The Toronto International Film Festival has revealed its 2026 Platform — with galas, special presentations, and opening night already set.
Platform is the festival’s only competitive section, designed to launch the next wave of global auteurs. For the first time, non-English-language films in this year’s Platform section now have a direct path to Best International Feature Film Oscar contention, making Toronto only one of six international film festivals to qualify.
The section also expands to 12 films this year, including Theja Rio’s “Angh,” Amanda Kernell’s “Brace Your Heart,” Ferit Karahan’s “Djinn Wedding,” Irene Dionisio’s “Idda,” Nyla Innuksuk’s “In the Heart of the South,” Bertil Nilsson’s “Masc,” Gabriel Martins’ “On Behalf of My Son,” Lawrence Fajardo’s “Silenced Nights,” John Trengove’s “The Smell of Apples,” Yoon Dan-bi’s “The World Before,” and Jan Holoubek’s “Wild Wild East.” “Children Untold,” from acclaimed Japanese filmmaker Miwa Nishikawa, will open the program at TIFF Lightbox’s Cinema 1, where all Platform titles will make their world premieres.
Director of programming Robyn Citizen oversees the Platform selection. The 12 films are eligible for the Platform Award, which will be decided this year by an expanded five-member international jury. Argentinian producer, director, and writer Pablo Trapero will serve as jury president, joining British writer and director Amma Asante, Taiwanese actor and filmmaker Sylvia Chang, French Canadian producer Luc Déry, and Hong Kong film industry executive Albert Lee. The winning filmmaker will receive a $20,000 CAD cash prize. The Platform Award will be presented on Sunday, September 20, the last day of the festival.
More on the Platform titles below, with language courtesy of the festival.
“Angh” | Theja Rio | India
World Premiere
Set in the remote jungles of Nagaland near the Indo–Burma border in the early 1960s and shot in richly textured 16mm, “Angh” follows Anghba, the last surviving chief of an abandoned Indigenous Naga village, who lives in isolation with his ailing wife and mute young son after being deserted by his people.
“Brace Your Heart” | Amanda Kernell | Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Bulgaria
World Premiere
Kernell’s luminous third drama is a quietly devastating portrait of love, resilience, and the enduring strength of Sámi women.
“Children Untold” | Miwa Nishikawa | Japan
World Premiere
Opening film
A longtime collaborator of Hirokazu Kore-eda, Nishikawa adapted “Children Untold” from her own unpublished novel. It follows a 12-year-old girl who disguises herself as a boy to survive in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War in Tokyo. Featuring Ami Koyae, Fumi Nikaido, and Koji Yakusho.
“Djinn Wedding” | Ferit Karahan | Turkey
World Premiere
Set in a remote Anatolian village, Karahan’s “Djinn Wedding” is an impressive family drama that unravels family secrets and conflicts across three periods of time. Carried by a supreme cast including Demet Özdemir, Kaan Yildirim, İlhan Şen, and Sarp Bozkurt, the film swings between belief, hope, and dissolution.
“Idda” | Irene Dionisio | Italy
World Premiere
This is Dionisio’s sophomore feature, which she co-penned alongside Marco Borromei. “Idda” takes an epic approach to unearthing the packed layers of a stewing friendship. When childhood friends Adele and Sofia reunite to fulfill the broken promise of climbing Mount Etna, they realize that like the mountain, old wounds loom over everything.
“In the Heart of the South” | Nyla Innuksuk | Canada
World Premiere
A surprising and exciting swerve away from Innuksuk’s 2022 debut feature “Slash/Back.” “In the Heart of the South” is what “Single White Female” would be if it were set in Toronto, with an Inuk protagonist and a dash of supernatural elements, starring North of North’s Anna Lambe as Yura Ivalu, the latest darling of the Toronto art world, whose virtual reality piece promises to blow your mind.
“Masc” | Bertil Nilsson | United Kingdom
World Premiere
Nilsson’s debut feature is a tender, unflinching portrait of self-performance, identity, and learning to exist as oneself in an often prescriptive world. The film draws on the filmmaker’s experiences as a neurodivergent gay man navigating the contradictory demands of masculinity.
“On Behalf of My Son” | Gabriel Martins | Brazil
World Premiere
Anchored by a deeply affecting performance from Rejane Faria, Martins’ moving drama follows a grieving mother seeking forgiveness from the families of a tragic bus accident, unfolding as a profoundly humane meditation on guilt and whether forgiveness is even possible.
“Silenced Nights” | Lawrence Fajardo | Philippines
World Premiere
For some, staying silent is the only way to survive. Fajardo’s bleak sociopolitical drama “Silenced Nights” follows a witness to an extrajudicial killing in a Philippine slum as he seeks to make the truth known. The film takes a raw cinema verité approach and echoes the director’s previous works, including “The Hearing.”
“The Smell of Apples” | John Trengove | South Africa, Netherlands, Chile
World Premiere
In Trengove’s relentless third feature, a sheltered 11-year-old white South African boy gradually comes to realize the horrors of the apartheid system. Adapted from South African writer Mark Behr’s 1993 bestselling novel of the same name.
“The World Before” | Yoon Dan-bi | South Korea
World Premiere
In her second narrative feature, Dan-bi (“Moving On”) turns her attention from childhood to adolescence with a tender, sharply observed portrait of first love and growing up. This coming-of-age story follows two teenagers, childhood best friends, who reunite for a summer on a small rural island in Korea.
“Wild Wild East” | Jan Holoubek | Poland
World Premiere
Set in occupied Poland in the middle of the Second World War, Holoubek’s tour de force is part suspenseful western, part gritty wartime noir.
