With many of the biggest fall festival premieres officially on the calendar, every subsequent lineup announcement leans more and more towards the sicko cinephiles among us. You probably already knew that the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival would feature “The Sound of Falling,” “The Smashing Machine,” and “Frankenstein,” but the newly announced Wavelengths lineup promises to offer plenty of hidden gems you’ve never heard of. And of course, there are a few favorites from other 2025 festivals that Toronto audiences haven’t had a chance to see.
The famously avant-garde section of the festival features nine features and 14 shorts from around the world, each of which pushes the boundaries of cinematic storytelling in some way. Highlights include Kahlil Joseph’s genre-bending art piece “BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions” (which premiered to rave reviews at Sundance), Ben Rivers’ “Mare’s Nest” (which will also be playing NYFF), and the Gael García Bernal-led historical epic “Magellan.”
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Over the past few weeks, TIFF has announced the majority of its selections, including Colin Hanks’ opening night documentary “John Candy: I Like Me,” plus new films from Steven Soderbergh, Nia DaCosta, Chandler Levack, Alejandro Amenábar, and Sung-hyun Byun, the addition of 11 starry titles in the Gala and Special Presentations program (plus that full lineup), the release of the Platform jury and lineup, the full Discovery slate, the always-wild Midnight Madness lineup, its robust documentary slate, the TV-centric Primetime lineup, plus the talents being celebrated at this year’s Tribute gala.
2025 Wavelengths Features (in alphabetical order):
“BLKNWS: Terms & Conditions” | Kahlil Joseph | USA Canadian Premiere
“Copper (Cobre)” | Nicolás Pereda | Canada/Mexico North American Premiere
“Dry Leaf” | Alexandre Koberidze | Germany/Georgia North American Premiere
“Levers” | Rhayne Vermette | Canada World Premiere
“Magellan (Magalhães)” | Lav Diaz | Portugal/Spain/France/Philippines/Taiwan North American Premiere
“Mare’s Nest” | Ben Rivers | France/UK/Canada North American Premiere
“The Seasons (As Estações)” | Maureen Fazendeiro | Portugal/France/Spain/Austria North American Premiere
2025 Wavelengths Pairings:
“With Hasan in Gaza” | Kamal Aljafari | Palestine/Germany/France/Qatar North American Premiere
preceded by
“It’s So Beautiful Here” | Basma al-Sharif | Palestine International Premiere
2025 Wavelengths Shorts:
Wavelengths 1: Map of Traces
Ten Mornings Ten Evenings and One Horizon” | Tomonari Nishikawa | Japan Rojo Žalia Blau | Viktoria Schmid | Austria
World Premiere
“Disappeared” | Sohrab Hura | India/Nepal Canadian Premiere
“09/05/1982” | Jorge Caballero, Camilo Restrepo | Mexico/Spain North American Premiere
“Map of Traces (記憶座標)” | Chan Hau Chun | Hong Kong World Premiere
“En Traversée” | Vadim Kostrov | France Canadian Premiere
Wavelengths 2: Into the Blue
“I Saw the Face of God in the Jet Wash” | Mark Jenkin | UK North American Premiere
“From My Cloud (구름으로부터)” | Minjung Kim | South Korea World Premiere
“Cairo Streets” | Abdellah Taïa | France North American Premiere
Wavelengths 3: Slightest Pretense
“Land of Barbar (بلاد البربر)” | Fredj Moussa | Tunisia World Premiere
“Conditio Humana” | Friedl vom Gröller | Austria World Premiere
“Slightest Pretense (わずかな見せかけ)” | Eri Saito | Japan World Premiere
“CONFERENCE” | Björn Kämmerer | Austria World Premiere
“Morgenkreis” | Basma al-Sharif | Canada/United Arab Emirates International Premiere
“FELT” | Blake Williams | Canada World Premiere
The 50th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival, presented by Rogers, runs September 4–14, 2025. More festival details will be shared in the coming weeks.
