TIFF’s In Conversation With… 2026: Lee Min-ho, Chris Rock, Andrew Scott, Rachel Morrison & Our Boy Hudson Williams

Toronto’s fall film calendar just got a lot more interesting. As part of its August 11 schedule launch, TIFF has announced the 2026 lineup for its beloved In Conversation With… series, bringing Lee Min-ho, Rachel Morrison, Chris Rock, Andrew Scott, and Hudson Williams to the stage for live conversations about their careers, craft, and creative journeys.

Because apparently watching the movies, standing in a festival line, and trying to eat something between screenings wasn’t enough.

The series gives audiences a chance to see the people behind the projects in a different setting: not through a red-carpet soundbite or a carefully edited press interview, but in an intimate onstage conversation with a live Festival audience.

“This year’s In Conversation With… series brings together trailblazers and extraordinary storytellers for conversations that will offer audiences a deeper look at their craft and careers,” said Anita Lee, Chief Programming Officer, TIFF.

And honestly? This lineup has range.

From Korean drama royalty and groundbreaking cinematography to one of comedy’s sharpest voices, one of the internet’s favourite actors, and a Canadian breakout who is very much having a moment, TIFF ’26 is giving Toronto plenty to talk about before the first screening even starts.

Read TIFF’s full announcement here.

Lee Min-ho is bringing the Minoz to Toronto

Paging all Minoz. Toronto is ready for you.

Lee Min-ho arrives at TIFF ’26 for his first North American onstage appearance in more than a decade. He’ll be in the city for the World Premiere of The Assassin(s), directed by Hur Jin-ho and co-starring Yoo Hai-jin and Park Hae-il.

For longtime fans, this is not just another festival talk. Lee has spent nearly two decades building one of the most recognizable careers in Korean popular culture. His performances as Gu Jun-pyo in Boys Over Flowers and Kim Tan in The Heirs helped introduce a whole generation of viewers to the global K-drama wave.

Then came City Hunter, Faith, Gangnam Blues, The Legend of the Blue Sea, and The King: Eternal Monarch. His work on Apple TV+’s Pachinko pushed him into another register entirely, earning widespread critical recognition alongside the ensemble cast.

TIFF describes him as a global Hallyu icon, and that feels accurate. Lee Min-ho has reportedly been named the most popular Korean actor in the Overseas Hallyu Survey for 13 consecutive years. The man has an international fan base that can probably organize faster than the TTC during a service disruption.

His conversation is expected to cover his evolution from K-drama heartthrob to international film and television star, as well as the new chapter represented by The Assassin(s).

Rachel Morrison sees the story from behind the camera

Rachel Morrison is the kind of filmmaker whose work can shape how an entire movie feels before a character even says a word.

The Academy Award–nominated cinematographer and director returns to TIFF for the World Premiere of Love of Your Life, her sophomore feature from Amazon MGM Studios. The romantic drama stars Margaret Qualley, Aaron Pierre, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Gabriel Basso, and Catherine Keener, and is produced by Ryan Gosling and Jessie Henderson.

Morrison’s path to the director’s chair has been formidable. She shot Ryan Coogler’s Fruitvale Station, Dee Rees’ Mudbound, and Black Panther, helping create the visual language of films that became major cultural touchstones.

With Mudbound, she made history as the first woman nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography. That alone would make for a pretty solid Toronto conversation.

But Morrison’s work has never stayed in one lane. She has moved through independent film, documentary, television, and major studio productions, directing episodes of The Morning Show and The Mandalorian before making her feature directorial debut with The Fire Inside, which premiered at TIFF ’24.

Love of Your Life follows Maya, a young woman whose life is upended by loss, the pandemic, and a series of new beginnings across several countries. TIFF’s official description calls it a story about love, grief, transformation, and letting go.

Morrison’s conversation should be especially interesting for anyone curious about how cinematographers become directors , and how technical visual choices can carry emotional weight without announcing themselves like they’re running for office.

Chris Rock is bringing the comedy, the critique, and Misty Green

Chris Rock has never been just one thing.

He is a comedian, writer, actor, producer, director, and one of the most influential voices in modern stand-up. His 1996 special Bring the Pain changed the temperature of comedy, earning him two Emmys and cementing his place as a performer who could make an audience laugh while also making them sit with an uncomfortable truth.

Now he’s bringing that sharp eye to TIFF ’26 with the World Premiere of Misty Green, his latest film as writer-director.

