The 46th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival features 10 days of exceptional international and Canadian cinema with close to 200 films in its Official Selection, unparalleled events featuring acclaimed industry guests, and TIFF’s Industry Conference. Recognized as the world’s largest public film festival, TIFF is bringing the theatrical experience back to life and continues its reputation as both a leader in amplifying under-represented cinematic voices and a bellwether for programming award-winning films from around the globe.
Experience TIFF in person with single tickets to in-cinema, drive-in, and open-air cinema screenings and from home with tickets for TIFF’s digital film screenings, available across Canada. All details are available at tiff.net/tickets.
Information about Industry registration for this year’s Festival (September 9–18) and Industry Conference (September 9–13) can be found at tiff.net/industry-accreditation.
In-person screenings at TIFF Bell Lightbox, Roy Thomson Hall, the Visa Screening Room at the Princess of Wales Theatre, Scotiabank Theatre, and Festival Village at the iconic Ontario Place punctuate this year’s Festival. Festival Village at Ontario Place comprises the Cinesphere IMAX Theatre, the Visa Skyline Drive-in, the RBC Lakeside Drive-In, and the West Island Open Air Cinema. TIFF 2021 highlights also include screenings across Canada, and the return of the digital TIFF Bell Lightbox and TIFF Bell Digital Talks platforms.
The Festival’s public digital experience is presented by Bell, with film screenings on digital TIFF Bell Lightbox available across Canada. In Conversation With… talks and interactive Q&A sessions with actors and creators will be hosted on TIFF Bell Digital Talks, available worldwide. To increase the accessibility of the Festival, all films screened digitally will be closed-captioned.
The 2021 TIFF Tribute Awards will be co-produced by Bell Media Studios and for the second straight year will be broadcast nationally by CTV and streamed internationally by Variety. This year, the Tribute Awards event and fundraiser will honour Jessica Chastain, Benedict Cumberbatch, Denis Villeneuve, and Alanis Obomsawin with more honourees to follow in the coming weeks. Past recipients of the Tribute Awards have gone on to win awards on the international stage such as Chloé Zhao, Mati Diop, Joaquin Phoenix, Tracey Deer, Taika Waititi, and Sir Anthony Hopkins. Details available at: tiff.net/tiff-tribute-awards
TIFF is generously supported by Lead Sponsor Bell, Major Sponsors RBC, L’Oréal Paris, and Visa, and Major Supporters the Government of Ontario, Telefilm Canada, and the City of Toronto.
TIFF Film Circuit is presented in partnership with Telefilm Canada and supported by Ontario Creates.
A long-standing tradition at TIFF, the People’s Choice Awards is marking its 44th year. The awards consist of the People’s Choice Award, the People’s Choice Documentary Award, and the People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award. Audiences watching films at TIFF Bell Lightbox, Roy Thomson Hall, the Visa Screening Room at the Princess of Wales Theatre, Festival Village at Ontario Place venues — including the Cinesphere, the Visa Skyline Drive-In, the RBC Lakeview Drive-In, and the West Island Open Air Cinema — and Scotiabank Theatre Toronto, and at home on digital TIFF Bell Lightbox, will have the opportunity to vote online this year. All feature films in Official Selection must screen both in-person and on digital TIFF Bell Lightbox to be eligible.
People’s Choice Award: Belfast, dir. Kenneth Branagh
First Runner Up: Scarborough, dirs. Shasha Nakhai, Rich Williamson
Second Runner Up: The Power of the Dog, dir. Jane Campion
People’s Choice Documentary Award: The Rescue, dirs. E. Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin
First Runner Up: Dionne Warwick: Don’t Make Me Over, dirs. Dave Wooley, David Heilbroner
Second Runner Up: Flee, dir. Jonas Poher Rasmussen
People’s Choice Midnight Madness Award: Titane, dir. Julia Ducournau
First Runner Up: You Are Not My Mother, dir. Kate Dolan
Second Runner Up: DASHCAM, dir. Rob Savage
Named after Jia Zhang-ke’s groundbreaking film, Platform spotlights films with high artistic merit and strong directorial vision. All films in the Platform programme are eligible for this award, which will be selected by an international jury.
