… Pablo Trapero to Lead Five-Member International Jury as Platform Award Winner Gains Direct Route to International Feature Film Oscar Consideration
Babajide Fadoju
The Toronto International Film Festival has announced its 2026 Platform programme, the Festival’s only competitive section that champions exceptional directorial vision and auteur voices. Now in its eleventh year, the programme has expanded to 12 films and will feature an enlarged five-member international jury.
The Platform programme serves as a launchpad for the awards circuit and international spotlight, having launched global auteurs like Barry Jenkins with Moonlight, Darius Marder with Sound of Metal, William Oldroyd with Lady Macbeth, Sarah Gavron with Rocks, Anthony Shim with Riceboy Sleeps, and Yoon Ga-eun with The World of Love.
Named after Jia Zhang-ke’s groundbreaking second feature, the Platform lineup has grown to 12 films this year, including Theja Rio’s Angh, Amanda Kernell’s Brace Your Heart, Ferit Karahan’s Djinn Wedding, Irene Dionisio’s Idda, Nyla Innuksuk’s In the Heart of the South, Bertil Nilsson’s Masc, Gabriel Martins’ On Behalf of My Son, Lawrence Fajardo’s Silenced Nights, John Trengove’s The Smell of Apples, Yoon Dan-bi’s The World Before, and Jan Holoubek’s Wild Wild East. Children Untold, from acclaimed Japanese filmmaker Miwa Nishikawa, will open the programme at TIFF Lightbox’s state-of-the-art Cinema 1, where all Platform titles will make their World Premieres.
Platform was created to spotlight directorial voices and this year’s 12-film selection is an imaginative reflection of new auteur cinema now, said Anita Lee, Chief Programming Officer at TIFF. We are honoured to welcome a jury of distinguished artists and industry leaders to inspire and support with their expertise and commitment to global cinema.
In a major milestone for the programme, a non-English-language winning film in TIFF’s Platform lineup will now have a direct pathway for Best International Feature Film at the 99th Academy Awards, making TIFF one of only six international film festivals to qualify worldwide. Under the Academy’s updated submission rules, the winning film will secure direct Oscar eligibility provided the original dialogue track and completed picture are predominantly, more than 50 percent, in a language or languages other than English.
Platform selection is led by Robyn Citizen, Director of Programming. The 12 Platform titles are eligible for the Platform Award, which will be decided this year by an expanded five-member international jury. Argentinian producer, director, and writer Pablo Trapero will serve as Jury President, joining British writer and director Amma Asante, Taiwanese actor and filmmaker Sylvia Chang, French Canadian producer Luc Déry, and Hong Kong film industry executive Albert Lee. The winning filmmaker will receive a 20,000 Canadian dollar cash prize. The Platform Award will be presented on the last day of the Festival on Sunday, September 20.
Pablo Trapero, Jury President
Pablo Trapero is a producer, director, and writer whose films have premiered at the world’s leading festivals. Every one of his feature films has screened at TIFF since 1999, most recently and Sons at TIFF 2025. His debut feature, Crane World, won an International Critics’ Week award at Venice, where he received the Silver Lion for Best Director in 2015 for The Clan. Trapero has directed several high-profile television series, including Gordon, which premieres on Netflix this year. His work has been honoured by Spain’s Goya Awards, Argentina’s Sur Awards, and Mexico’s Ariel Awards, among others. Trapero was named a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by France’s Ministry of Culture and is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
It is a true honour to return to Toronto as President of the Platform Jury, having had all of my films screened here over the years. TIFF has always felt like home to me. Every time I’ve come back, I’ve been warmly welcomed, and I’ve always felt that my films have found a special connection with TIFF audiences, said Trapero. I’m delighted to return in this new role as a way of giving back to TIFF, to its audiences, and to the wonderful films it champions. I’m deeply grateful for everything the Festival has given me over the years, and for all that it continues to give filmmakers from around the world as one of cinema’s most important annual meeting places, a festival where audiences, artists, and extraordinary films come together year after year.
Amma Asante
Amma Asante is an award-winning writer and director. With her debut feature, A Way of Life, she became the first Black director to win a BAFTA award for writing and directing a feature film. Her acclaimed films include Belle, A United Kingdom, and Where Hands Touch. Her television credits include Mrs. America, The Handmaid’s Tale, and Smilla’s Sense of Snow. Asante is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Sylvia Chang
Sylvia Chang is a renowned actor, screenwriter, director, and producer whose career spans more than five decades and over 100 films. A multiple Hong Kong Film Award and Taipei Golden Horse Award winner, she received the Asian Film Awards’ Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018. She is devoted to fostering emerging talent through filmmaking and mentorship initiatives.
Luc Dery
Luc Dery founded the production company micro_scope in 2002. He has produced over 30 features, all selected by major international festivals and together earning more than 100 awards. Both Incendies and Monsieur Lazhar were nominated for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. Other notable features include Gabrielle, Tu Dors Nicole, My Salinger Year, Drunken Birds, Viking, Shepherds, and Lovely Day.
Albert Lee
Albert Lee has served as Executive Director of the Hong Kong International Film Festival Society since 2018. With more than four decades of experience spanning film production, distribution, exhibition, and corporate management, he has played a significant role in Hong Kong cinema’s Golden Age, having held senior positions at Golden Harvest and Emperor Motion Pictures. Lee is a member of the China Film Association, the Asia Pacific Screen Academy, and the Producers Branch of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
2026 Platform Programme in Full
The 12 Platform titles are all World Premieres and include:
Angh by Theja Rio from India is set in the remote jungles of Nagaland near the Indo-Burma border in the early 1960s. Shot in richly textured 16mm, the film follows Anghba, the last surviving chief of an abandoned Indigenous Naga village, who lives in isolation with his ailing wife and mute young son after being deserted by his people. Rio is a London-based writer and director from Nagaland, India. Angh is his feature directorial debut and an expansion of his short by the same name.
