TIFF23 Shortlist

Set in a tight-knit community that seems to only experience two seasons, Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s masterfully character-driven return to the screen probes into power dynamics and the darkest regions of the human soul.

Winner of this year’s Palme d’Or, and starring German actress Sandra Hüller, Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall is a riveting portrait of a complex woman put on trial for the murder of her spouse.

This heady, sci-fi examination of yearning, obsession, and existential dread by visionary French auteur Bertrand Bonello stars Léa Seydoux and George MacKay as two lovers connecting and reconnecting across time and space, all while catastrophe looms.

Years after leaving her Palestinian village to pursue an acting career in France, Hiam Abbass (Succession) returns home with her daughter, filmmaker Lina Soualem, in this intimate documentary about four generations of women and their shared legacy of separation.

Led by a revelatory Josh O’Connor, and supported by Isabella Rossellini and Alba Rohrwacher, Alice Rohrwacher’s La Chimera is a dream-like romp through Italy’s archaeological and cinematic past.

Dakota Johnson and Sean Penn display their magnetism and acting range over the course of a cab ride through New York City full of conversational — and power — shifts.

Dakota Johnson and Sean Penn display their magnetism and acting range over the course of a cab ride through New York City full of conversational — and power — shifts.

Dakota Johnson and Sean Penn display their magnetism and acting range over the course of a cab ride through New York City full of conversational — and power — shifts.

Dakota Johnson and Sean Penn display their magnetism and acting range over the course of a cab ride through New York City full of conversational — and power — shifts.

Radu Jude, whose previous film Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn won the Golden Bear at the 2021 Berlin Film Festival, is back with a cutting satire full of twists, turns, and speed bumps.

Radu Jude, whose previous film Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn won the Golden Bear at the 2021 Berlin Film Festival, is back with a cutting satire full of twists, turns, and speed bumps.

A place of bucolic serenity is threatened by cynical urban developers, in this exquisite slow burn from Ryûsuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car, TIFF ’21) that reveals the hidden potential for transformation on both sides of its fraught power dynamic.

Two solitary people in Helsinki look for a way out of their loneliness in this warm-hearted, tragicomic triumph from Aki Kaurismäki.

Writer-director Joanna Arnow’s feature debut, a droll and refreshingly intimate take on millennial alienation, follows thirtysomething Ann in a series of vignettes as she idles in a meaningless corporate job and various BDSM relationships.

Writer-director Joanna Arnow’s feature debut, a droll and refreshingly intimate take on millennial alienation, follows thirtysomething Ann in a series of vignettes as she idles in a meaningless corporate job and various BDSM relationships.

Writer-director Joanna Arnow’s feature debut, a droll and refreshingly intimate take on millennial alienation, follows thirtysomething Ann in a series of vignettes as she idles in a meaningless corporate job and various BDSM relationships.

Writer-director Joanna Arnow’s feature debut, a droll and refreshingly intimate take on millennial alienation, follows thirtysomething Ann in a series of vignettes as she idles in a meaningless corporate job and various BDSM relationships.

Writer-director Joanna Arnow’s feature debut, a droll and refreshingly intimate take on millennial alienation, follows thirtysomething Ann in a series of vignettes as she idles in a meaningless corporate job and various BDSM relationships.

In this co-winner of the Cannes ’23 Golden Eye, Kaouther Ben Hania blends documentary and drama to explore the case of two missing sisters in Tunisia, and the family that mourns them.

In this co-winner of the Cannes ’23 Golden Eye, Kaouther Ben Hania blends documentary and drama to explore the case of two missing sisters in Tunisia, and the family that mourns them.

Master filmmaker Agnieszka Holland turns her lens to expose the refugee crisis at the Polish border in her straight-shooting and soul-shattering drama Green Border.

Characters exploring wild spaces in urban Brussels unearth treasures in director Bas Devos’ sublime city symphony.

A tense, captivating, and touching portrait of family dynamics starring Carrie Coon, Elizabeth Olsen, and Natasha Lyonne as sisters who converge after their father’s health declines.

A blurry ― and almost out-of-body ― night in Crete leads 16-year-old Tara, who is on a wild holiday with her best friends, on a mission of self-knowledge, to the best of her ability.

Eduardo Williams picks up where 2016’s The Human Surge left off, this time following three groups of friends from Sri Lanka, Taiwan, and Peru as they traverse a shapeshifting landscape rooted in our present reality but alert to alternative possibilities.

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An uncle undertakes an odyssey across the physical and spiritual landscapes of Vietnam in order to reunite his nephew with the boy’s estranged father, in Phạm Thiên’s Camera d’Or–winning first feature.

In the latest film by French provocateur Catherine Breillat, a prominent lawyer’s passionate affair with her 17-year-old stepson threatens both her career and family.

Past, present, and future collide when Saul (Peter Sarsgaard) follows Sylvia (Jessica Chastain) home from their high school reunion, in this touching and masterful film by director Michel Franco.

