‘SNL’ Season 52 Lineup Recruits Katseye, Turnstile, Jalen Brunson, Inde Navarrette

The series returns on Sept. 26 with Brunson and Kasteye, followed by appearances from Dakota Johnson, Shane Gillis, Rosalía, and Gracie Abrams

Saturday Night Live will kick off its 52nd season with New York Knicks point guard and NBA Finals MVP Jalen Brunson and as many Katseye members are available on Sept. 26.

NBC has unveiled the first four weeks of shows for the upcoming season, which will also find musical guest Turnstile paired with host Dakota Johnson on Oct. 3; Rosalía paired with Shane Gillis on Oct. 10; and Gracie Abrams paired with Obsession star Inde Navarrette on Oct. 31.

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Katseye and Turnstile will make their SNL debut on their respective episodes, while Abrams will return for the first time since making her debut in December 2024. Rosalía last appeared as a musical guest on the series in March 2022, just before the release of her acclaimed third album, Motomami.

On the host side, Johnson and Gillis will both notch their third time leading the night, while Brunson and Navarrette will take the stage for the first time.

Season 52 will see the departure of longtime Saturday Night Live cast member Chloe Fineman, who leave the series after seven seasons. “It’s really hard to leave SNL but it does feel like the right time. I’m going to miss it a lot,” Fineman said earlier this year. “But the people who work there are my family and that place is my home, and I know I’ll never be too far away.”

The writers room has also lost Martin Herlihy, a member of the sketch comedy trio Please Don’t Destroy, who leaves the show after five seasons. Any new additions to the SNL crew have not yet been announced.

Since premiering less than a year ago on Crave, hockey romance series Heated Rivalry has become one of the most viral subjects in pop culture. From unauothorized off-Broadway parodies to a sea lion at Pacific Marine Mammal Center being named after Shane Hollander, the series has become seemingly inescapable. Now, the NSFW show, and the book series it was based on, is getting its place in academia.

Starting this fall, students at the University of Victoria in British-Columbia will be able to take two different classe centered around the series, the Times Colonist reports. Law professor Gillian Calder has taught her class ''Queering Law'' before, but will now use the series to push students to reflect how regulations affect queer lives, sports, gender, sexuality and masculinity in Canada. Guest speakers will be called upon to discuss different real-life events, such as the Hockey Canada sexual assault scandal that rocked the country. Her broader approach to legal education, she says, emphasizes creativity, empathy and the ability to understand experiences beyond one's own.

Across campus, English professor Janice Niemann is taking a different route into the phenomenon.

Her course, English 321: Authors on Screen: Rachel Reid's Heated Rivalry, will bring Reid's novels, the television adaptation and fan culture into the classroom. Students will read three books from the series, watch the show and examine fan fiction and fandom while considering what happens when a hugely popular romance moves from the page to the screen. Interest in the class is so strong, she says, that more seats needed to be added to accomodate students.

The course's aim, among other things, is to challenge the idea that media aimed toward women and queer people is not as valuable or culturally significant.

Production for the second season of the Crave series is currently underway, and is expected to release in April 2027.

Something old, something new, several things that are borrowed, and more than a few films that will leave you feeling blue — the Toronto International Film Festival is about to roar back to life, and its 51st edition sticks to the tried-and-true formula that’s established it as a fall-fest favorite. There are a handful of revivals, including a preview of a new, restored cut of Ken Russell’s The Devils. You’ll get the best of several other festivals, including many of the big titles from Cannes (All of a Sudden, Fjord, Club Kid, The Beloved) and recent premieres from Venice (Ink, Wild Horse Nine, Possible Love) and Telluride (Tender Loving Care, The Debut). And, of course, you’ll get your very first looks at a number of titles that use TIFF as a launch pad for potential awards-season glory.

And naturally, this year’s festival has more than its fair share of “midnight madness” genre flicks, arthouse movies from virtually every corner of the globe, and a strong selection of documentaries; the music-doc lineup is particularly varied this time out, with portraits of everybody from an up-and-coming Americana trio to drumming god Neil Peart. We’ve selected 22 films that have our interest piqued, from a Japanese spin on Bad Lieutenant to an intimate year in the life of Lisa from Blackpink. Here’s what we’re itching to see at TIFF 2026.

