TIFF 51: Who were the best lead actresses at the fest?
Friday, September 25, 2026 at 10:00PM Cláudio Alves and Eurocheese pause the current onslaught of TIFF reviews to discuss a topic near and dear to their hearts – actressing!
Julianne Moore might just fake-smoke her way to a second Oscar with THE DEBUT.
CLÁUDIO: For years, I dreamed of attending TIFF, always following coverage of the festival by my favorite critics and pundits. The Film Experience was my favorite haunt in that regard, and I can still recall how much I yearned to be part of the conversation when Nathaniel, Nick Davis, Joe Reid and Katey Rich would congregate for a very special podcast episode. And yet, coming to my fourth year of actually attending and covering the festival, that youthful excitement started to fade into a half-forgotten memory. Well, the feeling blossomed again when I finally got to meet you in person, dear Eurocheese, and read your perspective on the event, still full of the old excitement I suddenly felt coming back to life within my jaded, withered heart. For that, you have my eternal gratitude.
But we're not here to be sentimental - though that's often my role around these parts - so we might as well get to it. Let's talk Best Actress at TIFF...
So far, your coverage has focused mostly on Oscar prospects, which is a valuable lens for viewing performances and films when writing for an awards-obsessed readership. And yet, I find myself wanting to revisit some of the thespians whose work you've described, discussing their work more than their status as contenders. Mostly, I want to gush about how fun it was to see a movie built around Julianne Moore as a love letter to her skills as an actress, or Rinko Kikuchi's film-saving efforts in Ha-Chan, Shake Your Booty!, among others. I would also love to expand this conversation beyond films with any real shot at Oscar gold. I often find that some of the best performances at TIFF come from the smaller films few write about. Is there any such gem you left unexamined in your Best Actress series?
EUROCHEESE: Aw, I loved connecting with you as well! Film is so much more fun in conversation. I have so much more gushing to do on Julianne too.
CLÁUDIO: To reiterate my point, an underrated part of festivals like TIFF is the personal connections one can make there. Sometimes it's with people one has known online for years. Other times, it's with a stranger you start talking film with while queuing for a screening. Meeting you was a blessing, and the conversation was a good part of it. At the time, I think I mentioned to you I wasn't really surprised by anything in Moore's performance, but that doesn't mean she is anything other than a delight. The role was written for her, taking full advantage of every tool in her arsenal and pushing her to the point of parody. And yet, perhaps because of that, I found myself drawn to the interstitials in between her big moments - Eisenberg gives her around 50 Oscar clips in one movie - the transitions, rare morsels of quiet where I could feel the actress finding the person hidden within this theater kid construct. She's such a genius.
Moore wasn't the only musical tour de force at TIFF. Don't forget Jodie Comer in STUFFED!
Moreover, I got to meet her one-on-one after the screening. Well, Moore and Eisenberg, but you know who my gay little heart beat faster for. It wasn't the man who confessed to me that he never finished The Hours because Glass' score puts him to sleep. But speaking of music, The Debut's premise obviously made the conversation drift toward musicals, and we even got to chat about favorite Sondheims. Eisenberg is a Pacific Overtures guy, while Moore loves Assassins. However, at the mention of my favorite - Follies - the actress did confess she'd love to take part in an adaptation of it one day.
We mourned Terence Davies' failed attempts to bring it to the big screen and talked about the David Heyman-produced project that's been discussed for years, with nothing definitive announced. I might have confessed that it'd be heaven to see and hear her perform "Losing My Mind," and another pivot in our talk turned to what role she'd fit best in Follies.
But I ask you, Eurocheese, what musical role would you love to see Moore play on film? I can't get the idea of Todd Haynes' Next to Normal out of my mind, though Moore has likely aged out of the lead there.