Brace Your Heart by Amanda Kernell from Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, and Bulgaria is a luminous third drama and a quietly devastating portrait of love, resilience, and the enduring strength of Sami women. Kernell was born in Umea, Sweden, to a Sami father and Swedish mother and holds a degree from the National Film School of Denmark. Her previous features include Sami Blood, which played the Festival, and Charter.
Children Untold by Miwa Nishikawa from Japan is the opening film. A longtime collaborator of Hirokazu Kore-eda, Nishikawa adapted Children Untold from her own unpublished novel. It follows a 12-year-old girl who disguises herself as a boy to survive in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War in Tokyo. The film features Ami Koyae, Fumi Nikaido, and Koji Yakusho. Nishikawa was born in Hiroshima and her previous Festival Official Selections include Dreams for Sale and Under the Open Sky.
Djinn Wedding by Ferit Karahan from Turkey is set in a remote Anatolian village. The family drama unravels secrets and conflicts across three periods of time. Carried by a supreme cast including Demet Özdemir, Kaan Yildirim, İlhan Şen, and Sarp Bozkurt, the film swings between belief, hope, and dissolution. Karahan’s previous work includes Brother’s Keeper, which won the FIPRESCI Prize at Berlinale.
Idda by Irene Dionisio from Italy is the director’s sophomore feature, co-penned alongside Marco Borromei. Idda takes an epic approach to unearthing the packed layers of a stewing friendship. When childhood friends Adele and Sofia reunite to fulfill the broken promise of climbing Mount Etna, they realize that like the mountain, old wounds loom over everything. Dionisio was born in Torino and her previous work includes the documentary Shores and the fictional feature Pawn Street.
In the Heart of the South by Nyla Innuksuk from Canada is a surprising and exciting swerve away from Innuksuk’s 2022 debut feature Slash/Back. Described as what Single White Female would be if it were set in Toronto, with an Inuk protagonist and a dash of supernatural elements, the film stars North of North’s Anna Lambe as Yura Ivalu, the latest darling of the Toronto art world. Innuksuk was born in Igloolik, Nunavut, and studied film at Toronto Metropolitan University.
Masc by Bertil Nilsson from the United Kingdom is the director’s debut feature. It is a tender, unflinching portrait of self-performance, identity, and learning to exist as oneself in an often prescriptive world. The film draws on the filmmaker’s experiences as a neurodivergent gay man navigating the contradictory demands of masculinity. Nilsson is an award-winning Swedish artist and filmmaker based in London.
On Behalf of My Son by Gabriel Martins from Brazil is anchored by a deeply affecting performance from Rejane Faria. The moving drama follows a grieving mother seeking forgiveness from the families of a tragic bus accident, unfolding as a profoundly humane meditation on guilt and whether forgiveness is even possible. Martins is co-founder of Filmes de Plastico and his debut feature Mars One was Brazil’s selection for Best International Feature at the Academy Awards.
Silenced Nights by Lawrence Fajardo from the Philippines is a bleak sociopolitical drama that follows a witness to an extrajudicial killing in a Philippines slum as he seeks to make the truth known. The film takes a raw cinema verité approach and echoes the director’s previous works, including The Hearing. Fajardo was born in Bacolod City in the Philippines.
The Smell of Apples by John Trengove from South Africa, Netherlands, and Chile is the director’s relentless third feature. It follows a sheltered 11-year-old white South African boy who gradually comes to realise the horrors of the apartheid system. Adapted from South African writer Mark Behr’s 1993 bestselling novel of the same name. Trengove’s features include The Wound, which was South Africa’s selection for the Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards, and Manodrome.
The World Before by Yoon Dan-bi from South Korea is the director’s second narrative feature, turning her attention from childhood to adolescence with a tender, sharply observed portrait of first love and growing up. The coming-of-age story follows two teenagers, childhood best friends, who reunite for a summer on a small rural island in Korea. Yoon’s previous feature Moving On debuted in Busan and won the NETPAC and DGK Awards.
Wild Wild East by Jan Holoubek from Poland is set in occupied Poland in the middle of the Second World War. The tour de force is part suspenseful western, part gritty wartime noir. Holoubek was born in Warsaw and his directing credits include the series The Mire and High Water, as well as the feature 25 Years of Innocence.
About TIFF
TIFF is a not-for-profit cultural organization with a mission to transform the way people see the world through film. A global leader in film and entertainment, TIFF initiatives include the annual Toronto International Film Festival in September, TIFF Lightbox, which features five cinemas plus learning and entertainment facilities, the Donald Shebib TIFF Film Circuit, an innovative national distribution programme, and TIFF The Market launching in 2026. The organization generates an estimated annual economic impact of 240 million Canadian dollars.
TIFF Lightbox is generously supported by contributors including the Province of Ontario, the Government of Canada, the City of Toronto, the Reitman family, The Daniels Corporation, and RBC.
The 51st edition of the Toronto International Film Festival, presented by Rogers, runs September 10 to 20, 2026. TIFF is generously supported by Festival Presenting Sponsor Rogers Communications, Major Sponsors RBC and Visa, and Major Supporters Telefilm Canada, the Government of Ontario, and the City of Toronto.