Rolling Stone names the 10 best films of TIFF 2026 in Canada
Rolling Stone magazine has published a selection of the ten best films of the 51st Toronto International Film Festival in Canada. According to the publication, the TIFF 2026 program included nearly 300 feature-length films, as well as short-film programs, special events, and meetings with film figures.
A documentary about Ukrainian youth
The list included a documentary by American filmmaker James Marcus Haney about the lives of Ukrainians around the age of twenty during the war. The film's protagonists ride motorcycles and race cars, visit nightclubs, fall in love, and go through the process of growing up.
At the same time, some of them have to return to the front to fight against Russian troops or overcome the consequences of traumatic combat experience. Haney worked with about six young people. Rolling Stone called his work an emotional and humanistic look at life during wartime.
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Other films in the selection
The recognized works also include a drama by German director Sandra Wollner about a teenager, a girl, and her mother who travel to a resort in Tenerife after a tragedy. The publication drew attention to the film's combination of magical realism, surrealist motifs, and observation of its characters.
The list includes Tony Vahl's debut about a German village in the final weeks of World War II, Matthew Rankin's film about the political rise of Canada's 18th prime minister, Brian Mulroney, and a new film by South Korean director Lee Chang-dong. Its plot focuses on a documentary filmmaker and a working-class married couple involved in a protest for labor rights.
Rolling Stone also recognized a social drama by Mahamat-Saleh Haroun, a Mike Leigh film about a social worker and her family, a Martin McDonagh comedy starring John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell on Rapa Nui, Jan Holoubek's war thriller set in occupied Poland in 1943, and an action film by Bassam Tariq starring Mahershala Ali and John Cho.
