3 d. ago Sir Ian McKellen, 86, beams at West End show gala after being forced to pull out of Toronto Film Festival earlier this month on doctor's orders

The celebrated actor, 86, smiled for the awaiting cameras as he arrived at the opening of The Importance of Being Earnest at The Noel Coward Theatre.

Culture

2 w. ago Brian Cox accidentally flashes privates to fans after wardrobe malfunction

Actor Brian Cox suffered an embarrassing wardrobe malfunction while chatting to an audience about his upcoming film at the Toronto International Film Festival

Events

3 w. ago The Fence review – Claire Denis stumbles with a grim and grating misfire

Toronto film festival: French director has made of one her least effective movies with this dull and clunkily adapted version of 1979 play with a miscast Matt Dillon at its centreAfter trips to space (2018’s High Life) and Nicaragua (2022’s Stars at Noon), the French director Claire Denis has returned to more familiar territory: post-colonial west Africa. Denis, who grew up in several Francophone African countries, has made several movies that inquire into the troubled heart of such places, and now reaches into that well again for her new film, The Fence. In some ways, the film is hallmark Denis, flinty and strange and sometimes inscrutable. But it is also a disappointment, a leaden film whose points Denis has made more convincingly elsewhere.The Fence is based on a 1979 play by the late Bernard Marie-Koltès called Black Battles with Dogs. It tells the story of three white people living in a protected construction zone in a rural part of an unnamed west African nation. A fatal accid...

Events

3 w. ago James McAvoy 'punched by stranger' during Toronto Film Festival appearance

The Scottish actor had been socialising with producers of his new film at Charlotte’s Room when the incident occurred shortly before midnight on Monday

Culture

3 w. ago Her mom is a Desperate Housewife while her dad is an acclaimed actor... can you guess the Hollywood nepo baby?

This Hollywood nepo baby was spotted with her famous father at the Toronto International Film Festival on Tuesday, though her TV star mother was absent. Can you guess who she is?

Culture

3 w. ago James McAvoy 'punched by man in Toronto bar as security intervene to help him'

The actor, 46, was in Canada for the premiere of his directorial debut California Schemin' at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday.

Events

3 w. ago Couture review – Angelina Jolie is the wrong fit for inert fashion drama

Toronto film festival: the Oscar winner is adrift in Alice Winocour’s uninvolving film about three thinly written women involved in a Paris fashion week showThe otherworldly beauty and consuming, tattoo-strewn look of Angelina Jolie hasn’t always allowed for a great deal of versatility as an actor, a difficult face to seamlessly slot into most stories. The star hasn’t seemed to be all that interested in acting for a while anyway (since 2012, she has physically appeared on screen just seven times) and has preferred to spend time behind the camera and focusing on both her family and her philanthropic pursuits. Her films as a director have been of both genuinely noble intention and minimal cinematic value (her last effort, Without Blood, premiered at last year’s Toronto film festival but still doesn’t have US distribution) and as she enters her 50s, it seems like she’s rediscovered her passion for acting again.The catastrophic box office for her ill-advised entry into the Marvel univer...

Events

3 w. ago Plastic surgeons weigh in on Jodie Foster's very youthful visage following appearance at film festival

Jodie Foster, 62, appeared more youthful than ever as she attended at the Toronto International Film Festival - and plastic surgeons are weighing in on the secrets behind her age-defying looks.

Events

3 w. ago Nuns vs the Vatican: documentary alleges sexual abuse and misconduct in the Catholic church

Toronto film festival: a new film follows women who claim to have been abused by a former Jesuit priestA complicated stain on Pope Francis’s legacy is further explored in Nuns vs the Vatican, a sensitive and unsettling documentary following women whose sexual abuse allegations were long ignored by the Catholic church, and the broader system that protects and enables predators within.Nuns, which is directed by Emmy winner in Lorena Luciano and executive produced by Law & Order: Special Victims Unit star Mariska Hargitay and premiered at the Toronto film festival on Saturday, largely centres around Gloria Branciani and Mirjam Kovac, who are among dozens allegedly victimized by Marko Rupnik, a former Jesuit priest currently awaiting canonical trial for sexual, spiritual and physical abuse. Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago Sydney Sweeney ‘absolutely loved’ gaining 30 pounds to play pro boxer in new biopic