EUROCHEESE: Well, let me do my best to hide my deep envy that you casually talked musicals with Julianne Moore, though to be honest, I'd probably be falling all over myself babbling about my favorite performances from her instead of having a coherent conversation. I'd be fascinated to see what she could do with Sweeney Todd's Mrs. Lovett, though I'd be just as thrilled to see her take on Sunset Boulevard or Hello, Dolly! Of course, Haynes is the correct answer, but I would watch her in literally anything. Her performance in The Debut - my favorite performance of the year, by the way - is just one extreme after another, all defiantly played for laughs for any filmgoers doubting her comedic skills. There's a reason our audience burst into applause and rounds of laughter throughout. This will go down as her iconic performance, the one casual movie fans will remember more than any other. Eisenberg is throwing one zany, off-the-wall challenge after another at her and she is knocking every one of them out of the park. If she doesn't win the Oscar, I'm rioting in protest!
As far as favorites outside the race: Actress feels wide open enough that most films feel like they could end up in the conversation, but there is a child performance I'd like to highlight - Mason Reeves in Josephine. As a child who witnesses a violent sexual assault, much of this film hinges on her reaction shots, showing us how the information she's receiving is confusing and often terrifying her. Reeves plays Jo with curiosity, and while it would be easy to tip into dramatic reactions, she has a natural realism that brings even more weight to the situation. I hope we get to see more from this impressive young actress in the future.
In a moment of recognition, Sophie Okonedo makes CLARISSA one of the best films of the year.
Closer to the race, I was impressed by the pair of actresses sharing the title role in Clarissa, Sophie Okonedo and India Amarteifio. (I will refrain from attempting to stray towards "supporting" for the split roles as I know this is a TFE cardinal sin!) The two feel like a perfect match, and the jump between timelines in Clarissa shows the long-term impact of our decisions. India's warmth and Sophie's sharp edges also trace the character's development over time, and Okonedo brings the arc home in her scenes, reflecting on the life she's chosen. The film is gorgeous, but the emotional plot points driven by the two actresses are what make it land in the end (with David Oyelowo providing resonant support). I know you enjoyed the film, too - what did you think of this actress pairing?
CLÁUDIO: I must say that, punditry-wise, I feel Reeves is closer to the race than either of the women playing the titular Clarissa. Nevertheless, there might be no single acting beat that moved me more at TIFF than the way Okonedo contemplated herself in the mirror before this Mrs. Dalloway was about to start her hosting duties, or the two dialogues near the end that led to a final shot that felt like seeing a person cracked open, a film revealing its last miracle, and something like catharsis, but not quite, warming my chest from the inside. Amarteifio is also excellent, especially in a breakup scene that reminded me of Dreyer's Gertrud. If you've never seen or heard of that Danish classic, rest assured that my comparison is the highest compliment to Clarissa and its young star.
Though I know you're not a fundamentalist about this sort of thing, I am curious to talk categorization. I'd say Amarteifio could fairly run a campaign for Supporting Actress, even if I don't think that's happening. I do not, however, accept categorizing Kate O'Flynn in Tender Loving Care or Tao Okamoto in All of a Sudden as supporting despite that being the apparent route their distributors are taking into the season. They should be in the Best Actress conversation along with their scene partners, whom they sometimes outclass within these miraculous pictures - my two favorites at TIFF, by the way.
As Nathaniel and I love to say, a film can have more than one lead, people!
Empathy and a commitment to care are the main tenets of Efira's work in ALL OF A SUDDEN.
EUROCHEESE: Funny that you mention those two - in both cases, while they were excellent, I slightly preferred their co-stars. Virginie Efira is radiating empathy in her role as a caregiver in All of a Sudden, and I very much hope we see her in the Best Actress race. The movie doesn't work if it isn't reaching out to find the humanity in every single scene.
