NFB (National Film Board of Canada) will present the world premiere of Matthew Rankin’s NFB feature documentary Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney during the Midnight Madness sidebar of TIFF 2026, running September 10 to 20. The organisation describes the film as “a psychedelic doom scroll through the mind of a master Canadian politician.”
“In a genre-bending collage of Canadiana, Rankin remixes a wealth of archival material into a fever dream of politics, propaganda and pop culture as he charts the ascent of Canada’s 18th prime minister, Brian Mulroney, the ‘Boy from Baie-Comeau,’” the press notice underlines. “Haunted by visions of the future. Vilified by the political establishment. Charming beyond belief. Behold the dazzling ascent of Brian Mulroney… who built a brand-new Canada.”
‘In 1976, Brian Mulroney launched a charm offensive the likes of which Canada had never seen, dismantling the political establishment one dad joke at a time,” NFB continues. “In this genre-bending collage of VHS-ravaged Canadiana, Rankin remixes and reimagines 80,000 pieces of archive, chronicling Mulroney’s crash course with destiny as he… ushers in a new kind of conservatism for the 1980s.”
The 105-minute film is produced by Pierre-Mathieu Fortin and executive produced by Nathalie Cloutier.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney is one of three NFB world premieres at TIFF. The festival is also presenting Carol Nguyen’s feature doc debut Still Night, Burning House (Metafilms/NFB/Portage Films), in which a family journeys to Vietnam, where together they face long-unspoken questions about an uncle’s mysterious death.
Additionally, September 16 sees the launch of the NFB/TIFF short documentary initiative REDEFINED, featuring works by five next-generation filmmakers from across the country.
