World premieres of the Jude Law and Jason Bateman-starring limited series Black Rabbit, Sterlin Harjo’s The Lowdown, and Mae Martin and Ryan Scott’s Wayward were unveiled as part of the Toronto Film Festival‘s Primetime program, where the small screen hits the big screen.
The TIFF focus on new TV series has also booked first looks for the doc series Origin: The Story of the Basketball Africa League from creators Richard Brown and Tebogo Malope, Hansal Mehta’s Gandhi and The Savage, created by Houman Seyyedi.
Netflix’s Black Rabbit from creators and showrunners Zach Baylin and Kate Susman stars Bateman and Law as reunited brothers that centers on New York City’s next hotspot restaurant and lounge. The series will launch Sept. 18 on the streaming giant.
Netflix is also bringing to the Toronto TV showcase the Wayward thriller, which stars comedian Martin, Patrick J. Adams, Sarah Gadon and Toni Collette and will debut Sept. 25. And FX’s The Lowdown by Sterlin Harjo (Reservation Dogs), which stars Ethan Hawke as a gritty citizen journalist will bow at TIFF ahead of a Sept. 23 launch.
As in past years, the 2025 Primetime lineup reflects the increasing crossover of film and TV on streaming platforms and traditional movie directors continuing to find creative liberation with longer story arcs and character explorations via episodic TV.
Finding that cinematic feel in TV will also see Toronto screen writer and co-director Richard Brown’s Origin: The Story of the Basketball Africa League, a doc series about the NBA’s first collaboration to operate a league outside North America, with Tebogo Malope co-directing and Masai Ujiri, Akin Omotoso and Fisher Stevens sharing executive producer credits with Brown.
The Primetime section has also booked HBO’s first Italian series, Portobello – The Fall of Enzo Tortora, by auteur Marco Bellocchio and about an injustice towards Italian TV host Enzo Tortora; Balazs Lengyel Rise of the Raven; Norway’s Pal Jackman and Ase Kathrin Vuolab’s A Sami Wedding; and William Mager’s Reunion, a BBC thriller set in a deaf community. All Primetime screenings will feature a Q+A with a series creators and cast during TIFF’s Sept. 4 to 14 run.
Also Thursday, Toronto’s Short Cuts program unveiled short film entries like writer/director Idris Elba’s Dust to Dreams, starring singer and songwriter Seal and produced by Mo Abudu; The Contestant from Patrick Xavier Bresnan and Ivete Lucas and starring David Hasselhoff; Blake Winston Rice’s dramedy DISC, starring Victoria Ratermanis and Jim Cummings; and Joecar Hanna’s Talk Me, executive produced by Spike Lee.
There’s also a North American premiere for the short film The Non-Actor, from director Eliza Barry Callahan and starring Maya Hawke and Victoria Pedretti; and an international premiere for the short documentary All the Empty Rooms, from filmmaker Joshua Seftel and executive produced by Adam McKay. Also getting a North American bow is The Girl Who Cried Pearls, the latest stop-motion animated short from the National Film Board of Canada filmmaking duo of Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski, Oscar nominees for their earlier film Madame Tutli-Putli.
A full list of films in the Short Cuts lineup is available on the TIFF website.