Yuni, dir. Kamila Andini
Honourable mention: Mlungu Wam (Good Madam), dir. Jenna Cato Bass
Riz Ahmed is an Academy Award nominated actor, writer, producer, and musician, as well as one of TIME’s 100 Most Influential People (listed in 2017). Themes of inclusion and representation run throughout Riz's work as a creator and activist, from his roles in projects such as Sound of Metal, The Night Of, and Mogul Mowgli, to his essay in Nikesh Shukla's “The Good Immigrant,” his 2017 address to Parliament on diversity in the creative industries, and his appointment to the Mayor of London's 2021 Commission for Diversity in the Public Realm. Next up, Riz will star in Amazon Studios’ sci-fi thriller Encounter, alongside Octavia Spencer.
Whether he's using his power as a producer to bring refugee narratives to our screens via his production company, Left Handed Film, writing about the inequalities of the COVID pandemic as contributing editor of British Vogue, or exploring Britishness through his critically acclaimed music release The Long Goodbye, the Gold List A100 honouree is driven by a mission to stretch culture, reimagine our narratives and landscapes of belonging, and include rather than divide.
Clio Barnard is from Yorkshire, England, where she grew up near the city of Bradford. She studied fine art at Northumbria University before directing the shorts Lambeth Marsh (00), Random Acts of Intimacy (02), and Flood (03), and the feature The Arbor (10). Her features The Selfish Giant (13) and Dark River (17) played the Festival, the latter in the Platform section. Ali & Ava (21) is her latest film.
Currently she is in pre-production with the eagerly anticipated period television adaptation of The Essex Serpent for See-Saw Films and Apple TV+.
Born in 1985 in Toronto, Kazik Radwanski co-founded the production company MDFF in 2008. His short films screened at the Berlinale Shorts Competition for three consecutive years between 2009 and 2011. In 2012, Radwanski directed his first feature film, Tower, which had its world premiere at the 65th Locarno International Film Festival. The film went on to screen at numerous festivals including TIFF, the Viennale, and New Directors/ New Films presented by MoMA. His second feature, How Heavy This Hammer, premiered at TIFF in 2015 and had its international premiere at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival. His short film Scaffold (17) screened at over 30 international festivals including Locarno, TIFF, and the New York Film Festival.
Anthony Chen is a writer, director, and producer from Singapore, based in London. Trained at film school in Singapore and then at the National Film and Television School in the UK, he is the first Singaporean to be awarded at Cannes, for his 2007 short film Ah Ma.
After a string of award-winning shorts, his debut feature Ilo Ilo (13), premiered at the 66th Cannes Film Festival and was awarded the prestigious Camera d’Or, making history again as the first Singapore feature to be awarded at Cannes. Ilo Ilo went on to win 40 awards internationally. The film became the most successful arthouse film in the history of Singapore cinema, both commercially and critically.
Chen’s sophomore film, Wet Season (19), premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and was once again critically lauded, garnering multiple awards. It was Singapore’s submission to the Academy Awards for Best International Film.
Valerie Complex, is the new nights and weekend editor for DEADLINE, but has written for Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Harper’s Baazar, Elle and many others. As a lover of Japanese animation, comics, and all things film, she is passionate about equality and equity across all entertainment mediums.
Presented by Canada Goose, the Amplify Voices Awards celebrate the three best feature films made by under-represented filmmakers. Canada Goose embraces diversity in all of its forms and definitions, including technique and passion that transports storytelling to screen. All feature films in Official Selection by emerging BIPOC and all Canadian features are eligible for this award, and the three winners will receive $10,000 each.
