| Welcome to a special daily edition of the Envelope at TIFF, a newsletter collecting the latest developments out of Canada's annual film showcase. Sign up here to get it in your inbox. |
| Have you seen the images from our photo gallery? Staff photographer Christina House and her crew are truly capturing the best of the fest. |
| There are wonderful shots up now, including Elle Fanning, Ethan Hawke, Channing Tatum and more, but this link will be updated periodically with others. |
| Expect Cillian Murphy, the cast of Rian Johnson's 'Wake Up Dead Man,' Jessie Buckley, Paul Mescal, Cillian Murphy and more surprises! |
The day's buzziest premieres |
'Good Fortune' |
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| Aziz Ansari, left, and Keanu Reeves in the movie "Good Fortune." (Eddy Chen/Lionsgate/Eddy Chen / Lionsgate) |
| A low-level guardian angel righting a wrong feels like the set-up to a classic comedy. But amid a premise motivated by income inequality, there's a distinctly current edge to "Good Fortune," the debut feature of writer-director-star Aziz Ansari. |
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| A struggling film editor who makes ends meet as a food delivery driver, Arj (Ansari) is at the end of his rope when said angel Gabriel (Keanu Reeves) switches his life with Jeff (Seth Rogen), a wealthy, self-important tech investor. |
| Except, instead of realizing things are tough all over, Arj decides he likes Jeff's life better and doesn't want to switch back. Which is only the beginning of the complications for these three lost souls. |
| Looking for hope in an out-of-balance world while laced with a righteously indignant anger (and set against distinctly L.A. locations), "Good Fortune" is social satire with a big heart. — Mark Olsen |
'Canceled: The Paula Deen Story' |
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| Paula Deen in the documentary "Canceled: The Paula Deen Story." (TIFF) |
| Hungry for a brisk, witty documentary that's as easy to enjoy as a plate of hot biscuits? Filmmaker Billy Corben analyzes the tabloid feeding frenzy that chewed up celebrity TV chef Paula Deen when she admitted to using a racial slur. |
| Going in, I only knew two things about Deen: the 2013 scandal and her staunch devotion to butter. Her full story is fascinating, especially buttressed by contemporary interviews with Deen and her two sons, Bobby and Jamie, who all specialize in Southern-fried zingers: "It came on like a snowball full of chainsaws," says Jamie of the media blitz. |
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| A complex schematic of the cancelation machine, "Canceled" argues that Deen was punished double that summer because Trayvon Martin's killer wasn't punished at all. The great archival footage makes you get why audiences once loved Deen — and it's evident how much her family and friends still do, even if Corben greases her mea culpa to the point that you feel a little queasy. — Amy Nicholson |
'Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery' |
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| Josh O'Connor, left, and Daniel Craig in Rian Johnson's movie "Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery," having its world premiere as part of the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival. (Netflix) |
| One of the real pleasures of the witty, surprising films made by writer-director Rian Johnson starring Daniel Craig as Southern gentleman detective Benoit Blanc is that, within the confines of the murder mystery, they could take place just about anywhere: a patriarch's creaky mansion, a billionaire's private island and now a small town's historic church. |
| Or at least that's the best we know from the scant details made public about the new "Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery" ahead of its TIFF world premiere tonight. Craig returns as Blanc but joining the cast this time are Josh O'Connor, Josh Brolin, Mila Kunis, Kerry Washington, Jeremy Renner, Daryl McCormack, Cailee Spaeny, Thomas Haden Church, Andrew Scott and Glenn Close. |
| The festival has been a good luck charm so far, with the previous two "Knives Out" movies premiering at TIFF in the same theater, day and time slot and both going on to Oscar nominations for their screenplays. — Mark Olsen |
They couldn't stop talking, even before the cameras for 'Poetic License' were rolling |
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| Andrew Barth Feldman, left, Cooper Hoffman and Leslie Mann in "Poetic License," having its world premiere as part of the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival. (TIFF) |
| Mark Olsen has a fun interview with the banter-ific Andrew Barth Feldman and Cooper Hoffman, costars of Maude Apatow's new movie "Poetic Licence." They were friends before they shot the film and their verbal mutual affection — honed to a crazy degree of anticipation — is something to behold. They've raised bromance to an art form. |
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His apocalyptic art film 'Sirât' dances in the face of oblivion. That's why people love it |
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| Director Oliver Laxe, photographed in the Los Angeles Times Studios at RBC House during the Toronto International Film Festival. (Christina House / Los Angeles Times) |
| Director Oliver Laxe has made a truly unique art film about a restless group of ravers who drive out in the the desert on the eve of what could be the end of the world. Since its debut at Cannes, "Sirât" is acquiring superfans — critics and audiences alike — wherever it plays. On the occasion of his first TIFF screening, Laxe spoke to me about his commitment to risk. |
