Happy 50th anniversary, TIFF! The Toronto International Film Festival celebrated its golden jubilee edition by doing what it has done since its inception as the “festival of festivals”: ​​showing a ton of films, selected from all over the world. As always, there were highlights and lowlights, disappointments and unexpected surprises — you don't program more than 200 feature films over 11 days without a flop or two, and more than a few hidden gems that end up becoming critical highlights and audience favorites. Here are the 10 movies we saw on TIFF 50 (for the love of God, please don't call it TIFF-ty) that will stay with us long after the event ends on September 14th. From documentaries about tragedies in Gaza and Argentina to a breakthrough horror film, a gothic monster movie with heart and soul, and a period drama about the Bard that's likely to be the next Best Picture winner, it's been a pretty good year.

(Note: Honorable mentions for Blue Heron, Erupcja, Franz, Hen, A Poet, Rose of Nevada, Tuner, and Dead or Alive: A Knives Out Mystery.)

Meet the Shakespeares. Chloé Zhao's rigorous, moving, and utterly transcendent take on Maggie O'Farrell's novel—about the premature death of William and Anne “Agnes” Shakespeare's son Hamnet, and the way that tragedy inspired the Bard's play— Hamlet — was the most devastating fiction film we saw at TIFF this year, and will most likely be the film of 2025 that leaves you in tears on the floor. However, it is a chronicle about the confrontation with death that, even so, overflows with life, renewal, rebirth. Hamnet's departure from this mortal world once set the stage for a masterpiece. Now he's done it twice. Paul Mescal writes a robust Shakespeare, and young actor Jacobi Jupe delivers a surprisingly sublime performance as the title character. However, It's Jessie Buckley's performance that truly drives this tale of grief, and the way she ultimately finds a sense of solace and catharsis through art feels revelatory.

• A24 Films

• Toronto Festival 2025