TIFF 2026 Adds Zellners' 'Alpha Gang' and Mahershala Ali Film
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- Toronto International Film Festival announced five new Special Presentations on Thursday for its 51st edition running September 10-20, with additional titles to be revealed starting next week.
- David Zellner and Nathan Zellner's 'Alpha Gang' stars Cate Blanchett, Riley Keough, Dave Bautista, Chris Pine, and Lily-Rose Depp in an aliens-on-Earth sci-fi film about extraterrestrials developing human-centric feelings; it is billed as an international premiere, suggesting a likely debut at Telluride rather than Venice.
- Argentine filmmaker Benjamín Naishtat's 'Glaxo' gets its world premiere — a story spanning the 1950s–'80s about four male friends whose working-class town is upended by the arrival of a policeman and his wife.
- Rachel Morrison's 'Love of Your Life' world premiere pairs Margaret Qualley and Patrick Schwarzenegger in a romantic drama, also starring Aaron Pierre, Gabriel Basso, and Catherine Keener; Morrison previously directed 'The Fire Inside,' also a TIFF Special Presentations selection.
- Ben Shirinian's 'The Housewife' stars Naomi Watts, Tye Sheridan, Michael Imperioli, and Luke Evans in a fact-based 1964 drama about a New York Times journalist investigating a former Nazi officer living in Queens.
- Bassam Tariq's 'Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother' stars Mahershala Ali as a devoutly religious hitman protecting his family in Houston — Tariq's first feature after a year lost to Marvel's beleaguered 'Blade' — with Orion Pictures opening the film starting September 25.
Why it matters: The Zellner brothers' stacked alien film and Mahershala Ali's first lead role since the shelved 'Blade' give TIFF two of its most awards-watch titles weeks before opening night. Orion's September 25 wide release for Tariq's film — five days after TIFF closes — signals a deliberate awards-season launch strategy built around the festival's platform.
