TORONTO – Zacharias Kunuk watched the Twin Towers fall in the same way many across the world did: huddled in front of a TV set, not quite sure if he could believe his eyes.
But unlike others, the acclaimed filmmaker was watching the horror unfold from a hotel lobby in Toronto, awaiting the Canadian premiere of his debut feature “Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner” at the Toronto International Film Festival.
“I thought it was a documentary,” Kunuk recalled as he watched the stream of images come in from New York. “We were at a festival … I thought first it was a commercial.”
Kunuk had flown about 15 actors and elders from the remote Arctic hamlet of Igloolik, where his Inuktitut-language film was set, to attend the premiere on Sept. 11, 2001.
The screening of his movie – now considered by many critics as one of Canada’s best films – would have to wait.
The events of 9/11 happened midway through TIFF. It forced major changes to the festival and prompted travel mayhem as American stars scrambled for alternative ways home while planes were grounded, then-festival-director Piers Handling recalled.
What began as a film festival full of “life and vitality” was split in twain before the morning of Sept. 11 terror attacks and after, he said.
Twenty-five years ago, nearly 3,000 people died as two hijacked planes were flown into the World Trade Center, a third plane was flown into the Pentagon and another crashed in rural Pennsylvania – defining events of the 21st century that ushered in a new era of global conflict.
Handling turned off the TV as footage of the first tower coming down was being broadcast.
“We were speechless. You had nothing to really say,” he said. “It was a shattering event.”
But Handling said he couldn’t sit with the tragedy for long. He and then-managing director Michele Maheux formed a crisis team and decided to shutter the festival for the day.
He hopped on the phone with directors and film distributors to share the news their screenings would be cancelled. Among them were Kunuk’s film, as well as a showing of “Monsoon Wedding” by celebrated director Mira Nair, mother of New York mayor Zohran Mamdani, who Handling said had planned to bring a troupe of Indian dancers and an elephant to the premiere.
Film critic Peter Howell recalls TIFF was in “full tilt” before Sept. 11. He went into a film premiere that morning unaware of the gravity of what had happened and emerged “into a whole new world.”
“It was just so hard to take in all this happening at one time, all these people dying, just the absolute extent of the carnage, the firefighters dying,” he said.
Much of the film community that had descended on Toronto for the festival had close ties to New York, and Handling said festival organizers set up a medical centre where people in distress could speak to doctors and psychologists.
Amid the chaos, Handling recalls running into Glenn Close who was trying to rent a limousine to drive back to New York, as well as David Lynch and Gene Hackman who were planning to rent a bus with other actors and directors to head back to Los Angeles.
The decision to shutter TIFF that day was easy, Handling recalled. But the question of whether to continue with the rest of the festival was much more difficult.
Urged by some to not let the 9/11 attackers “win,” Handling and his team opted to reopen the festival, but stripped of its typical pomp.
TIFF rolled up the red carpets, cancelled parties and press events and removed corporate sponsorship logos from the films.
“It was a very sombre mood, and we just ran the films,” Handling said. “We stripped it down to bare bones.”
Howell called it “TIFF’s shining moment,” balancing respect for the devastating attack, while still allowing people to gather and appreciate art.
He recalls the first film he saw after TIFF reopened was a screening of Alfonso Cuaron’s “Y Tu Mama Tambien.”
“It was the next day and the theatre was packed … It was like a balm to the senses to be able to just immerse yourself in something other than 9/11,” Howell said. “They always describe movies as being an escape, and I think everybody felt that. We really wanted to escape from the world, and that’s exactly what that was.”
Kunuk remembers the mood was quiet and subdued when “Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner” finally screened. His actors arrived in traditional dress and Inuit throat singer Tanya Tagaq performed, he said.
The movie, the first to be directed and acted entirely in the Inuktitut language, would go on to win best Canadian feature at the festival.
Handling said he was there to introduce the film.
“It was just such a touching moment, and you suddenly realize the value of cinema to bring people together,” he said. “The focus wasn’t anymore on corporate sponsors. It wasn’t on the journalists. It wasn’t on the media. It wasn’t on the red carpets. It was really all about the films and the talent who had made the films.”
The next year, TIFF went back to business as usual.
“I’ve never seen that kind of moment since,” Handling said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 8, 2026.
