ACTRA Toronto Performers are in the spotlight at #TIFF50

The second feature from director Gail Maurice (Rosie, TIFF ‘22) is a singular film: a Métis same-sex romance led by ACTRA Toronto member Dana Solomon, who is a revelation.

Featuring: Dana Solomon, Derica Lafrance, Melanie Bray, Maggie Maurice, Gail Maurice, Tamara Podemski, Richard Parker

Premieres Monday, September 8 at 6:15 p.m.

A wily gravedigger (ACTRA Toronto member and 2025 ACTRA Award nominee Grace Glowicki) falls for the one man who is attracted to her fetid funk (ACTRA Toronto member Ben Petrie), but when fate doth conspire, she takes drastic measures to preserve their love in this camp phantasmagoria.

Featuring: Ben Petrie, Grace Glowicki, Leah Doz

Premieres Saturday, September 13 at 11:59 p.m.

Dinner with Friends brings viewers inside a fractured group of eight longtime friends who intermittently come together for dinner parties to share in the joys and pains of being adults today.

Featuring: Tattiawna Jones, Alex Spencer, Tymika Tafari, Andrew Bushell, Michael Ayres, Leighton Williams, Rakhee Morzaria, Izaak Smith

Premieres Friday, September 5 at 6:45 p.m.

Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro’s visually sumptuous adaptation of Mary Shelley’s gothic masterpiece finds Oscar Isaac as the brilliant scientist whose unearthly creation, eerily and ingeniously conjured by Jacob Elordi, blurs the boundaries between life, death, and madness.

Featuring: Geoff Meech, Thomas Lorber, Geoff Scovell, Spencer Jones, Tyler James Williams, Ess Hödlmoser, Joachim Fjelstrup, Simon Gerard, Nikolaj Kaas, Kyle Gatehouse

Premieres Monday, September 8 at 6:00 p.m.

Undergoing an unconventional therapy after a recent injury, a woman begins to experience strange occurrences in Madeleine Sims-Fewer and Dusty Mancinelli’s genre-bending thriller.

Featuring: Grace Glowicki, Ben Petrie, Julian Richings; Stunt Coordinators: Carl Fortin, Chris Mark

Premieres Wednesday, September 10 at 6:30 p.m.

A fateful encounter with the police propels two estranged friends to reevaluate their relationship, in Eva Thomas’ thoughtful and urgent debut.

Featuring: Star Slade, Ellyn Jade, Amanda Brugel, Shawn Doyle, Billy Merasty, Gail Maurice, David Reale, Thomas-Dylan Cook, Jennifer Podemski

Premieres Sunday, September 7 at 3:45 p.m.

Director Clement Virgo returns with a bold, mesmerizing and erotically charged thriller that’s part fairy tale, part fever dream.

Featuring: Gloria Mampuya, Ronnie Rowe, Arnold E. Pinnock

Premieres Friday, September 5 at 8:30 p.m.

This deeply personal documentary from hometown filmmaker Min Sook Lee follows the trail of grief left behind when her mother died by suicide when she was a preteen.

Featuring: John McGrath

Premieres Tuesday, September 9 at 7:00 p.m.

A bucolic small town, a correctional school for troubled teens, and a mysterious headmistress (Toni Collette) are all much more than meets the eye in this new limited series from creator Mae Martin (Feel Good).

Featuring: Sarah Gadon, Sydney Xiaolang Topliffe, Tattiawna Jones, Randy Butcher, Joshua Close, John Daniel, Isolde Ardies, Patrick J. Adams, Feaven Abera, Maia Jae, Charlie Gibbard-Mcall, Tricia Black

Premieres Tuesday, September 9 at 9:00 p.m.

Director Hubert Davis and a compelling cast deliver a more thoughtful kind of hockey movie that still hits hard.

Featuring: Oluniké Adeliyi, Evan Buliung, Shawn Doyle, Allan Hawco, Dylan Hawco, Ashton James, Joris Jarsky, Emidio Lopes, Donald MacLean Jr. Alexandra McDonald, Ty Neckar, Henri Picard, Tamara Podemski, Matt Wells

Premieres Saturday, September 6 at 3:00 p.m.

A unit of dedicated bots scheme chaos and divisiveness from their office desks in Rich Williamson’s wickedly humorous and sharp satirical take on the absurd amount of power relinquished to the unhinged forces steering world politics.

Featuring: Tim Dowler-Coltman, Christian Meer, Suzanne Pratley, Adam Fawns, Dillon Casey, Alexandra Rada

Short Cuts 2025 Programme 02; Premieres Saturday, September 6 at 3:30 p.m.

Personal tragedy prompts an elderly Black man to take his first swimming lesson in Tyler Mckenzie Evans’s profound observation of the Herculean strength needed to move through grief in the face of unshakeable fears and generational trauma.

Featuring: John Lester Phillips, Daniel Lavigne, Andrea Pavlovic, Charlotte Yang, Ewan Wood, Lucas Lee, Rain Janjua

Short Cuts 2025 Programme 03; Premieres Sunday, September 7 at 8:15 p.m.

In Kelly Fyffe-Marshall’s cleverly crafted drama, written and performed by ACTRA Toronto member Preeti Torul, an estranged mother and daughter reunite to confront buried resentments, address their differences, and try to decide whether to come together or walk away from each other for good.

Featuring: Preeti Torul, Sonia Dhillon Tully, Hershel Blatt

Short Cuts 2025 Programme 03; Premieres Sunday, September 7 at 8:15 p.m.

Unresolved grief and dysfunctional family dynamics burst to the surface in a kaleidoscope of emotions in Kalainithan Kalaichelvan’s absurd and vibrantly staged multi-generational story of a troubled matriarch, her dramatic announcement, and the chaos that ensues.

Featuring: Sumathy Balaram

Short Cuts 2025 Programme 05; Premieres Tuesday, September 9 at 6:00 p.m.

As a restaurant closes for the night, a server holds out hope for an unlikely opportunity while a dishwasher cooks a hearty meal in Anna Hopkins’s endearing look at how friendships can be formed over shared heartbreaks and aspirations.

Featuring: Matthew Gouveia, Anna Hopkins

Short Cuts 2025 Programme 05; Premieres Tuesday, September 9 at 6:00 p.m.

Inspired by his real life, ACTRA Toronto member Harrison Browne’s self-assured directorial debut follows an ex-pro hockey player who time travels back to his pre-transitioned self, when he was waiting for life to begin — only to realize that he has always been the person he was waiting to become.

Featuring: CJ Jackson, Harrison Browne, Nicolette Pearse, Max Amani, Shaun Benson

Short Cuts 2025 Programme 05; Premieres Tuesday, September 9 at 6:00 p.m.

In an attempt to move past a traumatic incident, an Anishinaabe ballerina strikes a friendship with a kindred soul in this uplifting drama about healing through self-expression from ACTRA Toronto member Dana Solomon.

Featuring: Dana Solomon, Caddy Superville, JL Whitecrow, Nick Stojanovic

Short Cuts 2025 Programme 06; Premieres Wednesday, September 10 at 5:00 p.m.