With over 275 films playing at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, or TIFF, some movies are clearly better than others. From massive blockbusters like The Wild Robot and Heretic to indie documentaries, international features and a boat load of shorts, there were plenty of hidden gems and frustrating duds to sift through. The festival ran from Sept. 5-15, with thousands of moviegoers sitting down in Canadian cineplexes to watch what will be hitting theaters around the world in the upcoming months.
Festival goers, therefore, were forced to make some tough calls as to which movies to cram into their tight schedules in Toronto. However, luckily for you dear reader, Parade was on the ground scouting out the best movies at TIFF. While we certainly didn’t see everything, here are 13 of our favorites, and where/when you’ll be able to watch them.
Related: The 9 Best Movies from the 2024 Tribeca Festival
Best movies at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival
Scythia Films
1. The Apprentice
Love him or hate him, we’ve had A LOT of Donald Trump over the last 10 years. Yet, somehow, inexplicably, Ali Abbasi manages to highlight a new side of the businessman/reality TV star/president in his biopic of Trumps early years in real estate. Sebastian Stan turns in one of the year’s best performances as a young Donald Trump, navigating his relationship with his father, his romance with Ivana Trump (Maria Bakalova) and most importantly, his tutelage from New York City prosecutor Roy Cohn (Jeremy Strong). Watching the origin story of Trump is fascinating and Strong and Stan spar perfectly under their spray tans. As legal battles flare up regarding its release, The Apprentice is a rare moment in the zeitgeist that is both buzzy and actually well made.
Available in theaters Oct. 11, 2024
Related: Donald Trump Biopic ‘The Apprentice’ Drops Trailer Amid Lawsuits
TIFF
2. Bird
After breaking out with American Honey in 2016, Andrea Arnold has spent most of the last decade working in TV on shows like Transparent, I Love Dick and Big Little Lies. Now she’s back on the big screen with the coming-of-age journey of a 12-year-old British girl trying to find meaning in a chaotic lower-class life. Nykiya Adams stars as Bailey with Saltburn‘s Barry Keoghan playing her father and Passages‘ Franz Rogowski as a mysterious figure entering her life. Heartbreaking and whimsical with a smashing soundtrack, Bird was one of the festival’s powerful sleeper hits.
Available in theaters Nov. 8, 2024
TIFF
3. Bring Them Down
Speaking of Barry Keoghan, the Irish actor pulled double duty at TIFF, also starring in this hell-bent thriller about two warring sheepherders sharing a mountain grazing pasture. We first see a sequence of events through the eyes of Christopher Abbott‘s Michael, before the movie resets, and we see the increasing violence from Keoghan’s Jack. The screenplay from Christopher Andrews (who also directed the movie) is extremely tight, leading to one of the year’s most propulsive films.
Release date pending
TIFF
4. Conclave
I don’t know how it has taken this long for us to get a suspenseful thriller involving the Papal power struggle, but we got one at TIFF this year. Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci and John Lithgow star in Edward Berger‘s follow up to All Quiet on the Western Front, which played TIFF in 2022. Based on a Robert Harris novel, Conclave examines the top secret proceedings that follow the death of one Pope as another is elected. This was one of the festival’s biggest crowdpleasers, earning rave reviews and causing plenty of whispered discussions about a twist you will never see coming. Ralph Fiennes is almost certainly headed for his first Oscar nomination since The English Patient.
Available in theaters on Nov. 1, 2024
Related: The 25 Best Movies of 2023
TIFF
5. Diciannove
Premiering at Venice, this Italian coming of age story (“diciannove” translates to “nineteen”) follows a young man on a quest of self exploration from Italy to to London and back. His studies, travels and sexual explorations are all vibrantly filmed by director Giovanni Tortorici in his directorial debut. While Luca Guadagnino was a producer on the film, it’s more aptly described as a Gen Z Paolo Sorrentino. Manfredi Marini is a star on the rise, and Tortorici is a name you should remember.
Release date pending
TIFF
6. Eden
After a string of movies including Hillbilly Elegy, Solo: A Star Wars Story and the Da Vinci Code trilogy, many critics skipped Ron Howard‘s latest film Eden at the festival, writing it off sight unseen as a flop. In one of the year’s strongest, most entertaining and delightfully dark films, however, Howard turns in his best work this century. Based on true events that happened on a remote island in the Galapagos, Eden follows three groups of rival settlers who go to increasingly deadly lengths to secure ownership of the rocky wilderness. Think of it as Survivor meets Succession with Jude Law, Vanessa Kirby, Felix Kammerer, Sydney Sweeney and Daniel Brühl all starring. It’s Ana de Armas as a scheming baroness who steals the show though. The movie is one of the year’s best and deserves a heaping pile of Oscar noms.