The Christy Martin biopic premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival this weekend

Politics

3 w. ago The Christophers review – Ian McKellen and Michaela Coel spar in smart Soderbergh original

Toronto film festival: the actors play off each other beautifully in an intimate London-set comedy drama about art, commerce and the mess in-betweenIt seems like Steven Soderbergh might have developed a late case of anglophilia, the retirement-teasing director situating himself in London for three films within the last two years. The first was a needless, throwaway Magic Mike sequel, but then this spring he gave us the delicious spy caper Black Bag, a juicy riff on both John le Carré and Agatha Christie that dared to imagine a monogamous and supportive marriage as the epitome of sexiness. Unlike Woody Allen, who cursed us with a string of London-set clunkers after Match Point (Cassandra’s Dream, a film that cast Colin Farrell and Ewan McGregor as cockney brothers, easily the most heinous), Soderbergh seems to be sticking around for reasons other than a nice holiday, his second offering of 2025 also feeling notable. It’s a quieter project than his last, a delicate two-hander closer t...

Politics

3 w. ago Dust to Dreams review – a baffling short film from director Idris Elba

Toronto film festival: The actor recruits Seal for a Lagos-set 19-minute misfire that inelegantly stuffs in far too muchOn the face of it, there’s a formidable aggregation of talent and media firepower on display in this lively but faintly baffling short film set in Lagos, with an original story credit for its producer, the Nigerian super-producer Mo Abudu; it is written and directed by Idris Elba and stars Seal. Within its 19-minute running time it appears to try summarising the action of an entire 90-minute feature film. There isn’t a moment to really relax and explore any relationship in any satisfying and plausible way; the line-readings are rushed and uncomfortable and, most bewilderingly, Seal doesn’t actually get to sing all that much, although as an actor he has a strong and confident address to the camera.The premise is that Millicent (played by Nse Ikpe-Etim) runs a vibrant and hugely successful club in Lagos, but she is very ill, and the question of who is to inherit this...

Politics

3 w. ago Angelina Jolie breaks down in tears as she recalls her late mother's heartbreaking struggle with cancer

Angelina Jolie cried as she recalled her late mother's struggle with cancer at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival. She stars as a woman diagnosed with the disease in Couture, which debuted on Sunday.

Politics

3 w. ago Russell Crowe, 61, enjoys rare red carpet date night with much younger fiancée, 33

Russell Crowe enjoyed a date night with fiancée Britney Theriot at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sunday.

Politics

3 w. ago Sydney Sweeney reveals why she ‘absolutely loved’ her physical transformation for Christy film

The Christy Martin biopic premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival this weekend

Politics

3 w. ago Ballad of a Small Player review – Colin Farrell wins us over in flashy, slight gambler tale

Toronto film festival: Conclave director Edward Berger makes a less cohesive follow-up with an over-stylised adaptation of Lawrence Osborne’s novel sold by a killer central performanceIt was easy to understand why Edward Berger’s name was being bandied around in relation to the reinvention of 007, the director having shown himself to be more than capable of both extravagantly staged action (his Oscar-winning breakout All Quiet on the Western Front) and knife-edge intrigue (his Oscar-winning follow-up Conclave). He dismissed speculation at the time (with some mild annoyance) and the job has since landed at the feet of Denis Villeneuve – but his latest, China-set gambling drama Ballad of a Small Player, adds flashy bombast to his résumé and helps to explain why he even though he might have passed on Bond (and recently Ocean’s too), he’s in development on a Bourne.Berger is a canny commercial director, confidently switching between genre, language and location, the kind of able film-ma...

