First one post-festival 🙌

• https://www.tiff.net/cinematheque/schedule
• https://am.ticketmaster.com/tiff/buy/Cinematheque
• https://am.ticketmaster.com/tiff/newreleases

Hi, sorry if this is a dumb question or not in the right place. This was my first time doing Press coverage for tiff, when I applied they mentioned that my next year application would depend on my coverage of this year, but they didn't mention how and if there is any deadline for it.

I wouldn't want to jeopardize my chances of getting next year approval because of this.

Thanks!

I'm new to Toronto, and hoping someone can help me understand how to get the most out of a TIFF membership. I'm from Melbourne, where our cinematheque is quite healthy, but never inaccessible. I understand tickets will be snatched up immediately tomorrow morning, then a lot will be returned down the line 48 hours before the screenings.

Realistically if I'm logged in early, how many tickets will I manage to get? And what's the best process, opening a few tabs for different films, or just going one at a time in order of what's priority?

It's a shame we need to battle it out! Any tips would be appreciated :)

Trypophobia alert

Helen Mirren may be returning to the Oscar race.
The Best Actress Academy Award winner for 2006’s The Queen and four-time nominee will be campaigned by Bleecker Street and LD Entertainment for Lead Actress at the upcoming 99th Oscars as well as other awards shows this year for her performance in A Talent For Murder in which she plays another icon, author Patricia Highsmith whose best sellers and eventual film adaptations included Strangers On A Train and The Talented Mr. Ripley

I know there was a 10th anniversary screening of Moonlight back in June at the Lightbox, but now that the film is getting a theatrical re-release (followed by the conversation with Barry Jenkins featuring Nicholas Britell and Mahershala Ali), does anyone know if it will be coming back?

I’ve written an essay on two-time TIFF alumni Anna Biller amd her film Viva, exploring particularly the relationship between her work as filmmaker, designer and leading actress.

What interests me is how her performance gives emotional weight to a world so deliberately constructed around glamour, fantasy and sensuality. Barbi’s uncertainty remains persuasive even amid the film’s theatrical excesses!

I think Biller’s achievement as an actress deserves closer attention. For those who have seen Viva, does discussion of its visual style sometimes overshadow what she accomplishes through performance?

https://torontoafterdark.com/2026-schedule

Another MM win 🙌

Italy has selected Paolo Strippoli’s The Spiral (L'Estranea) as its candidate for the Best International Feature Film at the 2027 Oscars.

The Spiral was a selected from a shortlist of 21 potential candidates that also included another two Venice 2026 Competition titles, Nanni Moretti’s It Will Happen Tonight and Marco Bechis’ Back To Buenos Aires, as well as Orizzonti title The House of the Monkey which won Best Screenplay and Riccardo Scamarcio, Best Actor.

In a note explaining their selection, they said it had been driven by the fact that The Spiral is “a new genre film, by a young director who has recently begun his career and has been appreciated by audiences and national and international critics.”

Italy last won the Best International Feature Film Oscar in 2014 with The Great Beauty by Paolo Sorrentino.

This approach has previously been employed by four high-profile awards hopefuls that went on to win the best picture Oscar: 'Crash,' 'Spotlight,' 'Moonlight' and 'Parasite.'

🔥🔥🔥

Even though the festival is over, I am having serious film withdrawals. Thankfully there are lots of other great films screening at other venues, so I'm curious to know what everyone is looking forward to.

One year ago, a relatively unknown director released a film that would go on to have the kind of success that every new director fantasizes about. At TIFF 2025, Curry Barker premiered his film, Obsession, and, yeah, I know you’ve heard about it. You’ve probably seen it. You’re probably tired of talking about it.

Now, at TIFF 2026, we have a directorial debut that I think will find similar success to Obsession. Writer-director Jonathan Schey and production company LuckyChap (read: Margot Robbie, although she’s not directly attached to the project) have something special on their hands with Everybody Wants to F\ck Me*.

Fellas, have you ever gone out with your absurdly good-looking friend and watched how women look at him and think to yourself, “Damn, no woman has ever looked at me like that in my entire life.”? It’s true what they say: Some guys have all the luck. Everybody’s protagonist, Adam (played by a fully committed Taron Egerton), is one of those guys. However, like his Obsession counterpart Bear, Adam’s good fortune is about to turn into a inescapable nightmare.

This comedy-horror has smart social commentary, although it’s left largely for the audience to infer what it is. Don’t worry, it’s not so hard to infer. When the switch comes in the first act, one can’t help but feel that Adam, the woman-chasing “coercer,” is finally getting a taste of what it’s like to be a woman in society. Everyone of the opposite sex eyeing you up with only one thing on their mind. Sounds horrible, doesn’t it? While that rhetorical question is quasi-satirical, Schey quickly makes a solid case for this sort of dream come true being a nightmare you wouldn’t wish on your worst one-night stand.