Similarly, the joy brought by Alice Bailey Johnson's Rosie in Tender Loving Care keeps the movie feeling light when communal apathy tries to overtake her charges, and it helps bolster Kate O'Flynn's Amy as she navigates tough circumstances. Perhaps this is my bias - the characters providing support are the ones that draw me in most. Johnson felt closer to Supporting for me, but all of the principal characters in Tender Loving Care and both leads in All of a Sudden are giving subtle, layered performances that deserve nomination love this season. Hopefully their combined resonance doesn't cancel out what they're each contributing, though I am somewhat concerned this might be the case.
CLÁUDIO: That's a beautiful description of what Efira and Bailey Johnson achieve in their respective films, both festival highlights, if not among the year's very best cinematic achievements. But let me shout out Okamoto's subtle brilliance in a role that could've felt too much like a script device, meant to reflect and aid the French heroine's journey. She makes Mari feel real and layered, beset by contradictions that slowly reveal themselves as she succumbs to a body giving up on her. The moment, mid-embrace, when she suddenly gasps that she wants to live, that this world is the best, that she wants to stay, might be the single most devastating gut punch in a film full of those.
O'Flynn deserves praise above all for her tonal flexibility, and for how she reflects her on-screen mom and dad. Without guiding our attention with too overt a demonstration, she's the product of both their parenting. Yet, if I had to pick an MVP out of Tender Loving Care, I'd probably go with Mike Leigh's regular player and romantic partner, Marion Bailey.
All three of TENDER LOVING CARE's main actresses deserve plenty of recognition.
She'll be the one Bleecker Street will campaign for Best Actress, and she surely deserves her moment in the sun after so many years delivering stellar work in smaller roles. There are so many scenes that come to mind, some tiny shifts in expression, that broke my heart into a million pieces or gave me unexpected insight into a woman who may not be as ideal a mother as one might assume. A conversation in bed with her husband before his decline makes for one of those latter triumphs, and it's all in the souring of an automatic smile and the inkling of inner reckoning Bailey suggests. And, of course, the scenes of singing, including something so achingly real and personal it feels like the camera moves away from the characters because it's invading their space, showing us something we're not meant to see.
Alas, Bailey will probably be remembered by critics' groups. I'm not so sure Léa Seydoux will be so lucky, though she's the only thing keeping Gentle Monster watchable and positively miraculous in The Unknown. Without exaggeration, I think the latter might be her best performance ever, and I've seen A LOT of her filmography. From projecting a voracious void to shifting selves, identities unstable and the quasi-slapstick of a mind moving an unfamiliar body, she's tremendous. Her last close-up still haunts me, and not because it's frightening or tragic. Instead, it's because it felt like the birth of something uniquely new into the world, a magic trick or perchance a miracle that can only exist on screen yet illuminates so much of our off-screen realities.
I also happened to catch a Jasmine Trinca double feature, with The Spiral and It Will Happen Tonight, but I'm less enthused about the Italian star's work, fun as it always is to see her unravel. Did you program any accidental or not-so-accidental actress-y double feature while at TIFF?
EUROCHEESE: I wish I could agree that Seydoux made Gentle Monster watchable, though she's certainly the best part of the film. The Unknown and The Spiral are high on my list to catch after the festival.
Jeon and Cho sing a tragicomic duet on the vampirism of cinema in POSSIBLE LOVE.
While I didn't catch any other leading actress pairs I want to shout out, I will mention another double lead - Jeon Do-yean and Cho Yeo-jeong, the respective stars of Secret Sunshine and Parasite, build a fascinating relationship as a blue-collar worker facing economic peril and the documentarian attempting to capture her plight in Possible Love. Empathy here works differently than in All of a Sudden and Tender Loving Care, but all three films tie into a larger discussion of how professional choices are shaped by personal motivations, both positively and negatively. They also examine what relating to one another means from an economic standpoint. In a world where we are constantly reminded how little humanity we can find in politics, these filmmakers draw out discussion about what we can find (in reach or limitations) by connecting with each other. This feels especially important as the modern world feels less connected, and therefore less humane.
