Toronto International Film Festival to honor Penélope Cruz, Rosalind Eleazar, Siân Heder and Isabelle Huppert
The 51st Toronto International Film Festival is set for Sept. 10-20 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Tribute Awards gala is TIFF’s largest annual fundraiser and a world-class celebration of cinematic excellence, with proceeds supporting expanded access to cinema, championing artists, strengthening the industry, and bringing communities together through film.
Read MoreSerena Rossi to be honored with Passion for Film Award at Venice International Film Festival
The Campari Passion for Film Award is an accolade created to honor the talent, dedication, and bold artistic vision of those who transform passion into a driving creative force. The award honors those who turn passion into a driving creative force — not simply as a lifetime achievement, but as a tribute to the will to stand out and leave an indelible mark on the art of cinematic storytelling.
Read MoreRebecca Hall serving as guest director of Colorado’s Telluride Film Festival
Hall’s work spans independent films, major studio productions, television and the stage. She will next star in Adam Wingard’s A24 action thriller “Onslaught” and appears in the upcoming season of Netflix’s “Monster,” as well as “The Man I Love” and “The End of It,” which both premiered at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival.
Read MoreDirected by Georgia Oakley, new take on Jane Austen’s ‘Sense and Sensibility’ to bow in fall
Daisy Edgar-Jones (“Twisters,” “Where the Crawdads Sing”) as Elinor and Esme Creed-Miles (“The Sandman,” “The Chronology of Water”) as Marianne. George MacKay (“1917”) is portraying Elinor’s love interest, Edward Ferrars. Frank Dillane (“Urchin”) stars as Marianne’s initial love interest John Willoughby, and Herbert Nordrum (“The Worst Person in the World”) plays her later suitor, Colonel Brandon
Read MoreBritish filmmaker Alicia MacDonald’s feature film debut ‘Finding Emily’ appears in U.S. theaters in summer
“Finding Emily” follows a lovesick musician who is given the wrong number for his dream girl, so he teams up with a driven psychology student to find her. Together, they spark a hilarious campus-wide frenzy that tests their own hearts and ambitions along the way.
Read MoreJennifer Garner and Bekah Brunstetter are dishing up the Peacock series ‘The Five Star Weekend’
Along with Garner, who is also an executive producer, the series stars D’Arcy Carden, Gemma Chan, Regina Hall, Chloë Sevigny, Harlow Jane and Timothy Olyphant. It is adapted from Elin Hilderbrand’s best-selling novel of the same name.
Read MoreCreated by Laura Kittrell, ‘Legally Blonde’ prequel series ‘Elle’ coming soon to Prime Video
The debut season of “Elle” stars Lexi Minetree as Elle Woods, June Diane Raphael as Elle’s mother Eva and Tom Everett Scott as her father Wyatt. Ahead of the series’ debut, Prime Video has already ordered a second season of the prequel series.
Read MoreAmazon Original series ‘Every Year After,’ from showrunner Amy B. Harris, is streaming soon
The series is based on Fortune’s “Every Summer After,” which spent 16 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller list, has sold more than a million copies to date and gained popularity through BookTok.
Read MoreAmy Poehler to be honored with a Peabody Career Achievement Award
The other Special Award Winners for the 2026 Peabody Awards are award-winning Oklahoma-based director, producer, and screenwriter Sterlin Harjo, who will be honored with the Peabody Trailblazer Award, and historic programmer PBS KIDS, which will be recognized with the Peabody Institutional Award.
Read MoreCreator Katie Dippold’s new horror-comedy series ‘Widow’s Bay’ making global premiere on Apple TV
“Widow’s Bay” is named for its setting, a quaint island town 40 miles off the coast of New England. But something lurks beneath the surface. Mayor Tom Loftis (Emmy Award winner Matthew Rhys) is desperate to revive his struggling community. There’s no wi-fi and spotty cellular reception, plus he must contend with superstitious locals who believe their island is cursed.
Read MoreOlivia Newman’s ‘Remarkably Bright Creatures,’ starring Sally Field and Lewis Pullman, debuting on Netflix
The film also stars Colm Meaney (“Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,” “Bring Them Down”), Joan Chen (“Dìdi,” “The Wedding Banquet”), Kathy Baker (“The Ranch,” “Edward Scissorhands”), Beth Grant (“Little Miss Sunshine,” “No Country for Old Men”) and Sofia Black-D’Elia (“Single Drunk Female,” “The Night Of”).
Read MoreMaggie Gyllenhaal’s long-awaited ‘The Bride’ to haunt theaters in March
Set in the 1930s, “The Bride” follows a lonely Frankenstein (Christian Bale), who travels to Chicago to ask groundbreaking scientist Dr. Euphronious (Annette Bening) to create a companion for him. The two revive a murdered young woman and The Bride (Jessie Buckley) is born.
Read MoreDove Cameron and Avan Jogia star in Prime Video series ’56 Days,’ based on a Catherine Ryan Howard thriller
Billed as both a unique crime story and a riveting, sexy, psychological thriller, “56 Days” follows Oliver and Ciara, who, after meeting randomly in a supermarket, fall for each other fast and dangerously hard. Fifty-six days later, homicide investigators arrive at Oliver’s apartment to find an unidentified body — brutally murdered and intentionally decomposed.
