TIFF expands 2026 Platform lineup and jury as Platform Award offers winning film direct path to International Feature Film Oscar consideration

TORONTO — The Toronto International Film Festival, presented by Rogers, is announcing its 2026 Platform programme, the Festival’s only competitive section, that champions exceptional directorial vision and auteur voices. Serving as a launchpad for the awards circuit and
international spotlight, Platform has launched global auteurs like Barry Jenkins (Moonlight, TIFF 16), Darius Marder (Sound of Metal, TIFF ’19), William Oldroyd (Lady Macbeth, TIFF ’16), Sarah Gavron (Rocks, TIFF ’19), Anthony Shim (Riceboy Sleeps, TIFF ’22), and Yoon Ga-eun (The World of Love, TIFF ’25).

Now in its eleventh year, named after Jia Zhang-ke’s groundbreaking second feature, the Platform lineup has expanded to 12 films, including Theja Rio’s Angh, Amanda Kernell’s Brace Your Heart, Ferit Karahan’s Djinn Wedding, Irene Dionisio’s Idda, Nyla Innuksuk’s In the Heart of the South, Bertil Nilsson’s Masc, Gabriel Martins’ On Behalf of My Son, Lawrence Fajardo’s Silenced Nights, John Trengove’s The Smell of Apples, Yoon Dan-bi’s The World Before, and Jan Holoubek’s Wild Wild East. Children Untold, from acclaimed Japanese filmmaker Miwa Nishikawa (Dreams for Sale, TIFF ’12, Under the Open Sky, TIFF ’20), will open the programme at

TIFF Lightbox’s state-of the-art Cinema 1, where all Platform titles will make their World Premieres. “Platform was created to spotlight directorial voices and this year’s 12-film selection is an imaginative reflection of new auteur cinema now,” said Anita Lee, Chief Programming Officer, TIFF. “We are honoured to welcome a jury of distinguished artists and industry leaders to inspire and support with their expertise and commitment to global cinema.”

In a major milestone for the programme, a non-English-language* winning film in TIFF’s Platform lineup will now have a direct pathway for Best International Feature Film at the 99th Academy Awards, making TIFF one of only six international film festivals to qualify worldwide. Platform selection is led by Robyn Citizen, Director of Programming. The 12 Platform titles are eligible for the Platform Award, which will be decided this year by an expanded five-member international jury. Argentinian producer, director, and writer Pablo Trapero will serve as Jury President, joining British writer and director Amma Asante, Taiwanese actor and filmmaker Sylvia Chang, French Canadian producer Luc Déry, and Hong Kong film industry executive Albert Lee. The winning filmmaker will receive a $20,000 CAD cash prize. The Platform Award will be presented on the last day of the Festival on Sunday, September 20.

2026 Platform programme (in alphabetical order)

Angh | Theja Rio | India
World Premiere

Set in the remote jungles of Nagaland near the Indo–Burma border in the early 1960s and shot in richly textured 16mm, Angh follows Anghba, the last surviving chief of an abandoned Indigenous Naga village, who lives in isolation with his ailing wife and mute young son after being deserted by his people.

Rio is a London-based writer and director from Nagaland, India. He wrote and directed the short films Checkpost (2018), Angh (2021), Remains (2024), and Ade (On a Sunday) (2024). Angh is his feature directorial debut and an expansion of his short by the same name.
Brace Your Heart | Amanda Kernell | Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Bulgaria World Premiere Kernell’s luminous third drama is a quietly devastating portrait of love, resilience, and the enduring strength of Sámi women.

Kernell was born in Umeå, Sweden, to a Sámi father and Swedish mother. She holds a degree from the National Film School of Denmark. Her directorial credits include the short film Stoerre Vaerie (Northern Great Mountain) (2015) and the features Sami Blood (2016), which played the Festival, and Charter (2020).

Children Untold | Miwa Nishikawa | Japan
World Premiere
Opening film

A longtime collaborator of Hirokazu Kore-eda, Nishikawa adapted Children Untold from her own unpublished novel. It follows a 12-year-old girl who disguises herself as a boy to survive in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War in Tokyo. Featuring Ami Koyae, Fumi Nikaido, and Koji Yakusho.

