Canoo

Growing up in rural Turkey, Halime is a woman who has always defied tradition. Now, she rallies friends to stage a women’s shooting competition, igniting lively debates and unexpected alliances in this funny and quietly subversive film about claiming space on your own terms.

MAY 1, 8:45 PM | TIFF Lightbox 3
MAY 3, 10:30 AM | TIFF Lightbox 2

Through thoughtful letters from prison, an anarchist incarcerated since 1980 reflects on his radical past. This meditative portrait pairs humane narration with contemporary Japanese landscapes, exploring the quiet tensions between aging, political militancy and time itself.

APR 29, 5:15 PM | TIFF Lightbox 4

Ancestors trapped in museum archives demand a reckoning, and it’s time we listen. Guided by defiant Indigenous voices—past, present and future—and shaped with a bold artistic vision, this urgent film confronts entrenched practices and calls for the rightful return of Indigenous human remains to their community.

MAY 1, 7:45 PM | TIFF Lightbox 4
MAY 2, 10:30 AM | TIFF Lightbox 3

From working-class origins in Birmingham to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, the genre-defining heavy metal band’s five-decade journey is chronicled through exclusive interviews with Judas Priest, previously unpublished personal archives and appearances by Ozzy Osbourne, Jack Black, Metallica and more.

MAY 5, 2:00 PM | Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema

A love story blossoms between a London-based Lebanese journalist and her on-the-ground contact, a Syrian-based cameraman, through 13 years of war, revolutions and exile. But can two people from such disparate worlds make a life together?

APR 29, 5:30 PM | TIFF Lightbox 1
APR 30, 2:30 PM | TIFF Lightbox 1

"To see a World in a Grain of Sand / And a Heaven in a Wild Flower" William Blake’s poetry comes to life in Cortes Island, B.C., as local oyster farmers ply their trade amidst a rapidly changing environment in this spellbinding photo essay.

APR 29, 1:45 PM | TIFF Lightbox 2

In a remote Indonesian community with ancient traditions, a former spiritual leader faces a difficult choice between their unique gender identity and changing tides in the modern world. This vivid film captures a rare, meditative struggle between local tradition and modern faith.

MAY 3, 7:45 PM | TIFF Lightbox 1

When Sri Lankan artist Deneth Piumakshi Veda Arachchige discovers her ancestors’ stolen remains tucked away in Swiss museum cabinets, she investigates the dark legacy of colonial explorers. With the aid of Indigenous leaders, she demands the return of these sacred artifacts, challenging the ethics of modern collections.

FRI, MAY 1, 5:00 PM | TIFF Lightbox 1
SAT, May 2, 2:00 PM | TIFF Lightbox 1

Forcibly disappeared as a student in 1970s Morocco, activist Fatna El Bouih examines her life thus far, the work still left to do and her dream of change.

MAY 1, 2:30 PM | TIFF Lightbox 2
MAY 2, 11:00 AM | TIFF Lightbox 1

Filmed entirely on her phone over five years, 16-year-old Soraya documents her harrowing attempts to flee Iran for Austria. Through surreal animations and sculptures, the young Afghan artist transforms her experiences of domestic violence and displacement into a powerful, self-narrated testament to survival.

APR 30, 7:45 PM | TIFF Lightbox 2

In the West Bank lies an elementary school organized and run by a couple set on teaching their young Palestinian students non-violent resistance, offering a refuge from the escalating uncertainty that surrounds them.

APR 30, 8:30 PM | TIFF Lightbox 1
MAY 1, 10:30 AM | TIFF Lightbox 1

In a brave effort to reconnect with her family, a Canadian filmmaker returns to her ancestral home of Guadeloupe to discover families torn apart over land inheritance—a relic of French colonial legacy that continues to fracture Guadeloupean families today.

APR 30, 4:45 PM | TIFF Lightbox 2
MAY 1, 5:30 PM | TIFF Lightbox 2

Meet Mierle Laderman Ukeles—an artist whose name should be better known. Her groundbreaking performance art and manifesto on maintenance art led her to become NYC’s Department of Sanitation’s first artist-in-residence.

APR 29, 2:30 PM | TIFF Lightbox 1

A daughter traces the disappearance of her beloved father—Libyan Foreign Minister and peaceful opposition leader to dictator Muammar Qaddafi—intimately exploring how authoritarian power has reverberated through her family and country amidst a two-decade long search.

