There's no better place to take the temperature of Canadian cinema than Toronto in September. When the Toronto International Film Festival takes over the city each year, homegrown filmmakers suddenly find themselves sharing screens—and red carpets—with some of the biggest movies and stars in the world, giving Canadian stories a rare opportunity to reach audiences far beyond the country where they were made.
And there are plenty worth paying attention to in 2026. This year's Canadian slate includes everything from a romantic comedy starring Schitt's Creek alum Annie Murphy and a star-studded family drama with Naomi Watts and Sarah Paulson to films revisiting some of the country's most recognizable names. Terry Fox's Marathon of Hope is being reconsidered through previously unseen footage, Gilles Villeneuve's unlikely road to Formula One is getting the big-screen treatment, and Jay Baruchel is playing the Canadian daredevil who once dreamed of launching himself across the St. Lawrence River in a rocket-powered car.
Whether you're planning your TIFF schedule or simply looking for homegrown movies to keep on your radar after the festival ends, we've narrowed the Canadian lineup down to seven titles that have our attention.
The Stunt Driver
Director: Michael Dowse
Starring: Jay Baruchel, Ed Helms, Laurence Leboeuf, Ben Foster
Jay Baruchel is trading the hockey rink for a rocket-powered Lincoln Continental in The Stunt Driver, a wild true story about one of Canada's most audacious—and perhaps least remembered—daredevils. Baruchel stars as Ken Carter, the self-proclaimed "Mad Canadian" who became determined in the 1970s to pull off an almost absurdly ambitious stunt: launching a rocket-powered car nearly a mile across the St. Lawrence River from Canada into the United States.
With his career winding down, Carter sees the stunt as his opportunity to secure one last payday, outdo his American rival Evel Knievel (Ben Foster) and cement his place in history, while Ed Helms co-stars as the engineer tasked with somehow turning Carter's reckless vision into reality. Laurence Leboeuf and Dan Bakkedahl round out the cast, but it's the combination of Baruchel, an outrageous piece of Canadian history and a man attempting to literally launch himself into another country that makes The Stunt Driver one of the easiest TIFF movies to put on our list. Directed by Michael Dowse, the film will have its world premiere at the festival.
All That She Wants
Director: Scarlett Bermingham, Andrew Rhymer
Starring: Annie Murphy, Cooper Raiff, Zosia Mamet
Toronto-born Annie Murphy returns to TIFF with a romantic comedy built around a relationship complicated by one extremely awkward piece of history. Murphy stars as Emma, a woman determined to have a baby whose carefully constructed plans are disrupted when she unexpectedly falls for Luke (Cooper Raiff), a charming recent college graduate ten years her junior. The problem isn't simply the age difference: Emma used to babysit Luke when he was four years old.
What begins as an awkward hookup develops into something neither of them anticipated, forcing Emma to reconsider the timeline she has mapped out for her life and whether there's really such a thing as the "right" person arriving at the wrong time. With Schitt's Creek writer and producer David West Read behind the screenplay, Murphy in the lead and Toronto itself serving as the backdrop, All That She Wants has plenty of Canadian DNA even if its questions about relationships, parenthood and the expectations attached to adulthood are considerably more universal. The film will have its world premiere at TIFF.
Run Terry Run
Director: Sean Menard
Starring: Terry Fox, Darrell Fox
Few Canadians need an introduction to Terry Fox. His 1980 Marathon of Hope has become so embedded in the country's collective memory that it's easy to forget the person at the centre of it was just 21 years old when he attempted to run across Canada on one leg. Run Terry Run looks beyond the monument, the school lessons and the annual fundraising runs to reconsider the young man behind one of Canada's most enduring national stories.
Drawing on 96 reels of previously unseen family footage and unheard audio interviews, filmmaker Sean Menard follows Fox as he prepares for and embarks on his extraordinary 143-day journey across the country, capturing not only the determination that made him a national hero but the exhaustion, uncertainty and humour that accompanied it. Interviews with Fox's family, friends and members of his support team further strip away some of the mythology surrounding him, offering a more intimate portrait of the person behind an achievement Canadians have spent more than four decades commemorating. Run Terry Run will screen at TIFF as a Special Presentation before its Canadian theatrical release on October 9.
Closing Night
Director: Cody Fern
Starring: Sarah Paulson, Naomi Watts, Dianne Wiest, Odessa A'zion
Naomi Watts and Sarah Paulson playing estranged sisters with 30 years of unresolved family history between them is already a pretty compelling reason to pay attention to Closing Night, the feature directorial debut from Cody Fern.
