam Abbass (a.k.a. Succession’s Marcia Roy), put the woman in everything.
The Currents (Las Corrientes)
Director / Writer: Milagros Mumenthaler
Starring: Isabel Aimé González-Sola
Lina, a celebrated Argentine stylist, experiences a sudden emotional shift after an awards ceremony in Switzerland. She finds herself on a bridge and, suddenly, she jumps over. Just as she is about to be caught in the currents, she is pulled back to shore. Back home in Buenos Aires, as she attempts to go back to normal, something internal has changed. The film traces how that shift gradually unravels her sense of self, memory and identity. It’s a quiet, haunting meditation on how small impulses can undermine what we assume is stable, and the tensions between outward success and inner disquiet propelled by generational trauma. A quiet little film, The Currents is hard to forget, visually stunning and profoundly moving.
Train Dreams
Director / Writer: Clint Bentley
Starring: Joel Edgerton, Felicity Jones, Clifton Collins, Jr., William H. Macy
Set in the Pacific Northwest in the early 20th century, Train Dreams follows a working-class man navigating grief, memory and the quiet rhythms of life in a changing world. Clint Bentley’s adaptation, drawing on the novel Train Dreams (a Pulitzer Prize finalist), delivers a contemplative, atmospheric portrait of a life lived across years of hardship, longing and the weight of loss. It may be too soon to say, but it is easily one of the best films of the year, with one of the most stirring, lived-in performances of the year from Edgerton. Warning: you won’t make it a quarter through before you’ll be reaching for your tissues. Actually, just bring a towel.
Exit 8
Director / Writer: Genki Kawamura
Starring: Kazunari Ninomiya
Based on the 2023 cult “walking simulator” video game The Exit 8, this film absorbs the logic of the game and adds character, tension and a whole lot of psychological tumult. It begins with a man — known as the Lost Man — who finds himself trapped in an endless subway passage. The rules: do not overlook anything anomalous; if you see something out of the ordinary, turn back. A single misstep sends him back to the start.
It might sound like your average Groundhog Day-style narrative, but Exit 8 stands apart, making for quite an abstract hell where memory and guilt are the way in and the way through, making for a haunting, immersive cinematic experience.
Left-Handed Girl
Director/Writer: Shih-Ching Tsou
Starring: Janel Tsai, Shih-Yuan Ma, Nina Ye
Left-Handed Girl is a heartfelt portrayal of women living in Taipei. The film follows single mother Shu-fen (Janel Tsai), who runs a noodle stall in Taipei’s night market while navigating debt and her two rebellious daughters: 20-something I-Ann (Shih-Yuan Ma) and curious five-year-old I-Jing. Told through young I-Jing’s point of view, the film explores the complexity of family life and the clash between tradition and modernity: when her grandfather tells her that being left-handed is the mark of the devil, I-Jing begins to internalize her own shame and starts to commit small acts of rebellion, all the way until an explosive finale.
Fans of naturalistic and intimate films will love Left-Handed Girl, especially those who love films like Tangerine and The Florida Project—two Sean Baker projects that writer/director Shih-Ching Tsou produced. (Baker also produced and co-wrote Left-Handed Girl alongside Tsou).
No Other Choice
Director: Park Chan-wook
Starring: Lee Byung-hun, Son Ye-jin
Yes, this is one of the most highly-anticipated movies this year and yes, it is that good. No Other Choice follows Man-soo (played brilliantly and hilariously by Squid Game’s Lee Byung-sun), a man who has the perfect work and family life—until he loses his job. For the next few years, Man-soo struggles to make ends meet, until his dream job at a rival company comes up. He soon hatches a plan to eliminate his competition for the role and the film devolves into a crazed, hectic and darkly comedic exploration of how capitalism pits humans against each other in pursuit of survival.
No Other Choice is sure to draw comparisons to Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite (this film is also from South Korea and class and money is at the forefront), but director Park Chan-wook’s signature visual style makes this film stand out as both a cautionary tale against the extremes of capitalism and a feast of special effects and visual splendor.
There are No Words
Director: Min Sook Lee
This documentary by Korean Canadian filmmaker Min Sook Lee is a marriage of the personal and political. Lee’s mother died by suicide over 40 years ago, and the documentary follows Lee as she talks to family members and old friends about what happened and what they remember of her late mother. A major figure in the film is Lee’s 90-year-old father, who met her mother while serving in the national intelligence agency under dictator Park Chung Hee in the 1960s. The film not only unravels the way that Lee’s mother’s death had long-lasting ripple effects in Lee’s life, but the impacts that dictatorship and transition to democracy still has on South Korea today. It is historical documentation—both national histories and family stories—that proves the importance of storytelling, even when grief chokes out any words.
100 Sunset
Director/Writer: Kunsang Kyirong
Starring: Tenzin Kunsel, Sonam Choekyi
100 Sunset takes place in Toronto’s Tibetan Canadian community. Set lovingly in Parkdale, the film uses the neighbourhood’s concrete jungle and apartment buildings to showcase the isolation that the two main characters—young immigrants Kunsel and Passang—feel. The film follows shy Kunsel who befriends newcomer Passang. The two eventually develop a deep friendship, traversing the city on transit and taking videos with Kunsel’s camcorder, wanting to break out of their lives. It’s a naturalistic and slice-of-life film that shows the threads that tie communities together and how easy they are to break.
A Useful Ghost
Director: Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke
Starring: Wisarut Himmarat, Davika Hoorne
The film starts with a death in a family-owned factory, where soon, spirits begin to possess their products. Soon, March (Wisarut Hammarat), the son of the factory owner, realizes that a vacuum cleaner houses the spirit of his recently-departed wife Nat (Davika Hoorne). The film follows March and Nat as they fight for their love to be recognized. Nat decides to be a ghostbuster, disposing of the spirits that high-up officials want gone by brainwashing their loved ones, rendering them forgotten. But she soon figures out that these ghosts are the spirits of victims who suffered from government corruption, violence and silencing.
This Thai film is an ambitious genre-blending amalgamation of fantasy, horror, romance and comedy that imbues social commentary in its ghostly metaphor. The film asks: What does it mean to be forgotten and what does it mean to be haunted and to remember?
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