A dozen films with creative input from 15 different countries have been added to the Toronto International Film Festival’s 2026 lineup, TIFF organizers announced on Tuesday. The films will make up the expanded Platform section and will compete for a jury prize that for the first time will automatically grant the winner a qualifying spot in the Oscars’ Best International Feature Film category.
Directors with films in the Platform section include Amanda Kernell (“Sami Blood”) with “Brace Your Heart”; Japanese author-director Miwa Nishikawa (“Under the Open Sky”) with “Children Untold,” which will open the section; Canadian Indigenous writer-director Nyla Innuksuk (“Slash/Back”) with “In the Heart of the South”; Brazilian writer-director Gabriel Martins (“Mars One”) with “On Behalf of My Son”; and South African director John Trengove (“The Wound”) with “The Smell of Apples.”
Other films in the section include Theja Rio’s “Angh,” Ferit Karahan’s “Djinn Wedding,” Irene Dionisio’s “Idda,” Bertil Nilsson’s “Masc,” Lawrence Fajardo’s “Silenced Nights,” Yoon Dan-bi’s “The World Before” and Jan Holoubek’s “Wild Wild East.”
The films will be judged by a jury headed by Argentine producer, director and writer Pablo Trapero and consisting of British writer-director Amma Asante, Taiwanese actor and filmmaker Sylvia Chang, French-Canadian producer Luc Déry and Hong Kong film industry executive Albert Lee. The winner will receive a 20,000 Canadian dollar (about $14,500 U.S.) cash prize.
Under a new rule adopted this year by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the Platform Award is one of six international film festival prizes that automatically qualifies its recipient for the Oscars’ international feature category, provided the film is more than 50% in a language other than English. The other festivals whose prizes qualify films for the category are Sundance, Berlin, Busan, Cannes and Venice.
Previously, a film had to be its home country’s official submission to qualify for the international Oscar race.
The Platform section was created in 2015 to shine a spotlight on films that might not otherwise receive the attention they deserve, while also awarding an annual jury prize. For its first four years, it consisted of 12 films, but that number was reduced to 10 in 2019 and remained there until this year, with the exception of an eight-film lineup in 2021, when the festival was scaled back because of the COVID pandemic.
Past Platform selections have included Barry Jenkins’ “Moonlight,” Darius Marder’s “Sound of Metal,” William Oldroyd’s “Lady Macbeth,” Mike White’s “Brad’s Status,” Armando Iannucci’s “The Death of Stalin” and Karyn Kusama’s “Destroyer.” Platform Award winners have included Pablo Larraín’s “Jackie,” Warwick Thornton’s “Sweet Country,” Pietro Marcello’s “Martin Eden,” Anthony Shim’s “Riceboy Sleeps” and Valentyn Vasyanovych’s “To the Victory!”
The 2026 Toronto International Film Festival will run from Sept. 10-20. Additional programming will be announced in late July and early August.
Here is the full list of films in the Platform section.
“Angh”| Theja Rio | India
World Premiere
“Brace Your Heart”| Amanda Kernell | Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Bulgaria
World Premiere
“Children Untold”| Miwa Nishikawa | Japan
World Premiere (Opening film)
“Djinn Wedding” | Ferit Karahan | Turkey
World Premiere
“Idda”| Irene Dionisio | Italy
World Premiere
“In the Heart of the South”| Nyla Innuksuk | Canada
World Premiere
“Masc”| Bertil Nilsson | United Kingdom
World Premiere
“On Behalf of My Son”| Gabriel Martins | Brazil
World Premiere
“Silenced Nights”| Lawrence Fajardo | Philippines
World Premiere
“The Smell of Apples”| John Trengove | South Africa, Netherlands, Chile
World Premiere
“The World Before”| Yoon Dan-bi | South Korea
World Premiere
“Wild Wild East”| Jan Holoubek | Poland
World Premiere
