TIFF 50: "Aniki-Bóbó" shines in a new restoration

by Cláudio Alves

Few names in history are more synonymous with Portuguese cinema than that of Manoel de Oliveira. Perhaps we should go further still, as no cineaste in the medium's existence has followed its development for quite so long. His first project was 1931's Douro Fauna Fluvial, a non-fiction silent short whose radical form heralded the arrival of Modernism to Portuguese screens. His last major work before death was 2014's Gebo and the Shadow, a French-speaking chamber piece where theatrical tradition intersected with the digital vanguard. From pure kinetics to a studied staticity, from a cinema looking forward to one that found the future by glancing back at the past, 83 years of film. Even if he hadn't been a master of his craft, the man's sheer longevity and perseverance would have earned de Oliveira a place in the pantheon. Thankfully, historical importance is matched by the pictures' quality across the decades, metamorphoses and movie magics.

On its 50th edition, the Toronto International Film Festival honors this master of cinema's memory with a screening of his first feature, 1942's Aniki-Bóbó. The TIFF Classics selection marks the North American premiere of a new 4k restoration, bringing a film that was generally dismissed at the time of its original release to new, vibrant life. It's never looked or sounded better, a miracle on the silver screen…

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Venice: Luca Guadagnino's discomfiting "After the Hunt"

Elisa Giudici reporting from Venice

Ayo Edebiri makes an accusation in "AFTER THE HUNT"

Luca Guadagnino has never shied away from controversy, and After the Hunt confirms he’s still unafraid to provoke. A story of sexual assault on a university campus becomes the lens through which he examines the messy, ongoing intergenerational debate around #MeToo, forcing audiences to wrestle with discomfort rather than dodge it.

The film begins with Maggie Price (Ayo Edebiri), a wealthy Black queer student, under the mentorship of Alma (Julia Roberts), a philosophy professor fighting for tenure with the support of her husband Frederick (Michael Stuhlbarg). Across campus is Hank (Andrew Garfield), an assistant professor from a modest background, also seeking to cement his place in academia. When Maggie accuses Hank of harassment, the film pivots on questions of belief, loyalty, and moral authority—questions shaped by race, class, gender, and generational expectation...

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TIFF 50: Natalia Reyes loses her identity in "It Would Be Night in Caracas"

by Cláudio Alves

In the past decade, Natalia Reyes has consolidated her reputation as one of Latin American cinema's most promising rising stars. Though Birds of Passage put her on the map for many a cinephile, her sojourn into Hollywood filmmaking probably earned her more recognition. Six years ago, the Colombian actress was one of the highlights of Terminator: Dark Fate, and just this year, she appeared alongside Kerry Washington in Shadow Force. Indeed, 2025 is something of a banner year for Reyes, who stars in two new projects making their way through the fall festival season. Mariana Rondón and Marité Ugás' It Would Be Night in Caracas and Tomás Corredor's Noviembre find their star amid moments of societal unrest – the 2017 Venezuelan protests and the 1985 Palace of Justice siege in Bogotá.

First up, the Caracas-set drama, which had its world premiere today at Venice before making its North American debut at TIFF…

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Venice: Kathryn Bigelow returns with the terrifying "A House of Dynamite"

Elisa Giudici reporting from Venice

Kathryn Bigelow’s A House of Dynamite is not, at its core, about nuclear war. It is about the frightening ease with which the world could stumble into one. Eight years after Detroit, Bigelow returns with a film that feels less like a departure than the logical consequence of her career: taut, unsentimental, and anchored in a realism so sharp that it leaves the audience unnerved long after the credits roll.

The premise is brutally simple. One morning, somewhere in the Pacific, a missile is launched and slips undetected past U.S. defense systems. Nothing is confirmed—its origin, its payload, its intent—but the clock begins ticking: sixteen minutes until impact...

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Venice: The Rock and Emily Blunt in "The Smashing Machine"

Elisa Giudici reporting from Venice

The Rock stars in "THE SMASHING MACHINE"

The Smashing Machine feels familiar even if you’ve never heard of Mark Kerr. That’s part of its strength: Benny Safdie takes the real story of a man who helped shape mixed martial arts and reframes it with a clarity that cuts through the clichés of the sports genre. In the late 1990s Kerr and his friend Mark Coleman (here played by MMA veteran Ryan Bader) were pioneers, carrying American fighters to Japan’s Pride tournaments; huge, almost gladiatorial events that revealed how far the sport could go. Those who came after turned that groundwork into global stardom and multimillion-dollar careers. Kerr and Coleman, instead, were the trailblazers whose brilliance was real but whose recognition was fleeting.

This film wants to correct that. At his peak, between 1997 and 2000, Kerr was an undefeated champion. Then came the spiral: defeats, opioids, psychological collapse. But what could have been yet another story of decline is reshaped here into something richer...

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