Sport

3 w. ago Hamnet review – stately Shakespeare drama with emotionally overwhelming finale

Toronto film festival: Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal are knockouts in Chloé Zhao’s poignant adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel with a stirring tearjerker endingMaggie O’Farrell’s lauded 2020 novel Hamnet is a dense and lyrical imagining of the lives of William Shakespeare’s family, full of interior thought and lush descriptions of the physical world. It would seem, upon reading, near impossible to adapt into a film. Or, at least, a film worthy of O’Farrell’s so finely woven sensory spell. Film-maker Chloé Zhao has attempted to do so anyway, and the result is a stately, occasionally lugubrious drama whose closing minutes are among the most poignant in recent memory.Zhao is a good fit for the material. She, too, is a close observer of nature and of the many aching, yearning people passing through it. But she has previously not made anything as traditionally tailored and refined as this. The humbler dimensions of her films The Rider and Nomadland are missed here; Hamnet too o...

Events

3 w. ago Hamnet review – Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal excel in stately Shakespeare drama with overwhelming finale

Toronto film festival: The two stars are knockouts in Chloé Zhao’s poignant adaptation of Maggie O’Farrell’s 2020 novel with a stirring tearjerker endingMaggie O’Farrell’s lauded 2020 novel Hamnet is a dense and lyrical imagining of the lives of William Shakespeare’s family, full of interior thought and lush descriptions of the physical world. It would seem, upon reading, near impossible to adapt into a film. Or, at least, a film worthy of O’Farrell’s so finely woven sensory spell. Film-maker Chloé Zhao has attempted to do so anyway, and the result is a stately, occasionally lugubrious drama whose closing minutes are among the most poignant in recent memory.Zhao is a good fit for the material. She, too, is a close observer of nature and of the many aching, yearning people passing through it. But she has previously not made anything as traditionally tailored and refined as this. The humbler dimensions of her films The Rider and Nomadland are missed here; Hamnet too often gives off th...

Events

3 w. ago Hedda review – Ibsen gets a Saltburn makeover in Amazon’s ill

Toronto film festival: Nia DaCosta ups the nastiness of Hedda Gabler in a stylish but over-egged adaptation with lead Tessa Thompson losing the film to a standout Nina HossHenrik Ibsen’s second-most famous play, Hedda Gabler, has been plenty messed around with in recent years. There was a much-derided stage production starring Mary-Louise Parker. There was Liz Meriwether’s sci-fi reimagining, Heddatron. And now there is Nia DaCosta’s film Hedda, a rejiggering of the narrative that places a premium on subterfuge and sexual intrigue. It sometimes lands its intended jolt, but too often mistakes arch style for profundity.That was also true of DaCosta’s Candyman sequel, an endlessly attractive film that was an otherwise confused update of the 1992 classic. Hedda fares better; it’s the work of a more assured and restrained writer-director, one who is willing to, on occasion, let visual flash take a backseat to more mechanical matters of storytelling. But there is nonetheless a recklessnes...

Events

3 w. ago Poetic License review – Apatow family affair ends up as warm and funny comedy

Toronto film festival: Judd Apatow’s actor daughter Maude directs her mother Leslie Mann in a smart, charming film about a woman adrift finding unlikely younger friendsOne could cynically look at the credits for the film Poetic License and dismiss it outright. It was directed by Maude Apatow, daughter of Judd, and stars, among others, Apatow’s mother, Leslie Mann, Cooper Hoffman (son of Philip Seymour Hoffman), and Nico Parker (daughter of Thandiwe Newton and film-maker Ol Parker). On paper it all looks like a make-work project to keep the well-connected busy and creatively fulfilled. But the film itself – Apatow’s debut – is rich and lively enough to make none of the nepo stuff really matter.Written by Raffi Donatich, Poetic License concerns a family who have moved from Chicago to a sleepy university town where economist James (Cliff “Method Man” Smith), has secured a plum professorship. He’s busy getting started, which leaves his wife Liz (Mann) a bit lonely and unmoored in her ne...

Society