Before we wrap up, I'd also like to once again highlight Laura Linney's impressive performance in Onwards and Sideways as a favorite among my Best Actress Watch series - we take this brilliant actress for granted, and I would love to see her back in the awards conversation. Given the audience's love, Ruth Madeley may come closer to an Oscar for her work in Being Heumann, though I must confess I have no idea how that film triumphed in the Audience Awards over The Debut. Madeley does give a magnetic performance, though, so I won't have qualms if she lands in Best Actress - as long as my beloved Julianne still takes the top prize.
Any other favorites you want to shout out?
CLÁUDIO: Oh, so many. I have somehow watched 52 film titles, with still a handful to go through at home screeners, and the mountain of great acting grows ever taller. I won't say much about the Possible Love ladies, except to cosign your praise and offer that, like O'Flynn, Jeon has an ease with wild tonal swings that demands a standing ovation from anyone with any respect for the art of acting.
So, to wrap things up, for now, let me try to do some rapid-fire recommendations, in alphabetical order.
Arcel plays woman as passive commodity, straining survivor, opportunistic monster, and more!
Mathilde Arcel deserved her controversial Volpi Cup, treading the line between monstrous culpability and a survivor's animal instinct while openly challenging the audience. Do you dare judge this Woman Unknown? Doesn't she do it enough for you? Or is she unknowable even to herself, lost in the gray zone where right and wrong are illusions?
Jodie Comer can sometimes feel too big for the films she finds herself in. But given her enough leeway, the proper context of stylization, and suddenly she finds an uncanny ability to ground the most outlandish material, heightened emotions feel real in her hands. The taxidermist romance cum horror musical Stuffed is the perfect vehicle for her.
Anna Díaz articulates the cautious hope of youth that has already lived through too much in Ashes, yet is still able to be disappointed, even crushed by what life has in store for her. This immigrant story is familiar in form and structure, but Díaz's duets with Adriana Paz as her mother and Sergio Bautista as her little brother make the film essential.
Fan Bingbing is Joan Bennett reborn in Wang's Diary of a Mad Old Man. Watching her and Lily Franky is like seeing those Fritz Lang noirs, with the Japanese actor filling Edward G. Robinson's shoes while Fan negotiates the sincerity of a modern femme fatale whose transactional sensuality might have more to it than meets the eye.
After you watch ON BEHALF OF MY SON, you'll never forget Rejane Faria's face.
Rejane Faria's face is shot like a monument of grief and shame, perseverance, and a universe of other human realities in On Behalf of My Son. Brazil might have picked another representative for the Oscar race, but Faria's titanic performance should earn her a prime spot in the Best Actress conversation. In a just world, it would.
Birgit Minichmayr holds together the first two acts of Everytime with a grounded portrayal of a mother's grief. In the last third, she helps the film transition into a realm beyond reality, where miracles can happen and the impossible manifests while we teeter on the edge of madness. Is it lunacy, a dream, a nightmare, or merely love in cinematic form?
Yana Radeva feels like a longtime superstar known only in her country, now finally getting the chance to be seen by international audiences through The Dreamed Adventure. Alas, this is her acting debut. Unbelievably assured, she holds the audience in the palm of her hand to the point that a simple flattening of her smile stops your heartbeat.
Renate Reinsve redeems some of Fjord's worst writing and directorial decisions by burrowing into this woman's inner conflict, letting us see into her doubts even as she keeps a steadfast united front with her husband. It's the most I've liked her in a long time. Too much business with the glasses, though that's a minor note.
The evils of contemporary corporate culture are the basis of Rohrwacher's latest star turn.
Alba Rohrwacher shows us how the work/life balance is a nasty lie in A Good Little Soldier's vision of late capitalism. Her early naivete is the perfect starting point for a personal collapse that lets corporate abuse seep into her family relationships, especially the bond with her son. An office tragedy played as pitch-black comedy.