Nishikawa was born in Hiroshima, Japan. Her writing and directing credits include the feature films Wild Berries (2003), Dear Doctor (2009), and the Festival Official Selections Dreams for Sale (2012) and Under the Open Sky (2020).

Djinn Wedding | Ferit Karahan |

Turkey
World Premiere
Set in a remote Anatolian village, Karahan’s Djinn Wedding is an impressive family drama that unravels family secrets and conflicts across three periods of time. Carried by a supreme cast\ including Demet Özdemir, Kaan Yildirim, İlhan Şen, and Sarp Bozkurt, the film swings between belief, hope, and dissolution.

Karahan was born in Muş, Turkey. His writing and directing credits include The Fall from Heaven (2013), Brother’s Keeper (2021), which won the FIPRESCI Prize at Berlinale, and The Death of Black Horses (2025). Idda | Irene Dionisio | Italy World Premiere

This is Dionisio’s sophomore feature, which she co-penned alongside Marco Borromei. Idda takes an epic approach to unearthing the packed layers of a stewing friendship. When childhood friends Adele and Sofia reunite to fulfill the broken promise of climbing Mount Etna, they realize that like the mountain, old wounds loom over everything.

Dionisio was born in Torino, Italy. She is a filmmaker and visual artist whose credits include the short films Le storie che saremo (2020) and Murmur (2025). Her feature-length films include the documentaries The factory is full (2012) and Shores (2015), and the fictional feature

Pawn Street (2017).
In the Heart of the South | Nyla Innuksuk | Canada
World Premiere

A surprising and exciting swerve away from Innuksuk’s 2022 debut feature Slash/Back. In the Heart of the South is what Single White Female would be if it were set in Toronto, with an Inuk protagonist and a dash of supernatural elements, starring North of North’s Anna Lambe as Yura Ivalu, the latest darling of the Toronto art world, whose virtual reality piece promises to blow our mind.

Innuksuk was born in Igloolik, Nunavut, and studied film at Toronto Metropolitan University. She  was named to Canada’s Top Ten. Her other directorial credits include the short film Breaths (2016) and debut feature Slash/Back (2022).

Masc | Bertil Nilsson | United Kingdom
World Premiere

Nilsson’s debut feature is a tender, unflinching portrait of self-performance, identity, and learning to exist as oneself in an often prescriptive world. The film draws on the filmmaker’s experiences as a neurodivergent gay man navigating the contradictory demands of masculinity.
Nilsson is an award-winning Swedish artist and filmmaker based in London. He has directed numerous short films, including Repair (2023) and Alfie’s Island (2023), and has exhibited internationally with solo shows in the UK, the Netherlands, Canada, and the USA.

On Behalf of My Son | Gabriel Martins | Brazil
World Premiere

Anchored by a deeply affecting performance from Rejane Faria, Martins’ moving drama follows a grieving mother seeking forgiveness from the families of a tragic bus accident, unfolding as a profoundly humane meditation on guilt and whether forgiveness is even possible.
Martins is a Brazilian writer-director and co-founder of Filmes de Plástico. His debut feature Mars One (2022) was Brazil’s selection for Best International Feature at the Academy Awards.He also directed the shorts Nada (2017), In the Heart of the World (2019), and Pelas Mãos (2021).

Silenced Nights | Lawrence Fajardo | Philippines
World Premiere

For some, staying silent is the only way to survive. Fajardo’s bleak sociopolitical drama Silenced Nights follows a witness to an extrajudicial killing in a Philippines slum as he seeks to make the truth known. The film takes a raw cinema verité approach and echoes the director’s previous works, including The Hearing.

Fajardo is a Filipino director from Bacolod City in the Philippines. His writing and directing credits include Amok (2011), Posas (2012), and Invisible (2015), which screened at the Festival.

The Smell of Apples | John Trengove | South Africa, Netherlands, Chile
World Premiere

In Trengove’s relentless third feature, a sheltered 11-year-old white South African boy gradually comes to realise the horrors of the apartheid system. Adapted from South African writer Mark\ Behr’s 1993 bestselling novel of the same name.

