By Jim Slotek, Liz Braun, Thom Ernst, Karen Gordon, Kim Hughes, John Kirk, Chris Knight, and Liam Lacey

Well, that was a blast.

As we conclude the 49th edition of the annual Toronto International Film Festival — and look forward to what will undoubtedly be a banner next edition to celebrate its 50th anniversary — we tally what we loved this year, what we didn’t, and offer our thoughts on how TIFF could be even better. Thanks to TIFF for access, and to you for reading.

Jim Slotek

Biggest Thrill: Laughing. From funding to festivals, comedies are a hard sell because, well, they’re not considered serious. But, despite sometimes dire premises, some of TIFF’s most anticipated films elicited much (intended) laughter from audiences. Anora — the best of the fest in my opinion — was absolutely hilarious, especially in its second act.

For pure absurdity, it was hard to beat Universal Language, Canada’s submission to the 2025 Oscars, a film set in a parallel-universe version of Montreal and Winnipeg, where Canada’s two official languages are French and Persian. Just the sight of Tim Hortons and Old Dutch chips with signage in Farsi made me laugh.

Laughs were also squeezed out of the Midnight Madness opener The Substance, Guy Maddin’s post-apocalyptic political satire Rumours (it features a giant brain nestled in the German forest), Kaniehtiio Horn’s directorial debut Seeds (wait for the climactic scene where a character says, “That’s my girl!”) and another directorial debut, Rebel Wilson’s The Deb.

The latter is actually adapted from an Australian musical comedy, so it would be tragic if no one laughed. But they did.

Biggest Disappointment: Games film folk play. Rebel Wilson publicly said the producers of The Deb were deliberately suppressing publicity for her film after she accused them on social media of embezzlement. Quite the accusation. Subsequently, the rules of embargo — which had otherwise loosened at TIFF this year — were tightened for Wilson’s closing night gala. It was impossible for media to publicize the film beforehand. Hmmm.

Runner-up: Having received lukewarm reviews at Cannes, Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis released a trailer quoting Roger Ebert and Pauline Kael trashing Coppola’s earlier masterpieces Apocalypse Now and The Godfather (suggesting that people were equally wrong about Megalopolis). But the quotes were fake, and the critics are no longer alive to cry foul. The trailer was pulled, and one of film history’s greats took a black mark.

Message to TIFF: TIFF’s Press & Industry screenings serve two purposes: to ensure publicity for the featured films, and to make sure the seats at public screenings go mainly to, well, the public. But this year saw some of the most highly anticipated films, including the aforementioned Anora and The Brutalist, limited to one P&I screening, leading to around-the-block lineups, and turnaways. And Coppola’s Megalopolis had none. Each rejected movie critic represented one less outlet publicizing that film.

Liz Braun

Biggest Thrill: A highlight of TIFF this year was seeing the world premiere of Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band, the new Bruce Springsteen documentary at Roy Thomson Hall and attending with a young Springsteen fan (a close personal daughter of ours) who was happy to see The Boss in person.

Biggest Disappointment: Is it just me, or did there seem to be a lack of advance buzz around the festival this year? Part of that is the decimated media landscape, no doubt. Part of it is the state of the film industry. Anyway, for whatever reason, the vibe felt a bit flat for 2024.

Message to TIFF: Thanks for the annual one-stop media and screening info package — it is invaluable.

Thom Ernst

Biggest Thrill: Finding out that Will Ferrell the man has a lot more to offer this world than just bad comedies. Will & Harper is transforming.

Biggest Disappointment: This year’s attempt to lift an actor's reputation from 'B' status to Oscar royalty fails tremendously with a dreary performance from Pamela Anderson in an ineffectual showbiz drama, The Last Showgirl. Anderson's performance is brave, but not good.

Message to TIFF: You can't get a beer sponsor for the press room? Sandwiches!?

Karen Gordon

Biggest Thrill: Anora, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes earlier this year, is terrific as is the doc The Last Republican, about Adam Kinzinger. Also delighted to say that some of my favourites were by Canadian directors: Jason Reitman's hugely entertaining Saturday Night; Rumours by Winnipeg's Guy Maddin, which made me LOL at times; Matt and Mara by Toronto director Kazik Radwanski; and an unexpectedly wonderful sci fi/romance mash-up You Are Not Alone, the first feature from Quebec partners Marie-Hélène Viens and Philippe Lupien. Also, my uncle Lou — who still walks 20 minutes a day, gives us all great advice, and still loves the Blue Bombers — celebrated his 97th birthday during TIFF. That's thrilling!

Biggest Disappointment: Not enough press screenings (see my message to TIFF!) ergo my missing a few on my “most wanted” list.

