Films from Ron Murphy, Marie Clements programmed at TIFF

TORONTO – The Toronto International Film Festival is adding a handful of Canadian movies to its main program, including “Back in Black” starring Christopher Walken.

The film from Canadian TV mainstay Ron Murphy is about a struggling mortician in a wellness-obsessed town where death has become obsolete.

The Centrepiece program, which includes projects from about 50 countries, also features “How We Stand,” a film about two sisters separated by tragedy, directed by Métis playwright and filmmaker Marie Clements, who made “Bones of Crows.”

Latvian-Canadian author and director David Bezmozgis is also premiering the adaptation of his 2014 novel “The Betrayers,” about a disgraced Israeli politician and the man who denounced him to the KGB.

TIFF has also programmed Cody Lightning’s “Smudge the Blades,” a dramedy about an under-18 Indigenous hockey team from northern Alberta, which features Ed Helms.

There are 54 films in the Centrepiece program in all, including the Irish film “The Surgeon,” an action flick from Canadian doctor-turned-director Roshan Sethi that stars Michelle Yeoh as a kidnapped surgeon who must perform a final operation.

Sethi created the Fox medical procedural “The Resident” and directed the indie film “A Nice Indian Boy,” which starred Jonathan Groff.

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Also heading to TIFF is the American film “Trash Mountain,” directed by Kris Rey, which stars and was co-written by comedian Caleb Hearon.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 4, 2026.