The 50th Toronto International Film Festival Lines Up 50 British Films

The Toronto International Film Festival, affectionately known as TIFF, is the Johnny-Come-Lately of the Film Festival circuit. Unlike Berlin, Venice, or Cannes, Toronto only started hosting film festivals in the 1970s, around the same time as Sundance. While some Film Festivals are gearing up for their centenary in the next few years, TIFF is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2025. The lower number means there are many fun ways to celebrate using that number, including all the British (and British-starring) films in contention for 2025. 

Unlike its European counterparts, where English hegemony is currently not in vogue, Toronto leans heavily on British and British-starring films as the heart of its lineup. That's partly due to being part of the Commonwealth, but it's also a matter of location. Toronto is much easier for American critics to attend than flying across the ocean. Because it's on this side of the pond, it occurs directly after the Venice Film Festival, and months before the American Film Institute's Festival, it gets to host the "North American" debuts of most of the major awards contenders.

TIFF also has numerous categories for films to find homes, which means it usually offers an expansive selection, from showcasing up-and-coming talent to the main competition to "Special Presentations," which are always studded with some of the biggest debuts of the year. Here's the rundown.

Gala Competition

U.K. Films:

• Fuze (Director: David Mackenzie; Main Cast: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Theo James, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Sam Worthington) UK
• Glenrothan (Director: Brian Cox; Main Cast: Alan Cumming, Brian Cox, Shirley Henderson) UK
• Hamnet (Director: Chloé Zhao; Main Cast: Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Emily Watson, Joe Alwyn) UK
• The Choral (Director: Nicholas Hytner; Main Cast: Ralph Fiennes, Roger Allam, Mark Addy, Alun Armstrong, Robert Emms)
• Palestine 36 (Director: Annemarie Jacir; Main Cast: Hiam Abbass, Kamel Al Basha, Yasmine Al Massri, Robert Aramayo, Liam Cunningham, Jeremy Irons) Palestine/UK/France/Denmark/Norway/Qatar/Saudi Arabia/Jordan)

Non-UK films starring British talent:

• Adulthood (Director: Alex Winter; Main Cast: Kaya Scodelario, Josh Gad) US
• Eleanor the Great (Director: Scarlett Johansson; Main Cast: June Squibb, Erin Kellyman, Chiwetel Ejiofor) US
• Eternity (Director: David Freyne; Main Cast: Miles Teller, Elizabeth Olsen, Callum Turner) US]
• Nuremberg (Director: James Vanderbilt; Main Cast: Russell Crowe, Rami Malek, Michael Shannon, Leo Woodall, Richard E. Grant) US
• Roofman (Director: Derek Cianfrance; Main Cast: Channing Tatum, Kirsten Dunst, Ben Mendelsohn, LaKeith Stanfield, Juno Temple) US
• Swiped (Director: Rachel Lee Goldenberg; Main Cast: Lily James, Jackson White, Myha'la, Ben Schnetzer, Dan Stevens) US

Platform Competition

U.K. Films:

• Steve (Director: Tim Mielants; Main Cast: Cillian Murphy, Jay Lycurgo) UK/Ireland
• Winter of the Crow (Director: Kasia Adamik; Main Cast: Lesley Manville, Zofia Wichłacz, Tom Burke) Poland/Luxembourg/UK

U.K. Films:

• Bad Apples (Director: Jonatan Etzler; Main Cast: Saoirse Ronan, Jacob Anderson) UK
• Ballad of a Small Player (Director: Edward Berger; Main Cast: Colin Farrell, Tilda Swinton) UK
• Rose of Nevada (Director: Mark Jenkin; Main Cast: George MacKay, Callum Turner) UK
• The Christophers (Director: Steven Soderbergh; Main Cast: Ian McKellen, James Corden, Michaela Coel) UK
• The Testament of Ann Lee (Director: Mona Fastvold; Main Cast: Amanda Seyfried, Thomasin McKenzie, Tim Blake Nelson, Matthew Beard, Viola Prettejohn) UK
• California Schemin' (Director: James McAvoy; Main Cast: Séamus McLean Ross, Samuel Bottomley) UK/US
• Eternal Return (Director: Yaniv Raz; Main Cast: Naomi Scott, Kit Harington) UK/US
• & Sons (Director: Pablo Trapero; Main Cast: Bill Nighy) UK/Canada
• Sacrifice (Director: Romain Gavras; Main Cast: Chris Evans, Anya Taylor-Joy, Vincent Cassel, Salma Hayek Pinault, John Malkovich) UK/Greece
• A Pale View of Hills (Director: Kei Ishikawa; Main Cast: Suzu Hirose, Fumi Nikaido) Japan/UK/Poland
• Sentimental Value (Director: Joachim Trier; Main Cast: Renate Reinsve, Stellan Skarsgård, Elle Fanning) Norway/France/Denmark/Germany/Sweden/UK

