Saturday, September 12 was, by most accounts, the single busiest celebrity-watching day of TIFF 2026’s opening stretch — 124 screenings across the festival’s venues, warm daytime weather giving way to a chance of evening thunderstorms, and enough red carpets to keep photographers on their feet from noon straight through midnight.

Chris Rock Brings Misty Green to Roy Thomson Hall

The night’s marquee premiere was Misty Green, Chris Rock’s new comedy-drama about a down-on-her-luck actress chasing a Hollywood comeback. Rock wrote, directed, produced, and stars in the film, backed by A24 and a cast that includes Rosalind Eleazar, Adam Driver, Daniel Kaluuya, Anna Kendrick, and Topher Grace. It screened at Roy Thomson Hall at 9:30 p.m., in what’s shaping up to be one of the festival’s most talked-about comedies this year.

Seth Rogen and Anna Kendrick Premiere Babies

Also at Roy Thomson Hall, Seth Rogen walked the carpet for Babies, a relationship comedy written and directed by his wife, Lauren Miller Rogen. Rogen and Anna Kendrick star as a couple wrestling with whether to have kids, with Miller Rogen calling the project a deeply personal one. Zach Cherry, Issa Rae, Dan Stevens, and Ed Helms rounded out the cast and joined the arrivals photo alongside the couple.

Michelle Yeoh’s The Surgeon

Over at the Royal Alexandra Theatre, Michelle Yeoh was in town promoting The Surgeon, a thriller that casts the Academy Award winner as a doctor taken hostage. It was one of the day’s more suspense-driven premieres, offering a change of pace from the comedies dominating the rest of the schedule.

I Play Rocky and Mahershala Ali’s Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother

Peter Farrelly’s I Play Rocky, dramatizing the making of the original 1976 Rocky, brought out Anthony Ippolito, Stephan James, and Matt Dillon for its red carpet, alongside co-stars AnnaSophia Robb, Toby Kebbell, and Tracy Letts. And at the Princess of Wales Theatre, also at 9:30 p.m., Mahershala Ali arrived for the premiere of Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, Bassam Tariq’s faith-and-violence thriller — one of the more divisive titles of the festival so far.

Closing Night and Evil Genius

Sarah Paulson, Naomi Watts, and Dianne Wiest brought Closing Night to the festival, a drama following a movie star reconnecting with her family. Earlier in the day, at 12:30 p.m., Courteney Cox’s directorial effort Evil Genius held its world premiere, mining the strange, darkly comic true story behind the 2003 “pizza bomber” case for one of the festival’s stranger true-crime entries.

Festival Street Keeps Rolling

Away from the carpets, Festival Street on King Street West stayed as busy as it’s been all week, with the Canadian Press describing the crowds as some of the thickest yet in what TIFF continues to bill as “the people’s festival” thanks to its free public accessibility. With a mix of sun, cloud, and a high of 26°C by day, conditions were ideal for the street festival crowds — though the evening’s thunderstorm risk added a bit of drama to red-carpet arrivals after dark.

TIFF 2026 runs through September 20 across Toronto, with Festival Street and the Rogers Red Carpet open to the public through the weekend.