Message to TIFF: Two things: More screenings spread out throughout the day for press and industry, pretty pleeeze! There are fewer slots for us, and the schedule is set up so that choosing one film means knocking out the chance to see several others. It would be great to have some of the key buzz films available to see later in the afternoon. Also, for the neurodivergent in the crowd, please go back to a printed schedule, available in advance.

Kim Hughes

Biggest Thrill: Several films I expected to be great soared past expectations. The documentary Will & Harper was hugely poignant and felt very important… not something I ever expected to say about a film featuring Will Ferrell. Anora was much funnier than I imagined walking in. I can nitpick several things with Bonjour Tristesse but it was beyond beautiful to look at, and ably directed by author Durga Chew-Bose in her feature debut. It feels like disappointments happen more often. Not this year… Riff Raff notwithstanding.

Biggest Disappointment: Millers in Marriage. My expectations weren’t huge, but its notable ensemble cast in a film written, directed, and co-starring Edward Burns held promise. Nope. Here’s the synopsis: a bunch of rich people in their mid-fifties ceaselessly argue and brutally tear each other down. We care about these people and their bitter disappointments… why? I’ve endured an actual marriage breakdown that was markedly more civilized.

Message to TIFF: Let’s accentuate the positive. Frontline staff were excellent this year; both Scotiabank Theatre and TIFF Lightbox were pleasant, navigable experiences. Calls to TIFF customer service helped me problem-solve in a snap. Whoever is calling the shots behind the scenes is doing a bang-up job. Also, the updated embargo rules — only world premieres embargoed until after first screening, whether press or public — is both sensible and helpful.

John Kirk

Biggest Thrill: Seeing so much genre diversity, including meat for die-hard geeks like me definitely topped my list at TIFF this year. Mark Hamill, horror stories, and science fiction abounded.

Biggest Disappointment: Missing the chance to sit next to Stephen King at the showing of The Life of Chuck. Yeah, well, if this is the worst that happened, then I can't complain too much.

Message to TIFF: Perhaps greater P&I screening flexibility in the evenings for those beleaguered press? I thought there were a lot of morning shows that conflicted or dovetailed onto each other at different locations, making it tough to schedule viewings.

Chris Knight

Biggest Thrill: I like to talk up a wonderful small film of which few have heard (like last year’s The Delinquents) over a great big film that needs no help (like this year’s Saturday Night). But my hands-down favourite of TIFF 2024 — big or small — was a little Belgian-Ukrainian co-production called U Are the Universe. The premise: Andriy (Volodymyr Kravchuk) is a space trucker on the Earth-Callisto run when the world explodes, leaving him the last human in the universe — or so he thinks, until his radio crackles with a message from another far-flung astronaut (Alexia Depicker). Featuring lovely set design and some truly surprising twists, this story set in the cold of space has a warm, beating heart.

Biggest Disappointment: I stayed up late at the end of a very long day to catch Megalopolis, and those Cannes audiences weren’t wrong this time. It was... meh. Francis Ford Coppola has been struggling to make this for decades, and it feels like he never updated the script or its ideas over that time. If I’d seen a version of this circa 1980 it might have felt relevant, with its themes of violence, urban decay, Robert Moses-style development, lots of physical newspapers (I wish!) and fin de siècle malaise. Now it plays like a museum piece, rediscovered from a bygone era. Though it did give me my daily dose of thinking about the Roman Empire.

Message to TIFF: I like that TIFF has “fan zones.” Next year, it should add “protest zones,” preferably far away from where the movies are being shown. From the opening night anti-RBC chants to the protestors outside the Scotiabank denouncing Russians at War (side note: If you haven’t seen it, go away), to the ones outside the Lightbox who were upset about both the Middle East and North America (“Turtle Island”), this year’s festival was a real shouting match. But attendees are here to worship at the church of cinema, not to be harassed by apostates. (And doesn’t TIFF have an anti-harassment policy?) Let’s make next year a politics-free zone. Here endeth the lesson.

Liam Lacey

Biggest Thrill: Emilia Pérez, from French director Jacques Audiard, was bold and ridiculous and entertaining AF, a narco-thriller pop-opera with a terrific Zoe Saldaña as a junior lawyer who helps a Mexican cartel leader go into hiding for sex reassignment surgery, and Selena Gomez as his wife.

Biggest Disappointment: The Cannes reviews had prepared me somewhat for Frances Ford Coppola’s ambitious vanity project Megalopolis, but I didn’t guess the dancing elephant would prove to be such a klutz.

Message to TIFF: Thanks for moving the press office back to the Lightbox (saves time and shoe leather). But for heaven’s sake, list the cinemas on the online film schedule. Nobody needs to race for a screening at the TIFF Lightbox or Scotiabank Theatre and start hunting.

TIFF '24: Offering Our Likes and Dislikes at the 49th Festival... and Some Free Advice

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