The film stars Rosalind Eleazar as Misty, a Black actor trying to revive her career while dealing with financial pressure, family responsibilities, and an industry that keeps demanding more while offering less. Daniel Kaluuya, Adam Driver, Anna Kendrick, and Rock also appear in the cast.

TIFF describes the film as a satire of Hollywood’s bigotry and soul-draining hustle. That sounds very Chris Rock: funny, uncomfortable, and probably followed by a conversation people will continue having in the lobby.

Rock’s connection to the Festival runs deep. He produced and starred in Good Hair, which screened at TIFF ’09, and returned with Top Five at TIFF ’14. His onstage conversation will likely move between stand-up, Hollywood, filmmaking, race, class, and the strange business of trying to make anything original inside a very expensive machine.

For anyone tracking the Toronto comedy scene, this is one of the major live conversations to watch.

Andrew Scott is entering his Elsinore era

Andrew Scott has already given us the priest from Fleabag, Moriarty in Sherlock, the quietly devastating Adam in All of Us Strangers, and the unsettling title character in Netflix’s Ripley.

Now he arrives at TIFF with Elsinore, a film he also produced, and a performance TIFF is calling one of the standouts of the year.

Scott plays actor Ian Charleson, who in the final years of his life summoned the strength to perform Hamlet at London’s National Theatre while living with AIDS. The role carries questions of art, illness, courage, memory, and what it means to keep showing up when the body is asking for something else.

Scott’s TIFF conversation, presented by Redbreast, is expected to explore his work across stage and screen, his approach to complicated characters, and the increasingly important queer stories he has helped bring to wider audiences.

He first came to the Festival with Pride in 2014 and returned in 2025 with Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery and Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon. At this point, Toronto audiences know what happens when Scott walks into a role: things get emotionally complicated very quickly.

And yes, our boy Hudson Williams is making waves

Hudson Williams’ TIFF moment feels particularly satisfying because this breakout has been building in public.

Born and raised in British Columbia, Williams trained in theatre, music, dance, basketball, and martial arts before studying film at Vancouver’s Langara College. He also began writing, directing, producing, and starring in independent shorts with a close-knit group of collaborators.

That DIY foundation matters. Williams is not simply arriving as the face of a hit show. He has been developing a creative voice behind the camera, too.

His major breakthrough came with Heated Rivalry, Jacob Tierney’s Crave series adapted from Rachel Reid’s bestselling novels. As Shane Hollander, Williams became part of a Canadian television phenomenon that reached far beyond the hockey rink and landed in living rooms around the world.

The show’s Canadian orbit has already stretched from Toronto screens to an Ottawa event featuring Williams, his castmates, and Prime Minister Mark Carney. Because of course the country’s political conversation eventually became a Heated Rivalry conversation. Canada stays dramatic.

At TIFF ’26, Williams will take part in Making Waves With… Hudson Williams, an event connected to TIFF Next Wave initiatives centred on creators and audiences under 25.

He’ll discuss Heated Rivalry, the Crave Original series YAGA from Kat Sandler, and the upcoming independent feature Apparatus. The conversation will also look at his early short films, creative community, and the collaborators who helped shape his artistic identity.

This is exactly the kind of emerging Canadian talent TIFF should be placing in front of a live audience. Williams is having the breakout, sure, but he is also still early in the process of figuring out what kind of artist he wants to become.

That makes this conversation worth paying attention to.

Ticket details for TIFF ’26

TIFF’s 51st edition runs from September 10 to 20, 2026, with TIFF: The Market taking place from September 10 to 16. The Festival is presented by Rogers.

Tickets for In Conversation With… programming go on sale to TIFF Members by membership level beginning Friday, August 21. Single tickets go on sale to the public on Monday, August 31 at 12 p.m.

Members get earlier access, which is useful because TIFF tickets disappear with the speed of a downtown parking spot. You can join or renew your TIFF Membership here.

For the full lineup and event details, check the TIFF ’26 schedule and browse the Festival films.

And if you want more Toronto film coverage before September arrives, the MobToronto film and cinema archive has plenty to explore, including our previous TIFF 2016 coverage and reporting on films that used Toronto as a launchpad for bigger conversations.

Five guests. Five very different creative journeys. One city about to spend ten days debating films, performances, lineups, seating plans, and whether it is physically possible to make it from King Street to Scotiabank Theatre in time.

It probably isn’t.

Still, we’ll try.

Bookmark this one, sort out your schedule, and tell the friend who already has their TIFF tote bag ready.