Festivalgoers and film studios are looking at Toronto International Film Festival’s Midnight Madness section with a big question in mind: What will be this year’s “Obsession”?
TIFF announced a slate of 10 potential contenders on Thursday in the genre-focused section, including a classic slasher from a first-time filmmaker, a 14th century ghost story, an Indian vampire western and a documentary about former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney. Midnight Madness will also host a special screening of Na Hong-jin’s sci-fi epic “Hope” and an anniversary screening of Curry Barker’s “Obsession,” which became the highest-grossing festival acquisition of all time (and is still in theaters) after Focus Features bought it at TIFF.
“It’s remarkable,” Midnight Madness programmer Peter Kuplowsky told TheWrap. “Let’s do it all again.”
The section, which features 10 days of screenings that begin at 11:59 p.m., will start with “River,” a slasher film starring Jane Levy and Jessica Rothe that is the debut feature by Joshua Giuliano. “If there’s a movie I could point to as this year’s ‘Obsession,’ it might be this film, if only because I think Josh is going to be a filmmaker that a lot of people are going to want to work with,” Kuplowsky said, praising the film as “one of the most suspenseful slashers I’ve seen in years.”
Kuplowsky also pointed out that TIFF’s teen committee, which searches for films that speak to younger audiences, selected Eugene Kotlyarenko’s “Vintage Violence” for Midnight Madness 2026. Last year, the teen committee chose “Obsession” as its pick.
The festival will close with the long-brewing feature adaptation of “Rogue Trooper,” an animated sci-fi war film written and directed by “Moon” filmmaker Duncan Jones. “Rogue Trooper” adapts Gerry Finley-Day and Dave Gibbons’ strip from the British comic “2000 AD,” which also spawned the character Judge Dredd.
“Its tendrils are in so much of contemporary pop culture,” Kuplowsky said of the comic. “Almost every other video game owes its DNA to the original Dave Gibbons run of the comic.”
This year will also see the return of gonzo documentaries to the Midnight Madness section with “Ladies & Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney,” a film by “Universal Language” director Matthew Rankin. Matt Barats’ “Anchors Aweigh” also mixes in documentary elements in a comedy Kuplowsky described as riffing on Ross McElwee’s 1985 doc “Sherman’s March.”
“It’s a bit like if a Tim Robinson character directed a John Wilson documentary,” he said.
There are a few more genre entries from there. Japanese filmmaker Sabu returns to the screen with “Arrested Memory,” a film about an amnesiac detective who forgets that he’s meant to deliver ransom money, putting him in the crossfire of both the kidnappers and his fellow officers. Nick Kozakis’ “Kick On” follows a group of kids trying to buy drugs from a mobster’s son’s lair in what Kuplowsky described as “the Alfred Molina scene in ‘Boogie Nights’ but stretched for 90 minutes.”
Horror fans will be happy to see Anna Biller follow up on “The Love Witch” with “The Face of Horror,” about an unfaithful man in the 14th century who’s haunted by his dead wife. There’s also director Samjad’s Indian horror/action flick “Half,” a curry Western with a starkness Kuplowsky said reminds him of Kathryn Bigelow’s “Near Dark.” Paolo Strippoli, who was behind such films as “A Classic Horror Story” and “The Holy Boy,” debuts in Midnight Madness with “The Spiral.”
The 2026 Toronto International Film Festival will open on Sept. 10 and run through Sept. 20.
Here is the full lineup of newly added features. World premieres are indicated with an asterisk. The full lineup of shorts can be found at tiff.net.
TIFF Midnight Madness
“Anchors Aweigh,” Matt Barats
“Arrested Memory,” Sabu
“HALF,” Samjad *
“Kick On,” Nick Kozakis *
“Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney,” Matthew Rankin *
“River,” Joshua Giuliano (Midnight Madness Opening Night Film) *
“Rogue Trooper,” Duncan Jones (Midnight Madness Closing Night Film)
“The Face of Horror,” Anna Biller *
“The Spiral,” Paolo Strippoli
“Vintage Violence,” Eugene Kotlyarenko *
