More Under-the-Radar Finds from TIFF 2025

Though we’re well into TIFF by now, the constant feeling of discovery remains. Even though the weekend faded into the workweek, screenings were consistently sold-out. Even at lesser-known works starting after 10pm, I’ve been delighted to sit with full auditoria of enthusiastic festivalgoers. Business or politics aside, film festivals are meant to bridge between artists and their audiences, providing a space for dialogue that might not happen otherwise. TIFF has definitely felt like a success so far.

The Highlights

It’s hard to believe Sink is Jordanian filmmaker Zain Duraie’s debut feature; the director weaves through this quiet, personal and heartfelt story with striking confidence. The film follows a mother (Clara Khoury) coming to terms with the reality of her son’s (Mohammad Nizar) mental illness, as he becomes increasingly unstable. It’s easy to make this type of film exploitative or sensationalist, but Duraie’s unflinching perspective and small-scale scope, as well as the Khoury’s and Nizar’s chemistry, make Sink a thoughtful and nuanced look at both familial relationships and mental illness. Farouk Laâridh’s cinematography is excellent (she shot Kaouther Ban Hania’s excellent 2023 documentary Four Daughters); this is one of the softest and most gently shot films I’ve seen at the festival. 

Similarly, though another debut, Diego Céspedes’ The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo is executed the clarity and intent of a veteran. Set in a Chilean mining town in 1982, the heartbreaking, powerful film follows Linda, an 11-year-old girl living among a tight-knit community of transgender women. As she comes of age, she’s forced to reckon with the prejudices of the townsfolk around her, particularly stemming from the emerging AIDS epidemic. The narrative slightly loses its footing in its second half, but Céspedes’ blocking decisions and use of space are consistently striking. The vast, empty vistas of the Andes look stunning and communicate the community’s isolation from those around them in a profound and unforgettable way.

Girl – the directorial debut of famed Taiwanese actress (and Hou Hsiao-Hsien protégé) Shu Qi – is a shaky yet mostly effective coming-of-age story. The film follows Lin Xiaoli, an early-teenage girl living with a physically abusive father and a verbally abusive mother. Initially quiet and lacking in confidence, Xiaoli begins to break out of her shell when she meets Li Lili, a new classmate. Girl’s narrative unfurls slowly; Li doesn’t even enter the story until halfway through the film’s two-hour runtime. Even so, Shu’s smart and patient screenplay excellently captures the ways in which trauma and abuse get passed down from one family member to another. The final scene is absolutely heartbreaking, and it’s nearly impossible to leave the film without shedding a tear or two. 

Good, But Not Great

Stunt performer and filmmaker Kenji Tanigaki’s newest work, The Furious, could have been engineered in a lab to fit into the festival’s electric, action- and horror-focused “Midnight Madness” section. Imagine the plot of Taken, with more hand-to-hand combat, martial arts and elaborate stuntwork. The 112-minute film is far longer than it needs to be; given that the main tension resolves itself before the third act, this could have been a tight 90 minutes. Even so, it’s hard to criticize a film like this too much when the film’s main character outruns a speeding truck within its first 10 minutes! 

I was warmer on Malaysian filmmaker Woo Ming Jin’s The Fox King than others seem to be, mainly because I’m automatically predisposed to connect with any coming-of-age story. The film follows two inseparable, early-teen fraternal twins (Idan Aedan and Hadi Putra) whose relationship is tested upon the arrival of a new teacher they’re both in love with. While the film is slightly underdeveloped, with a tonally incoherent third act and a slightly too fantastical conclusion, I appreciated Ming Jin’s patient and thoughtful ruminations on the pain and beauty of growing up. I was particularly impressed by Aedan’s versatile performance; he especially shines during the final act’s more emotional sequences.

The Disappointments

When Métis filmmaker Gail Maurice’s Blood Lines works, it works well. The film, a Queer love story between a small-town store clerk/journalist and a newcomer searching for her biological mother, has good intentions and a lot of heart. In execution, though, the narrative is woefully underdeveloped. The two characters aren’t given enough depth or complexity to make their connection feel believable and earned. That, along with a genuinely baffling plot twist in the film’s final act, brings the film’s chance of having significant resonance or impact to a complete halt .