TIFF adds Alpha Gang and Mahershala Ali thriller to Special Presentations
The Toronto festival’s latest slate includes films starring Cate Blanchett, Riley Keough, Naomi Watts, Margaret Qualley and Mahershala Ali.
By Poppy Nakagawa · Culture Writer
3 min read
The Toronto International Film Festival has stacked five more titles into its Special Presentations lineup, with alien bikers, a Houston hitman, a Nazi-hunting journalist and a factory-town powder keg all headed for the 51st edition.
TIFF, presented by Rogers, runs Sept. 10 to 20. The newly announced Special Presentations titles are Alpha Gang, Glaxo, Love of Your Life, The Housewife and Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother.
The flashiest entry on the list is Alpha Gang, from David Zellner and Nathan Zellner. The comedy stars Riley Keough, Cate Blanchett, Dave Bautista, Chris Pine and Lily Rose Depp, and will have its international premiere in Toronto.
According to TIFF’s description, Alpha Gang follows Alpha One, an alien gang leader whose crew poses as 1950s bikers as part of a plan to take over Earth. The mission gets messy when the invaders begin feeling human emotions.
The Zellners previously brought Sasquatch Sunset to Sundance in 2024. That film starred Keough and Jesse Eisenberg.
Bassam Tariq’s Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother is also set for TIFF, arriving as a world premiere. The Amazon MGM Studios and Orion action drama thriller stars Mahershala Ali as Latif, described by TIFF as a devout hitman who crosses Houston trying to protect his children after the death of his wife.
The film also stars Giancarlo Esposito, John Cho, Tramell Tillman and Tiffany Boone. Tariq wrote the film as well as directing it. He recently directed three episodes of the Riz Ahmed Prime Video series Bait and is a BAFTA Film Award nominee for Mogul Mowgli.
The rest of the Special Presentations batch
Rachel Morrison returns to TIFF with Love of Your Life, a romance drama starring Margaret Qualley, Patrick Schwarzenegger and Catherine Keener. Morrison, an Oscar-nominated cinematographer for Mudbound, previously came to the festival with 2024’s The Fire Inside.
TIFF says Love of Your Life follows Maya, a sharp nurse whose intense romance sends her future in a direction she never expected. The film will have its world premiere at the festival.
The Housewife, directed by Ben Shirinian, stars Naomi Watts and Luke Evans, with Michael Imperioli and Tye Sheridan also in the cast. The drama follows a New York Times journalist investigating a possible Nazi officer living secretly in Queens. TIFF says the probe becomes more troubling after the journalist befriends the suspect’s refined wife.
Benjamín Naishtat’s Glaxo will also make its world premiere. The Argentina-Brazil production is set in a provincial factory town, where four friends are pulled into turmoil after a retired police officer and his wife arrive. TIFF’s description places the story across Argentina’s changing decades from the 1950s through the 1980s.
Naishtat previously screened Rojo at TIFF in 2018.
Anita Lee, TIFF’s chief programming officer, said the festival aims each year to choose films that feel relevant and can spark conversation with public audiences. She said the Special Presentations selections reflect “the authenticity, the unexpected, and the ambition of cinema now.”
- Alpha Gang, David Zellner and Nathan Zellner, USA, international premiere
- Glaxo, Benjamín Naishtat, Argentina and Brazil, world premiere
- Love of Your Life, Rachel Morrison, USA, world premiere
- The Housewife, Ben Shirinian, USA, world premiere
- Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, Bassam Tariq, USA, world premiere
This story draws on original reporting from Deadline.