Release date pending
TIFF
7. Flow
In a year with Inside Ou 2 and The Wild Robot already jockeying for the Best Animated Feature Oscar, Flow has arrived as a tremendous underdog (or cat perhaps). The Latvian entry for Best International Feature is a mesmerizing 85 minutes without dialogue as a cat, living in a magical ancient landscape, finds refuge in a boat during a world-ending flood along with a secretary bird, a capybara, a dog and a lemur. The imaginative film from Gints Zilbalodis will stick with you long after you’ve left the theater with both its stunning animation and it’s profound message.
Available in theaters on Nov. 22, 2024
Related: 20 Academy Award Contenders for 2025 You Need to Watch
TIFF
8. I’m Still Here
Another Venice title that made a stop at TIFF this year is this Brazilian drama based on the true story of a Labour Party congressman who disappeared during the Brazilian Military Dictatorship of the 1970s. Based on a book by Marcelo Rubens Paiva, the son of missing congressman Rubens Paiva, the movie follows the wife and five children left behind when Rubens goes missing. I’m Still Here is a quiet family portrait in some moments and a thriller in others, but its captivating the entire time and Fernanda Torres’ performance as the matriarch certainly deserves awards.
Release date pending
TIFF
9. The Life of Chuck
In a somewhat surprising upset, the 2024 TIFF People’s Choice Award, which is traditionally seen as a harbinger of a Best Picture nomination among other awards, went to Mike Flanagan‘s The Life of Chuck. Flanagan has earned himself a large fandom for strong sci-fi/horror adaptations including The Haunting of Hill House, Gerald’s Game and Doctor Sleep. This latest adaptation of a Stephen King novella, starring Tom Hiddleston and Chiwetel Ejiofor, earned strong reviews out of Toronto and Flanagan’s legion of fans pushed it over the edge to win the prestigious prize. Currently without distribution, it will be interesting to see if this breaks out in the awards race this year.
Release date pending
TIFF
10. Nightbitch
Six-time Oscar loser Amy Adams is returning to the big screen this year after a string of disappointments (Hillbilly Elegy, The Woman in the Window, Dear Evan Hansen and Disenchanted is quite the run). But because she’s Amy Adams, pundits predicted this to be her Oscar year sight unseen. Due to ridiculously high expectations, Nightbitch didn’t quite arrive to the praise it deserved at TIFF. Marielle Heller continues to be a deceptively skillful director, pulling of nearly impossible feats (like adapting Rachel Yoder’s novel about a mother turning into a dog), but making them look so easy, they don’t receive the fanfare that those her contemporaries earn from more noticeably grueling features. Nightbitch is a more subtle examination of motherhood, marriage and domesticity than some expected, but both the movie and Adams’ performance are top notch. If they don’t receive the accolades they deserve, its simply because viewers have failed to notice the remarkable nuances.
Available in theaters on Dec. 6, 2024
TIFF
11. The Piano Lesson
Perhaps Netflix’s biggest play this awards season is The Piano Lesson, the third in Denzel Washington‘s 10-part saga based on August Wilson‘s Pittsburgh Cycle of plays after Fences and Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. The Piano Lesson is a Washington family affair with Denzel producing, his son Malcolm Washington directing and his other son John David Washington starring alongside Samuel L. Jackson and Danielle Deadwyler. Unsurprisingly all the performances here are powerful and evocative. More surprising, however, is how Malcolm manages to make a stage play feel so grand. The Washington genes are strong ones.
Available in theaters on Nov. 8, 2024 and streaming on Netflix Nov. 22, 2024
TIFF
12. We Live in Time
This season’s tear jerker is certainly the British romantic drama from Brooklyn director John Crowley, which made its world premiere at TIFF. Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh star as a young couple grappling with the news that Pugh’s Almut has been diagnosed with cancer. Unlike most cancer movies, however, We Live in Time’s non-linear format rids the movie of an ultra-depressing final third, embodying the whole film with a sense of joy and life we don’t usually see in this genre. Garfield and Pugh share a tremendous talent in both dramatic and comedic acting, skills put to good use here. This is one of the best cancer movies I’ve seen (and I say that as someone who had leukemia earlier this year).
Available in theaters on Oct. 11, 2024
TIFF
13. Will & Harper
During the COVID pandemic, Harper Steele, a former SNL writer and friend of Will Ferrell, reached out to the actor to inform him that she was transitioning from a man to a woman. In an attempt to understand and reconnect with his friend, Ferrell suggested the two take a road trip across America. The result is this magnificent documentary about growth, acceptance and, dare I say, the spirit of America. Watching Ferrell accept his friend and Steele accept herself is a beautiful, beautiful, beautiful thing indeed. Never has celebrity been weaponized for such a force of positivity, and never has movie about two people in a car full of Pringles been this emotional. To say this is powerful, important and inspiring would be a disservice to the laugh-out-loud, joyful comedy of this documentary. To say it’s funny, entertaining and a romp would undercut just how necessary it feels in 2024. Will & Harper should be required viewing for every American. I’m calling up my senator to let them know.
Available in theaters on Sept. 13, 2024 and streaming on Netflix Sept. 27, 2024
Next, The Best Movies of 2024 (So Far)
