Under the ominous shadow of AI, Mihai Chirilov spoke about the difficulty of curating this year’s selection, the films that fueled his optimism, and how a festival can bring together heterogeneous audiences.
This year, TIFF asks itself and the public whether the future looks bright, considering the present is, at best, uncertain. We’re living through political uncertainty, and artificial intelligence is redefining the boundaries of reality and art. What was it like to shape TIFF’s selection in such an unstable socio-political context? Was it as frightening as the Tomorrow is Fear section suggests?
TIFF.24 asks if the future is bright, but the question is obviously rhetorical. The future is anything but bright – just look around, over the fence or across the ocean, at the news, or even at recent films. On the one hand—and fortunately—there are no interferences affecting the content or tone of the festival. Though I must admit I did wonder what consequences might have followed the screening of a particular short film from Romanian Days, had the recent elections taken a different turn. On the other hand—and unfortunately—cinema is not doing too well in general. Not necessarily because there’s no money (films are being made in bulk), but because the overall level has dropped significantly. With few exceptions, filmmakers’ courage has been replaced by pragmatism, opportunism, and conformity. Mediocrity seems to have become the guarantee of success, while cinema, despite the best intentions of some, practices a kind of miscalibrated resistance in today’s tense climate—one that risks doing more harm than good by sacrificing artistry, moral complexity, analytical spirit, and gray areas in favor of a black-and-white, hyper-transparent discourse fueled by hashtag-driven vuvuzelas.
As for AI, Pandora’s box has already been thrown wide open. Even the most skeptical or clear-headed among us, seduced by its benefits yet fully aware of the risks, only see the tip of this perverse “AIceberg.” The battle is already lost: the collision has happened, and the ship is slowly sinking. It is, quite rightly, frightening.
Classics Revisited
Brazil (dir. Terry Gilliam)
Until the End of the World (dir. Wim Wenders)
1984 (dir. Michael Radford, based on George Orwell)
2001: A Space Odyssey (dir. Stanley Kubrick)
Amadeus (dir. Miloš Forman, 1984)
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (dir. Jim Sharman, 1975)
AI, Dystopias & Technology
In the Belly of AI (documentary)
The House with No Address (dir. Hatice Aşkın, 2024)
About a Hero (dir. Piotr Winiewicz)
The Blue Trail
Teen Spirit & Youth-Focused Films
Christy – opening film
Southern Chronicles – Lithuanian coming-of-age drama
Smile at Last – restored 1980s Estonian classic
Promising Debuts
The Ceremony
Paul and Paulette Take a Bath
Sunlight
Layla
Restless
Country Focus: Estonia
Smoke Sauna Sisterhood (documentary)
Smile at Last
Alien & Alien: Saving Valdis (dir. Rasmus Merivoo – surreal satire)
Films by Estonian Director Rainer Sarnet
The Idiot (modern adaptation of Dostoevsky’s novel)
November
The Invisible Fight
Official Competition (“Strange Babel”)
Hysteria
The Peacock
Rains Over Babel
Acts of Love
Xoftex
Debut
Personal Highlights & Must-Sees
The Mohican – action thriller set in Corsica
Three Days of Fish – father-son drama
Sorda – unique take on motherhood
Saturno – intimate family chronicle
Marco, the Invented Truth – starring Eduard Fernandez
Hard Truths – starring Marianne Jean-Baptiste, directed by Mike Leigh
The Things You Kill – Lynchian vertigo
Islands – midlife crisis with Sam Riley
Quisling – The Final Days – morally complex political drama
They Will Be Dust – story of euthanasia, beautifully choreographed
The Tirana Conspiracy – ambiguous meta-delirium
The Black Hole – alien film with Tim Burton vibes
Any film by Béla Tarr – preferably all 8
Sex-Love-Dreams trilogy
Julia Loktev Marathon – hardcore journalism in Putin’s Russia
No Beast. So Fierce. – radical feminist Shakespeare adaptation
Special Events & Multimedia Experiences
The Peasants – multimedia event featuring music by Łukasz Rostkowski