The Toronto International Film Festival’s 2026 Indian slate brings seven films to Toronto, spanning Malayalam, Tamil, Konyak and Hindi-language cinema, alongside a restored classic and two shorts.
The selection comes as TIFF launches its first official content market, TIFF: The Market, running Sept. 10-16 alongside the festival. The festival itself runs Sept. 10-20.
Among the seven Indian films is Theja Rio’s Angh, which will have its world premiere in Platform, TIFF’s competitive section. Set in Nagaland in the early 1960s and shot in Konyak, the film follows Anghba, the last surviving chief of an abandoned Indigenous Naga village, as he lives in isolation with his ailing wife and mute son. Angh is Rio’s feature directorial debut.
Samjad’s Half will have its world premiere in Midnight Madness. Set in the Rajasthan desert, the Malayalam-led genre film follows twin siblings Ethan and Ivy, who are half-vampires, after they are attacked by highway bandits. The film combines vampire horror, martial arts and western elements.
Karthik Subbaraj’s Dorothy will have its world premiere in Centrepiece. The Tamil-language film is set in rural Tamil Nadu in the 1990s and centres on childhood friends whose relationship is reshaped by caste, violence and toxic masculinity. Keerthy Suresh stars, with Sananth and Rishikanth. The film is scheduled for a worldwide theatrical release on Sept. 25.
Richie Mehta’s Phoolan is in Special Presentations and will have its world premiere. The Hindi-language film follows a young Phoolan Devi during a 48-hour siege in which thousands of armed men surround her village. Sneha Kumari plays Phoolan Devi.
John Abraham’s Amma Ariyan (Report to Mother) returns in a new 4K restoration in TIFF Classics. The 1986 Malayalam film follows a young man travelling through Kerala to tell a mother about her son’s death, expanding the journey into a meditation on political unrest, resistance and grief. The restoration has its North American premiere at TIFF.
Shaunak Sen’s Termite will have its world premiere in Short Cuts. The short follows Ajith, a termite-control worker in Delhi, as friendship, love and personal insecurities complicate his everyday life.
Rahul Roye’s Aman, also in Short Cuts, is a world-premiere short about a trans man who discovers he is pregnant on the eve of gender-affirming surgery. Kabir Maan and Sirat Taneja star.
Indian projects at TIFF: The Market
The festival’s industry programme also expands India’s presence beyond the seven completed films.
Three India projects are among the eight selected for South Asian Screen Futures, a new initiative by the South Asian Screen Office of Canada and IFFSA Toronto, in collaboration with Storiculture. The programme connects projects with financiers, producers, sales agents, distributors and other industry partners at TIFF: The Market.
Moh is written and directed by Subhadra Mahajan, whose feature Second Chance previously screened at festivals including Sundance.
Soma Helang is produced by Neeraj Churi, producer of Sabar Bonda, and is among the projects selected for the new market initiative.
Swarnapuchhri, written and directed by Ritwik Goswami and produced by Nidhi Girish Salian, follows a mother searching for answers after her son disappears amid protests against the construction of a nuclear power plant. Payal Kapadia is attached as executive producer.
Deepa Mehta’s Sher, starring Jeremy Irons, is part of TIFF’s International Financing and Project Market. The film reimagines the Sherlock Holmes story through an Indian connection: after Holmes’ death, Dr. Watson discovers his secret daughter, Sher, born from an affair with an Indian woman. Mehta directs, with David Hamilton, Rajiv Maikhuri and Craig Stovel producing.
TIFF’s International Financing and Project Market includes 40 films, six series and five innovation projects, bringing producers together with financiers, distributors, sales agents and executives.
The seven Indian films and the additional market projects give Indian cinema a presence across both TIFF’s public festival programme and its new industry marketplace, with regional-language cinema, independent voices, restored film heritage and projects seeking international financing represented in Toronto.