When the inevitable alien invasion of Earth happens — you know it will, people! — our cosmic overlords will not look like little, bug-eyed green men. They will apparently resemble a 1950s biker gang modeled after Marlon Brando from The Wild One. That’s the basic premise of David and Nathan Zellner’s satirical sci-fi opus about of group of extraterrestrials who take a very, shall we say, retro attempt to blend in. The longer these would-be conquerors of humanity spend among us noble, flawed Homo sapiens, however, the more they began to realize that maybe the planet has more perks than they’d imagined. Dig this cast, daddy-o: Cate Blanchett, Lea Seydoux, Chris Pine, Dave Batista, Riley Keough, Lily-Rose Depp, Kelvin Harrison Jr., and Bae Doona.

Lalisa Manobal — better known as the K-pop superstar Lisa — had already conquered the world as one fourth of the record-breaking group Blackpink. She then decided to take a year or so to focus on a solo career, a screen career, and several creative endeavors outside of the band. Luckily for us, filmmaker Sue Kim trailed along with her cameras, and the result is an intimate look at a global pop star exploring new frontiers and pushing past her comfort zones. Out of all the premiere screenings at TIFF this year, we’re betting this will be both the hottest ticket and the one with the most screaming fans outside the venue.

To procreate or not to procreate? That is the question in Lauren Miller Rogen’s dramedy about a couple, played by Anna Kendrick and the director’s IRL spouse Seth Rogen, who have been on the fence about whether they would eventually have kids or not. Then a recently separated friend (Kate Berlant) with a kid crashes at their house while looking for a new residence, and the two get an impromptu What Parenting Is Actually Like 101 course, which may end up affecting their final decision. There’s a deep bench here regarding the supporting actors as well: Dan Stevens, Sharon Stone, Issa Rae, Ed Helms, Ashley Park, David Strathairn, Severance‘s Zach Cherry.

Who better to do a Tokyo-based variation on Abel Ferrara’s chronicle of a self-destructive, spiritually adrift cop than Takashi Miike? The auteur behind Ichi the Killer, Audition, the incredible Dead or Alive trilogy, and dozens of other mind-altering movies digs in to the story of a hard-living Japanese cop (Shun Oguri) who must team up with an FBI agent (Lily James) to find a politician’s missing daughter. There’s also a killer on the loose, and he has the lieutenant, who we are assuming is bad (see title), in his sights. We predict this will be off any number of different hooks.

Toronto’s opening night film — and director Siân Heder’s follow-up to her Oscar-winning hit CODA — gives the spotlight to activist Judy Heumann (Ruth Madelay), who fought the powers that be over accessibility for the millions of Americans with disabilities. Combating not just public misconceptions but political indifference and hostility, notably from Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare Joseph Califano (Mark Ruffalo), Heumann recognized that this wasn’t just a personal issue but a human-rights issue, and her protests helped bring about meaningful change. Rob Delaney, Dylan O’Brien, Ray Fischer and Fargo‘s Russell Harvard costar.

Zella Day was a country-music prodigy who had a record out by age 14, a hit single by 19, and a desire to reinvent herself as an artist by the time she was 25. Jesse Woods was a troubadour out of Austin, Texas, who specialized in twangy melancholy. The two fell in love and started the band Chaparelle with their collaborator Beau Bedford, with the idea that they’d finally found the perfect vehicle for the sound they’d all been chasing. The couple also let filmmaker Andrew Morgan document both the early stages of their relationship and their new musical project, and the result is the sort of warts-and-all portrait of backstage drama and onstage epiphanies that remind you that it is possible to combine the personal and the professional. You may end up with a few great songs and a helluva lot of scars in the wake of it all.

To say that Werner Herzog’s new narrative movie sounds a little weird is like saying that Pacific Ocean sounds like it could be a tad bit moist — there’s an inherent element of assumption there, what with past behavior being the best predictor for future behavior. But even by the standards of a filmmaker that previously hypnotized his actors during a project, Herzog’s new one sounds like he’s tapping into a uniquely strange frequency. Real-life siblings Rooney and Kate Mara play sisters who aren’t just close — they do everything together and actually speak in unison. Both women have so much in common that they each fall in love with the same man (Orlando Bloom), and long story short, end up facing a media frenzy and a legal case. Seriously, even if we weren’t die-hard Herzog fans, we’d still be so stucking foked to see this.

Let’s say you’re an architect. You’re approached by a billionaire, who wants you to design a bunker for him and his fellow One-percenters. Money is no object. Your wife thinks the entire concept of the ultra-rich designing a luxury apocalypse domicile is disgusting. You agree, but also know that your fee will be appropriately astronomical and could set your family up for life. What do you do? This is the ethical dilemma at the heart of the new film by writer-director Florian Bunker (The Father), with the added bonus that the married couple at the center of it is played by actual spouses and dual Oscar-winners Javier Bardem and Penélope Cruz. Also down in the hole with them: Paul Dano, Stephen Graham, Mark Gatliss, and The White Lotus‘s Patrick Schwarzenegger.

