The Toronto International Film Festival announced on July 21, 2026 that On Behalf of My Son, the latest feature from Brazilian filmmaker Gabriel Martins, has been selected for the Platform section of its 51st edition. The film is produced by Filmes de Plástico in partnership with Netflix, and premieres in 2026.
The premise turns on a single unbearable question
A crowded public bus travels through Belo Horizonte on a sunny morning. Crossing an overpass, it swerves, leaves the road and crashes onto the avenue below. One passenger survives critically injured; everyone else dies, including the driver, Wesley. The crash dominates national news.
Security footage from the bus and the roadway captures the moment, and once it is analysed, speculation spreads that the driver may have acted deliberately. Vicentina, Wesley's mother — a 75-year-old retired schoolteacher played by Rejane Faria — decides to seek out the victims' families and apologise. Netflix is explicit that the answers she wants are not always the ones she finds, which is a notably unsentimental framing for a film built around grief.
Why the Platform selection matters
Platform is TIFF's juried competition strand, which places the film in a curated selection rather than a general programme. Martins' previous feature, Mars One, premiered at international festivals in 2022 and drew wide recognition, so this is a second significant festival berth rather than a debut. Martins directs, wrote the screenplay and created the original story, with Thiago Macêdo Correia producing.
The ensemble around Faria
Alongside Rejane Faria, the cast includes Flavio Bauraqui, Giovanna Heliodoro, Giovanni Venturini, Grace Passô, Karine Teles, Maíra Azevedo, Renato Novaes and Thalma de Freitas. Filmes de Plástico, the production company behind the film, is among the more prominent forces in contemporary Brazilian cinema.
What has not been announced
Netflix has given a premiere year but no release date, no runtime and no detail on how or when the film reaches the service after its festival run. The TIFF screening date is not published in this announcement. NexusGG has not screened On Behalf of My Son and offers no assessment of it ahead of its festival run.
