Toronto International Film Festival announced August 6 its 2025 Docs programme which features 23 titles from 18 countries and 16 world premieres. “Audiences will encounter a wide range of real-life characters, including explorers, journalists, sex workers, activists, soldiers, and champion whistlers,” the festival writes. The 50th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival will take place September 4–14 2025.
This year’s line-up includes new work by celebrated directors, including Jimmy Chin, Chai Vasarhelyi, Billy Corben, Tamara Kotevska, Lucrecia Martel, Raoul Peck, Laura Poitras, Gianfranco Rosi, Michèle Stephenson and Peter Mettler.
The programme will open with Academy Award–winning Canadian director Ben Proudfoot’s The Eyes of Ghana, which is backed by executive producers Barack and Michelle Obama. “This is a film about the power of cinema [seen] through the eyes of the African cinematographer Chris Hessen,” comments Thom Powers, International Lead Programmer of TIFF Docs.
In his onsite introductory statement, Powers highlights other high-profile world premieres that include: The Balloonists, directed by John Dower, capturing adventurers who set out to circle the globe in a balloon; A Life Illuminated, directed by Tasha Van Zandt, following marine biologist Dr. Edie Widder on a stunning journey to the ocean depths; Whistle, directed by Christopher Nelius, portraying a competition of champion whistlers; Nuns vs. the Vatican, directed by Lorena Luciano and executive produced by Mariska Hargitay, exposing new allegations of abuse inside the Catholic Church; Canceled: The Paula Deen Story, directed by Billy Corben, which re-investigates the scandal of a celebrity chef; and Modern Whore, directed by Canadian Nicole Bazuin, which explores the sex industry and is based on the book of the same name by Andrea Werhun and Bazuin.
Other world premieres include Chai Vasarhelyi and Chin’s LOVE+WAR, Michèle Stephenson’s True North, Sky Hopinka’s Powwow People, Zahraa Ghandour’s Flana, and “a notable cluster of Canadian titles” including Jamal Burger and Jukan Tateisi’s Still Single, Darlene Naponse’s Aki, Shane Belcourt’s Ni-Naadamaadiz: Red Power Rising, Min Sook Lee’s There Are No Words, and the much-revered Peter Mettler’s While the Green Grass Grows: A Diary in Seven Parts.
“Compelling characters, stunning visuals, unforgettable stories…this year’s line-up is loaded with world premieres that are still seeking distribution,” Powers underlines of his programme.
“I first started coming to TIFF in the late 1980s before it was even called TIFF,” he adds. “I would drive up from my home in Detroit to Toronto and pack in a weekend of film-going. In nearly 40 years, it really hasn’t changed in its ability to deliver this exploration of stories from around the world. It’s just incredible.”
Documentaries already announced for TIFF 50 include the world premieres of John Candy: I Like Me and Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery in the Gala programme; Degrassi: Whatever It Takes; EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert, and You Had to Be There: How the Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution… in Special Presentations; as well as Palimpsest: the Story of a Name, announced in the Centrepiece programme.
2025 TIFF DOCS PROGRAMME WORLD PREMIERES:
- A Life Illuminated | Tasha Van Zandt | USA
- Aki | Darlene Naponse | Canada
- Canceled: The Paula Deen Story | Billy Corben | USA
- Flana | Zahraa Ghandour | Iraq/France/Qatar
- LOVE+WAR | Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin | USA
- Modern Whore | Nicole Bazuin | Canada
- Powwow People | Sky Hopinka | USA
- Ni-Naadamaadiz: Red Power Rising | Shane Belcourt | Canada
- Nuns vs. The Vatican | Lorena Luciano | USA
- Still Single | Jamal Burger, Jukan Tateisi | Canada
- The Balloonists | John Dower | USA/UK/Austria
- The Eyes of Ghana | Ben Proudfoot | USA | Opening Film
- There Are No Words | Min Sook Lee | Canada
- True North | Michèle Stephenson | USA/Canada
- While the Green Grass Grows: A Diary in Seven Parts | Peter Mettler | Canada/Switzerland
- Whistle | Christopher Nelius | Australia
INTERNATIONAL PREMIERE
- Below the Clouds | Gianfranco Rosi | Italy
NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERES
- A Simple Soldier | Juan Camilo Cruz, Artem Ryzhykov | Ukraine
- Nuestra Tierra | Lucrecia Martel | Argentina/USA/Mexico/France/Denmark/Netherlands
- Orwell: 2+2=5 | Raoul Peck | USA/France
- Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk | Sepideh Farsi | France/Palestine/Iran
- The Tale of Silyan | Tamara Kotevska | North Macedonia
CANADIAN PREMIERE
Cover-Up | Laura Poitras, Mark Obenhaus | USA