R&B vocalist, recording legend, the voice behind “He’s a Rebel,” one of Rolling Stone‘s 150 best singers of all time, the “Queen of Christmas” — the great Darlene Love is all this and more. She fronted her own band, the Crystals, and provided back-up vocals for everything from “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling” to “Be My Baby,” and her annual performance of “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” on both of David Letterman’s late-night shows was as much a holiday tradition as fruitcake and mistletoes. Documentarian Barry Avrich (Oscar Petersen: Black + White) lets Love take center stage and shines the spotlight on a truly singular six-decade career behind the mic.

Gael García Bernal directed, cowrote and stars in this twisty tale of a Cuban lifeguard who saves the life of a Mexican businessman (Jorge Salinas) on vacation in Havana. The tourist rewards his savior with a job and a luxurious life back in the Yucatán. Remember that phrase about no good deed ever going unpunished? That applies double here.

Russel (Luke Evans) and Hermine (Naomi Watts) are just your perfectly, totally average married couple living in New York City circa 1964. Enter a New York Times reporter (Tye Sheridan), who begins investigating a tip he’s received that Russel is actually a Nazi officer who evaded capture in Europe, and is living under an assumed identity. Things get even more complicated when the journalist and Hermine starts to develop a bond that goes slightly beyond the boundaries of journalist and his subject’s spouse. This sounds heavy. Also in the cast: Michael Imperioli, Lena Olin, and Debi Mazar.

It’s a tale of two underdogs — one who’s a Philly pugilist trying to prove he can go the distance, and another who’s a struggling actor who is determined to play the lead part in a script he just wrote. The fictional boxer is named Rocky Balboa. The real-life performer is Sylvester Stallone. You all know what happens next. Peter Farrelly (Green Book) directs this origin story about the Italian Stallion fighting to get the first Rocky movie made, starring Anthony Ippolito as the young and hungry Sly, determined to do whatever it takes to make his dream a reality. [Cue theme music]

The Irish animation studio Cartoon Saloon may not have the name recognition of a Pixar or a Ghibli, but it’s been putting out some of the best feature-length ‘toons over the past few decades (see: The Secret of Kells, The Breadwinner, Wolfwalkers). And their latest looks to extend their winning streak: an adaptation of Jessica Love’s 2018 bestseller Julián Is a Mermaid, about a seven-year-old who spends a summer with his Dominican grandmother in Brooklyn. Julián is less than thrilled with his new environment, until a group of local girls tell him about the annual Mermaid Parade at Coney Island — at which point the boy becomes obsessed with creating the perfect, bedazzled tail. Expect both a faithful translation of the book’s water-color-like artwork and a moving take on both NYC’s African-Carribean community and the concept of inter-generational tolerance.

A last-minute addition to the festival, Zack Snyder’s revenge thriller follows a DEA agent (Stuart Martin) and a war photographer (Fra Fee) as they shoot — that verb is doing double duty here — their way through South America in search of the men who murdered the former’s family. Judging from the trailer, this looks like it’s got the usual combination of dark, visual panache and pulpy, operatic overtones. That it seemed to have materialized out of nowhere and landed a slot on TIFF’s lineup at the 11th hour has us intrigued. The fact that this film has kept Snyder too bust to make more Rebel Moon movies makes us extremely grateful.

Triple-threat hyphenate Tim Blake Nelson (Leaves of Grass) sets two characters — a creative-writing instructor (Amanda Seyfried) working at a prison and a convict (Scoot McNairy) in her class — on a collision course. Both of them have been dealt a bum hand by life, in terms of bad relationships, bad decisions, and an intimate familiarity with violence. Both feel a connection via the written word. And when a plan is hatched to help him break out, both find themselves having to deal with the consequences of their actions. This one seems intense. Sinners‘ Wunmi Mosaku, The Good Place‘s William Jackson Harper, Missi Pyle, and Elisabeth Marvel costar.

Andrew Haigh (Weekend, 45 Years, All of Us Strangers) returns with a take on Colm Tóibín’s short story about a young man (Fred Hechinger) who’s dealing with both a sexual awakening and the sudden, inexplicable disappearance of his mother (Caitríona Balfe) during a snowstorm. The longer they look for her, the more strained the relationship between him and his father (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) becomes. We have high hopes for this one. Costarring Martin Freeman, Kit Connor, and Reservation Dogs‘ D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai.

