From South Africa’s The Smell of Apples to Sweden’s Brace Your Heart to South Korea’s The World Before, here are the best acquisition titles (films still seeking distribution in Canada, the US, and/or the UK) at TIFF 2026
LGBTQ
Ep. 192. At the Place of Ghosts + Interview with writer-director Bretten Hannam
On the podcast, Alex Heeney delves into how Bretten Hannam’s At the Place of Ghosts uses genre to tell a story about two people healing from trauma who can’t talk about it — and then talks to writer-director Hannam about crafting the film.
Queer films are for kids, too: InsideOut 2026
Toronto’s InsideOut Film Festival programs so many wonderful queer films — like Gugu’s World and Black Burns Fast — about children for children, if only they could reach them.
Ep. 189 Berlinale 26: Arrú, Black Burns Fast, The Education of Jane Cumming
On the podcast, Alex Heeney discusses three Berlinale 2026 highlights directed by women: Elle Sofe Sara’s Sámi musical Arrú, Sandulela Asanda’s queer South African film Black Burns Fast, and Sophie Heldman’s 1810 queer period drama The Education of Jane Cumming.
Berlinale: Systems of (in)justice in Prosecution and A Family
At the Berlinale, Alex Heeney reviews two films tackling systems of (in)justice: Faraz Shariat’s Prosecution and Mees Peijnenburg’s A Family
Ep. 186 Heated Rivalry: The queer Canadian hockey romance taking the internet by storm
On the podcast, host Alex Heeney what made her fall for Heated Rivalry and how what makes it good isn’t entirely synonymous with what makes it popular.