At the centre of Ryûsuke Hamaguchi's latest film, his first shot largely in French, is an extended exchange between Marie-Lou (Virginie Efira, TIFF '25's A Private Life), the newly appointed director of a Parisian elderly-care facility, and Mari (Tao Okamoto), a Japanese theatre director living with terminal cancer. Their conversation moves across languages and ideas — from capitalism, demographic decline, and social exhaustion, to illness, caregiving, and art itself — yet Hamaguchi uses dialogue less as exposition than as an ethical practice: a way of listening, testing thought, and reaching toward another person.

For young Christophe, life on a rural French farm comes with a lot of hard work, not a lot of passion, and precarious health. Dizzy spells sabotage his day-to-day activities. In need of balance, he gets fitted with an iron back brace which helps with his posture but draws derision from outsiders. Coming of age is not an easy road for anyone, let alone someone feeling a literal and figurative weight on his back. Winner of the Special Jury Prize at Cannes last spring, Pixar animator Louis Clichy’s gorgeous hand-painted animation tells the story of a boy in need of a back brace who seeks the courage to stand alone.

This galvanizing portrait celebrates Rick Hansen, the great Canadian athlete and activist. It chronicles his 26-month Man In Motion World Tour: a 40,000-kilometre wheelchair journey that raised millions to eliminate accessibility barriers and transform public perception of people with disabilities. Produced by homegrown star Ryan Reynolds (TIFF ’25’s John Candy: I Like Me) and helmed by documentarian Adrian Buitenhuis (I Am Burt Reynolds, Anne Murray: Full Circle), Man in Motion: The Rick Hansen Story is a vital celebration of the magic that arises when athleticism meets activism.

Upon reuniting in London with her elderly mother Leslie (Anna Calder-Marshall), Amanda (Juliette Binoche) faces a moral crisis. Leslie suffers from advanced dementia, and her doctor has advised that she is unable to give sexual consent; yet, Amanda discovers that her stepfather Martin (an enigmatic Tom Courtenay) is sleeping with Leslie regardless. Concerned, Amanda calls the police, triggering an investigation.

This intimate and inspiring portrait from filmmaker Sean Menard (TIFF ’17’s The Carter Effect) draws upon never-before-seen footage to reveal the arduous process and profound commitment behind Terry Fox’s Marathon of Hope to raise awareness and money for cancer research. Illness robbed Fox of many aspects of his youth but, in return, it gave him preternatural wisdom — and a vision of what it takes to enact real change.

Liz Sargent’s deeply personal film stars her sister Anna, who plays a woman quite like her real self: thirtysomething, cognitively disabled, and utterly vivacious. As the story begins, Anna is living with her aging parents in Florida, but things take a turn when her mother (Marceline Hugot) passes away. Older sister Emily (Ali Ahn) flies in from New York City to help, but discovers a family in crisis: father Bob (Victor Slezak) is approaching senility, and Anna is unable to care for herself.

Sarah Leavitt’s graphic memoir Tangles: A Story about Alzheimer’s, My Mother and Me comes to life in hand-drawn 2D animation, in director Leah Nelson’s deeply moving feature debut. Set in San Francisco in the ’90s, Tangles follows the story of Sarah, a young woman whose life is just beginning to tip into the stuff her dreams are made of — new opportunities to illustrate, a new romance with a bad-ass motorcycle-riding girlfriend named Donimo — when the pull of responsibility calls for her.

In this South Korean family drama, toddler San lives with her parents and older brother Pul, who is autistic. As Pul's support needs create tension between their parents, the film observes the family through San's perspective and explores care, family relationships and difficult decisions about the future.