Acclaimed Japanese filmmaker Hirokazu Kore-eda has already graced this year’s festival circuit with his A.I. parable Sheep in a Box; he now returns with another humanistic drama, an adaptation of Tatsuki Fujimoto’s manga about two young women ((Natsuki Deguchi and Aju Makita) who go from childhood rivals to aspiring artists. Everything about this sounds like classic Kore-eda, as well as the perfect combination of auteur and source material, and we’re dying to see his take on this tender, intimate story of bonding over creative expression.

Once upon a time, Misty Green was an Emmy-winning star with a hell of a singing voice. Then her career took a bit of a nosedive. A reconnection with a filmmaker who once fired her and a potential role in an upcoming project may mean that a second chance at stardom, however, is right around the corner, if she can just keep the old habits from coming back. Writer, director, and actor Chris Rock’s new character-driven drama from A24 will get its world premiere at TIFF, and he’s packed the cast with some big names: Adam Driver, Daniel Kaluuya, Anna Kendrick, Topher Grace. But this really looks like a major showcase for Rosalind Eleazar, a British actor who’s been a big presence on TV in the UK (Harlots, Slow Horses) and, if this trailer is any indication, will likely generate a lot of awards-season chatter with her performance as the title character.

The influence of the late, great Neil Peart on his fellow drummers, not to mention his band mates and longtime brothers-in-arms Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson, is incalculable. Scot McFadyen and Sam Dunn, a.k.a. the documentarians behind the invaluable Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage, take that idea one step further. They not only cover the late, great musician’s life, career, and his personal tragedies and triumphs, as well as gathering testimonies from his friends and loved ones. The duo also enlist a who’s-who of first-ballot percussionists — Stewart Copeland, Danny Carey, Chad Smith and Gavin Harrison — to play Peart’s parts in classic Rush songs alongside Lee and Lifeson. It’s a well-earned tribute to a much-missed legend, as well as a chance to see the Professor’s “drum brothers” test their chops via some of the most intricate rock songs ever composed.

Why hasn’t there been an extensive rock doc on the Pretenders until now? Thank god that director Joss Crowley — who’s been involved in documentaries on Iggy Pop, Shania Twain, Freddie Mercury, the Simple Minds and more — stepped up to tell the story of how a young woman from Ohio went to London right before the dawn of punk and ended up founding one of the most venerable rock outfits ever. Comprised of three new conversations with singer/icon/notoriously tough, takes-zero-shit interview Chrissie Hynde, remembrances from the band’s longtime tour manager, and a treasure trove’s worth of archival footage, this should hopefully be the definitive portrait of a band rocked by both tragedy and a phoenix-like rise from the ashes. Precious it ain’t.

Suzie Miller’s play about a barrister who finds herself on the other side of the bench in a sexual-assault case was designed as a one-woman show and won Jodie Comer a slew of awards. Now Cynthia Erivo leaves her mark on the role in this expanded take on the harrowing drama, as her lawyer’s unshakable faith in the legal system is tested once she’s forced to navigate it as a survivor. Susanna White (Woman Walks Ahead) directs; Daniel Ings, Simon Russell Beale, and Harry Treadaway costar.

Michelle Yeoh is set to have a busy TIFF this year — she’s headlining both the feel-good nursing-home comedy It’s My Life and this crime thriller, in which she plays a veteran surgeon who’s recently hung up her scrubs. Her retirement is cut short when a group of mobsters led by Martin Freeman kidnap her and force her at gunpoint to operate on one of their wounded brethren. This ex-medical expert is not going to go out without a fight, however. The fest’s program notes describe this as a “scalp-’em-up,” which, y’know, yes. A new action subgenre? We’re 100-percent here for it.

Nathan Fielder and Elizabeth Holmes

If you had a Nathan Fielder-directed documentary about Elizabeth Holmes on your 2026 bucket list, congratulations. The comedian’s latest project, as announced yesterday the Telluride Film Festival, is You Can See Everything, a documentary helmed by Fielder and Lance Oppenheim that centers on Holmes’ life just being incarcerated in 2023.

A24 shared a teaser trailer for the documentary following its surprise premiere at Telluride. The short clip features Holmes telling Fielder that she has no reason to deceive him. “Why would I do that?” she says, eyes wide. A skeptical Fielder asks, “You’re being real right now?” “I’m always being real,” Holmes replies. The camera pulls back to reveal Holmes is in her home rocking her young baby.

