By the dictates of destiny, the Toronto International Film Festival’s milestone 50th edition (4-14 September 2025) finds itself in the eyes of three trying tempests: one, an unprecedented technological disruption in global filmgoing and media consumption habits; two, a protracted economic slump metastasizing around the world; and three, an accelerating geopolitical shift away from Western unipolarity of the world to regional multipolarities anchored in the Far East—their combined pressures often raging faster than the industry can respond to their effects. Then there is also the fact that over the past several years, Toronto has lost consistent ground in sustaining itself as a prestige bellwether event for the US Academy Awards, given how momentum has recently shifted to favour the tastemaking strategies of the major European film festivals such as Cannes and Venice happening in the months before.
This year, one notable change in Toronto has been the furtive splitting of the festival’s celebrated audience vote for Best Film into two geographical regions: the originally named People’s Choice Award that will now cover feature films from only Canada and the United States, and the newly established International People’s Choice Award that will cover feature films from the rest of the world. Branded by the festival as an effort to “create greater opportunities for international films,” the move is in effect remedial. Indeed, it is a tacit acknowledgment that having stacked their annual selections preponderantly with Oscar-friendly Euro-American titles at favourable programming times for the last few decades, audiences have consequently been primed to vote these films squarely into the top-tier positions while all but shutting out so-called “international films” from visibility and praise.
Asian program selections this year are modest, with a typical dominance of East Asian titles over a scattering of Southeast Asian ones. But in the Chinese lineup, a pair of the year’s most anticipated films about Imperial Japanese barbarism during World War 2 are notably absent. The first, Shen Ao’s Dead to Rights (2025), released in China in July (August in Canada) to acclaim, is a historical drama about how photographic evidence of military atrocities against civilians in Nanjing was exposed internationally. The second, Zhao Linshan’s Evil Unbound (2025), due for release in September, dramatizes the scandal of Unit 731, Imperial Japan’s warfare laboratory in Harbin where biological and chemical research was conducted on civilians. Amid the strain of escalating inhumanity around the world, these films are timely reminders that all past genocides need to be taught so that no more can happen.
Among this year’s TIFF’s Tribute Award honourees are Japanese filmmaker Hikari, who is presenting her second feature Rental Family, and Korean superstar Lee Byung-hun, starring in Park Chan-wook’s No Other Choice. Hikari, who will receive the TIFF Emerging Talent Award, last screened her debut feature 37 Seconds in 2019. Fresh off Squid Game (2021-2025) and Concrete Utopia (TIFF 2023), Lee will receive the TIFF Special Tribute Award. In addition, TIFF’s In Conversation With… series will feature a Korean filmmaker for the fourth year running, as Park takes the stage with his No Other Choice co-screenwriter, Canadian actor-filmmaker Don McKellar to discuss their film and his career (incidentally, both men were booted from the Writers Guild of America last month for allegedly scabbing on another project during the guild’s 2023 writers’ strike). In a related talk, the two leads of Lee Hwan’s Project Y, actresses Han So-hee and Jeon Jong-seo will participate in an event titled Close Up to discuss their film and careers.
This year’s Asian and Asian-interest feature films are:
Canada
100 Sunset (Kunsang Kyirong, Canada 2025) – Discovery
Space Cadet (Kid Koala, Canada 2025) – Centrepiece
Still Single (Jamal Burger & Tateisi Jukan, Canada 2025) – TIFF Docs
There Are No Words (Min Sook Lee, Canada 2025) – TIFF Docs
China
The Arch (Tang Shu Shuen, Hong Kong 1968) – TIFF Classics
The Furious (Tanigaki Kenji, Hong Kong/China 2025) – Midnight Madness
Girl (Shu Qi, Taiwan 2025) – Centrepiece
Left-Handed Girl (Tsou Shih-Ching, Taiwan/France/UK/USA 2025) – Centrepiece
Palimpsest: The Story of a Name (Mary Stephen, Hong Kong/France/Taiwan 2025) – Centrepiece
She Has No Name (Peter Ho-Sun Chan, China 2024) – Gala
The Sun Rises On Us All (Cai Shangjun, China 2025) – Centrepiece
France
Little Amélie or the Character of Rain (Maïlys Vallade & Liane-Cho Han, France 2025) – Centrepiece
Japan
Exit 8 (Kawamura Genki, Japan 2025) – Centrepiece
Junk World (Hori Takahide, Japan 2025) – Midnight Madness
Kokuho (Lee Sang-il, Japan 2025) – Special Presentations
A Pale View of Hills (Ishikawa Kei, Japan/Poland/UK 2025) – Special Presentations
Renoir (Hayakawa Chie, Japan/France/Indonesia/Philippines/Qatar/Singapore 2025) – Centrepiece
Scarlet (Hosoda Mamoru, Japan 2025) – Special Presentations
Malaysia
The Fox King (Woo Ming Jin, Malaysia/Indonesia 2025) – Centrepiece
Philippines
Magellan (Lav Diaz, Philippines/France/Portugal/Spain/Taiwan 2025) – Wavelengths
Singapore
Amoeba (Tan Siyou, Singapore/France/Netherlands/South Korea/Spain 2025) – Discovery
South Korea
Good News (Byun Sung-hyun, South Korea 2025) – Special Presentations
No Other Choice (Park Chan-wook, South Korea 2025) – Gala
Project Y (Lee Hwan, South Korea 2025) – Special Presentations
The Ugly (Yeon Sang-ho, South Korea 2025) – Special Presentations
The World of Love (Yoon Ga-eun, South Korea 2025) – Platform
Thailand
A Useful Ghost (Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke, Thailand/France/Germany/Singapore 2025) – Centrepiece
UK
Ballad of a Small Player (Edward Berger, UK 2025) – Special Presentations
USA
Lucky Lu (Lloyd Lee Choi, USA 2025) – Centrepiece
Rental Family (Hikari, USA/Japan 2025) – Special Presentations
Vietnam
Ky Nam Inn (Leon Le, Vietnam 2025) – Special Presentations
Brandon Wee