Miwa Nishikawa’s Children Untold Opens Platform Competition

Japanese director Miwa Nishikawa’s Children Untold, about a 12-year-old girl disguised as a boy to survive post-World War II in Tokyo, will open the 2026 Platform competition at the Toronto Film Festival.

Ami Koyae, Fumi Nikaido and Koji Yakusho star in the Japanese drama based on Nishikawa’s own unpublished novel. On Tuesday, TIFF unveiled 12 features as world premieres for the festival section where international films outside the Hollywood studio orbit compete.

There’s also first looks for Theja Rio’s Angh from India; Jan Holobek’s Wild Wild East, set in occupied Poland during the Second World War; Amanda Kernell’s Brace Your Heart, the Swedish director’s third drama; and Korean director Yoon Dan-bi’s coming-of-age tale The World Before.

Other world premieres include Ferit Karahan’s Djinn Wedding, a Turkish family drama; The Smell of Apples, John Trengove’s third feature about a sheltered young white boy learning of his country’s apartheid system; Irene Dionisio’s Idda, the Italian director’s sophomore feature after Pawn Street; and Silenced Nights, Lawrence Fajardo’s drama about a witness to an extrajudicial killing in a Philippines slum.

The Platform program also booked world bows for Nyla Innuksuk’s In the Heart of the South, led by North of North star Anna Lambe; Bertil Nilsson’s Masc, a debut feature inspired by the director’s experiences as a neurodivergent gay man; and Gabriel Martins’ On Behalf of My Son, which stars Rejane Faria and follows a grieving mother seeking forgiveness after a tragic bus accident.

The jury for the Platform competition this year is led by Argentine filmmaker Pablo Trapero as president, and includes British director Amma Asante, Taiwanese actor Sylvia Chang, Canadian indie producer Luc Déry and Hong Kong film exec Albert Lee.  

TIFF earlier announced Oscar-winning CODA filmmaker Sian Heder’s upcoming feature Being Heumann will open its 51st edition. The Toronto Film Festival is set to run from Sept. 10 to 20. More film lineup announcements will be made in the coming weeks.