The Toronto International Film Festival just handed its Discovery opening slot to a musical body-horror romance about human taxidermy. Theo Rhys’s Stuffed will officially kick off the festival’s emerging filmmaker program this September.
Jodie Comer stars as Araminta, a reclusive taxidermist who wants to stuff and mount a human specimen. Harry Melling plays Bernie, a deeply lonely man terrified of being forgotten who voluntarily offers himself up for her project. That is a wildly ambitious premise to open a festival slate.
The feature is actually an expansion of a proven concept. Rhys first debuted Stuffed as a short film in 2021, picking up both Jury and Audience awards at SXSW. Now, a detailed TIFF update confirms the feature-length version brings back original music and lyrics by writer-composer Joss Holden-Rea.
But beyond the opener, the overall schedule is stacked. Programmers pulled together a slate of 24 global selections for the 2026 Discovery section. That includes 17 world premieres hitting Toronto between September 10 and 20.
You also have some heavyweight subject matter dropping into the mix. The Discovery lineup announcement highlights David Turpin’s Ancestors, which tackles the 1980s London AIDS crisis. Fast & Furious actor Sung Kang makes his directorial debut with Drifter. Stephanie Ahn brings her Sundance premiere Bedford Park to the Canadian crowd, while Ghasideh Golmakani offers an Iranian political satire titled Head to Head.
The Launchpad for Hollywood’s Next A-List Visionaries
Securing the Discovery opening slot is a massive vote of confidence for Rhys. This specific TIFF section has a long, verified history of minting industry titans before they hit the mainstream.
Back in the 1990s, the Discovery program hosted the debut films of Christopher Nolan (Following) and Alfonso Cuarón (Love in the Time of Hysteria). Placing a strange, high-concept musical starring an Emmy winner right at the front of this legacy slate tells international buyers exactly what they need to watch.