The Toronto International Film Festival 2023 is on

Big film festivals are always a somewhat surreal experience. You spend a few days or even a week mostly stuffed inside of a theater, trying to cram in as many films as possible. Then, you have to sort through them and pick your favorites.

It’s a fun challenge, and it’s particularly tough at the Toronto International Film Festival, which is huge; this year’s edition featured movies from 70 different countries. We managed to squeeze in quite a few features — between the two of us, we saw a total of more than 30 movies during the festival — but still couldn’t see everything. So this list of our favorite films from TIFF comes with some caveats, namely that there are definitely some gaps in what we managed to watch, which is impossible to avoid. Also: this list does not include Hayao Miyazaki’s The Boy and the Heron since we already reviewed it earlier this year to coincide with its Japanese premiere.

Saudi Arabia’s wealth and reputation for having one of the world’s lowest poverty rates have solidified it as being a uniquely prosperous place devoid of a working class in many people’s minds. But with his debut feature, Mandoob, which premiered at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, director Ali Kalthami tells a darkly comedic, gripping tale about the lives of Saudi Arabia’s gig workers, who toil in the shadows to make the fantastical lives of elites possible.

Set in the traffic-congested heart of Saudi Arabia’s capital city, Riyadh, Mandoob chronicles the winding story of Fahad Algaddani (Mohammed Aldokhei), a restless call center worker whose habitual lateness getting to the office and apathy regarding irrational customers put his job in danger. As much as Fahad struggles to be on time getting to work or being there for his aspiring entrepreneur sister Sarah (Hajar Alshammari), their ailing father Nasser (Mohammed Alttowayan) knows that his son means well and genuinely wants what’s best for the family.

Fingernails, a sci-fi romcom coming to Apple TV Plus from director Christos Nikou, imagines a future where one very specific technology has changed the world. In this timeline, scientists have figured out how to conclusively determine if two people are in love. This upends relationships as we know them, with couples sticking steadfastly to the results of the test; if they get a negative result, they end up splitting up. It’s a cute conceit for exploring the ways relationships can grow stale or change over time, and Fingernails builds on that with its darkly comedic vibe. It also has a surprising amount of body horror — the nature of which you might be able to glean from the title.

The film centers on Anna (Jessie Buckley), a teacher who is in a long-term — and test-approved — relationship with her boyfriend Ryan (Jeremy Allen White). They’ve reached the comfortable phase of their relationship; things aren’t exactly exciting anymore, but it could be worse than cuddling on the couch and watching documentaries every night. Plus, science has assured them that they’re meant to be together. Things take a turn when Anna starts a new job at The Love Institute, which not only performs the aforementioned love tests but also offers a series of lessons to prep couples for success. For reasons that aren’t made entirely clear, she keeps this new gig a secret from Ryan.

Just yesterday, I included Fingernails in a list of movies from the Toronto International Film Festival that would be streaming very soon. And now, we have our very first trailer for the sci-fi romcom, which is coming to Apple TV Plus.

Directed by Christos Nikou, Fingernails is set in a sort of retrofuturistic world where scientists have developed a test that can prove that two people are (or aren’t) in love. It then uses this oddball premise to set up a love triangle between its trio of stars — Jessie Buckley, Riz Ahmed, and Jeremy Allen White — as they attempt to navigate a world where a machine can determine whether a relationship lives or dies. It’s a quiet, dark comedy with a touch of body horror — the test itself involves yanking off a fingernail from each person.

Film festivals like TIFF are a great chance to get a sense of what’s coming to theaters in the coming months, but they’re also a good way to preview the upcoming streaming calendar. Last year in Toronto, for example, Netflix gave an early look at two of its biggest releases with both Wendell & Wild and Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. This year was no different, with upcoming movies coming to Netflix, Hulu, and Apple TV Plus all part of the program.

(The streamers also went shopping at TIFF, so there’s more on the way: Netflix acquired the rights to both Anna Kendrick’s Woman of the Hour and Richard Linklater’s Hit Man during the festival.)

This year is shaping up to be a good one for horror, particularly on the festival circuit. Things kicked off nice and early at Sundance with the impressive quartet of Birth/Rebirth, Talk To Me, In My Mother’s Skin, and Infinity Pool. This month at TIFF, meanwhile, I watched another four movies that each add something interesting to the genre. What’s most impressive about these films is how, when combined, they really show off the breadth of what’s possible under the horror banner. You’ll wince and cover your eyes, but you’ll also laugh.

Sleep is the first feature from director Jason Yu, and it really taps into a common fear: namely, that something absolutely awful is going to happen when you’re sleepwalking. It follows a young couple — played by Jung Yu-mi (from Train to Busan) and Lee Sun-kyun (Parasite and the Apple TV Plus series Dr. Brain) — who live in a cozy apartment with their little Pomeranian and are preparing for the arrival of their first child.

The Boy and the Heron, Hayao Miyazaki’s first feature film in a decade, probably won’t be his last after all. Studio Ghibli executive Junichi Nishioka told CBC News that not only does he not feel like retiring anymore, he’s actively coming into work to create yet another film.

“Other people say that [The Boy and the Heron] might be his last film, but he doesn’t feel that way at all,” Nishioka told CBC, through a translator, at the Toronto International Film Festival (via Gizmodo).

With the ongoing labor strikes in Hollywood, this year’s Toronto International Film Festival will look a little different than normal. Namely, it’ll be missing much of the star power that’s typically a big part of the festival’s draw. But while much of the creative talent won’t be at TIFF 2023, there are still plenty of movies that will be premiering this year.

In 2022, there was an eclectic range of features on show, everything from Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery to Weird: The Al Yankovic Story to Pearl. Expect a similar level of diversity this time around, headlined by the North American premiere of The Boy and the Heron, the latest animated feature from Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli.

One of the most secretive films of the year just got a little less mysterious with the first trailer for The Boy and the Heron. The latest film from Studio Ghibli and perhaps the final feature-length project from famed director Hayao Miyazaki, The Boy and the Heron premiered in Japan in July.

In the lead-up to its debut, Ghibli was refreshingly vague in discussing the film, which is also known as How Do You Live (and based on Genzaburo Yoshino’s novel of the same name). Prior to the trailer, all fans had to go on were a few still images, simple plot descriptions, and the teasiest of teasers.