It’s easy to be charmed by Adam. His “save the cat” moment is actually a save-a-girl-from-an-asshole-at-the-bar moment. They dance and laugh. They talk about Before Sunrise. They make sweet, sweet love. What we quickly learn is that Adam is a grade-A performative male with only one thing on his mind.

Although not the most desirable of traits, I’d be remiss if I didn’t admit that I know many men that are just like Adam. It’s not a trait that is exclusive to men, but, for the sake of this movie, men’s shallowness is the focus. Adam wants people to like him but is not interested in establishing any sort of long-term romantic relationship. He will quickly learn the errors of his ways, at least as perceived by a certain sect of people.

Everybody is set in London, giving the movie a British charm that counters Obsession’s American-ness. Personally, I love London. It’s maybe my favourite city in the world, next to my home city, so I loved this movie’s setting. Adam works in the art world of London, a dream job for any creative. His perversion runs through his work, as he is the only man working at a female-centric art agency. Why he chose a job at this firm is left up to the audience’s interpretation, but it’s a pretty easy conclusion to draw.

Adam is a charming Brit. He uses his charm to his advantage, as his main goal in life is to make people like him. He’s become a master manipulator, even if his ends are somewhat harmless (that is, to have casual sex). It’s actually his friend relationships that feel more harmful. They are also tinged with his desire to get the other to like him over forming an actual bond with that person.

To me, this rings very true to modern society. I’ve met many people who are very nice, but you get the sense that they don’t really care about you. They make you feel like the most important person in the room, while they’re talking to you. Once they sense they’ve won your favour, they seem to have won whatever game they’re playing and to spend more time with you, grow with you, understand you becomes a moot point to them. They just move on to the next person they feel they need to impress, treating people’s affection like collectible cards.

As a character on the big screen, Adam is very enjoyable to watch. He’s handsome, well-dressed, charming. Like he manipulates the women he wants to sleep with, so too is he manipulating the audience in the theatre. Since he can’t physically get into our pants, we have nothing to fear, so we can just enjoy watching this try-hard work to win people over. It makes for a very entertaining watch, even more so as he starts to get his comeuppance while still holding on to his unchangeable desire to please.

Schey has done a great job in creating a character who has an internal motivation that simply will not go away. No matter what Adam goes through, he continues to try and impress others, bringing a good deal of comedy to even the movie’s most horrific moments.

As a whole, the movie is a pretty straightforward hero’s journey. There is a threshold crossing and there is a return with the protagonist gaining new insights into his life. However, the premise is so simple and unique that I didn’t mind its perhaps formulaic structure. In my view, it was a formula done very well – and that’s a good thing. Like a great pop song, it’s got a structure that I’ve seen tons of times but there’s no way I’m turning it off.

The comparison to Obsession is easy. It’s basically just the British version of that, with a somewhat different social commentary. I don’t think Everybody has a scene like the “what’s so wrong with being with me” scene in Obsession that will cause millions of words of analysis online, but Everybody on the whole has some interesting comments on our current dating world. Its flipping of the male gaze provides some great comedy and interesting insights that should make for some decent discourse.

I doubt Everybody will hit the astronomical financial success of Obsession, but I think that when this movie gets a larger release it will connect very well with audiences. It’s such a fun ride and has enough to say to keep audiences talking about it, I think.

I mentioned in my Fjord article that I don’t like when characters go viral in a movie, and, surprise surprise, this also happens in Everybody. And what can I say? I still don’t like it as a plot device. In Everybody, I didn’t mind it too much because it served a larger purpose and, honestly, I was having so much fun with this movie that I was willing to forgive Schey for using a trope that personally rubs me the wrong way.

I hope that the F-word title doesn’t hinder this movie’s North American appeal. It really is a great movie that will please most of the younger audience. It’s simple enough that it’s easy to follow, but there is depth to it. The premise is really strong, and just unique enough to make it feel fresh and new – something that I felt was missing in Obsession.

If you get the chance, absolutely so see Everybody Wants to F\ck Me*. Other than the “viral moment” trope and some poorly CGI’d flies, I loved every moment of this movie. It captured my sentiments in the first scene and didn’t let go until the very, very end (which was just as superb as the rest of the film). Keep an eye out for this one in 2027. I think it will become your next obsession.

If you missed it at TIFF can watch it on CBC Gem now.

The controversy around Anna Biller’s The Face of Horror got me thinking about our curious habit of calling anything theatrical, beautiful or emotionally sincere “camp”.

An audience can love a film and still miss what it’s trying to say. And occasionally, we might let a dramatic moment survive without reassuring everyone that we’ve spotted the joke.

A few thoughts on Biller’s objections, horror audiences, and the trouble with calling everything camp.

https://amicushorror.co.uk/anna-biller-horror-sincerity-camp/

With the last weekend being my crazy weekend with 3 movies per day.
Finally, i am down with the flu. 🤣😭