Thom Powers discusses the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival’s impressive documentary film lineup, featuring docs on Megan Rapinoe, Elon Musk, Edward Said and more.

The Toronto International Film Festival’s documentary czar feels confident about taking on Elon Musk.

On Wednesday, the 2026 edition of TIFF unveiled its documentary films slate, consisting of 21 doc titles from around the world, and one film stood out for the controversy — and Twitter tantrums — it will surely spark: “Musk,” Alex Gibney’s nearly four-hour documentary probing the world’s richest man and most incendiary culture warrior.

Gibney, the Oscar-winning filmmaker who’s investigated dirty corporations (“Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room”), sexual abuse coverups in the Catholic Church (“Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God”), Scientology (“Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Disbelief”) and alleged Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election (“Agents of Chaos”), has been working on his Musk documentary since 2023, which Musk called “a hit piece” sight unseen. Even though the world’s first trillionaire is highly litigious, Thom Powers, TIFF’s documentary programmer since 2006, has faith in Gibney to deliver the goods.

“Alex Gibney is no stranger to controversial topics. He’s taken on Scientology in ‘Going Clear.’ He’s earned a reputation as someone who operates with the utmost journalistic integrity and is going to be thoroughly vetted by a team of the best lawyers in the world,” Powers tells Variety. “That is something that gives us a lot of confidence. We had a film produced by Alex at the festival a couple of years ago, ‘The Bibi Files,’ that raised similar concerns. You may remember that Benjamin Netanyahu went to an Israeli court to try to stop that film and the court said, we have no jurisdiction here, case dismissed.”

Powers adds, “We’re showing this film because we think it’s an extremely important one about a subject who permeates many aspects of our lives and directly or indirectly touches everyone on the planet. That is a topic worth a degree of scrutiny, and I think there is no one better to bring that kind of scrutiny than Alex Gibney.”

Under Powers’ stewardship, TIFF’s documentary section has featured the premieres of future Oscar winners “Inside Job,” “Undefeated” and “Free Solo,” as well as a number of other acclaimed docs like “Faces Places” and “Winter on Fire: Ukraine’s Fight for Freedom.” He says TIFF received over 900 documentary film submissions this year, a slight uptick from 2025, and in addition to “Musk,” is especially enthusiastic about TIFF docs’ opening night film “Rapinoe,” about soccer star Megan Rapinoe, as well as the world premiere of “Edward Said: Between Worlds,” which he compares favorably to Raoul Peck’s James Baldwin doc “I Am Not Your Negro,” and “Re/Pair,” a doc from Lacey Schwartz Delgado about tensions between the Black and Jewish communities in America, featuring dialogues with prominent figures from each community, such as political commentator Van Jones paired with MAGA journalist Batya Ungar-Sargon.

“We keep on bringing people together to be exposed to different viewpoints,” he offers.

Unlike the Tribeca Film Festival, which showcased the AI-produced docudrama “Dreams of Violets,” Powers says that AI “wasn’t a real factor in my decision-making this year.”

“In our submission materials, we ask filmmakers to disclose if AI was used in making the film. I think many filmmakers, as many of us in our everyday life, are using AI in many ways,” Powers explains. “I hear filmmakers talk about it when it comes to sound editing and if you’re using an archival sound source that’s garbled that you can sweeten with AI without changing anything, so I think that’s a tool people will reach for as just another tool for sound editing.”

With that being said, he does remember one particular submission that was crafted using AI and recalls how “for a minute it was kind of interesting for me to see these visuals, and then by five minutes it stopped being interesting.”

TIFF ’26 will also have “Union Town,” a doc by celebrated filmmaker Barbara Kopple about clashes in New York City between delivery workers and food delivery companies like DoorDash and Grubhub. It’s the third film in Kopple’s trilogy on labor battles and a full-circle moment given that the first, “Harlan County USA,” debuted at the very first Toronto International Film Festival (then called the Festival of Festivals) in 1976.

Here is TIFF’s 2026 Docs program (in alphabetical order):

Black Sunflowers | James Marcus Haney | Ukraine, USAWorld Premiere

Bleeding Hearts | Andrew Morgan | USAWorld Premiere

Darlene Love: I Know Where I’ve Been | Barry Avrich | CanadaWorld Premiere

Edward Said: Between Worlds | Maiken Baird | USAWorld Premiere

Like Magic | Melissa Saavedra Gil | Colombia, Argentina, UruguayWorld Premiere

Low Lies The Land | Emanuele Gerosa | Denmark, ItalyWorld Premiere

Rapinoe | Rebeca Huntt | United Kingdom, USAWorld Premiere

Re/Pair | Lacey Schwartz Delgado | USAWorld Premiere

Rescue | Sine Plambech | Denmark, Italy, Germany, Sweden, IcelandWorld Premiere

Still Night, Burning House | Carol Nguyen | Canada World Premiere

Tehran, Under the Skin | Afsaneh Salari | France, Iran, SwedenWorld Premiere

The Final Act | Sophie Deraspe | CanadaWorld Premiere

The Hummingbird Paints Fragrant Songs | Èlia Gasull Balada, Matteo Norzi | Peru, USA, QatarWorld Premiere

The Pervert’s Guide to Utopias | Sophie Fiennes | Ireland, United Kingdom, Slovenia, Netherlands, NorwayNorth American Premiere

The Ultra Runner | Mila Aung-Thwin | CanadaWorld Premiere

Turtle Island Rap | Alexandra Lazarowich | CanadaWorld Premiere

Union Town | Barbara Kopple | USANorth American Premiere