Toronto Film Festival Announces 2026 TIFF Docs Lineup

The Toronto International Film Festival announced its TIFF Docs slate on Wednesday, a lineup that boasts marquee names in front of and behind the lens.

The world premiere of Rapinoe, Rebecca Huntt’s film about soccer star Megan Rapinoe – winner of Olympic and Women’s World Cup titles — will literally kick things off, as the opening night selection of the Docs section.

“We’re expecting Megan Rapinoe to be there,” TIFF doc programmer Thom Powers assures us. Along with chronicling Rapinoe’s athletic accomplishments, “It’s also a film about living your most authentic life. So yes, she’s a major sports figure, but this is not in the mold of a typical sports biography.”

Scroll for the full TIFF Docs lineup.

Singer Darlene Love, who appeared in the Oscar-winning documentary 20 Feet from Stardom, moves into the spotlight with a film focused uniquely on her — Darlene Love: I Know Where I’ve Been, directed by Canadian filmmaker Barry Avrich (who was at the festival last year with a more controversial project).

“Stars like Bruce Springsteen, Cher, and Dionne Warwick sing the praises of an underappreciated musical icon in this high-spirited and warm-hearted portrait,” notes TIFF. Darlene Love: I Know Where I’ve Been is one of several music-driven documentaries that will premiere at TIFF.

“There’s Bleeding Hearts, which is I think going to be a real discovery of both the filmmaker [Andrew Morgan] and the alternative country band Chaparelle, who’s featured in this film,” Powers observes. “You don’t get that many documentary love stories, but this is truly one in its portrait of the two main figures in Chaparelle, Zella Day and Jesse Woods. There are times watching this that I felt like it could have been a season of TV’s Nashville, watching a young Rayna and Deacon on their journey in music.”

Gail, meanwhile, a documentary directed by Michael Maxxis and executive produced by Jason Reitman, “is about a super fan of the Canadian band, Our Lady Peace,” Powers says. “This film has a kind of whimsical quality about it that when you see it, it makes sense — the connection to Jason Reitman.”

TIFF Docs will not lack for films that intersect with major global events. Edward Said: Between Worlds, directed by Maiken Baird, examines the life and work of Palestinian-born scholar and activist Edward Said, who argued for the creation of a single Palestinian Israeli state that would be both secular and democratic.

“It is a super timely film,” Powers affirms. “It reminds me of I Am Not Your Negro when it premiered at TIFF in 2016. And even though the words of James Baldwin have always been sitting there waiting for us, it took that film to bring them back into people’s lives. And I think for Edward Said, who’s been gone now for 23 years, there’s a whole generation that has grown up without him as an active presence. I’m old enough to remember when he would be on Nightline or otherTV shows regularly or giving lectures in New York City… But I can’t think of anyone whose voice is more pertinent to the large geopolitical conversations that we’re having today.”

As the war in Iran continues, TIFF will host the world premiere of a Tehran, Under the Skin, a documentary that offers a remarkable view of an unexpected aspect of Iranian society.

Tehran “is one of the world’s epicenters in plastic surgery,” Power notes. “[Director] Afsaneh Salari embeds herself in the offices of two plastic surgeons and is interviewing their clientele trying to, in the phrase of the film, ‘get under the skin’ of what are the motives here.”

Powers adds, “I think strongly on Afsaneh’s mind are the ripples from the Woman, Life, Freedom Movement from a few years ago and this strong tension in the country that brought hundreds of thousands of people out to the streets in protests over mandatory hijab laws. When you’re in a country that, on the one hand, has this strong religious dictate around appearance, and yet you also have this populace yearning to change your appearance or enhance your appearance, what does that mean? And that’s what she gets at in this film.”

Powers also highlights Rescue, directed by Sine Plambech, a film that connects to the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean in dramatic ways.

“Sine, who has a background as an anthropologist, captures this scene in the first 10 minutes of the film that’s one of those moments of the documentary that you can’t believe is unfolding in front of the camera. She’s on a boat with Doctors Without Borders doing rescue missions in the Mediterranean of migrants trying to cross over from Africa,” the TIFF programmer explains. “And then another boat comes up of Libyan militias who start kidnapping some of the migrants from the water.”

Powers continues, “They meet a man who’s just been rescued from the water, and he’s distraught because he says his wife and children have just been kidnapped by these Libyan militia. And so that’s the opening scene of the film. And as it unfolds, it remains at the same kind of level of intensity throughout as this man, Hani, does everything in his power to try to be reunited with his wife and children. So that’s quite an extraordinary film.”

Low Lies the Land, a world premiere directed by Emanuele Gerosa, set in the Piedmont region of Northern Italy, “immerses us in the lives of three winemaking families who face an uncertain future, shot in a gorgeous widescreen aspect ratio,” per TIFF. (It might be said to pair well with Burgundy, the documentary by Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw that is set to premiere at the Venice Film Festival).

