The Toronto International Film Festival returns September 10–20, 2026 for its 51st edition. This year’s lineup includes 7 new Japanese feature films and co-productions, a restored classic, and a selection of short films.
All films are screening in-person at various venues across Toronto, Ontario.
Feature Films:
All of a Sudden
急に具合が悪くなる
Directed by HAMAGUCHI Ryûsuke
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
France, Japan, Germany, Belgium | 2026 | 196m | French, Japanese
HAMAGUCHI Ryûsuke brings Virginie Efira and OKAMOTO Tao together in a poignant drama about friendship, illness, art, and the responsibilities of care, creating a film that makes the world seem gentler, more open, and more humane.
© 2026 Cinéfrance Studios – Arte France Cinéma – Office Shirous – Bitters End – Heimatfilm – Tarantula – Gapbusters – Same Player – Soudain JPN Partners
Arrested Memory
アレステッド・メモリー
Directed by SABU
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
Taiwan, Japan | 2026 | 87m | Mandarin, Taiwanese, Japanese
A seasoned detective (Ethan Juan) recently diagnosed with dementia is doggedly pursued by both cops and crooks after he unwittingly wanders off with a multimillion-dollar ransom in a new absurdist crime caper from cult auteur Sabu.
©2026 LHB FILMS & FOURIER
Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo
バッド・ルーテナント:トウキョウ
Directed by MIIKE Takashi
WORLD PREMIERE
United States of America, United Kingdom, Japan | 2026 | 108m | Japanese
The latest from prolific maestro MIIKE Takashi, like Abel Ferrara’s Bad Lieutenant and Werner Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call — New Orleans, is a sensational ride through the darkest crevasses of the criminal underworld.
© 2026 BLT TOKYO LIMITED. All Rights Reserved.
Children Untold
わたしの知らない子どもたち
Directed by NISHIKAWA Miwa
WORLD PREMIERE
Japan | 2026 | 150m | Japanese
A surprise attack on a joint expedition between humans and their emancipated clones becomes the freaky fulcrum for a dimension-hopping, time-travel fable set over a millennia before HORI Takahide’s original subterranean stop-motion animated opus, Junk Head.
©2026 K2 Pictures・AOI Pro.
Look Back
ルックバック
Directed by KORE-EDA Hirokazu
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
Japan | 2026 | 100m | Japanese
Visionary auteur KORE-EDA Hirokazu helms this tender and propulsive adaptation of Chainsaw Man creator FUJIMOTO Tatsuki’s manga, following two young artists whose friendship and bond become the engine of their art.
©Tatsuki Fujimoto/SHUEISHA ©2026 K2 Pictures・SHUEISHA
Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People?
ネルソンさん、あなたは人を殺しましたか？
Directed by TSUKAMOTO Shinya
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE
Japan | 2026 | 116m | English, Vietnamese
Cult Japanese filmmaker TSUKAMOTO Shinya directs acclaimed Broadway actor Rodney Hicks and Oscar winner Geoffrey Rush in a harrowing, visceral, and morally urgent portrait of Vietnam veteran Allen Nelson.
©2026 Mr. Nelson, Did You Kill People? Film Partners
Vintage Violence
Directed by Eugene Kotlyarenko
WORLD PREMIERE
United States of America, Japan | 2026 | 105m | English, Japanese
In Eugene Kotlyarenko’s mixed-media caper, a livestreamer (Cole Sprouse) discovers a cache of vintage denim only to run afoul of the Yakuza when he is lured to Japan to sell the jeans by one of his subscribers (MIZUHARA Kiko).
© 2026 Doki Doki, LLC
TIFF Classics:
Ten Dark Women
黒い十人の女
Directed by ICHIKAWA Kon
North American Premiere of 4K restoration, courtesy of Kadokawa Corporation.
Japan | 1961 | 103m | Japanese
In the stylish, satirical, and ahead-of-its-time Ten Dark Women, by legendary Japanese director ICHIKAWA Kon, 10 women discover they are sharing the same pathologically unfaithful man, and temporarily abandon jealousy to meticulously orchestrate a collective revenge.
©KADOKAWA CORPORATION 1961
Short Films:
Masao Adachi Takes a Passport Photo
足立正生、パスポート写真を撮る
Directed by Kamal Aljafari
WORLD PREMIERE
Germany, France, Japan | 2026 | 28m | Japanese
In Masao Adachi Takes a Passport Photo, Palestinian filmmaker and artist Kamal Aljafari documents one of Japan’s great maverick artists — now 85 — as he makes one last attempt to attain a passport decades after his was confiscated.
Screening as part of Wavelengths: Anoushahpour/Aljafari.
© Kamal Aljafari Productions.
Moongirl
月の民
Directed by Victor Boccard
WORLD PREMIERE
Japan | 2026 | 20m | Japanese
Blurring fiction and reality, Victor Boccard maps an artist’s obsession across decades of paintings revisiting one subject: the woman he buried long ago at the foot of a statue, in this ethereal meditation on grief, memory, and bonds that transcend time.
Screening as part of Short Cuts 2026 Programme 06.
©︎ Mt. MELVIL © ATTA Films
TM
Directed by KOSUGI Takehisa
Japan | 1974 | 3m | Silent
International Premiere of new restoration!
A rediscovered and restored archival gem by legendary Fluxus musician KOSUGI Takehisa.
Screening as part of Wavelengths 2: This Suffocating Now.
© KOSUGI Takehisa 1974