Teresa Sánchez fulfills the promise of greatness she made with early leading roles like Dos Estaciones. She's a hilarious and ticking time bomb of melancholy, ready to explode into a laugh in Everything Else Is Noise. In Flies, she takes the archetype of the grump whose heart is melted by a child and makes it feel fresh, everything old is new again.
I've already written with some detail about Moon Choi in Bedford Park, Hoyeon in Hope and Pushpa Thing Lama in Elephants in the Fog, in my full reviews of those films, so I'll leave it at that. Wow, for actressexuals like us, there's really nothing like TIFF is there? What a marvel this year's edition has been in that regard. And thank you so much for indulging me in these actress-y musings, Eurocheese. It's been a blast!
Next time Cláudio and Eurocheese talk TIFF, they'll be doing their own versions of Juries of One for the titles they've seen. Also, Cláudio's reviews will continue alongside virtual NYFF coverage for the next few weeks. There's so much cinema to talk about, to discuss, to love and celebrate! Join the conversation in the comments.
Reader Comments (6)
Sorry guys but Liza and Pet Shop Boys own Losing My Mind.
I'd like to know how Moore didn't surpise you Claudio,what made her performance great but not revelatory.
Moore liked her movie Assassins,she's wasted in it or did I miss something.
Clarissa is wishful thinking,it's just too tiny and niche.
Josephine will have to be a major player for Reevs to make it
I do think most of the international performers have no chance apart from Efira and Reinsve.
Mike Leigh has struggled since Vera Drake to get his ladies past the finishing post,campaigning will have to be done to get them in this time.
One thing i'm dreading this season is Inde Navarrette getting in Best Actress for Obsession and winning,I hated that grubby nihilistic film and didn't think she was very good in it,she was so forced.
Maddeley is the one to watch imo.
Mr Ripley79 -- "Losing My Mind" belongs to Dorothy Collins.
Well, it's hard to be revelatory this far into one's career, especially when a film is constructed so much around what the public has already seen from you, only upped to eleven.
Moore was saying her favorite Sondheim musical is ASSASSINS, completely unrelated to her film of the same name.
CLARISSA is wishful thinking, but this piece was about celebrating performances we love, not just punditry.
I think JOSEPHINE can go the distance. Maybe it's the pessimist in me speaking, since I did not care for the film whatsoever.
International performers always have a hard time with the Oscars, but it reflects worse on the Academy than it does on these great artists from beyond the English-speaking world. To quote Bong Joon-ho: "Once you overcome the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.”
I have little faith that TENDER LOVING CARE can go the distance, which is even more reason to celebrate it ourselves. That said, it just swept San Sebastián like few films ever have in that festival's history.
Also not a fan of OBSESSION. You can read my thoughts here: https://letterboxd.com/claudioalves/film/obsession-2025/
Will eventually have to watch BEING HEUMANN, but it's hard to be excited about the new film from the filmmaker who brought us CODA, even if I did love the Oscar-winning performance to come out of that Best Picture champion.
I see what you are saying about Collins but Liza and Pet Shop Boys did something radical with it,it doesn't even sound like a show tune in their hands.
CODA wasn't that bad so you do not want to watch something by the filmmaker,I usually give all filmmakers a 2nd chance.
I am excited for me to impress me once more as she's done since Marlene in 1992.
Tender Loving Care maybe a quiet dark horse.
I felt the same way about obsession,I am dreading her Best Actress nomination
While it's almost blasphemy to deny Dorothy Collins' supremacy with "Losing My Mind," Joanna Riding did something amazing with it when she replaced Imelda Staunton in the National Theatre production:
Joanna Riding: "Losing My Mind"
@FrankZappa not really my thing,I prefer the beefed up version.
Frank Zappa -- Thank you for bringing my attention to that rendition. I was only familiar with Staunton's take on the character and song from the National Theater production. Riding is, indeed, amazing.