The 2025 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) Short Cuts Lineup

New this year Best Animated Short Film Award Two people in conversation at an evening event, one with vibrant orange hair, in warm ambient lighting

Dust to Dreams See the world in short form: TIFF announces its 2025 Short Cuts programme

Short Cuts lineup features World Premieres of Idris Elba’s Dust to Dreams, Patrick Xavier Bresnan’s The Contestant, and Blake Winston Rice’s DISC

TORONTO – TIFF’s Short Cuts programme returns for TIFF 50 with a compelling slate of 48 short films representing 28 countries – including 20 Canadian titles. This year’s programme showcases TIFF’s expansive curatorial vision across seven presentations, including Strange Cuts, the Midnight Madness-adjacent strand introduced in 2024. The 50th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival, presented by Rogers, will take place September 4–14, 2025.

The Best International and Best Canadian Short Film Awards are joined by a third honour this year: the Best Animated Short Film Award evaluated by a panel of three Short Cuts Jurors. This year they are are rising cinematographer Ashley Iris Gill (Black Community Mixtapes), Marcel Jean, Artistic Director of the Annecy International Animation Film Festival and Executive Director of the Cinémathèque québécoise, and Canadian actor, writer, and director Connor Jessup (whose short film Julian and the Wind had its World Premiere at last year’s Festival).

Hear from Short Cuts Co-Lead Programmer Sonja Baksa:

Programme highlights include the World Premieres of Dust to Dreams by acclaimed actor Idris Elba; The Contestant from duo Patrick Xavier Bresnan and Ivete Lucas (The Passing, TIFF Short Cuts ‘23), featuring David Hasselhoff; and DISC by Cannes alum Blake Winston Rice, co-written by and starring Victoria Ratermanis and Jim Cummings. Joecar Hanna’s Talk Me, executive produced by Spike Lee, makes its North American premiere, as does The Non-Actor starring Maya Hawke and Victoria Pedretti. The documentary All the Empty Rooms from Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning filmmaker Joshua Seftel, executive produced by Adam McKay, will have its International Premiere.

Additional Short Cut programme highlights:

Ten animations across the seven-programme lineup, including Cannes, Annecy and Venice hits like Water Girl by Sandra Desmazières, The Girl Who Cried Pearls from Oscar-nominated Canadian animators Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski, and Praying Mantis from the team of Yonfan (No. 7 Cherry Lane, TIFF ‘19) and Joe Hsieh.

Returns from TIFF alumni, including Rich Williamson and Shasha Nakhai (Scarborough, TIFF ‘21) with short satire Bots; Kelly Fyffe-Marshall (When Morning Comes, TIFF ‘22) with sharply scripted drama Demons; Healer from Chelsea McMullan (Swan Song, TIFF ‘23) in collaboration with Amar Wala (Shook, TIFF ‘24); A South Facing Window by Lkhagvadulam Purev-Ochir (City of Wind, TIFF ‘23, Snow in September, TIFF ‘22); and A Soft Touch by Heather Young (Murmur, TIFF ‘19, Milk, TIFF ‘17).