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TIFF Docs presents a bold slate of documentaries that take audiences from the depths of the ocean to the sky

TORONTO — TIFF is thrilled to announce the 2025 Docs programme presented by A&E IndieFilms, featuring 23 titles from 18 countries and 16 World Premieres. Audiences will encounter a wide range of real-life characters, including explorers, journalists, sex workers, activists, soldiers, and champion whistlers. This year’s lineup includes new work by celebrated directors such as Jimmy Chin, Billy Corben, Tamara Kotevska, Lucrecia Martel, Raoul Peck, Laura Poitras, Ben Proudfoot, Gianfranco Rosi, Michèle Stephenson, Peter Mettler, and Chai Vasarhelyi. The 50th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival, presented by Rogers, will take place September 4–14, 2025.  


The TIFF Docs programme features attention-grabbing non-fiction cinema from around the world. The programme will open with Academy Award–winning Canadian director Ben Proudfoot’s The Eyes of Ghana, which profiles the filmmaker Chris Hesse and is backed by executive producers Barack and Michelle Obama. High-profile World Premieres coming to TIFF as sales titles include: The Balloonists, directed by John Dower, capturing adventurers who set out to circle the globe in a balloon; A Life Illuminated, directed by Tasha Van Zandt, following marine biologist Dr. Edie Widder on a stunning journey to the ocean depths; Whistle, directed by Christopher Nelius, portraying a competition of champion whistlers; Nuns vs. the Vatican, directed by Lorena Luciano and executive produced by Mariska Hargitay, exposing new allegations of abuse inside the Catholic Church; Canceled: The Paula Deen Story, directed by Billy Corben, which re-investigates the scandal of a celebrity chef; and Modern Whore, directed by Canadian Nicole Bazuin, which explores the sex industry and is based on the book of the same name by Andrea Werhun and Bazuin.


Other World Premieres include Vasarhelyi and Chin’s LOVE+WAR, Stephenson’s True North, Sky Hopinka’s Powwow People, Zahraa Ghandour’s Flana, and a notable cluster of Canadian titles including Jamal Burger and Jukan Tateisi’s Still Single, Darlene Naponse’s Aki, Shane Belcourt’s Ni-Naadamaadiz: Red Power Rising, Min Sook Lee’s There Are No Words, and Mettler’s While the Green Grass Grows: A Diary in Seven Parts.


These TIFF Docs titles join a number of documentaries already announced for TIFF 50, including the World Premieres of John Candy: I Like Me and Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery in the Gala programme; Degrassi: Whatever It Takes, EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert, and You Had to Be There: How the Toronto Godspell Ignited the Comedy Revolution... in Special Presentations; and Palimpsest: the Story of a Name, announced yesterday in the Centrepiece programme.


Hear more from Docs Lead Programmer Thom Powers:




(Poster/Photo/Video credit: TIFF 2025)


 
 
 
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