Trengove is an award-winning South African writer and director who holds an MFA from New York University. His features include The Wound (2017), which was South Africa’s selection for the Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards, and Manodrome (2023).

The World Before | Yoon Dan-bi | South Korea
World Premiere

In her second narrative feature, Dan-bi (Moving On) turns her attention from childhood to adolescence with a tender, sharply observed portrait of first love and growing up. This coming-of-age story follows two teenagers, childhood best friends, who reunite for a summer on
a small rural island in Korea. Dan-bi is a South Korean filmmaker who holds a BFA in Theatre and Film from Kookmin University. Her film credits include the short film Fireworks (2015) and the feature film Moving On (2019), which debuted in Busan and won the NETPAC and DGK Awards.

Wild Wild East | Jan Holoubek | Poland
World Premiere

Set in occupied Poland in the middle of the Second World War, Holoubek’s tour de force is part suspenseful western, part gritty wartime noir. Holoubek was born in Warsaw, Poland. His directing credits include the series The Mire (2018–2024) and High Water (2024), as well as the feature 25 Years of Innocence (2020).

2026 Platform Jury:

“It is a true honour to return to Toronto as President of the Platform Jury, having had all of my films screened here over the years. TIFF has always felt like home to me. Every time I’ve come back, I’ve been warmly welcomed, and I’ve always felt that my films have found a special
connection with TIFF audiences.
I’m delighted to return in this new role as a way of giving back to TIFF, to its audiences, and to the wonderful films it champions. I’m deeply grateful for everything the Festival has given me over the years, and for all that it continues to give filmmakers from around the world as one of cinema’s most important annual meeting places — a festival where audiences, artists, and extraordinary films come together year after year.” —Pablo Trapero, Platform Jury President 2026

Pablo Trapero, Jury President

Pablo Trapero is a producer, director, and writer whose films have premiered at the world’s leading festivals. Every one of his feature films has screened at TIFF since 1999, most recently & Sons (TIFF ’25). His debut feature, Crane World (Mundo grúa), won an International Critics’ Week award at Venice, where he received the Silver Lion for Best Director in 2015 for The Clan. Trapero has directed several high-profile television series, including Gordon, which premieres on Netflix this year. His work has been honoured by Spain’s Goya Awards, Argentina’s Sur Awards, and Mexico’s Ariel Awards, among others. Trapero was named a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by France’s Ministry of Culture and is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Amma Asante

Amma Asante is an award-winning writer and director. With her debut feature, A Way of Life (TIFF ’04), she became the first Black director to win a BAFTA award for writing and directing a feature film. Her acclaimed films include Belle (TIFF ’13), A United Kingdom (TIFF ’16), and Where Hands Touch (TIFF ’18). Her television credits include Mrs. America, The Handmaid’s Tale, and Smilla’s Sense of Snow. Asante is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Sylvia Chang

Sylvia Chang is a renowned actor, screenwriter, director, and producer whose career spans more than five decades and over 100 films. A multiple Hong Kong Film Award and Taipei Golden

Horse Award winner, she received the Asian Film Awards’ Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018.

She is devoted to fostering emerging talent through filmmaking and mentorship initiatives.

Luc Déry

Luc Déry founded the production company micro_scope in 2002. He has produced over 30 features, all selected by major international festivals and together earning more than 100 awards. Both Incendies (TIFF ’10) and Monsieur Lazhar (TIFF ’11) were nominated for the
Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. Other notable features include Gabrielle (TIFF ’13), Tu Dors Nicole (TIFF ’14), My Salinger Year, Drunken Birds (TIFF ’21), Viking (TIFF ’22), Shepherds (TIFF ’24), and Lovely Day (TIFF ’25).

Albert Lee

Albert Lee has served as Executive Director of the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society since 2018. With more than four decades of experience spanning film production, distribution, exhibition, and corporate management, he has played a significant role in Hong Kong cinema’s Golden Age, having held senior positions at Golden Harvest and Emperor Motion Pictures. Lee is a member of the China Film Association, the Asia Pacific Screen Academy, and the Producers Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

The 51st edition of the Toronto International Film Festival, presented by Rogers, runs September 10–20, 2026.