TIFF Adds Zellners' 'Alpha Gang,' Mahershala Ali Hitman Film
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- TIFF added five films to its 2026 Special Presentations slate for the 51st edition (September 10–20), with chief programming officer Anita Lee saying more titles will be announced starting next week.
- Alpha Gang, from David and Nathan Zellner, is an aliens-on-Earth sci-fi starring Riley Keough, Cate Blanchett, Dave Bautista, Chris Pine, and Lily-Rose Depp; it's billed as an international premiere, pointing toward a Telluride debut rather than Venice.
- Bassam Tariq directs "Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother" — his first feature after losing a year to Marvel's beleaguered "Blade" — with Mahershala Ali as a devoutly religious hitman in Houston; Orion Pictures opens the film September 25 with John Cho, Tramell Tillman, and Giancarlo Esposito also starring.
- Rachel Morrison's world-premiere "Love of Your Life" brings Margaret Qualley and Patrick Schwarzenegger to a romantic drama, co-starring Aaron Pierre, Gabriel Basso, and Catherine Keener; Morrison returns to TIFF Special Presentations two years after directing "The Fire Inside."
- Ben Shirinian's "The Housewife" (world premiere, 1964-set, fact-based) casts Naomi Watts, Tye Sheridan, Michael Imperioli, and Luke Evans in the story of a New York Times journalist investigating a former Nazi officer living in Queens.
- Benjamín Naishtat's "Glaxo" (world premiere) tracks four male friends in a working-class Argentine town whose lives shatter when a policeman and his wife arrive, spanning the 1950s to the '80s.
Why it matters: TIFF's Special Presentations is a prestige launching pad: Morrison returns two years after "The Fire Inside," and Tariq — sidelined for a year on Marvel's abandoned "Blade" — finally gets his feature in front of an audience. With Orion already booking "Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother" for September 25 and "Alpha Gang" positioned as an international premiere rather than a Venice debut, the festival is shaping up as an early awards-season staging ground.
