What to know
- TIFF 2026 is highlighting Ontario talent and locations, with several of the festival’s films filmed in the province or connected to local filmmakers and actors.
- Sunburn is deeply Toronto-based, directed by George Brown College graduate Serville Poblete and filmed and set in the city during a heatwave and blackout. All That She Wants, starring Ottawa-born Annie Murphy, was also filmed and set in Toronto.
- Being Heumann, TIFF’s opening-night film, was primarily shot in Toronto while recreating 1977’s disability rights sit-in in San Francisco. The Black Box is Orange also has a strong local connection through Toronto filmmaker and artist Yuula Benivolski.
- Run Terry Run follows Canadian icon Terry Fox’s 1980 Marathon of Hope and features Hamilton-born filmmaker Sean Menard, with scenes expected to have been filmed across Ontario as Fox made his way through the province.
TIFF 2026 is showcasing over two hundred feature-length movies from around the world, but many of them also have connections right here in Ontario.
Whether it be a movie filmed in parts of the province or a movie with local faces, the Toronto International Film Festival still shows up for Canadian filmmakers.
Here are some of the films to look out for, according to FilmOntario.
Sunburn
Ontario connection: Filmed and set in Toronto, with a local director
This film is by George Brown College graduate and director Serville Poblete. The story is set in Toronto, where a group of young people tries to survive the heatwave and a blackout one hot summer day in Toronto by making jokes, roaming the city, and forming fragile connections.
The movie is Toronto-coded from top to bottom, with a born-and-raised director and city-based set.
The coming-of-age film is set to have its world premiere on Monday at Scotiabank Theatre.
All That She Wants
Ontario connection: Ottawa-born lead and filmed and set in Toronto
Ottawa-born actress Annie Murphy stars in this romantic comedy, which explores the encounter between a woman in her thirties and a younger man she later learns she used to babysit. The film was shot in Toronto, with a pivotal nightclub sequence filmed at an undisclosed venue in the city.
The hilarious and raunchy movie premiered at TIFF Lightbox on Sept. 13 at 9:30 p.m.
Being Heumann
Ontario connection: Filmed in Toronto
TIFF’s opening night movie stunned audiences with its raw storytelling and emotional retelling of the 1977 disability rights sit-in at a federal building in San Francisco, California. Despite the historic U.S. story of Being Heumann, the film was primarily shot in Toronto, utilizing the city’s similar urban exteriors to replicate San Francisco. Fans can watch the film and try to see if they can spot any hidden Toronto landmarks, while taking in the important movement withing the story.
Being Heumann premiered at Roy Thomson Hall on Sept. 10 at 6 p.m.
The Black Box is Orange
Ontario connection: Toronto filmmaker
This is Toronto artist and filmmaker Yuula Benivolski’s first feature film. The movie is formatted as an autobiographical essay, combining Benivolski’s personal experience and incomplete archives to tell a story based in her hometown of al-Bassa, a large Palestinian Arab village now named Shlomi, in Israel, near the Lebanese border. The village was destroyed in 1948, and the film looks at Benivolski’s childhood in the town, as well as her now-adult perspective on her upbringing.
This film premiered at TIFF Lightbox on Sept. 13 at 6:45 p.m.
Run Terry Run
Ontario connection: Hamilton-born filmmaker and scenes shot across Ontario
This documentary pulls at heartstrings with never-before-seen footage of Canadian legend Terry Fox. Hamilton-born filmmaker Sean Menard takes the audience into a behind-the-scenes look at Fox’s Marathon of Hope in 1980. Some scenes are expected to have been shot in Ontario, as Fox ran through the province as part of his route, ultimately stopping in Thunder Bay, Ont., after his osteosarcoma spread to his lungs.
Run Terry Run premiered at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on Sept.11 at 8:30 a.m.
