The TIFF51 Experience: Day Four | Letting the Movies Lead
By Ross
I think I got my mojo back. When the alarm went off at 6am, I was up, dressed, and out the door, heading to the John Bassett Theatre for an early morning press screening of a film I had been looking forward to for reasons I couldn’t quite explain. Maybe it was because I was around when “Rocky” first hit movie theatre screens in 1976 and Sylvester Stallone suddenly became the star we know today. I knew the story of the film’s incredible financial and Oscar success, but I realized I knew much less about the man who wrote it, what he went through to get it made, and what he was willing to turn down for the chance to play Rocky himself. Starting my TIFF day with that energy was exactly what I needed.
I Play Rocky
Peter Farrelly – WORLD PREMIERE – United States of America | 2026 | 127m | English
Featuring a career-making performance from Anthony Ippolito, the latest from Oscar winner Peter Farrelly (TIFF ’18 People’s Choice Award winner Green Book) vividly recreates the story of how an unknown named Sylvester Stallone got “Rocky“ produced — and became a superstar.
There is no greater movie about beating the odds through sheer determination than “Rocky“. But the story behind that box-office smash — which turned its unknown writer-star Sylvester Stallone into a phenomenon — is just as unlikely and inspiring. Helmed by Oscar winner Peter Farrelly (TIFF ’18 People’s Choice Award winner Green Book) and featuring a career-making performance from Anthony Ippolito, “I Play Rocky” vividly recreates a paradigm-shifting moment in Hollywood history and chronicles the meteoric rise of one of cinema’s preeminent multihyphenates.
Sylvester (Ippolito) dreams of being an actor, but he grew up poor, shuttled from home to home, and at one point lived on the street. Now in his twenties, the closest he’s come to the big screen is acting in a porno and working as an usher. Then he sees Muhammad Ali fight Chuck Wepner, and inspiration hits: in a few fevered days, he writes a screenplay about an underdog boxer who goes the distance. Studio executives love it — but they balk at Sylvester’s stipulation that he play the hero. The production of this ambitious indie film will prove more arduous than anyone could have imagined.
In an uncanny echo of the legend he’s embodying, Ippolito is a revelation as the young Stallone: the stance, the cadences, that air of gravitas and diligence. He’s supported by a dream cast that includes Tracy Letts (TIFF ’17’s Lady Bird), Stephan James (TIFF ’18’s If Beale Street Could Talk), and Oscar nominee Matt Dillon. “I Play Rocky” soars with sweat and spirit. – ANITA LEE
Masc
Bertil Nilsson – WORLD PREMIERE – United Kingdom | 2026 | 83m | English
This debut feature from London-based artist Bertil Nilsson is a tender, unflinching portrait of self-performance, identity, and the quiet but persistent work of learning to exist as oneself in an often prescriptive world.
We all perform, contorting ourselves to fit into a given moment or situation. For Robin (a raw and unguarded Joshua Griffin), the negotiation between who he is and who he thinks he needs to be never stops, no matter the setting.
In his striking, deeply original debut feature, co-written with Griffin, director Bertil Nilsson draws on his own experiences as a neurodivergent gay man navigating the contradictory demands of masculinity. And he has crafted something genuinely rare: a film built not around crisis or coming out, but around the subtler, ongoing work of simply figuring out how to exist as oneself. In this evocative portrait, people — both queer and straight — will recognize the gap between how we see ourselves, how we imagine others see us, and the elaborate, often unconscious adjustments we make between the two.
Structured in five chapters and shot over a year, “Masc” tracks Robin’s shifting appearance and environments with real ingenuity, with London’s many facets bringing different versions of Robin to the surface. The title nods to masking, the act of hiding an aspect of ourselves to feel accepted. But the film does the opposite. It gently and fearlessly exposes the parts of Robin that are sometimes uncomfortable, unfinished, or simply never given room to exist. In the end, Nilsson offers an unexpected finale as a way of embracing emotional truths that words alone cannot express. – JASON RYLE
By the time I left “Masc“, I felt like the two films had taken me somewhere I hadn’t expected to go. Both films had me thinking about the stubbornness it takes to hold onto the person you believe you can become, and the complicated business of figuring out who that person actually is. “Masc” was an exceptional, meta-interesting examination of the difficulty of presenting our authentic selves to the world and finding some peace in that presentation, which, psychotherapeutically speaking, is pretty much right up my alley. Maybe that is what getting my mojo back really meant today. I got up because I was excited about a movie, and I walked away from two films thinking about why we fight so hard to become the people we want to be and what happens when we finally allow ourselves to be seen.