Amplify Voices Award for Best Canadian Feature Film: Ste. Anne, dir. Rhayne Vermette
Special Mention: Scarborough, dirs. Shasha Nakhai, Rich Williamson
Amplify Voices Award: The Gravedigger’s Wife, dir. Khadar Ayderus Ahmed
Amplify Voices Award: A Night of Knowing Nothing, dir. Payal Kapadia
Films in the Short Cuts programme are eligible for three jury-selected IMDbPro Short Cuts Awards: Best Film, Best Canadian Film, and the Share Her Journey Award for best film by a woman. These awards build on IMDbPro’s nearly 20-year history of empowering entertainment professionals to discover new talent and projects, and on its ongoing commitment to supporting and collaborating with organizations that create greater diversity, equity, and inclusion in the entertainment industry. IMDbPro will provide each of the three winners with a bursary of $10,000 CAD and a one-year membership to IMDbPro, the essential resource for entertainment industry professionals, to help them continue achieving success in their careers.
IMDbPro Short Cuts Award for Best Film: Displaced / Pa Vend, dir. Samir Karahoda
Honourable mention: Trumpets in the Sky, dir. Rakan Mayasi
IMDbPro Short Cuts Award for Best Canadian Film: Angakusajaujuq: The Shaman's Apprentice / Angakusajaujuq, dir. Zacharias Kunuk
Honourable mention: Nuisance Bear, dirs. Jack Weisman, Gabriela Osio Vanden
IMDbPro Short Cuts Share Her Journey Award: ASTEL, dir. Ramata-Toulaye Sy
Honourable mention: Love, Dad, dir. Diana Cam Van Nguyen
Presented by the Shawn Mendes Foundation, the 2021 Changemaker Award is presented to an emerging filmmaker at the Festival whose work tackles issues of social change. The winning film is selected by TIFF’s Next Wave Committee, a group of young film lovers who recognize cinema’s power to transform the world. The Shawn Mendes Foundation is making an annual contribution in support of TIFF Next Wave, helping TIFF deliver key initiatives to elevate young voices.
Scarborough, dir. Shasha Nakhai and Rich Williamson
Presented by the Network for the Promotion of Asian Pacific Cinema, the NETPAC Award recognizes films specifically from the Asian and Pacific regions. The jury consists of three members of the international community selected by TIFF and NETPAC, who award the prize to the best Asian film by a first- or second-time feature director.
Costa Brava, Lebanon, dir. Mounia Akl
The FIPRESCI Prize is presented by an international jury selected by the International Federation of Film Critics. Founded in 1930, the Federation is an organization of professional film critics and film journalists for the promotion and development of film culture, and the safeguarding of professional interests. The Federation awards the prize at international film festivals and film festivals of particular importance to promote film-art and to encourage new and young cinema.
Anatolian Leopard, dir. Emre Kayiş
“This Festival is really stepping ahead and moving the needle by intention”
The TIFF Tribute Awards presented by Bvlgari honour the film industry’s outstanding contributors and their achievements, recognizing leading industry members, acting talent, directorial expertise, new talent, and below-the-line artists and creators. The Awards also serve as TIFF’s largest annual fundraiser to support our year-round programmes and core mission to transform the way people see the world through film. This year’s event will support TIFF’s Every Story fund to promote diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging in film, and TIFF's core mission to transform the way people see the world through film.
The TIFF Tribute Awards gala fundraiser will take place on Sunday, September 11 at the historic Fairmont Royal York.
For inquiries about the Tribute Awards or gala event and how to support, please contact development@tiff.net.
The following recipients have been honoured with TIFF Tribute Awards for their remarkable talent and contributions:
2022 TIFF Tribute Award recipients
2021 TIFF Tribute Award recipients
2020 TIFF Tribute Award recipients
2019 TIFF Tribute Award recipients
Updated as of January 10, 2023
On March 21, 2022, the Province of Ontario and the City of Toronto lifted mask mandates in public settings. The state of emergency was also lifted, along with all remaining mandates (i.e. capacity limits, social distancing).
In alignment with current messaging from Ontario Public Health, masking is recommended in indoor public settings. However, visitors, staff, and audiences coming to TIFF Bell Lightbox are not required to wear a mask.
If you have any concerns or questions that can be addressed by TIFF staff, please contact TIFF Customer Relations at customerrelations@tiff.net.
