The Toronto Film Festival is about to drop some serious cinematic fire, especially with its Wavelengths section, which is shaping up to be ‘legit’. Fresh off the heels of Cannes, where international auteurs dominated the scene, TIFF is also spotlighting artist-driven films that are all about looking inwards. Andréa Picard, the curator for Wavelengths, shared with The Hollywood Reporter that with the world news being, well, a bit wild, many filmmakers are diving deep into introspection and personal investment in their work. This year’s lineup promises to hit different, bringing a vibe that’s both thoughtful and totally engaging for film buffs and casual viewers alike.
One of the flicks getting a lot of buzz is Beatrice Gibson’s debut feature, ‘At Night’. This film, shot on classic 16mm for BBC Films, sounds kinda heavy but in a good way. It follows a filmmaker grappling with her own creation while six women in Paris unpack the anxiety and psychic exhaustion of the iconic French city after dark. It’s set for its North American premiere in Toronto after first hitting up Locarno. Then there’s Mariano Llinas, bringing his monumental five-and-a-half-hour documentary, ‘BiografÃa de Jorge Luis Borges’, which is a whole journey. After its world premiere in Venice, this deep dive into the legendary Argentinian writer is coming to Toronto, offering a truly immersive experience.
Llinas’s documentary on Jorge Luis Borges isn’t just a straightforward bio; it’s a ‘meta’ experience, as Picard points out. The film uses Borges’s own papers, the books he devoured, and the global cities he explored, but it also shows Llinas wrestling with the challenge of capturing such a constantly reinventing literary giant. According to the article, Llinas is in the film himself, and he’s often seen as a Borgesian filmmaker, making the documentary as much a self-portrait as it is a tribute to Borges. It’s like, no cap, a double dose of creative genius exploring itself through the lens of another.
Another Argentinian auteur, Lisandro Alonso, is bringing his 35mm film ‘La Libertad Doble’ (Double Freedom) to Toronto for its North American showing, following its world premiere at Cannes. This film revisits the main character and setting from Alonso’s minimalist first feature, ‘Freedom’, which dropped 25 years prior and explored the life of a solitary woodcutter in the remote Pampas mountains. What’s super relevant now is how this loosely-inspired sequel echoes Argentina’s ongoing economic crisis, as Jesse Cumming, an associate curator for the Wavelengths program, highlighted. It’s a real look at how big-picture policies hit home even in the most isolated spots, which is pretty straight up.
The Wavelengths section is stacked with North American premieres from other festivals too, like three flicks fresh from Berlin. There’s Sebastian Brameshuber’s ‘London’, Nicolas Pereda’s comedic ‘Lo demás es ruido’ (Everything Else is Noise), which revolves around a musician’s TV interview in Mexico City, and German auteur Angela Schanelec’s ‘Meine Frau Weint’ (My Wife Cries), an austere romantic tragedy. And don’t sleep on prolific Romanian auteur Radu Jude’s ‘Le Journal d’Une Femme de Chambre’ (The Diary of a Chambermaid), a French-language, highly political film adapted from an old 19th-century book by Octave Mirbeau, which was a Cannes entry. These films are highkey showcasing a global perspective on current issues and human conditions.
Shifting gears a bit, TIFF is also premiering William and David Greaves’ posthumous historical documentary, ‘Once Upon a Time in Harlem’. This Canadian premiere captures a dope 1972 gathering of original Harlem Renaissance notables. The article notes that William Greaves passed away in 2014, with his son David and granddaughter Liani stepping up to finish the film, which is pretty awesome. On top of that, the section boasts two world premieres: Yuula Benivolski’s debut feature, ‘The Black Box is Orange’, and John Torres’ ‘The Remotes’, which artfully combines behind-the-scenes footage from Philippine films into a fictional story. Talk about some creative storytelling, for real!
The Wavelengths lineup isn’t just about features; it’s also got a killer selection of short and mid-length films that are definitely bussin’. We’re talking Kamal Aljafari with ‘Masao Adachi Takes a Passport Photo’, a portrait of a legendary Japanese iconoclast, and Maryam Tafakory’s ‘Ghazal-e Sorkh’, an essay film recounting a historical boycott. Then there’s Zheng Lu Xinyuan’s nocturnal ‘Fire Flies’, which sounds like a cool, flashlight-illuminated stroll through the mountains with a filmmaker. Plus, the festival is dropping even more world premieres, including Parastoo Anoushahpour’s ‘Peacocks Come with the Clouds’, Rita Ferrando’s ‘After Image’ tracing a family’s migration, and Mustafa Uzuner’s 16mm ‘The Address Book’, among others. This whole section is giving serious art-house vibes.
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Livia Dorne covers film, television, music, and pop culture with a keen editorial perspective. She delivers engaging commentary, reviews, and behind-the-scenes insights that keep readers connected to the entertainment world. Her style blends critique with storytelling.
