Shiftheads - TIFF Opening Weekend: Why Some People Go To The Same Film Festival For Decades

Ben Harrison explains what keeps people coming back to TIFF year after year, including attendees well into their seventies and eighties who treat it as an annual tradition. It isn't really about the movies themselves, he says. It's the friendships and conversations that only happen once a year, on the same streets, at the same festival.

This year's lineup includes what one acclaimed 83-year-old British director says will be his final film, alongside a personal project from a two-time Oscar winner who built it around raising a young daughter after his character's arc in a major franchise collapsed entirely.

One of the festival's most talked-about premieres has been waiting decades to happen. A documentary shot in the 1970s, capturing a private conversation among some of the defining figures of an entire cultural movement, was never finished until now, and it's already been called one of the most acclaimed films of the year.

Topics: TIFF community culture, Mike Leigh final film, Midnight Madness TIFF, Canadian documentary premieres, Mahershala Ali new movie

GUEST: Ben Harrison | @6benharrison

Originally aired on 2026-09-11