The 2025 Toronto International Film Festival has announced the final slate of Tribute Award recipients two weeks away from the festival kicking off. The annual gala at TIFF honors those with projects screening at the festival or with larger ties to Toronto, with proceeds from the event supporting TIFF’s 50th anniversary campaign, Transform Together.
The new honorees include Idris Elba, Channing Tatum, Nina Hoss, Zacharias Kunuk, Jafar Panahi, make-up artist Kazu Hiro, and Catherine O’Hara. They join the previously announced slate of Guillermo del Toro, Jodie Foster, HIKARI, and Lee Byung Hun. As previously announced, Brendan Fraser will serve as the event’s honorary chair.
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Elba, who is attending the festival with his directorial debut short film “Dust to Dreams,” will receive the TIFF Tribute Award in Impact Media. Oscar-winning effects makeup artist Hiro, who has collaborated with everyone from Akira Kurosawa to Dwayne Johnson, will receive the TIFF Variety Artisan Award. Tatum, who leads Derek Cianfrance’s “Roofman,” and Hoss, who stars in Nia DaCosta’s “Hedda,” will each be honored with the TIFF Tribute Performer Award.
Filmmaker Kunuk is returning to the festival with his latest work “Uiksaringitara (Wrong Husband)” and will receive a TIFF Special Tribute Award for his contribution to the advancement of Inuit stories in cinema. Panahi will receive the TIFF Special Tribute Award after having won the Palme d’Or for his film “It Was Just an Accident.” And O’Hara will receive the TIFF Norman Jewison Career Achievement Award for her career that spans “SCTV” to “Schitt’s Creek.”
“The 2025 Tribute Award honourees represent the very best of what cinema can achieve,” TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey said in a statement. “Hailing from different corners of the world, Idris Elba, Kazu Hiro, Nina Hoss, Zacharias Kunuk, Catherine O’Hara, Jafar Panahi, and Channing Tatum have created work that moves us, challenges us, and expands our understanding of the human experience. Their artistry and commitment to storytelling cross borders and cultures, inspiring audiences everywhere.”
The seventh annual TIFF Tribute Awards will take place on Sunday, September 7, at Fairmont Royal York Hotel. The 50th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival, presented by Rogers, runs September 4–14, 2025. Tickets for TIFF 50 go on sale to TIFF Members by level beginning Friday, August 15, and single tickets will go on sale to the public on Monday, August 25.