Acclaimed Japanese auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda returns to his homeland with a powerful yet delicate story of love and humanity, a moral tale about school bullying, scored by the late Ryuichi Sakamoto.

Acclaimed Japanese auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda returns to his homeland with a powerful yet delicate story of love and humanity, a moral tale about school bullying, scored by the late Ryuichi Sakamoto.

Acclaimed Japanese auteur Hirokazu Kore-eda returns to his homeland with a powerful yet delicate story of love and humanity, a moral tale about school bullying, scored by the late Ryuichi Sakamoto.

Angela Schanelec’s oblique take on the myth of Oedipus won the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay at this year’s Berlinale.

A young construction worker accepts a job with a group of queer rodeo performers and discovers formerly dormant parts of himself, in photographer Luke Gilford’s captivating feature debut.

A young construction worker accepts a job with a group of queer rodeo performers and discovers formerly dormant parts of himself, in photographer Luke Gilford’s captivating feature debut.

Starring Oscar winner Cate Blanchett, this spiritual drama from Warwick Thornton (TIFF ’17’s Sweet Country) hauntingly evokes Australia’s fraught colonial legacy through the story of one very special child.

Starring Oscar winner Cate Blanchett, this spiritual drama from Warwick Thornton (TIFF ’17’s Sweet Country) hauntingly evokes Australia’s fraught colonial legacy through the story of one very special child.

Starring Oscar winner Cate Blanchett, this spiritual drama from Warwick Thornton (TIFF ’17’s Sweet Country) hauntingly evokes Australia’s fraught colonial legacy through the story of one very special child.

From the directors of Loving Vincent, The Peasants is a cinematic pageant about a 19th-century Polish village where a beautiful maiden marries a widowed landowner while nursing a burning love for his son.

From the directors of Loving Vincent, The Peasants is a cinematic pageant about a 19th-century Polish village where a beautiful maiden marries a widowed landowner while nursing a burning love for his son.

Wim Wenders returns with a poignant character study and a deeply moving, poetic reflection on finding beauty in the everyday world around us.

Wim Wenders returns with a poignant character study and a deeply moving, poetic reflection on finding beauty in the everyday world around us.

Wim Wenders returns with a poignant character study and a deeply moving, poetic reflection on finding beauty in the everyday world around us.

This feature documentary from Brazilian auteur Kleber Mendonça Filho is a playful, joyous, and irresistible celebration of cinema and the filmmaker’s home city of Recife.

In this reteaming of the star and director of A Royal Affair, Mads Mikkelsen displays his mettle as a former soldier trying to tame Jutland in 18th-century Denmark.

This suspenseful fifth feature by Cemil Ağacıkoğlu tells the story of a man in an Anatolian village whose livelihood is threatened by local gangs and whose life depends on waging — and winning — a battle between good and evil.

In his searing first feature, Chilean director Felipe Gálvez Haberle presents the painful experience of young mixed-race Segundo sent on a bloody mission to clear an expanse of land of Indigenous people for the powerful, relentless man who owns it.

In his searing first feature, Chilean director Felipe Gálvez Haberle presents the painful experience of young mixed-race Segundo sent on a bloody mission to clear an expanse of land of Indigenous people for the powerful, relentless man who owns it.

Set in British Mandatory Palestine, this tense historical thriller from Michael Winterbottom weaves a story of star-crossed love with one of political radicalization.

The parallel struggles of a Palestinian schoolteacher grieving the loss of his son and an American couple fighting to reclaim their son from kidnappers propel writer-director Farah Nabulsi’s gripping feature debut.

The parallel struggles of a Palestinian schoolteacher grieving the loss of his son and an American couple fighting to reclaim their son from kidnappers propel writer-director Farah Nabulsi’s gripping feature debut.

The restoration of Xala is courtesy of Janus Films.

A pompous businessman finds himself struggling with impotence after taking a much younger third wife, in Ousmane Sembène’s landmark satire of patriarchy and class in post-independence Senegal.

The restoration of Xala is courtesy of Janus Films.

A pompous businessman finds himself struggling with impotence after taking a much younger third wife, in Ousmane Sembène’s landmark satire of patriarchy and class in post-independence Senegal.

The restoration of Xala is courtesy of Janus Films.

A pompous businessman finds himself struggling with impotence after taking a much younger third wife, in Ousmane Sembène’s landmark satire of patriarchy and class in post-independence Senegal.

The restoration of Xala is courtesy of Janus Films.

A pompous businessman finds himself struggling with impotence after taking a much younger third wife, in Ousmane Sembène’s landmark satire of patriarchy and class in post-independence Senegal.

Jonathan Glazer won the Grand Prix at this year’s Cannes for this horror about Auschwitz commandant Rudolf Höss and his wife, who quite literally live amongst the ashes of their actions.