A synopsis for the film reads: “Thirty-four days before she’s sent to prison, notorious Silicon Valley founder Elizabeth Holmes invites a skeptical film crew to document her every move. What begins as an intimate portrait of an enigmatic felon becomes a mind-bending three-year journey into the abyss. From boundary-pushing directors Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim comes You Can See Everything.”

Vanity Fair confirmed that Fielder actually lived with the Theranos founder and her husband Billy Evans while making the documentary. The publication described the film as being “full of unexpected twists and turns and shocking reveals.” During a Q&A with the audience after the screening, Fielder said it was hard to make sense of what they were capturing.

“Lance and I would talk with the rest of the crew about what we thought happened or what we thought these moments meant, and no one could reach a consensus,” Fielder said. “And that’s when we really realized, ‘Oh, this is really interesting to follow this. We’re all smart and we’re really working at the top of our intelligence—why can’t we make sense of what’s happening in this house?’”

He added that despite following the couple for three years, he still isn’t sure what to make of Holmes. “I really am struggling to this day to understand exactly what I experienced,” Fielder said. “And one of the things I’m genuinely excited about is for this movie to come out and for people to help me understand what I experienced. Truly, to this day, I don’t quite know what I went through.”

You Can See Everything will be in theaters in October, although A24 hasn’t announced the exact release date.

Holmes was sentenced to 11 years and 3 months in prison, plus three years of supervised release, in 2022. She was found guilty of lying to investors to make millions for blood-testing technology that she claimed would revolutionize healthcare but didn’t actually work. After being convicted she attempted to flee the country, pushed for a new trial, and begged not to be sent to jail. Her sentence has been reduced twice since. She is now scheduled to be released from prison on Aug. 16, 2032.

Heated Rivalry is expanding its roster for Season 2, with Kevin Zegers, Paul Gross and Milla Jovovich joining the cast as the hockey drama moves into a new season.

Zegers will play Coach Weibe, the head coach of Ottawa’s professional hockey team, where Ilya Rozanov, played by Connor Storrie, will suit up during the upcoming season. Weibe is a new figure in Ilya’s professional world, as the Russian hockey star navigates the growing complications surrounding his career and personal life.

Paul Gross will take on the role of Roger Crowell, the commissioner of the professional hockey league. Gross,a Calgary native, brings another distinctly Canadian presence to the series, which has quickly become one of the country’s biggest television successes. Superstar actress Milla Jovovich will portray Dr. Galina Molchalin, a therapist Ilya sees during the events of The Long Game, Rachel Reid’s sixth Game Changers novel and the primary source material for Season 2.

The new season picks up with Ilya and Shane Hollander, played by Hudson Williams, now in a committed relationship. While the pair have moved beyond the secretive situationship at the heart of Season 1, they still have to conceal their relationship from the public as their professional hockey careers continue.

Series creator Jacob Tierney has previously said the season will also draw from Role Model, which follows Ilya’s teammate Troy Barrett and social media manager Harris Drover. Elements of Tough Guy, centred on Toronto hockey enforcer Ryan Price and musician Fabian Salah, are also expected to feature.

Williams and Storrie will return alongside Season 2 additions including Justice Smith, Charlie Gillespie, Daniel Diemer and Shaheen Jafargholi. Currently filming, Heated Rivalry Season 2 is targeting a spring 2027 release on Crave and HBO Max.

Neil Peart’s legacy is continues to grow, as his former bandmates and recent Rolling Stone Canada cover stars carry on with their reunion tour. This time, the late Rush drummer and lyricist is at the centre of a new documentary.

Neil Peart: No One’s Disciple, directed by Sam Dunn and Scot McFadyen of Banger Films, will make its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 16 before airing September 23 on CBC and CBC Gem as part of The Passionate Eye.

The 106-minute film combines rare archival footage and performances with conversations between Peart’s longtime Rush bandmates, Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson, as well as four acclaimed drummers. Among them, Stewart Copeland of The Police, Tool’s Danny Carey, Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith and Gavin Harrison, all invited to tackle Rush material and look back at the formidable musicianship Peart brought to the band.

The documentary also looks beyond the drum kit, tracing Peart’s difficult beginnings, rise to international fame and the personal tragedies that shaped his life. Archival footage allows Peart himself to reflect on his relentless pursuit of improvement and the responsibility he felt toward his craft.