#TIFF: TIFF MAY 2026 PROGRAMMING HIGHLIGHTS

This season, creative partnerships take centre stage at TIFF Cinematheque, alongside a curated slate in honour of Asian Heritage month in May, a lineup that celebrates and amplifies the work of Indigenous and 2SLGBTQ+ filmmakers in June, and (indoor and outdoor) programming inspired by the city’s love of the Beautiful Game. TIFF welcomes American independent filmmaker and author John Sayles for his first-ever TIFF Cinematheque retrospective, who will be joined by producing partner Maggie Renzi, curated by Toronto film critic Adam Nayman. Other notable guests coming to the Lightbox include bestselling author Maggie O’Farrell (Hamnet); Ashley Clark, Curatorial Director at the Criterion Collection; and Philipp Fleischmann, filmmaker and Artistic Director, School Friedl Kubelka for Independent Film. Another creative duo, here to celebrate National Canadian Film Day on April 15, are filmmakers Barbara Ulrich and Renaud Lessard for the Toronto Premiere of Barbaracadabra — free to the public!

TIFF celebrates Asian Heritage Month this May with a curated lineup including Hayao Miyazaki’s soaring adventure Porco Rosso; a series of features and shorts highlighting the 26‑year legacy of the JEONJU International Film Festival and its enduring commitment to independent and experimental filmmaking; Islands, a coming-of-middle-age film from Filipino Canadian filmmaker Martin Edralin; and a spotlight on the Seoul‑born, Toronto‑based filmmaker Helen Lee in Outside the Frame: The Films of Helen Lee. TIFF is also collaborating with Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) for a Silver Screenings presentation of Yasujirō Ozu’s first colour film Equinox Flower, introduced by Akiko Takesue, ROM’s Bishop White Committee Associate Curator of Japanese Art & Culture.

TIFF’s Pride Month this June features a special 10th‑anniversary screening of Barry Jenkins’ Academy Award–winning Moonlight (TIFF ’16); the new 4K restoration of James Bidgood’s underground classic Pink Narcissus; a free Silver Screenings presentation of Blake Edwards’ musical‑comedy Victor/Victoria; the 10th anniversary screening of Shoko Nakamura’s Dou kyu sei – Classmates; and rounding out the lineup, TIFF Next Wave partners with Trans Film Mentorship for a spirited 20th‑anniversary screening of Andy Fickman’s She’s The Man, starring Amanda Bynes, Channing Tatum, and Alexandra Breckenridge. The month wraps up with Miss 501: A Portrait of Luck, a documentary about Toronto’s drag scene in the early 2000s.

Downtown Movie Nights return to David Pecaut Square with six weeks of free outdoor screenings. In partnership with Toronto Downtown West BIA, the series launches Wednesday, June 24 with a sports‑themed film lineup celebrating the energy of the FIFA World Cup in Toronto. Each Wednesday night screening will start at 9:30pm, with a pre-show at 9pm featuring photo ops, live performances, film introductions, music and more. All screenings will include open captions.

Looking ahead to the fall, anime arrives at TIFF in a big way, with a new major marquee series opening in November building on the 2023 Pop Japan series, and growing popularity of Cinematheque’s new Animate series. More details on the lineup and guest curator will be announced soon!

Tickets for May programming will be available for TIFF Members on Wednesday, April 15 at 12pm, and to the public on Friday, April 17. Tickets for June programming will be available for TIFF Members on Wednesday, May 13, at 12pm and to the public on Friday, May 15. Information is subject to change. Please visit tiff.net for up-to-date programming details.

