The Toronto International Film Festival has expanded its Platform competition to 12 films for 2026, up from 10, as the section marks its 11th edition. Running September 10 to 20, this year’s selection carries a structural first: the Platform Award winner now earns automatic eligibility for the Academy Awards’ Best International Feature Film category, provided the film is predominantly in a language other than English.
That change places TIFF alongside Berlin, Busan, Cannes, Sundance, and Venice as festivals whose top prizes open direct Oscar paths for international films. For filmmakers who cannot secure their country’s official submission, the Platform route now serves as a viable alternate path.
The 12 selected films span 15 countries. Miwa Nishikawa’s Children Untold (Japan) opens the section. Other titles include Amanda Kernell’s Brace Your Heart (Sweden/Norway/Denmark/Iceland/Bulgaria), Gabriel Martins’s On Behalf of My Son (Brazil), Nyla Innuksuk’s In the Heart of the South (Canada), Lawrence Fajardo’s Silenced Nights (Philippines), and seven others across India, Turkey, Italy, the United Kingdom, South Africa, South Korea, and Poland.
Jury president Pablo Trapero leads a five-person panel that includes British director Amma Asante, Taiwanese actor-filmmaker Sylvia Chang, French Canadian producer Luc Déry, and Hong Kong executive Albert Lee. The prize is CAD $20,000.
“Platform was created to spotlight directorial voices,” programming officer Anita Lee said, “and this year’s 12-film selection is an imaginative reflection of new auteur cinema now.”
The Platform competition has not previously been positioned as an awards launchpad. That changes this September.
