The TIFF51 Experience: Day Five | When Performance Gets Personal
By Ross
Day Five at TIFF hit me with a huge, magnificent emotional brick, and I couldn’t have been more pleased. Maybe yesterday’s “I Play Rocky” put that particular metaphor in my head, but by the time I left “Prima Facie“, I felt bruised and battered, with every nerve ending inflamed. Director Susanna White’s beautifully crafted film, adapted from Suzie Miller’s play and carried by a brilliant Cynthia Erivo, delivered one emotional punch after another, from different sides and different angles. As someone who is also “one of three,” there were moments that touched on painful memories from “that thing” that happened to me in my first year at university, but the film reached far beyond my own experience. It opened up the larger world of fear created by sexual violence and by a culture in which women learn to look over their shoulders walking down the street, watch out for a drunk friend at a bar, and navigate dating knowing that trust can shift in an instant and that one word, “No,” can still be ignored.
Yet, underneath it all was theatre and performance. Erivo plays a barrister who knows exactly how to command a room, bringing the essence of Miller’s one-person play into a film that expands the world around her. There was Andrew Scott in “Elsinore” battling a disease and a play all at the same time, while Isabelle Huppert’s “movie extra” in “All About Corinne” needed to be seen and heard in a profession that had spent years asking her to remain in the background, slightly out of focus.
Prima Facie
Susanna White – WORLD PREMIERE – Australia, United Kingdom | 2026 | 109m | English
Oscar nominee Cynthia Erivo (“Wicked“) stars in this adaptation of Suzie Miller’s globally acclaimed play that examines what happens when an ambitious barrister who primarily defends those accused of sex crimes unexpectedly becomes the accuser in a sexual assault case.
Anchored by a powerhouse performance from Cynthia Erivo, the Oscar-nominated star of “Wicked” and TIFF ’19’s “Harriet“, this piercing legal drama examines what happens when an ambitious barrister who primarily defends those accused of sex crimes unexpectedly becomes the accuser. Adapted by Australian playwright Suzie Miller from her globally acclaimed one-woman show, and directed by Susanna White (Our Kind of Traitor, TIFF ’17’s Woman Walks Ahead), “Prima Facie” exposes the pitfalls of a legal system that places the burden of proof on the victim.
Having risen from a working-class background to a successful career in law, Tessa (Erivo) does not suffer fools. She is a formidable presence in the courtroom, expertly dismantling opposing arguments, uncovering vulnerabilities, and holding her adversaries to the highest standards of jurisprudence. For Tessa, the nature of a client’s alleged crime is irrelevant: she believes the legal system operates optimally when all parties are given the strongest possible representation. However, her life is turned upside down when she is sexually assaulted by a colleague, forcing her to experience firsthand just how merciless — and misogynistic — the law can be toward already-traumatized women who are merely seeking justice.
Backed by a magnificent supporting cast that includes Daniel Ings, Elizabeth Dulau, and Simon Russell Beale, Erivo is at once devastating and inspiring in this dauntingly complex role. “Prima facie” is a Latin expression meaning “based on first impression,” and this hard-hitting, intelligent film shows just how unreliable initial assessments can be.
Elsinore
Simon Stone – CANADIAN PREMIERE – United Kingdom | 2026 | 111m | English
Andrew Scott (TIFF ’25’s Blue Moon and Wake Up Dead Man) delivers his strongest performance honouring the real-life story of Ian Charleson, the “Chariots of Fire“ actor who courageously pushed through AIDS to play Hamlet at London’s National Theatre.
Ian Charleson is widely known as the real-life star of TIFF ’81’s “Chariots of Fire“, the first People’s Choice Award winner to receive the Oscar for Best Picture. Its piano-led ubiquity in pop culture follows the Scottish actor everywhere, making him yearn less for Hollywood and more for his theatre roots. When Daniel Day-Lewis walks off stage as Hamlet at London’s National Theatre, the role of a lifetime appears for Charleson — but so does an AIDS diagnosis. Dream and nightmare collide as Charleson strives to command the stage and survive as long as possible.
Andrew Scott (TIFF ’25’s Blue Moon and Wake Up Dead Man) delivers a career-best performance in “Elsinore“, wondrously celebrating both Charleson and Hamlet on screen. Through Scott, each real and fictional man’s confrontation with death becomes visceral, profoundly moving, and resoundingly answers Shakespeare’s famed question with “to be.”
Olivia Colman brings a wellspring of empathy as a doctor treating Charleson and fellow gay men during the HIV epidemic, including a supporting turn from Heartstopper’s Joe Locke. Harnessing warmth and even wit, Queer Palm and BAFTA-winning screenwriter Stephen Beresford (TIFF ’14’s Pride) and director Simon Stone (TIFF ’15’s The Daughter) effectively fortify Charleson’s legacy in “Elsinore“, a courageous testament to the meaning of life and art. – ANITA LEE
All About Corinne – Ni Vue, Ni Connue
Marc Fitoussi – NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE – France | 2026 | 115m | French
“Paris Follies“ writer-director Marc Fitoussi re-teams with the inimitable, Oscar-nominated Isabelle Huppert (TIFF ’16’s Elle) for this delectable comedy about a veteran background actor who spies a belated chance to break into the fickle family of le cinéma français.
“Paris Follies” writer-director Marc Fitoussi reteams with the inimitable, Oscar-nominated Isabelle Huppert (TIFF ’16’s Elle) for this delectable comedy about the obstinance of dreams — and the ubiquity of seemingly impenetrable cliques.
After decades spent struggling to make advances in her country’s notoriously inaccessible film industry, Corinne Maclou (Huppert) remains a background actor. While being known as a dependable extra has its perks, Corinne still aspires to strut her stuff among the stars. She spies her chance when she meets Sandrine Kiberlain (TIFF ’24’s Meet the Barbarians) and, little by little, uses her eccentric charms to befriend the celebrated actor. But will friendship alone provide Corinne with the tools necessary to break into the fickle family of le cinéma français?
Playful, absorbing, and rife with insider wit, “All About Corinne” allows us to root for the underdog while rubbing elbows with royalty. Echoing the meta-hijinks of hit satire “Call My Agent! (Dix pour cent)”, for which Fitoussi directed six episodes, the film features a grand assemblage of beloved stars — Kiberlain, Emmanuelle Bercot, Anne Marivin, Ana Girardot, Vincent Dedienne, and Thomas Jolly — playing themselves. This makes the irony of casting Huppert, one of the world’s boldest and most versatile actors, as a cinematic minion that much more delicious. If she can’t make it, no one can.
By the time I was on my way home, performance and theatre from three very different directions were swirling around my brain at a speed I could barely contain. Cynthia Erivo understands exactly how to command an audience and a courtroom; Andrew Scott carries Ian Charleson’s love of theatre and Hamlet into a performance haunted by the knowledge of what Charleson was facing; and Isabelle Huppert turns Corinne’s desperate need to be seen into something funny, painful, and deeply human. I’m planning on writing more detailed reviews over the next few weeks, so be patient with me. But somewhere inside these three films, the strangest and most emotionally powerful gift of this TIFF day unwrapped itself before me. The films kept finding their way in, with questions about performance, identity, need, survival, and the complicated ways we ask to be seen, brushing up against my own personal bruises and truths. And I left feeling like I had been hit from every direction, emotionally battered and completely grateful for it. Maybe that magnificent emotional brick was exactly the reason I love film and theatre so dearly and deeply. So I’m taking the day as a three-punch win, even as I go to sleep feeling somewhat beaten up.