TIFF CINEMATHEQUE PROGRAMMING HIGHLIGHTS

António Reis & Margarida Cordeiro, Restored

May 8–17

With a modest yet extraordinary body of work, the Portuguese filmmaking duo António Reis (1925–1991) and Margarida Cordeiro (b. 1938) shaped their national cinema across successive generations, despite remaining ripe for discovery abroad. António Reis & Margarida Cordeiro, Restored introduces their films, alongside attendant work by Manoel de Oliveira, Paulo Rocha, and Reis’ most celebrated student, Pedro Costa, showcasing the duo’s deep focus on the people and land of Portugal’s remote Northeast Trás-as Montes region, where they elaborated their singular pastoral visual poetry blending rigorous ethnographic observation with a wraithlike lyricism. Featuring new restorations of their three features — Trás-os-Montes, Ana, and Rosa de Areia — recently acquired for theatrical distribution by Cinema Guild, this retrospective offers a rare opportunity for Toronto audiences to finally discover these foundational films and their enduring legacy. The series includes in-person introductions by local critics and programmers Ryan Krahn and Saffron Maeve, as well as exclusive video introductions by renowned directors Pedro Costa and João Pedro Rodrigues.

TIFF and Korea Story Festival present JEONJU Projects

May 21–26

Since 2000, JEONJU International Film Festival has been a vital platform for independent and experimental cinema — not just screening bold work, but commissioning, distributing, and investing in it. Through the JEONJU Digital Projects and JEONJU Cinema Project, the festival had the vision to recognize digital technology’s transformative role in cinema’s future, championing filmmakers featured in this series, including Hong Sangsoo, Bong Joon-ho, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Ted Fendt, and György Pálfi, whose film Hen recently screened in the TIFF ’25 auteur competition programme, Platform. As JEONJU marks its 27th edition, this series celebrates that legacy with a selection of features and shorts that have expanded the horizons of film aesthetics and reimagined the festival as an active force in film production itself.

This series is supported by the Consulate General of the Republic of Korea in Toronto.

Declarations of Independence: The Cinema of John Sayles

June 11–18

It’s been more than a decade since John Sayles’ last feature, Go For Sisters (2013), and he’s seen as an elder statesman of the American indie boom, having ceded the screen to more radical practitioners. But the fundamental things still apply, and in a moment when we’re more desperate than ever for cogent, cohesive, and principled political moviemaking, it seems like a good time to go back and look at Sayles’ body of work as a writer and a director; his subversive satires, probing character studies, and sturdy, hand-crafted dramas were built from the ground up to stand the test of time. Audiences can look forward to some of his early works including Return of the Secaucus Seven, The Brother From Another Planet, and Matewan. This series is guest-curated by film critic and author Adam Nayman.

From the Collection with Cameron Bailey

May 5, 6:30pm: Weekend (1967) dir. Jean-Luc Godard, 35mm print!

June 9, 6:30pm: The Portrait of a Lady (1996), dir. Jane Campion, 35mm print!

TIFF Cinematheque Special Screenings:

May 7, 7pm: Outside the Frame: The Films of Helen Lee, in-person Q&A with Lee

May 9, 6:30pm: Ashley Clark on This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection (2019), dir. Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese

Supported by Visa

May 10, 3:30pm: Ashley Clark on Yeelen (1987) dir. Souleymane Cissé

May 10, 11:15am & May 16, 2:15pm: Giant (1956) dir. George Stevens, 35mm and 70th anniversary!

May 19, 6:30pm: Mikey and Nicky (1976) dir. Elaine May, new 4K restoration and 50th anniversary!

June 19, 6:00pm: Dry Leaf (2025) dir. Alexandre Koberidze, recorded introduction from the director.

June 21, 3:30pm: Miss 501: A Portrait of Luck (2002) dir. Clint Alberta under the pseudonym “Jules Karatechamp”

Animate

May 6, 6:30pm: Porco Rosso (1992) dir. Hayao Miyazaki

June 17, 6:30pm: Dou kyu sei – Classmates (2016) dir. Shoko Nakamura, 10th anniversary!

