TIFF 51: Denmark’s “Woman Unknown” is an unnerving proposition

by Cláudio Alves

It’s funny, sometimes, how films can converse with each other. And those conversations aren’t even limited to a festival’s program. As I watched May el-Toukhy’s somewhat controversial Golden Lion winner, Woman Unknown, my mind drifted to The Odyssey. Not just Nolan’s blockbuster, but all the adaptations I’ve seen of the Homeric poem and how they deal with the mass femicide near the end. Or, better yet, how they ignore it, erasing a part of the story that might have a modern viewer regard Odysseus and Telemachus as nothing but cruel men, as monstrous as any of the creatures that tried to prevent Ithaca’s king from returning home. Do the maids that served Penelope’s suitors deserve to die? Were all of them co-conspirators or women caught in a patriarchy that demanded their total subservience to the desires of violent men? And what if, like Emily Wilson, we read the word “δμῳαί” as “slave” instead of “servant”? 

To define culpability and blame isn’t something we can wholly separate from how gendered our world has been through most of its history, or the power imbalances defined within class structures. And even those who commit wrongs, atrocities beyond belief, have a right to fairness in their trials and judgments. Theoretically, they do. More often than not, one tends to ignore these problems and believe in the simple dichotomy of heroes and villains, good people and bad, and be done with it. Ontological reductionism can be so comforting. Then again, both-siding everything can be just as soothing. Woman Unknown, recently selected as Denmark’s submission for the 99th Academy Awards, denies us these comforts. Indeed, it might have been one of the most uncomfortable viewing experiences I suffered through at TIFF in the four years I’ve attended, and I don’t mean that as a negative critique. Far from it…

Click to read more ...

TIFF 51: Hamaguchi’s “All of a Sudden” is the best film of the year, bar none

by Cláudio Alves

Everyone gets to vote for the TIFF People’s Choice Award, even the press. And while I can’t reveal some personal award votes later in the season, I can safely tell you my pick this one time. I voted for Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s Franco-Japanese production of All of a Sudden. The best film at TIFF, it’s also my favorite world premiere so far into 2026, a masterpiece that feels like a return to basics for a director whose early works owed much to the likes of Antonioni and Rohmer. Well, a return to basics that also runs over three hours long and contains some of the most direct discussions of Marxist theory you’ll see in a film, of this or any year. But please, don’t get apprehensive when you read those words. For all the putative intellectualism coursing through its veins, All of a Sudden is a deeply humanistic, even accessible, text that should have something to say to, and resonate with, almost every viewer out there.

I confess that, as the end credits rolled, I hurried out of the TIFF Lightbox screening room, missing Virginie Efira’s Q&A because the tears streaming down my face were too much. In that moment, I needed time and a bit of privacy to compose myself. Since then, I’ve been trying to organize my thoughts on this breathtaking picture and can only hope to do it justice in my review. If I fail to communicate its brilliance, be assured it’s my fault and not the film’s…

Click to read more ...

TIFF 51: “La Bola Negra” is this year’s People’s Choice Award champion!

by Cláudio Alves

Ever since its third edition, the Toronto International Film Festival has allowed its audiences to vote for their personal favorites. Back in 1978, Claudia Weill’s Girlfriends took the prize, and, to this day, remains in the minority of titles to win the TIFF public’s favor without scoring any Oscar nomination. Populist appeal reigns supreme in this honor’s storied history, as does Hollywood's overshadowing of world cinema in the mainstream mindset. Before this year, we need to go back to 2011’s Where Do We Go Now? to find a victor not spoken in English. And if we’re talking about Spanish film in particular, Almodóvar’s Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown from 1988 was the only People’s Choice champion with a Spaniard production behind it. Until La Bola Negra, that is.

Los Javis’ Best Director prizewinner from Cannes is now well positioned in the awards race to come, backed all the way by Netflix, and having even convinced the Toronto crowd to deliver one of those protracted standing ovations that go viral every year directly from the major European fests. The Best International Film nomination seems all but secured for Spain, maybe even the win. Some are considering it a Best Picture frontrunner, already, which would be unheard of for a Spanish flick. And that’s it for awards chatter. Now, let’s focus on what really matters – the film itself…

Click to read more ...

TIFF 51: “Fjord” works great as a conversation starter

by Cláudio Alves

I don’t want this to become a yearly tradition. However, it’s notable that, for the second TIFF in a row, I chose to cap my first day at the fest with a Cannes prizewinner starring Renate Reinsve, coming hot into the awards season with NEON’s backing and the recommendation of a battalion of fellow critics I follow. And at the end, I find myself a contrarian. But while Sentimental Value was merely a disappointment, Cristian Mungiu’s Fjord is much worse, an outright catastrophe that’s probably my most despised Palme d’Or choice since Sophia Loren’s jury decided to give the festival’s top prize to The Birds, the Bees and the Italians, way back in 1966. Reinsve innocent, though… 

Click to read more ...

The Philippines delay Oscar submission! What gives?

By Juan Carlos Ojano

FILIPIÑANA has the potential to break the Philippines’ Oscar-less streak… if it gets submitted.

The Film Academy of the Philippines was set to announce the country's official submission for Best International Feature Film at the 99th Academy Awards last September 4. However, a statement was issued instead, postponing the whole thing to give way for further deliberations.

This comes after the Filipino theatrical release as well as the US theatrical release of the supposed frontrunner, Rafael Manuel's dark comedy Filipiñana, which depicts a day at a luxury resort where the difference between classes is starkly illustrated. Think of it as an arthouse White Lotus, if Mike White gave creative authority to some formalist-minded director or an anti-colonial auteur like Lav Diaz. Executive produced by Jia Zhangke and distributed by Kino Lorber (North America) and BFI Distribution (UK and Ireland), the film is enjoying a healthy run in international circles, while maintaining well-attended screenings in limited release in its home country.

And yet, there's trouble afoot with the matter of its selection as the nation's Best International Oscar submission...

Click to read more ...