Twenty-three documentaries, including new works from the Oscar-winning directors Ben Proudfoot, Laura Poitras and Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, have been added to the range of 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, TIFF organizers announced on Wednesday.
The TIFF Docs program will contain 16 world premieres, which start with “The Eyes of Ghana”, directed by Proudfoot, who has won Oscars for their short documents “The Queen of Basketball” and “The Last Repair Shop.” The film is the executive of Barack and Michelle Obama. Second world premieres include “Love + War” from Vasarhelyi and Chin, who won DOC-Feature Oscar for 2019’s “Free Solo”; “Nuns against the Vatican,” an examination of allegations of new abuse in the Catholic Church led by Lorena Luciano and the executive produced by Mariska Hargitay; “Cancel: Paula Deen story”, directed by Billy Corben; And “Whistle”, a Christopher Nelius movie about a whistling competition.
“Cover-up”, a movie about investigative reporter Seymour Hersh from Oscar-winning director Poitras and from Mark Obenhaus, will have his Canadian premiere at TIFF after premiere at the Venice International Film Festival and probably screening at Telluride Film Festival.
According to TIFF Docs programmer Thom Powers, the films were chosen from more than 1,000 submissions, a record for the festival. Powers told Thewrap that this year’s range was particularly strong on sales titles represented by the best agencies, with the films looking for distribution including “cover-up”, “whistle”, “canceled”, John Dowers “The Balloonists”, Nicole Bazuins “Modern Whore” and Tasha van Zandt’s “A lifa.
Movies that will come to TIFF after playing other festivals include Gianfranco Rosis “under The Clouds”, Lucrecia Martel’s “Nuestra Tierra” and Tamara Kotevska “The Tale of Silyan”, all of which will play Venice. Documents that premiered in Cannes and come to Toronto include Raoul Peck’s “Orwell: 2+2 = 5” and Sepideh Farsi’s “Put your soul on your hand and walk”, whose protagonist, Palestinian photojournalist Fatma Hassona, was killed in Gaza shortly after the film premiered in May.
Previously, the festival announced that a number of other nonfiction films would play in different parts of TIFF, among them Colin Hank’s opening evening “John Candy: I Like Me” and Baz Luhrmann’s “Epic: Elvis Presley in Concert.”
The 50th Toronto International Film Festival starts on September 4 and goes through September 14.
Tiff Docs
“A life enlightened,“ Tasha van Zandt | USA (World Premiere)
“A simple soldier,” Juan Camilo Cruz, Artem Ryzhykov | Ukraine (North American Premiere)
“Aki,” Darlene Voltage | Canada (world premiere)
“Under the clouds,” Gianfranco Rosi | Italy (international premiere)
“Canceled: Paula Deen story,” Billy Corben | USA (World Premiere)
“Cover-up,” Laura Poitras, Mark Obenhaus | USA (Canadian premiere)
“Flana,” Zahraa Ghandour | Iraq/France/Qatar (world premiere)
“Love+War,” Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin | USA (World Premiere)
“Modern Whore,” Nicole Bazuin | Canada (world premiere)
“Ni-Naadamaadiz: Red Power Rising,” Shane Belcourt | Canada (world premiere)
“Our country,” Lucrecia Martel | Argentina/USA/Mexico/France/Denmark/Netherlands (North American premiere)
“Nuns against the Vatican,” Lorena Luciano | USA (World Premiere)
“Orwell: 2+2 = 5,” Raoul Peck | US/France (North American Premiere)
“Powwow People”, Sky Hopink | USA (World Premiere)
“Put your soul on your hand and go,” Sepideh Farsi | France/Palestine/Iran (North American premiere)
“Still single,” Jamal Burger, Jukan Tateisi | Canada (world premiere)
“Balloonists,“ John Dower | US/UK/Austria (world premiere)
“Ghana’s eyes,” Ben Proudfoot | USA (World Premiere)
“The story of the SILYAN,” Tamara Kotevska | North Macedonia (North American Premiere)
“There are no words,” My Sook Lee | Canada (world premiere)
“True North,” Michèle Stephenson | US/Canada (World premiere)
“While the green grass grows: a diary in seven parts,” Peter Mettler | Canada/Switzerland (world premiere)
“Whistle,” Christopher Nelius | Australia (world premiere)
