Documentaries about tech mogul Elon Musk, soccer star Megan Rapinoe, singer Darlene Love and Palestinian-American writer and activist Edward Said will be screened at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival, organizers announced on Wednesday.
The TIFF Docs program will open with Rebeca Huntt’s “Rapinoe,” a film about the U.S. soccer player and LGBTQ+ activist. It will also include Alex Gibney’s “Musk,” an examination of the controversial businessman that runs almost four hours and will be presented with a 10-minute intermission; “Darlene Love: I Know Where I’ve Been,” a look at the veteran soul singer from “Oscar Peterson: Black + White” director Barry Avrich and “Edward Said: Between Worlds,” Maiken Baird’s film about the late writer of “Orientalism” and “The Question of Palestine.”
Two of the section’s films are essentially the final works in trilogies. Two-time Oscar winner Barbara Kopple’s “Union Town” looks at New York City workers organizing against UPS, Amazon and the food delivery apps DoorDash and GrubHub, and continues a look at American workers that began with “Harlan County, USA” (which screened at the first TIFF in 1976) and “American Dream.” And Sophie Fiennes’ “The Pervert’s Guide to Utopias” follows 2006’s “The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema” and 2012’s “The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology” in showing film clips over which Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek offers his insights.
Beyond “Darlene Love: I Know Where I’ve Been,” several other TIFF Docs films have musical themes. Andrew Morgan’s “Bleeding Hearts” follows Zella Day and Jesse Woods from the alternative-country band Chaparelle; Michael Maxxis’ “Gail,” executive produced by Jason Reitman, focuses on a superfan of the Canadian band Our Lady Peace; and Alexandra Lazarowich’s “Turtle Island Rap” is a vérité doc about three indigenous hip-hop artists.
Other films in the program include “Re/Pair,” in which Lacey Schwartz Delgado presents dialogues between American Blacks and Jews; “The Hummingbird Paints Fragrant Songs,” a film from Èlia Gasull Balada and Matteo Norzi about an indigenous Peruvian artist who is “discovered” by the international art community in her 70s; and “Rescue,” a Sine Plambech film that follows a migrant who arrives in Europe determined to find his kidnapped wife and children.
Eighteen of the 21 films in the section are world premieres, with “Musk,” “Union Town” and “The Pervert’s Guide to Utopia” coming to TIFF on the heels of premieres in the Venice Film Festival’s unusually robust documentary section.
On Wednesday, the festival also announced its Short Cuts section, which includes 45 short films from 30 countries. The films are separated into seven different shorts programs, one of which is the Midnight Madness-style “Strange Cuts” selection of genre films.
The films include “Bloodline,” produced by Colin Farrell; “Termite,” from Oscar-nominated Indian filmmaker Shaunak Sen; “Untitled Woman,” with Julianne Nicholson and Charles Melton; and two animated shorts featuring members of the Skarsgård family, “Please” (with father Stellan) and “The End” (son Alexander).
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 Docs
“Ba’s Book,” Ashley Duong *
“Black Sunflowers,” James Marcus Haney *
“Bleeding Hearts,” Andrew Morgan *
“Cheyenne,” Taimi Arvidson *
“Darlene Love: I Know Where I’ve Been,” Barry Avrich *
“Edward Said: Between Worlds,” Maiken Baird *
“The Final Act,” Sophie Deraspe *
“Gail,” Michael Maxxis *
“The Hummingbird Paints Fragrant Songs,” Èlia Gasull Balada, Matteo Norzi *
“Like Magic,” Melissa Saavedra Gil *
“Low Lies the Land,” Emanuele Gerosa *
“Musk,” Alex Gibney
“The Pervert’s Guide to Utopias,” Sophie Fiennes
“Rapinoe,” Rebeca Huntt * (opening film)
“Re/Pair,” Lacey Schwartz Delgado *
“Rescue,” Sine Plambech *
“Still Night, Burning House,” Carol Nguyen *
“Tehran, Under the Skin,” Afsaneh Salari *
“Turtle Island Rap,” Alexandra Lazarowich *
“The Ultra Runner,” Mila Aung-Thwin *
“Union Town,” Barbara Kopple