Read MoreEmerald Fennell’s ‘Wuthering Heights’ arriving in theaters in time for Valentine’s Day
Billed as a bold and original imagining of one of the greatest love stories of all time, Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” stars Margot Robbie as Cathy and Jacob Elordi as Heathcliff, whose forbidden passion for one another turns from romantic to intoxicating in an epic tale of lust, love and madness.
Read MoreChloé Zhao, Nia DaCosta and Geeta Gandbhir to be honored at 2026 Sundance Film Festival
The awards will be presented at the fundraising event “Celebrating Sundance Institute: A Tribute to Founder Robert Redford,” which is taking place Jan. 23 at the Grand Hyatt Deer Valley. The event will be a meaningful tribute to Sundance Institute’s Founder, Robert Redford, who died Sept. 16, 2025, at his home in Sundance, Utah, at age 89.
Read MoreMaryam Touzani’s drama ‘Calle Malaga’ to open the Palm Springs International Film Festival
“Calle Málaga” had its world premiere in the Spotlight at the 2025 Venice International Film Festival, where it won the Audience Award. It also was selected as Morocco’s official entry for the Oscars‘ international feature film category, but it did not make the shortlist.
Read MoreSearchlight Pictures releasing ‘The Testament of Ann Lee’ in select 70mm theaters for Christmas
Academy Award nominee Amanda Seyfried (“Mank,” “The Housemaid”) stars as the Shakers’ irrepressible leader. One of pre-Revolutionary America’s seminal religious figures, Lee espoused gender and social equality while believing herself to be the female incarnation of Christ.
Read MoreKate Winslet’s star-studded directorial debut ‘Goodbye June’ is saying hello on Netflix
Set at Christmastime, the film co-stars Winslet, Oscar nominees Toni Collette and Andrea Riseborough and Johnny Flynnas four adult siblings who are thrust into a crisis when their mother (Academy Award winner Helen Mirren) faces a dire and unexpected turn in her health.
Read MoreHIKARI’s ‘Rental Family,’ starring Brendan Fraser, is opening in theaters via Searchlight Pictures
Set in modern-day Tokyo, the film follows an American actor who struggles to find purpose until he lands an unusual gig: working for a Japanese “rental family” agency, playing stand-in roles for strangers. As he immerses himself in his clients’ worlds, he begins to form genuine bonds that blur the lines between performance and reality.
Read MoreShih-Ching Tsou’s ‘Left-Handed Girl’ heading to theaters ahead of Netflix debut
“Left-Handed Girl” follows a single mother and her two daughters, who return to Taipei after several years of living in the countryside to open a stand at a buzzing night market. Each in their own way will have to adapt to this new environment to make ends meet and maintain the family unity. But when their traditional grandfather forbids his youngest left-handed granddaughter from using her “devil hand,” generations of family secrets begin to unravel.
Read MoreSepideh Farsi’s ‘Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk’ to be released in theaters via Kino Lorber
The documentary offers an intimate, first-hand perspective on life under siege in Gaza, captured through video calls between the director and 25-year-old Palestinian photojournalist and poet Fatma Hassona, who was killed by a targeted Israeli airstrike in April.
Read More50+ movies directed by women playing the 50th Toronto International Film Festival, including ‘Couture,’ ‘Hamnet’ and ‘Eleanor the Great’
Directorial debuts from Scarlett Johansson, Shu Qi, Maude Apatow and Alice Winocour, the latest films from Academy Award winners Chloé Zhao and Laura Poitras, and new movies from Oscar nominee Agnieszka Holland, Nia DaCosta, Isabel Coixet, Claire Denis and more are on the high-profile slate for the 50th anniversary Toronto International Film Festival in September.
Read MoreHind Meddeb’s acclaimed documentary ‘Sudan, Remember Us’ comes to U.S. theaters
The festival standout, which captures a jubilant moment of defiance among young Sudanese activists in the capital city of Khartoum after the overthrow of a long dictatorship and then chronicles the military crackdown that followed, had its world premiere last year at the 81st Venice International Film Festival in Italy.
Read MoreLucy Liu, Emma Thompson, Golshifteh Farahani and Milena Canonero among 2025 Locarno Film Festival honorees
Liu will receive the festival’s Career Achievement Award; Thompson, the Leopard Club Award; Farahani, the Excellence Award Davide Campari; and Canonero, the Vision Award. The festival is set for Aug. 6-16 in Locarno Switzerland.
Read MoreDame Kristin Scott Thomas’ directorial debut ‘My Mother’s Wedding’ opening in theaters this summer
Dame Kristin Scott Thomas co-stars in the film alongside two-time Oscar nominee Scarlett Johansson (“Jurassic World: Rebirth,” “Lost in Translation”), two-time BAFTA nominee Sienna Miller (“American Sniper,” “Layer Cake”), Emily Beecham (“Little Joe,” “Hail, Caesar!”) and BAFTA nominee Freida Pinto (“Slumdog Millionaire,” “Knight of Cups”).
Read MoreWelcome to The Week In Women, an AWFJ Network Blog authored by Brandy McDonnell
An Alliance of Women Film Journalists blog.