‘We don’t ever want to step on what the festival has been’: Toronto After Dark enters a new chapter

Toronto After Dark Film Festival returns Oct. 14–18 for its 19th edition, celebrating horror, thriller and science-fiction cinema.

Festival manager and programmer Adam Bovoletis says the five-day event will showcase 14 feature films and 33 shorts, offering audiences a chance to discover the diversity of genre filmmaking. Screenings will take place at Scotiabank Theatre, at 259 Richmond St. W, and CineCycle, at 129 Spadina Ave. Some filmmakers will also participate in post-screening Q&As. 

Since the late Adam Lopez launched the festival in 2006, around 1 000 filmmakers from across the globe submit their work each year.

Next year will mark the festival’s 20th anniversary after Lopez skipped 2024 when his health took a turn. He passed away April 8, 2025, leaving the festival in the capable hands of Peter Kuplowsky, who has programmed the Toronto International Film Festival’s Midnight Madness since 2017.

Toronto After Dark Film Festival will present awards, including the second annual Adam Lopez Audience Choice Award for Best Feature. Winners will be chosen through an online poll sent to festival passholders after the event.

Passes are still available, although only a limited number remain. Single tickets are also on sale. Buy them here.

Bovoletis gives NOW the rundown on this year’s festival, including what’s new and how organizers are honouring Lopez’s vision.

What are you excited about this year?

We’re starting a new late-night program at the festival where we’re screening films at CineCycle, which is pretty close by to Scotiabank Theatre. They’re all screening at midnight, and it’s essentially genre films that are more esoteric, more experimental, a lot of low budget films. We have three nights of this new late-night program.

One of the films that we’re showing there is a world premiere, actually, CineCycle world premieres. It’s the only world premiere at the festival. It’s called My Love for You is Deep, but the Devil Loves Me Deeper. It’s the debut feature of a director named Casey Donahue.Really awesome, low budget, deal-with-the-devil type film. That’s super cool. Really excited for our audience to see it.

In that late night program, we also have two other fantastic features, Matapanki, which is a punk anti superhero film from Chile by Diego “Mapache” Fuentes. That’s very good. And then a film called No Longer Humans directed by a local director, Luka D’Andrea. It’s her first feature. Also super punk, a queer love story that is visually fantastic and packs a real emotional punch. All three of those late-night films are really exciting. It’s a cool addition to the festival, and I’m really excited for our audience to see it.

But then over at Scotiabank every day of the festival, we have two features that are all great crowd pleasers. We have two programs of short films, one that’s a Canadian showcase, and then an international showcase. And also, before every feature, we always have a Canadian short film. There’s a lot of great films from across Canada that are gonna be playing throughout the festival.

There are moviegoers who always say, “I don’t like horror.” “I don’t like sci fi.” And yet, they will watch the Exorcist or Carrie, or Star Wars. What do you say to people that are that narrow minded their movie viewing to come out and experience?

I would say that if you’re not a genre film fan, I think that we can turn you because watching genre films with a crowd is the number one way to do it. A lot of people who might not think that they’re into horror films, might not think that they’re into action films, once you experience that with an enthusiastic crowd, I think your tastes will change and you’ll understand why that’s such a fantastic experience.

And it is broad. It’s not all blood, gore and slasher. It could be akin to watching a true crime.

Yeah, for sure. You can hopefully have your idea of what a horror film is, or what an action film is, what a sci-fi film is, expand by going to our festival. And you can see there are genre films for you. Whatever you think that type of film is, we have a broad festival.

Adam Lopez built this incredible festival over almost two decades. Do you know what was important to him in terms of ensuring it continued?

He entrusted Peter Kuplowsky with the direction of the festival. He asked him to continue it and it’s been Peter’s effort to honour what Adam established with the festival for the two decades. Adam was so in touch with what the audience likes. He understood this crowd so well. Every year was always giving a lineup that really satisfied this core audience that then returned year after year. We have very dedicated pass holders that essentially sell out our passes every single year and that speaks to what Adam was able to cultivate over almost two decades.

And there’s an award in Adam’s name now.

It’s called the Adam Lopez Audience Award, for the best feature film in our official selection, as voted by our audience. It’s the second year. I’s important for us always to honour what he wanted to do with the festival, even in these new endeavors, like this new late-night program, that’s in addition to the core festival with crowd pleaser genre films from across the world. We don’t ever want to step on what the festival has been because it’s been fantastic and our crowd loves it. And so, everything’s in addition to like what Adam has already established with the festival.