In recent years, Toronto has cultivated a deep and enduring connection with Spanish cinema. The 2023 edition included a moment of silence for Pedro Almodóvar and highlighted notable Spanish works such as Víctor Erice’s Cerrar los ojos, produced in Spain the year prior, and JA Bayona’s The Snow Society. Other significant titles featured Pablo Berger’s Robot Dreams and Fernando Trueba with Javier Mariscal’s Shoot the Piano Player.
The Canadian competition, kicking off this Thursday and running through September 15, will mark Almodóvar’s return with his newest English-language project. The Room Next Door recently arrived from Venice and is slated to screen at the San Sebastián festival as well. Two Spanish productions compete in the Platform section, which offers a $10,000 prize for the winning film: They Will Dust and Forever Daniela, the latest works from Carles Marqués-Márcet and Nacho Vigalondo respectively [Citation: Toronto International Film Festival coverage].
Another pivotal segment, the Centerpiece, anchors the festival’s program. Los Tortuga marks Belén Funes’s sophomore feature, while Elena Martín makes her Discovery section debut with The End of the Party. Martín has contributed to several of the century’s most acclaimed Spanish hits, including The Orphanage, Cell 211, and Pan’s Labyrinth. Beatriz Arjona, Sonia Barba, and Edith Martínez Val lead the behind‑the‑scenes storytelling that follows three women sharing a mansion in Andalusia. The narrative threads explore layers of privilege, domestic labor, and migration, observed through interconnected lives.
Funes’s sophomore film centers on a mother-daughter dynamic that remains central to her storytelling, while expanding the lens to examine rural decline, urban eviction crises, and shifting family loyalties. Los Tortuga introduces a fresh talent, Elvira Lara, alongside Antonia Zegers, a Chilean powerhouse known for The Club and A Fantastic Woman, among others. The casting signals a bold cross‑cultural collaboration that resonates with audiences across Canada and the United States [Citation: Toronto International Film Festival coverage].
Marqués-Márcet departs from his usual approach with Polvo serán, a family melodrama in which he takes the lead. The ensemble includes Ángela Molina and the esteemed Chilean actor Alfredo Castro. The story follows a seriously ill mother who contemplates ending her life with assistance and confides this to her children. The drama draws from theatre roots, emphasizing intense familial dynamics while probing the moral lines of mercy and duty. The film experiments with musical interludes, blending modern choreography with classical, theatrical cues, echoing a geometric elegance reminiscent of Busby Berkeley.
Vigalondo’s latest project revisits his early fantasy roots with Colossal features. The cast includes Anne Hathaway and a broader foray into television, including a new installment of Stories to Not Sleep and the forthcoming Superstar from producers Los Javis, featuring the voices of Ingrid García Jonsson and Carlos Areces. In Toronto, audiences will encounter Forever Daniela, a dystopian romance inspired by personal experience and crafted as a genre film. It follows a man overwhelmed by loss who discovers a way to manipulate dreams and relive them, raising questions about memory, identity, and the sources of music shaping perception. The production also references a recent musical album that accompanied a TV episode, illustrating the cross‑media storytelling trend now common in contemporary cinema and television [Citation: Toronto International Film Festival coverage].
Taken together, the festival cements Toronto as a hub where Spanish cinema meets North American audiences, presenting Canadian and American viewers with premieres and collaborative opportunities. The confluence of direction, performance, and experimentation within these Spanish productions showcases a vibrant moment for the industry, inviting audiences to engage with stories that traverse language and culture while offering a distinctly regional perspective on universal themes such as family, memory, and resilience. [Citation: Toronto International Film Festival coverage].