Michaël Roskam's Le Faux Soir Selected for the Toronto International Film Festival!
On Monday, July 20, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) announced the selection of Michaël R. Roskam's new feature film, Le Faux Soir. Marking his fourth feature, the director of Bullhead (2011) and Racer and the Jailbird (Le Fidèle, 2017) crosses Belgium's linguistic divide to direct his first majority French-speaking Belgian production backed by the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles.
Screening in the Special Presentations section, Le Faux Soir takes audiences back to 1943, when Belgium was under Nazi occupation. The German authorities had turned the daily newspaper Le Soir into a powerful propaganda tool. As November 11 approaches—a date whose commemoration has been banned—a group of resistance fighters devises a daring and unprecedented plan: to print a fake edition of the newspaper. Same paper, same format, same title, but filled with articles mocking the occupying forces. Inspired by the true story of the legendary Faux Soir, the film recounts one of the most iconic acts of resistance in Belgium during the Second World War.
Filmed on the streets of Brussels last autumn, this ambitious historical drama is produced by Frakas Productions with the support of the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles. International sales are handled by Goodfellas.
Two short films from Wallonia-Brussels are also on the program in the Short Cuts section. The Day I Smoked a Cigarette with my Father by Sameh Alaa and Robin Vouters, produced by White Boat Pictures, as well as 2:Love by Ronni Shalev, produced by OZÙ Productions, will both have their world premiere at the Canadian festival.
In the Midnight Madness section is a coproduction not supported by the Centre du Cinéma et de l'Audiovisuel: The Spiral by Paolo Strippoli (Tarantula Belgique).
The lead role is played by Belgian actor Arieh Worthalter, winner of the 2024 César Award for Best Actor for The Goldman Case (Le Procès Goldman). He is joined by an outstanding cast including Bouli Lanners, François Damiens, Mara Taquin, Jean-Benoît Ugeux, Pierre Gervais, Ruth Becquart, Viviane De Muynck, Jan Bijvoet and Peter Van den Begin. The cast also features French actors Karim Leklou, winner of the 2025 César Award for Best Actor for Jim's Story (Le Roman de Jim), and Mélanie Thierry.
In addition to these selections, seven coproductions supported by the Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles are also featured: Coward by Lukas Dhont (Versus Production) in the Special Presentations section, All of a Sudden by Ryūsuke Hamaguchi (Tarantula and Gapbusters) in the Special Presentations section, In Waves by Phuong Mai Nguyen (Panique) in the Discovery section, Iron Boy by Louis Clichy (Beside Productions) in the Centrepiece section, and Marie Madeleine by Gessica Généus (Stenola Productions), also in the Centrepiece section.
Founded in 1976, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is widely regarded as North America's leading film festival and one of the world's most influential cinematic events, both for its public attendance and its importance to the international film industry. Each year, it showcases more than 300 films from around 60 countries across approximately 15 programme sections. The festival's 51st edition will take place from September 10 to 20, 2026.
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