Keep these wonderful Canadian movies from TIFF 2026 on your radar

A lot of people don’t realize it, but Canadian cinema has been on something of a tear in recent years. In 2026 alone, we’ve had three exceptionally acclaimed releases: Matt Johnson’s Back to the Future spoof Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie, Sophy Romvari’s achingly beautiful drama Blue Heron and Daniel Rohner’s slick crime-thriller Tuner. That’s to say nothing of modern gems like Johnson’s BlackBerry, Clement Virgo’s Brother, Chandler Levack’s I Like Movies and Matthew Rankin’s Universal Language.

And based on my time at the just-wrapped Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), the train of promising Canadian films isn’t set to stop anytime soon. During the festival, I saw and enjoyed several Canadian movies, with one of them even already becoming an all-time favourite for me. Be sure to keep these movies on your radar.

All That She Wants

Image credit: Ley Line Entertainment

Release date: TBA

Schitt’s Creek proved that Annie Murphy was a star, and All That She Wants makes full use of the Ottawa-born actress’ talents. Directed by Scarlett Bermingham and Andrew Rhymer (Plus One), this rom-com follows Murphy’s thirtysomething Toronto dancer Emma amid a bad breakup that leads her into a one-night stand with a younger man named Luke (Cha Cha Real Smooth‘s Cooper Raif), who she soon discovers was someone she used to babysit. Anchored by Murphy’s magnetic performance and Schitt’s Creek producer David West Read’s snappy screenplay, it’s a delightfully awkward premise that leads to both laughs and tender moments aplenty.

How We Stand

Image credit: Marie Clements Media

Release date: TBA

Adapting her 2012 play Tombs of the Vanishing Indian, Vancouver-based Métis multi-hyphenate Marie Clements delivers a powerful tribute to the many Indigenous women who had to endure horrific acts of relocation and sterilization at the hands of the government. Following three sisters who were separated as kids after police killed her mother, the film meaningfully explores the various and often disparate paths that these women had to take, all while dealing with all kinds of everyday racism.

I was particularly taken by the story of the sister who’s played by Fort McMurray-born Cree actress Alyssa Wapanatâhk (Peter Pan & Wendy), who masks her deep-seated pain with a dry wit and flirtatiousness as she tries to navigate Hollywood. Clements also brings a vivid visual language to the film, with rich, natural cinematography and some inspired heightened elements and scene transitions that lend a sense of spirituality that unites the sisters and their mother across time and space. A touching, timeless film.

Strong Son

Image credit: 10091460 Manitoba LTD

Release date: TBA

As someone with a lot of South Asian family, I really appreciated how this explores the cultural stigma surrounding mental health and male vulnerability within the Brown community. Harvinder is very clearly physically “strong,” but he struggles to express any real emotions beyond that. Instead, he has to serve as the dutiful son to his ailing father. Winnipeg’s Ian Bawa explores this with a lot of sensitivity and restraint, with “Harvey” often saying very little around people and simply breaking down once the tough, stern exterior has dropped.

Seeing him struggle to move forward after casting aside his bodybuilding ambitions to become a full-time caretaker makes for a sympathetic journey. While the father doesn’t feel like a fully three-dimensional character (he is, at least, not presented as some villain), this is a short and sweet Canadian indie gem.

The Stunt Driver

Image credit: Elevation Pictures

Release date: September 25, 2026

A thoroughly entertaining docudrama from London, Ont.-born director Michael Dowse (The F Word) about the late Canadian stuntman Ken Carter. I’ll confess that I didn’t know anything about him going in, but the film does a solid job of exploring his endearing underdog spirit, with Montreal’s Jay Baruchel delivering a lively, likeable performance. His unwavering commitment for telling Canadian stories is felt throughout and adds a lot to Ken. Ben Foster also makes a fun appearance as Evil Knievel, with his “frenemy” relationship with Ken adding a lot of texture to Carter’s unrelenting drive. (Pun intended.)

RIP, Ken.

Sunburn

Image credit: Serve

Release date: TBA

Toronto summers can get really hot, but they can also be really magical. As one of the most multicultural cities in the world, the sense of community here is resolutely strong, transcending race and age and sexuality and affluence. And during the sweltering heat, you’ll see people from all of these disparate backgrounds coming together for street markets and concerts and comedy shows and strolls in the park and the like.

By following different groups of teens during a power outage in St. James Town, Toronto writer-director Serville Poblete’s Sunburn celebrates this community in such a loving way that it genuinely moved me to tears. There’s not much of a narrative here, with the film simply following the kids as they go about their day, but this only allows for charming and oh-so relatable rumination on everything from pimples and childhood crushes to aspirations to leave Toronto and yearning for a lost family member.

The fact that Poblete accomplishes all of this in a lean 82 minutes is nothing short of remarkable. A hilarious and deeply moving tribute to community, adolescence and Toronto as a whole that proves deeply resonant. This one will stick with me.

Honourable mentions

• Babies (TBA) — Not a Canadian film, but it co-stars Vancouver’s Seth Rogen (and was written and directed by his wife Lauren Miller) alongside Anna Kendrick and is a hilarious and sincere semi-autobiographical examination of a couple’s reluctance to become parents (one of my favourites from the festival).
• Run Terry Run (Oct. 9, 2026) — I didn’t see this because it’s out soon, but a big documentary about the icon Terry Fox is naturally worth being on Canadians’ radar.
• Smudge the Blades (TBA) — I watched a screener for this before the festival; it’s an endearing and funny comedy-drama about an Indigenous hockey team in Alberta.
• Yaga (Oct. 23, 2026) — Not a movie, but the Crave mystery series starring Burnaby, B.C.’s Carrie-Anne Moss premiered at TIFF and is generating a lot of buzz for having Kamloops’ Heated Rivalry breakout Hudson Williams in one of the main roles.

Image credit: Serve