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TIFF 2016: the best, boldest, and most awards-ready new films

If the Sundance Film Festival is the germinating seed of the year in film, a place where indie films make their first stop before slowly finding their way to audiences over the ensuing months, TIFF is its polar opposite. Every year Toronto plays host to a showcase of star-studded studio films are often the rule rather than the exception, and the stage where many of the fall&rsquo;s films kick off their awards season campaigns in earnest. But it’s also a place for true cinephiles &mdash; where filmmaking legends continue their legacies and idiosyncratic indies are more hit than miss. The Verge is on the ground in Toronto covering all the films you’ll be talking about for the next year.

This year, movies like The Magnificent Seven, Arrival, and Oliver Stone’s Snowden will all be in the lineup. But all that star wattage isn’t the only attraction.

Moonlight is a beautifully nuanced gay coming-of-age tale

A Monster Calls review: so good you won’t care that you’re crying

La La Land review: a gloriously earnest Singin’ in the Rain for the 21st Century

Arrival review: a soulful sci-fi instant classic

Loving review: Jeff Nichols’ version of history is as quiet as the real thing

Mascots review: Christopher Guest trades raucous humor for bland sincerity

The Birth Of A Nation review: Nate Parker’s awards-bait spectacle is familiar, but necessary

Director Andrea Arnold on the cross-country party that produced American Honey

La La Land starts its journey to Oscar dominance with TIFF’s People’s Choice Award

Our favorite films of TIFF 2016

Deepwater Horizon review: watching bad spills happen to good people

The writer and director of Blair Witch explain what killed the original found footage series

American Honey is an immersive, hard-partying ride across the American heartland

The director of Studio Ghibli’s The Red Turtle went deep into the origins of the film at TIFF

How an award-winning documentarian unearthed a damning new case against John McAfee

TIFF Day 6: Black Mirror, La La Land, and the inevitability of unfair comparisons

A Monster Calls director J.A. Bayona says all his films are about growing up

Blair Witch review: to all the scares you’ve loved before

TIFF Day 5: Sadako vs. Kayako vs. Blair Witch — the horror sequel double feature

TIFF Days 3 and 4: bad people making bad decisions, in (sometimes) bad movies

New Showtime doc accuses John McAfee of rape and involvement in two murders

There is a Peter Gabriel song on the end credits of Snowden that explains the plot of Snowden

Snowden review: Oliver Stone’s whistleblower movie plays it safe

How the directors of Netflix’s Amanda Knox uncovered the humanity behind the headline

Nate Parker answers the question ‘How does Birth of a Nation relate to Black Lives Matter?’

TIFF Day 2: Arrival, The Birth of a Nation, and the perfect film festival city

Leonardo DiCaprio’s global warming doc is the most depressing world tour ever

The Handmaiden review: Park Chan-Wook’s twisty exploration of class, ethnicity, and tentacle porn

TIFF Day 1: sweat, threat, and a blessedly silent Jim Carrey

The Magnificent Seven review: behold, the progressive Western

TIFF 2016: the weird, wild films we can’t wait to see in Toronto

Meta’s historic loss in court could cost a lot more than $375 million

Apple raises the Mac Mini’s starting price

How the internet’s favorite squirrel dad made the hottest camera app of 2026

Spirit Airlines shuts down after Trump’s war on Iran doubled jet fuel prices

Anker’s discounted 2-in-1 USB-C cable is a great way to spend $15

More from TIFF 2016: the best, boldest, and most awards-ready new films

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More from TIFF 2016: the best, boldest, and most awards-ready new films

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