TIFF 2025: Here are five movies you won’t want to miss this year

Celebrating its 50th anniversary, the Toronto International Film Festival had everything this year: great movies, big stars and even a chance to visit the infamous Criterion Closet.

Covering the festival for my podcast Cinematary along with The Charlotte Observer is always a treasure and a chance to see some of the movies you’ll be heading to the multiplex or Independent Picture House to see in the fall and winter.

In no particular order, here are five of the best movies I saw at TIFF:

“Sentimental Value”

Norwegian writer/director Joachim Trier has become an arthouse name in the past decade with his Oslo trilogy, namely his most recent entry, “The Worst Person in the World.” He’s back with his star from that film, Renate Reinsve, along with familiar face Stellan Skarsgard in “Sentimental Value.”

Skarsgard, known for appearing in the “Thor” and “Mamma Mia” movies, plays Gustav Borg, a once great director who has fallen into irrelevancy over the past decade-plus. He’s written a script with the hope of making the film with his eldest daughter, Nora (Reinsve), who is an accomplished stage actor.

Nora’s relationship with her father is fraught after he left them while they were young. While he’s able to connect with her younger sister Agnes (Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas) because she has a family, he’s unable to break ground with unattached and adrift Nora.

She rejects his offer, so he extends it to an up-and-coming American actress named Rachel Kemp (Elle Fanning), who meets Borg at a retrospective and wants to work with the storied director.

What follows is a much more mature film than “Worst Person in the World,” as it explores the spaces between people. The family’s home sits like a monument with its stylish architecture and history oozing from its walls, but it feels barren and cold after their mother dies in the film’s opening scenes.

“Sentimental Value” asks how we’re able to dig ourselves out of a hole with not only other people, but also with ourselves while ruminating how familial relationships change over time.

The film should make an appearance at the Independent Picture House along with other Charlotte theaters this fall.

“Blue Heron”

I said at the top that this was not a ranked list, but I have to divulge that this was my favorite movie that I saw in Toronto this year. A first feature for Canadian-Hungarian documentarian Sophy Romvari, “Blue Heron” is a semi-autobiographical story of Sasha, the only daughter in a family of six who has just moved into a new home.

We see the world through Sasha’s eyes and that means we see the trouble between her parents and their oldest child, Jeremy.

A teenager, Jeremy has had trouble most of his life, but it has begun to metastasize into instances that involve harm to himself and the law. Sasha’s parents struggle to get a hold of their child, and eventually it leads to an intervention from social services.

There’s a major shift that happens in the second half of the movie that is best experienced with no prior knowledgeIt really takes his familial drama up to something quite special.

Romvari cut her teeth with documentaries that also have explored her familial history, and this feels like a culmination of that work. To get a sense, you can find her film “Still Processing” on YouTube where she investigates a series of photos from her past for the first time while filming herself.

“Blue Heron” currently doesn’t have a distributor, but I hope this beautiful film finds a way into local theaters.

“It Was Just An Accident”

If you’re not familiar with Iranian director Jafar Panahi, I would quickly Google him to understand why it’s always a miracle to get a new movie from him. His latest also might be one of his best.

A family is driving down a rural road when a dog comes out of nowhere and they collide with the animal. The event is traumatizing to the young girl in the back and after driving for a few minutes, her father realizes that something is wrong with their car.

He’s near a garage and while they won’t be able to make the fix, they have a quick solution to get him home.

Vahid is working in the back when he notices this strange man and his family enter the garage. But he’s shocked: this is the man who was part of a regime that tortured him and many others he knows. Not only that, but this man was the most sadistic.

Well, he sure thinks it’s the same guy, but he isn’t sure. He’ll just have to kidnap him.

“It Was Just An Accident” veers from recent films of Panahi’s and becomes a straight thriller. It’s got a bit of everything and is able to tow the line between humor and darkness as well as anything produced in Hollywood. What will Vahid do? Is the man actually his torturer? We’re left pondering these questions and asking ourselves how we would handle the situation.

“It Was Just An Accident” won the Palme D’Or at the Cannes Film Festival this year and should be coming to local theaters this fall or early winter.

“Sirât”

The ultimate “don’t read anything before you see this” movie of the year so I’ll keep it vague and brief. Trust me, you won’t want to miss “Sirât.”

We meet Luis (Sergi Lopez) and his son Esteban (Bruno Nunez Arjona) in the middle of a rave in the Moroccan desert. No, they aren’t participating but they have a hunch that Esteban’s sister might be here. She’s been missing for months and they believe she is attending a rave in the area.

But the party is shut down early, and the duo link up with a band of roving ravers so they can find the next party and continue their search.

Think “Wages of Fear” or “Sorcerer” and maybe toss in a little early “Mad Max” for an idea of the journey you’re signing up for. It’s shocking, surreal and brutal, but an experience in the theater that you won’t forget.

“Sirât” should be getting a release early next year and should be making an appearance at the Independent Picture House when that happens.

“Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery”

We’re becoming spoiled with these great “Knives Out’ mysteries. And the next one doesn’t disappoint.

The third entry in the Rian Johnson-directed franchise brings famed detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) to a Gothic tale that finds a controversial pastor (Josh Brolin) dead during his Good Friday service. Johnson told the Toronto crowd at the premiere that this entry is inspired by Edgar Allan Poe and John Dickson Carr. The film doesn’t disappoint.

It’s spooky and leans into being a bit more scary than previous entries.

The cast includes Glenn Close, Josh O’Connor, Jeremy Renner, Kerry Washington, Andrew Scott, Cailee Spaney and Mila Kunis with a setting that feels more reminiscent of the first movie in the franchise compared to the more recent “Glass Onion.”

“Knives Out” movies have become comfort food when they’re released and “Wake Up Dead Man” is no different. The movie will get a limited run in theaters around Thanksgiving before moving to Netflix on Dec. 12.

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This story was originally published September 9, 2025 at 6:00 AM with the headline "TIFF 2025: Here are five movies you won’t want to miss this year."

Zach Dennis

The Charlotte Observer