Toronto International Film Festival’s Short Cuts program returns for TIFF 50 with a slate of 48 short films representing 28 countries — including 20 Canadian titles. This year’s lineup spans seven presentations, including Strange Cuts, the Midnight Madness-adjacent strand introduced in 2024. The 50th edition of the Toronto International Film Festival, presented by Rogers, will take place September 4–14.
The Best International and Best Canadian Short Film Awards are joined by a third honour this year: the Best Animated Short Film Award, evaluated by a panel of three Short Cuts Jurors. This year they are are rising cinematographer Ashley Iris Gill (Black Community Mixtapes); Marcel Jean, Artistic Director of the Annecy International Animation Film Festival and Executive Director of the Cinémathèque québécoise; and Canadian actor, writer and director Connor Jessup , whose short film Julian and the Wind had its World Premiere at last year’s TIFF.
Ten animated works can be found across the seven-program shorts assemblage, including Cannes, Annecy and Venice hits like Water Girl by Sandra Desmazières, The Girl Who Cried Pearls from Oscar-nominated Canadian animators Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski, and Praying Mantis from the team of Yonfan (No. 7 Cherry Lane, TIFF ‘19) and Joe Hsieh (Oscar shortlisted Night Bus).
As previously announced, animation fans will also have a chance to catch Mamoru Hosoda’s (Japan) highly anticipated new fantasy feature Scarlet in its North American Premiere as part of TIFF 50’s Special Presentations. Another buzzy project out of the Land of the Rising Sun is Junk World, continuing indie auteur Takahide Hori’s stop-motion exploration of the underground world of “Mulligans” and humanity’s last stand. Junk World makes its International Premiere in the “funny, freaky and furious” Midnight Madness program. Plus, multi-Oscar-winner Guillermo del Toro (Pinocchio) will receive the Ebert Director Award as his new live-action feature Frankenstein screens in a Gala Presentation.
See the full Short Cuts program at tiff.net. The animated films in Short Cuts 2025 are:
- The Girl Who Cried Pearls | Chris Lavis, Maciek Szczerbowski | Canada | North American Premiere (Program 1)
- Water Girl | Sandra Desmazières | France / Netherlands / Portugal | North American Premiere (Program 2)
- What We Leave Behind | Jean-Sébastien Hamel, Alexandra Myotte | Canada | North American Premiere (Program 3)
- More Than Happy | Wei Keong Tan | Singapore | World Premiere (Program 4)
- To the Woods | Agnès Patron | France | North American Premiere (Program 4)
- Arguments in Favor of Love | Gabriel Abrantes | Portugal
North American Premiere (Program 5) - Once in a Body | María Cristina Pérez González | Colombia / U.S.A. | North American Premiere (Program 5)
- The Death of the Fish | Eva Lusbaronian | France | North American Premiere (Program 6)
- Praying Mantis | Joe Hsieh | Taiwan / Hong Kong | North American Premiere (Program 7)
- UM | Nieto | France | World Premiere (Program 7)
