The Toronto International Film Festival, returning for its 50th edition next month, is an important platform for films from the Middle East, offering space for emerging and established Arab filmmakers.
Running from September 4 to 14 this year, the annual event is one of the world's largest and most influential film festivals.
This year’s Platform programme jury will be led by Spanish filmmaker Carlos Marques-Marcet, known for 10,000 KM and The Days to Come. The festival opens with John Candy: I Like Me by Colin Hanks and will close with Anne Emond’s Peak Everything (Amour Apocalypse).
The 2025 programme highlights a wide selection of films from the Middle East, spanning feature-length and short formats. Here are some of the titles to look out for.
Palestine 36 by Annemarie Jacir
One of the most anticipated Arab films at Tiff is Annemarie Jacir’s Palestine 36. Set against the backdrop of the 1936 revolt during British rule, the film's cast includes Hiam Abbass, Saleh Bakri, Jeremy Irons, Liam Cunningham and Dhafer L’Abidine.
Jacir has been a central figure in Palestinian cinema for two decades, previously directing Salt of This Sea, When I Saw You and Wajib. Her latest work, a 118-minute historical drama, screens as a Gala Presentation on opening weekend.
Calle Malaga by Maryam Touzani
Moroccan director Maryam Touzani makes a language shift with Calle Malaga, her first Spanish-language feature. The film follows a 74-year-old woman in Tangier, played by Carmen Maura, who refuses to part with her home despite her daughter’s wishes. Marta Etura and Maria Alfonsa Rosso take supporting roles.
Touzani’s profile has grown steadily since Adam and The Blue Caftan, which were both Moroccan Oscar submissions. After its premiere in Venice, this intergenerational drama now heads to Toronto.
The Voice of Hind Rajab by Kaouther Ben Hania
Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania’s film The Voice of Hind Rajab is based on the final hours of a five-year-old Palestinian girl killed by the Israeli military in Gaza in early 2024. Hind Rajab's death gained international attention after audio recordings of her emergency call to the Red Crescent were released, in which she described being trapped in a car surrounded by the bodies of her relatives.
The film has also been selected for the Venice Film Festival, marking another major step for Ben Hania’s bold hybrid filmmaking.
With Hasan in Gaza by Kamal Aljafari
A lost film reel is the starting point for Kamal Aljafari’s With Hasan in Gaza. Shot in 2001 and rediscovered years later, the footage is reworked into a meditation on memory, loss and the persistence of everyday life.
Aljafari, the Palestinian filmmaker known for Port of Memory and Recollection, uses cinema as an archival tool against erasure. Tiff will screen the film alongside Basma al-Sharif’s short It’s So Beautiful Here.
It’s So Beautiful Here by Basma Al Sharif
Only four minutes long but with a powerful impact, BasmaAl Sharif’s It’s So Beautiful Here captures a horse ride through a Gaza farm at dusk. Al-Sharif, a Palestinian artist whose practice moves between film and installation, is also known for Ouroboros and Home Movies Gaza.
Unidentified by Haifaa Al Mansour
Haifaa Al Mansour, Saudi Arabia’s trailblazing female director, turns to crime drama in Unidentified. The plot follows a mother, haunted by grief and true-crime obsessions, who investigates the killing of a teenage girl in the desert.
The film stars Mila Al Zahrani and Shafi Al Harthi and is already set for release by Sony Pictures Classics. Al Mansour is best known for Wadjda, the first feature shot entirely in Saudi Arabia, and The Perfect Candidate.
Flana by Zahraa Ghandour
Iraqi filmmaker and actress Zahraa Ghandour brings a personal lens to Flana, a documentary that examines the disappearances of women in Iraq. Ghandour grew up in a household of midwives, a perspective that informs her exploration of gender and violence. Known on screen for her role in Mohamed Al Daradji’s The Journey, she also co-directed Chaos in 2018.
Cairo Streets by Abdellah Taia
Set in January 2007, Cairo Streets follows a man who returns to the city in search of an old flame. The 19-minute short by Moroccan novelist and filmmaker Abdellah Taia was produced in France and appeared at this month's Locarno Film Festival in Switzerland. Taia's debut feature Salvation Army earned wide acclaim.
Sink (Gharaq) by Zain Duraie
A mother confronts her son’s unravelling mental health in Sink (Gharaq), the debut feature from Jordanian filmmaker Zain Duraie.
Duraie directed the shorts Horizon and Give Up the Ghost, the latter of which was screened in Venice. With the backing of the Doha Film Institute, she has moved on to features with a story rooted in contemporary family struggles.
Land of Barbar by Fredj Moussa
French-Tunisian artist Fredj Moussa draws inspiration from an unexpected source, Giovanni Boccaccio’s 14th-century story collection The Decameron, reimagining it through a North African lens.
His film Land of Barbar, shot in the Tunisian city of Sousse, will premiere in Tiff’s Wavelengths section, marking his first screening at a major festival.