Heading from Venice to TIFF will be Oscar winner Alex Gibney’s documentary Musk, about the world’s richest man, Elon Musk. It’s sure to be one of the most talked about films in Toronto (with Musk himself likely to chime in via his media platform, X).

“I went to [Gibney’s] studio to watch the film in rough cut form. And there’s a 10-minute intermission, at least in the way we’ll present it at TIFF. But when we reached that intermission moment, I just needed to refill my water and then wanted to jump right into it because it’s extremely compelling material.”

“Nearly four years in the making,” Powers says of Musk. “And it is arguably the most epic documentary that Alex Gibney has ever made.”

Two-time Oscar winner Barbara Kopple will cross the Atlantic from Venice for the North American premiere of Union Town.

“Union Town completes a thematic trilogy of her work on labor that began with Harlan County, USA, which played at the very first Toronto Film Festival in 1976. So it’s an incredible full circle moment to have her returning to Toronto,” Powers comments. “The title refers to New York City. She’s looking at three labor battles in New York, organizing around UPS workers, Amazon workers, and delivery workers for food apps like DoorDash and Grubhub.”

No world premiere at TIFF features a more intriguing title than The Hummingbird Paints Fragrant Songs, directed by Èlia Gasull Balada and Matteo Norzi.

“This is a film about an indigenous artist named Sara Flores. She right now has an exhibition at New York City’s White Cube Gallery for another week. She comes from a Peruvian Amazon community. And it wasn’t until now in her 70s that she was crossed over into an international art world,” Powers says. “One of the amazing things about this film is to see these contrasts in the worlds that she moves in. In one scene, she’ll be out with her community, armed with bows and arrows to fight off the existential threat of illegal logging in the Amazon. And in another scene, she’ll be flying to Paris to meet with the team at Dior that wants to adapt her designs into exclusive luxury handbag.”

Documentaries are sprinkled throughout other sections of TIFF, including Galas, Special Presentations, and Wavelengths. The TIFF Docs section features featuring 21 titles from 20 countries; more than two-thirds of the program’s films are directed by women.

This is the TIFF Docs lineup announced Wednesday:

Bleeding Hearts | Andrew Morgan | USA

World Premiere

This real-life love story follows the charismatic musicians Zella Day and Jesse Woods as they team to create the alt-country band Chaparelle with collaborator Beau Bedford, in a documentary with as much drama as a season of Nashville. [Chris Albert]

Cheyenne | Taimi Arvidson | USA

World Premiere

Cheyenne follows a group of fearless cowgirls who compete at riding wild horses on the rodeo circuit after nearly a century of women being excluded because of their gender.

Darlene Love: I Know Where I’ve Been | Barry Avrich | Canada

World Premiere

Stars like Bruce Springsteen, Cher, and Dionne Warwick sing the praises of an underappreciated musical icon in this high-spirited and warm-hearted portrait from Canadian director Barry Avrich (Oscar Peterson: Black + White, TIFF ’21)

Edward Said: Between Worlds | Maiken Baird | USA

World Premiere

Edward Said is profiled in his own words, drawing upon decades of archives, to explore the legacy of his ground-breaking works including Orientalism and The Question of Palestine.

Gail | Michael Maxxis | Canada

World Premiere

This music documentary spotlighting an Our Lady Peace superfan follows her on the band’s 30^th anniversary Canadian tour, and boasts an original score by Lesley Barber (Bonjour Tristesse, TIFF ’24), backed by executive producers Jason Reitman and Jason Blumenfeld.

Like Magic | Melissa Saavedra Gil | Colombia, Argentina, Uruguay

World Premiere

Blending archival footage, testimony, and a decades-long search for answers, Melissa Saavedra Gil transforms a childhood tragedy into a powerful exploration of memory, truth and healing. An intimate and deeply resonant debut that illuminates both a personal story and a generation shaped by violence.

Low Lies The Land | Emanuele Gerosa | Denmark, Italy

World Premiere

Set in the breathtaking landscapes of Piemonte in Northern Italy, Low Lies the Land immerses us in the lives of three winemaking families who face an uncertain future, shot in a gorgeous widescreen aspect ratio.

Musk | Alex Gibney | USA

North American Premiere

The dogged investigative documentary maker Alex Gibney delivers his most ambitious and epic work in exploring the history of the world’s richest man.

Rapinoe | Rebeca Huntt | United Kingdom, USA

World Premiere

Soccer star Megan Rapinoe explores what it means to win and lose in this intimate portrait by Rebeca Huntt (Beba). [Chris Albert]

Re/Pair | Lacey Schwartz Delgado | USA