See the North presented by MUBI

Join Lead Canadian Programmer and series curator Jason Anderson

May 12, 6:30pm: Islands (2021) dir. Martin Edralin

June 16, 6:30pm: Wildhood (2021) dir. Bretten Hannam

TIFF Wavelengths Presents

May 13–14, 7:30 & 7pm: School Friedl Kubelka For Independent Film: Programmes 1 and 2 with Philipp Fleischmann

June 2, 6:30 PM: Selections by Diego Marcon with Diego Marcon in person

Co-presented with The Vega Foundation

TIFF Next Wave Presents

May 20, 6:30pm: Young Female Playwright (2026) dir. Pony Nicole Herauf, post-screening Q&A with director, Toronto Premiere!

June 24, 6:30pm: She’s the Man (2006) dir. Andy Fickman, 20th anniversary!

MDFF Selects

May 28, 6:30pm: Strange River (2025) dir. Jaume Claret Muxart, Toronto Premiere!

TIFF Cinematheque New and Restored

May 24, 3:45pm: Bitter Rice (1949) dir. Giuseppe De Santis, New 4K restoration!

June 23, 6:30pm: Pink Narcissus (1971) dir. James Bidgood, New 4K restoration and 55th anniversary!

Midnight Madness Presents

June 20, 6:45pm: The Masque of the Red Death (1964) dir. Roger Corman, 35mm print!

TIFF PUBLIC PROGRAMMING HIGHLIGHTS

May 8, 12pm: Silver Screenings: Equinox Flower (1958) dir. Yasujirō Ozu, with ROM curator Akiko Takesue — Free!

The Bishop White Committee Associate Curator of Japanese Art & Culture at ROM joins us for a talk before this free screening of Yasujirō Ozu’s first colour film about a traditional father grappling with his modern daughter’s refusal of an arranged marriage. Shot in glorious Agfacolour, Ozu’s reverence for everyday objects and domestic spaces is on full display. Coinciding with the ROM-original exhibition Shokkan: Material Encounters in Japanese Art (April 4 to September 7, 2026). Presented in partnership with ROM and the Japan Foundation, Toronto.

May 14, 6pm: TIFF Advance Screening of Modern Whore (2025) dir. Nicole Bazuin, post-screening Q&A with the director and co-writer Andrea Werhun

Werhun and Bazuin challenge toxic misconceptions about sex work with great audacity and high style in this documentary from TIFF ’25.

June 19, 12pm: Silver Screenings: Victor/Victoria (1982) dir. Blake Edwards

Notable for its nuanced exploration of performativity and queer representation in 1980s Hollywood cinema. Julie Andrews stars as Victoria, a struggling singer who, with help from her friend and acting manager Toddy (Robert Preston), finds success by posing as a “female impersonator” named Victor. This event will include a pre-screening activation inspired by the film’s focus on performance.

June 20, 6pm: Moonlight (2016) dir. Barry Jenkins – 10th Anniversary!

TIFF Community Impact celebrates the enduring impact of Barry Jenkins’ intimate and poetic breakthrough 10 years after its Canadian Premiere at TIFF 2016 and its record-breaking release at the Lightbox. A watershed moment for Black queer representation and independent cinema, this coming-of-age story chronicles three chapters in the life of Chiron, a young Black man growing up in Miami navigating identity, masculinity, and connection.

June 28: In Conversation With… Maggie O’Farrell

Maggie O’Farrell, the bestselling author and Academy Award–nominated co-writer of the TIFF People’s Choice Award–winning film Hamnet, joins us in person for the exclusive Canadian launch of her latest work of fiction, Land: A Novel, one of 2026’s most anticipated books. Presented in partnership with Penguin Random House Canada and the Toronto International Festival of Authors, tickets for this event will go on sale in early May.

FILM REFERENCE LIBRARY

May 23–24, 10am-5pm: Doors Open Toronto

Each May, Doors Open Toronto invites the public to explore the city’s most-loved buildings and sites, free of charge. This year’s theme is “The World in a City,” and the Film Reference Library located on the fourth floor of TIFF Lightbox will highlight TIFF’s international scope through guided building tours and archival activations.