The 44th annual Toronto International Film Festival was held from 5 to 15 September 2019.^[1] The opening gala was the documentary film Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band, directed by Daniel Roher,^[2] and the festival closed with a screening of the biographical film Radioactive, directed by Marjane Satrapi.^[3]

In addition to its regular film awards, whose winners were announced at the conclusion of the festival, the festival also announced the inaugural TIFF Tribute Awards, a special program to honour distinguished lifetime achievement in film.^[4] Tribute Awards were presented to Meryl Streep and Joaquin Phoenix for acting, Taika Waititi for directing, cinematographer Roger Deakins for artisan film craft, Mati Diop for emerging talent, Participant Media for impact media, and David Foster for special contributions to film.^[5]

The first award recipients were announced on 12 September,^[6] with the major awards announced at the close of the festival on 15 September.^[7] In light of the fact that international filmmakers are rarely still in Toronto to accept their awards in person by the end of the festival, the organizers opted to cancel the traditional awards ceremony, and instead announced the award winners through TIFF's social media.^[8]

Nicolas Cage was awarded with the Creative Coalition's Spotlight Initiative Award for his role in Color Out of Space.^[9]

The selection for the 2019 festival:^[10][11][12]

TIFF's annual Canada's Top Ten list, its national critics and festival programmers poll of the ten best feature and short films of the year, was released on 11 December 2019.^[13]