Watts stars as acclaimed actress Sandra Vale, who is preparing for what could be the defining performance of her career when her estranged sister April (Paulson) unexpectedly arrives in New York with her son Theo (Toby Wallace). After three decades apart, the reunion forces the sisters to confront a shared history neither has been willing to revisit, and as Sandra prepares to take the stage, old resentments begin bubbling to the surface while the carefully controlled world she has constructed around her career starts to unravel.
Dianne Wiest and Odessa A'zion round out the ensemble in a family drama about fame, abandonment and the wounds that don't necessarily disappear simply because enough time has passed. Written by Fern and Canadian actor Devon Bostick, Closing Night will have its world premiere at TIFF as a Special Presentation.
Villeneuve: The Rise of a Legend
Director: Yan Lanouette Turgeon
Starring: Rémi Goulet, Rosalie Bonenfant, Patrice Robitaille, Anick Lemay, Luc Picard
Long before Gilles Villeneuve became one of Formula One's most beloved drivers, he was a young Quebecer with little money, a growing family, a love of speed and an almost reckless belief that he could somehow race his way onto the international stage. Villeneuve: The Rise of a Legend goes back to 1970 to explore the years before the Ferrari, Formula One fame and mythology surrounding one of Canada's greatest racing icons.
Rémi Goulet stars as Villeneuve, with Rosalie Bonenfant playing his wife, Joann, as the future champion risks not only his own safety but the financial stability of his young family while attempting to break into a sport largely controlled by wealthy European competitors. His path takes him from snowmobile racing and local tracks in Quebec toward the international racing circuit, charting the combination of raw talent, audacity and obsession that would eventually make his name synonymous with Canadian motorsport.
More than simply a racing biopic, Villeneuve: The Rise of a Legend has an opportunity to show audiences who Villeneuve was before he became a legend—and why he was willing to risk so much to get there. Directed by Yan Lanouette Turgeon, the film will have its world premiere in one of TIFF's most prominent slots as the festival's Closing Night Gala.
Darlene Love: I Know Where I've Been
Director: Barry Avrich
Starring: Darlene Love, Steven Van Zandt, Bruce Springsteen, Cher, Paul Shaffer
You may not immediately recognize every song Darlene Love recorded, but chances are you've heard her voice. From the countless recordings she helped shape during the 1960s to her beloved annual holiday performances on David Letterman's late-night shows, Love spent decades becoming one of American popular music's most recognizable voices while frequently receiving far less recognition than the artists standing in front of her.
Canadian filmmaker Barry Avrich puts the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer firmly at the centre of the story in Darlene Love: I Know Where I've Been, tracing her journey from singing in church as a child to becoming one of the defining voices of the 1960s. The documentary also confronts her often-uncredited work with producer Phil Spector and the racial and industry barriers that prevented Love from receiving the recognition her contributions deserved at the time.
Featuring interviews with Cher, Bruce Springsteen, Dionne Warwick, Steven Van Zandt and David Letterman alongside archival footage and new performances, the Canadian production celebrates an extraordinary six-decade career while finally giving Love the kind of starring role she spent much of that career fighting to claim. Darlene Love: I Know Where I've Been will have its world premiere at TIFF.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney
Director: Matthew Rankin
Brian Mulroney isn't exactly the most obvious subject for a conventional movie, but anyone familiar with Matthew Rankin's work probably won't be surprised to learn that Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney isn't particularly interested in being one.
Few Canadian prime ministers have left behind a cultural and political footprint quite like Mulroney. From the Meech Lake Accord and the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement to his friendship with Ronald Reagan and larger-than-life political persona, his years in office remain an instantly recognizable—and frequently contested—chapter of recent Canadian history. Rather than attempting a straightforward biography, Rankin assembles campaign commercials, archival footage, television appearances, political ephemera and pop-culture detritus into a kaleidoscopic portrait of both Mulroney and the country that elected him.
The result uses Canada's 18th prime minister as a lens through which to examine something considerably bigger: Canadian identity, conservatism, celebrity and the strange mythology we construct around political power. For audiences who lived through the Mulroney years, Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney promises an unconventional trip through a particularly colourful period in Canadian history; for everyone who didn't, it may offer an even stranger introduction to it.
