The TIFF51 Experience: Day Ten | The Festival Isn’t Finished With Me Yet

By Ross

It’s almost a “wrap” as the last few days of TIFF create their own strange energy. The press screenings are all but finished, many of the big openings filled with stars and directors have come and gone, and those of us who are still here have heard the pre-show videos about the aesthetics of film, the events, the People’s Choice voting, and the volunteer thank-you so many times that we have started responding to them ourselves. “It’s a burrito” has become its own little Rocky Horror Show-style callout, accompanied by the collective sweet growl that greets the slide about film piracy. It is all part of the fun of getting this deep into the festival, when the things that once felt like background details have become part of our shared TIFF language. And yet, on my second-to-last day, I still felt that little jolt of excitement walking into the theatre for my second television screening. So, with a deep breath taken, here we go.

Below

Jesse McKeown – WORLD PREMIERE – Canada | 2026 | 80m | English

Something monstrous lurks off the coast in this suspenseful, Newfoundland-set limited series, starring Josh Hartnett (Trap) and Mackenzie Davis (Station Eleven).

In the small coastal village where Calvin Penney (Josh Hartnett, Bunraku, TIFF ’10) lives, there’s a long tradition of intimate connection to the sea. Commercial fishery and, more recently, harvesting ice from icebergs that have drifted into the bay are the backbone of the local economy. It’s a family way of life that Calvin hopes to sustain and pass down to at least one of his children — the wayward Wade (Charlie Heaton, Stranger Things), the adventurous Mary (Ruby Stokes, Where is Anne Frank, TIFF ’21), or the entrepreneurial Jay (Rohan Campbell, The Monkey), home for a visit from his money-making venture in Alberta.

The family reunion happens as the local townspeople are due to vote on a government initiative for relocation, offering cash for resettlement and creating tension between those who see opportunity, and those who can’t imagine leaving their home. But the debate is put on the back burner when strange events start happening near the harbour: harvested ice starts to exude a strange odour, and a couple of tourists seem to have gone missing. As Calvin seeks the help of local marine biologist Fonda Howander (Mackenzie Davis) in trying to understand what’s happening in the waters, his history on the island becomes something he can no longer ignore. 

Created by Canadian screenwriter Jesse McKeown (The Umbrella Academy), “Below” strikes a rich balance between the warmth of a close-knit family, steeped in tradition and the genuine love of a place, with the chilly depths of marine monstrousness. As the times change around them, the locals know one thing always remains true: the sea holds many mysteries, and is very, very deep. – GEOFF MACNAUGHTON

Like “YAGA” before it, “Below” gives us the first two episodes of a series that we all are being invited to discover, engage with, and hopefully become a little obsessed with before it reaches the Netflix airwaves. I love that TIFF can create this kind of encounter, where I can sit in a theatre and experience a television series as a festival screening, surrounded by people who are there because they are interested in what might be waiting for them next. With Josh Hartnett and Mackenzie Davis leading a story built around a Newfoundland family, a community facing relocation, and something very strange happening beneath the water, “Below” gave me plenty to sink into and look forward to.

After “Below“, the day moved into two very different examinations of love, desire, and the complicated ways people try to connect with one another. “The Man I Love” is a moody examination of loving someone who loves to be loved, but may not have much more of himself available to give, set against the reality of New York in the 1980s, when AIDS was devastating the community around these characters. “Everybody Wants to F*ck Me” takes that question of emotional availability into very different territory, following a man who seems much more invested in being seen as a ‘nice guy’ than in actually being emotionally available to another person. I’ll have more to say about both films in their upcoming reviews, but seeing them back-to-back gave the day an unexpected emotional thread, with each film leaving me thinking about what people say they want from other people and what they are actually capable of giving.

The Man I Love

Ira Sachs – CANADIAN PREMIERE – United States of America | 2026 | 97m | English

Ira Sachs’ vision of New York artists living under the spectre of AIDS in the ’80s focuses on the joy and salvation of creativity.

The protagonist of Ira Sachs’ new drama, “The Man I Love“, is an actor and performance artist in 1980s New York who’s dying of AIDS. His diagnosis is central to the plot, but, just as Jimmy (Rami Malek, TIFF ‘25’s Nuremberg) remains the defiant author of his own life, Sachs eschews the familiar beats of a story about illness, instead excavating a naturalistic portrait of a group of artists in a very particular time and place.

As is fitting for such a mesmeric character, we hear about Jimmy before we see him. After a recent hospital stay, he feels more alive than ever, and is ready to concentrate his energy on a starring role in an adaptation of a work by Québécois playwright Michel Tremblay. “The Man I Love” lingers on impromptu performances, conversations around the dinner table, and long, grounded theatre rehearsal scenes: the communal act of creation remains central. The film’s visual language is warm and inviting, prioritizing rich textures and intricate details over strict medical precision.

But this collective also carries the potential for destruction. Jimmy can be selfish and capricious, taking up all the air in the room. As well, the spectre of the disease is always present, though it often weighs more heavily on Jimmy’s devoted partner Dennis (an unshakeable Tom Sturridge, TIFF ‘23’s Widow Clicquot) and his sister Brenda (Rebecca Hall, TIFF ‘24’s The Listeners) than on Jimmy himself. “The Man I Love” is an idiosyncratic portrait of an artist who above all aches to create. – ROBYN CITIZEN

Everybody Wants to F*ck Me

Jonathan Schey – WORLD PREMIERE – United Kingdom, France | 2026 | 97m | English

Taron Egerton gives a gleefully committed performance as a man determined to be viewed by potential paramours as the ideal catch in director Jonathan Schey’s darkly comic appraisal of modern dating and how some men signal virtues they don’t possess.

Taron Egerton gives a gleefully committed performance as Adam in Jonathan Schey’s darkly comedic debut, riffing on the dating scene and the self-proclaimed “nice guys” who litter it. Adam has mastered all the trappings of enlightened masculinity: listening more than speaking in meetings with women coworkers, reading feminist literature, practicing yoga, and offering a soupçon of self-deprecation when chatting up women at bars or on dating apps. Adam’s longtime friend who once provided cover for his behaviour is growing up and growing weary of being an accomplice.

Adam has had a lifetime of f*ck around, but his find out is just around the corner when he meets Jessica Henwick’s Sofia. Intriguing and sharp, she proves to be a challenge calling out his behaviour. The encounter shakes Adam and, stranger still, everybody (but mostly women) start responding to his carefully studied charms, first with mild interest, then flat-out stalking, then vigorous pursuit — even when he’s appropriately dressed.

Audacious, with genuinely intense moments, Schey takes aim at the absurd realities of modern relationships, the self-mythologizing of online profiles, and the way in which many men have learned to signal virtues they may not possess. At the end of the day can the f*ckboy change his swipes? “Everybody Wants To F*ck Me” does not offer any easy redemptions but there’s a lot of fun to be had in watching the tables turn. – ROBYN CITIZEN

These last two films were both on my list from the very beginning, but their press screenings collided with another film, or with that other unavoidable thing called my life. So there was something satisfying about finally squeezing into their public screenings with my press vouchers on this last weekend of TIFF. Three films in one day is starting to feel like my sweet spot, enough time to become immersed in the festival without feeling like I have disappeared completely into it. And with tomorrow bringing the final day of screenings, I’m holding onto that feeling for one more day. The introduction videos will play, the wrap vs. burrito will be called out, somebody will grrrrr at the piracy slide, and I’ll still be sitting there, holding my breath and wondering what the next film is going to do to me, or where it is going to send me.