50th Toronto International Film Festival, Canada
Canada, September 4 - September 14 2025
Festival homepageThe jury
Justine Smith (Canada), Francisco Ferreira (Portugal), Katharina Dockhorn (Germany), Jean-Philippe Guerand (France), Andy Hazel (Australia)
Awarded films
-
Forastera by
Lucia Aleñar Iglesias
(Spain, Sweden, Italy, 2025, 97 min)
Reports
- 100 Sunset: The Rise Of A New Filmmaking Talent by Andy Hazel
- Little Woman Undergoing a Metamorphosis: How to Deal With Grief Under the Mallorcan Sun When You’re a Teenager Dreaming to Be Part of the Adult World by Jean-Philippe Guerand
- The Son and the Sea: A Naturalistic and Tender Vision of Self-Discovery in the Face of Death by Justine Smith
- New Hope for German Cinema by Katharina Dockhorn
- The Seasons: Transforms Land into Time by Francisco Ferreira
Motivation: “Spanish cinema, long shaped by the exuberance of Pedro Almodóvar, has found a new distinctive voice in Lucía Aleñar Iglesias. Set on sun-drenched Mallorca, Forastera follows 16-year-old Cata, whose carefree family holiday is brought to a halt by the death of her grandmother. In her grief, the teenager takes on the older woman’s persona – wearing her clothes, adopting her gestures and silences. Iglesias directs with restraint and precision, finding power in understatement. Performances from newcomer Zoe Stein and veteran Lluís Homar anchor the film’s dreamlike rhythms. What might sound slight becomes luminous: a meditation on an adolescent’s first encounter with death, and a ghost story about how the past lingers in the present. Forastera is a quietly assured debut, simple yet transformative, marking Iglesias as a filmmaker the FIPRESCI jury would like to bet on”.