Non-UK films starring British talent:

• Charlie Harper (Directors: Tom Dean & Mac Eldridge; Main Cast: Nick Robinson, Emilia Jones) US
• Dead Man's Wire (Director: Gus Van Sant; Main Cast: Bill Skarsgård, Dacre Montgomery, Cary Elwes, Myha'la) US
• Frankenstein (Director: Guillermo Del Toro; Main Cast: Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi, Christoph Waltz, Mia Goth, Charles Dance, David Bradley) US
• Hedda (Director: Nia DaCosta; Main Cast: Tessa Thompson) US
• The Smashing Machine (Director: Benny Safdie; Main Cast: Dwayne Johnson, Emily Blunt) US
• Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery (Director: Rian Johnson; Main Cast: Daniel Craig, Josh O'Connor, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaeny, Daryl McCormack) US
• The Fence (Director: Claire Denis; Main Cast: Isaach De Bankolé, Matt Dillon, Mia McKenna-Bruce, Tom Blyth) France
• The Wizard of the Kremlin (Director: Olivier Assayas; Main Cast: Paul Dano, Jude Law, Alicia Vikander, Tom Sturridge, Jeffrey Wright, Will Keen) France

U.K. Films:

• Hamlet (Director: Aneil Karia; Main Cast: Riz Ahmed, Morfydd Clark, Joe Alwyn, Timothy Spall) UK
• I Swear (Director: Kirk Jones; Main Cast: Robert Aramayo, Peter Mullan, Maxine Peake, Shirley Henderson) UK
• Wasteman (Director: Cal McMau; Main Cast: David Jonsson, Tom Blyth) UK
• Saipan (Directors: Lisa Barros D’Sa & Glenn Leyburn; Main Cast: Steve Coogan, Éanna Hardwicke) UK/Ireland
• Good Boy (Director: Jan Komasa; Main Cast: Stephen Graham, Andrea Riseborough) Poland/UK
• My Father’s Shadow (Director: Akinola Davies Jr.; Main Cast: Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù, Chibuike Marvellous Egbo, Godwin Egbo) UK/Nigeria
• Orphan (Director: László Nemes; Main Cast: Bojtorján Barabas, Andrea Waskovics) Hungary/France/Germany/UK
• Left-Handed Girl (Director: Shih-Ching Tsou; Main Cast: Shih-Yuan Ma, Janel Tsai, Nina Ye) Taiwan/France/US/UK
• Irkalla: Gilgamesh’s Dream (Director: Mohamed Jabarah Al-Daradji; Main Cast: Youssef Husham Al-Thahabi, Hussein Raad Zuwayr) Iraq/UAE/France/UK/Qatar/Saudi Arabia

Non-UK films starring British talent:

• Blue Moon (Director: Richard Linklater; Main Cast: Ethan Hawke, Margaret Qualley, Bobby Cannavale, Andrew Scott) US/Ireland
• Honey Bunch (Directors: Madeleine Sims-Fewer & Dusty Mancinelli; Main Cast: Grace Glowicki, Ben Petrie, Jason Isaacs, Katie Dickie) Canada
• Whitetail (Director: Nanouk Leopold; Main Cast: Natasha O'Keeffe, Andrew Bennett, Aaron McCusker, Rory Nolan, Simone Kirby) Netherlands/Belgium/Ireland

Discovery Program

U.K. Films:

• Retreat (Director: Ted Evans; Main Cast: Anne Zander, James Joseph Boyle, Sophie Stone) UK
• The Son & the Sea (Director: Stroma Cairns; Main Cast: Jonah West, Stanley Brock, Connor Tompkins) UK
• The Man in My Basement (Director: Nadia Lati; Main Cast: Corey Hawkins, Willem Dafoe, Anna Diop) UK/US

Non-UK Films starring British talent:

• Mārama (Director: Taratoa Stappard; Main Cast: Ariāna Osborne, Toby Stephens) New Zealand

Wavelength Program

U.K. Films:

• Mare’s Nest (Director: Ben Rivers; Main Cast: Moon Guo-Barker) France/UK/Canada

U.K. Series

• Reunion (Creator: William Mager; Main Cast: Matthew Gurney, Lara Peake, Anne-Marie Duff, Eddie Marsan, Rose Ayling-Ellis) UK
• Origin: The Story of the Basketball Africa League (Directors: Richard Brown & Tebogo Malope; Cast: Barack Obama, Stephen Curry) Rwanda/UK/USA

Non-UK Series starring British talent:

• Black Rabbit (Creators: Zach Baylin & Kate Susman; Main Cast: Jude Law, Jason Bateman, Cleopatra Coleman, Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù, Amaka Okafor) USA

The 50th Annual Toronto International Film Festival will take place from Thursday, September 4 to Sunday, September 14, 2025.