MAY 1, 8:15 PM | TIFF Lightbox 1
MAY 2, 11:45 AM | TIFF Lightbox 2

For over a decade, filmmaker Sam Green has chronicled the ever-changing Guinness World Record holder of “Oldest Person in the World.” Weaving together his personal experiences of fatherhood, ageing and loss, Green offers a poignant meditation on family, mortality and the meaning of life.

MAY 2, 8:15 PM | Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema
MAY 3, 1:00 PM | Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema

Oscar-nominated director Kim Nguyen reveals the elusive connection between two families and photojournalist Eddie Adams’s iconic photo, Saigon Execution, confronting family secrets left in the wake of the Vietnam War, exposing the resilience of survivors and the blurred legacy of wartime memory.

APR 29, 8:30 PM | TIFF Lightbox 1
APR 30, 11:15 AM | TIFF Lightbox 1

Amidst a deadly overdose crisis in Vancouver, a daring activist funds a non-profit drug testing centre by operating the illicit Coca Leaf Café and Medicinal Mushroom Dispensary, risking everything to provide life-saving harm reduction and advocate for drug reform.

APR 29, 4:45 PM | TIFF Lightbox 2

This investigative look at the highly controversial practice of animal testing—centred on the story of primate scientist turned animal rights activist Dr. Lisa Jones-Engel—questions if the harm to animals and the human scientists who care for them is justified by the pursuit of scientific advancement.

MAY 1, 5:15 PM | Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema
MAY 2, 2:00 PM | Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema

Along the Dniester River, a pacifist farming community maintains a centuries-old way of life. As the Russian invasion nears, these traditional isolationists must find their own way to support the front, bridging the gap between their peaceful faith and a nation at war.

APR 30, 11:00 AM | TIFF Lightbox 2

Fiercely independent journalist Amy Goodman has spent three decades holding the powerful to account, reporting from conflict zones and the Democracy Now! newsroom as an essential voice highlighting global issues and pursuing truth in an era of “alternative” facts.

APR 29, 9:15 PM | Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema

After being diagnosed with Alzheimer's, Sandro begins writing down his memories—incredible tales previously unknown to his family. His son, the filmmaker, delves deeper, bringing to life colourful and carefully crafted episodes filled with irony, drama and comedy.

APR 29, 7:45 PM | TIFF Lightbox 2
APR 30, 1:45 PM | TIFF Lightbox 2

Following the loss of his beloved grandparents and facing the death of his country’s glaciers, renowned Icelandic writer Andri Snær Magnason constructs a cinematic time capsule in this beautifully crafted meditation on family, memory and epochal change from Academy Award nominee Sara Dosa (Fire of Love).

MAY 2, 5:15 PM | Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema

In the quiet mountain lands of Montenegro, a mother and daughter strive to protect their ancestral home from the threat of becoming a NATO military training facility, awakening memories of the violence that shattered their family.

MAY 2, 5:15 PM | TIFF Lightbox 1
MAY 3, 10:00 AM | TIFF Lightbox 1

Activist Iryna Dovhan documents the testimonies of Ukrainian women who survived conflict-related violence following the Russian invasion. By gathering survivors into a "circle of courage," the film portrays a defiant collective, transforming their shared trauma into a powerful force for truth and justice.

MAY 1, 8:30 PM | TIFF Lightbox 2

As three women navigate careers as sexual-content creators on OnlyFans, they reveal the tantalizing, transactional and ultimately fragile dynamics of digital intimacy. Raw and unflinching, this fly-on-the-wall film investigates self-worth, validation and the human cost of the gig economy.

MAY 2, 8:30 PM | TIFF Lightbox 1

Interspersed with recollections of multiple migrant women, this chronicle of a humanitarian crisis is told through the journey of a remarkable German midwife, who joins a rescue ship to provide care to women and children fleeing to Europe across the Mediterranean.

APR 30, 8:00 PM | TIFF Lightbox 3

In the rural Liangshan Mountains, 14-year-old Qihuo and her friends embark on a road trip to find a skirt for her traditional menarche rite of passage. This poetic film blends documentary and fiction to capture a fleeting, final moment of childhood innocence.

MAY 3, 11:45 AM | TIFF Lightbox 3

Nine Palestinians revisit the events that forced them to flee Gaza in 2024. With white chalk on a black stage, they map towns, camps and neighbourhoods, while recounting the painful losses of war and powerful memories of their lives before.

MAY 3, 1:30 PM | TIFF Lightbox 2