The Toronto International Film Festival apparently has a gearhead on its selection committee. After adding Sung Kang’s Drifter and the Ken Carter biopic The Stunt Driver, TIFF will close its 2026 festival with Villeneuve: The Rise of a Legend which follows the early years of Canadian racing legend Gilles Villeneuve.
The movie stars Rémi Goulet as famed racer Villeneuve, who came from modest beginnings and actually started his career in Moto-Ski snowmobiles around Berthierville, Quebec. Through skill and determination, he forced his way into a sport normally reserved for the wealthy. The story begins around 1970, before Ferrari, Formula 1 and international fame, when Villeneuve’s currency was raw talent, mechanical instinct, and a willingness to risk everything.
As a Canadian production, it’s heartening to see that TIFF has given the film one of the biggest spots on the calendar. Villeneuve: The Rise of a Legend is the Closing Night Film and a Gala Presentation, making its world premiere on Saturday, September 19. The first screening is at 6:00 pm in the VISA Screening Room at the Princess of Wales Theatre, followed by an 8:00 pm presentation at Roy Thomson Hall.
Long-time readers of this website know that we revere the Villeneuve family. Back in 2017 when a Villeneuve-raced Ferrari 312 T4 was entered in the Vintage Grand Prix at Mosport we were trackside. In 2021 when the Villeneuve Kart made its debut, we investigated how much the Villeneuve name still meant to the young racers. We later published an article titled Do We Cheer AGAINST Canadians? to look at why Canadian race fans are so hard on Canadian drivers. Jacques Villeneuve won the Indianapolis 500 and CART championship in 1995, followed by the Formula 1 World Drivers’ Championship in 1997 making him Canada’s most accomplished racer. Yet Gilles, with only six Grand Prix victories, occupies a different place—he is a legend.
That difference was obvious again in 2024, when a bronze statue of Gilles Villeneuve was stolen from outside his museum in Berthierville. It felt less like ordinary theft and more like somebody had vandalized a Canadian historical monument.
More than forty years after his death, people still visit his museum, watch the Canadian Grand Prix at the circuit bearing his name, and react emotionally when Villeneuve’s memory is disrespected. He is racing royalty.
That is what makes this film interesting. Gilles Villeneuve does not need his mythology manufactured by a marketing department. The challenge for Villeneuve: The Rise of a Legend is whether it can capture what made him matter without sanding down the reckless, complicated human being underneath the heroic image.
Either way, closing TIFF with Gilles Villeneuve feels wonderfully appropriate. If we cannot secure tickets to the Gala Presentation, we’ll find out if scalpers actually hang out at the Princess of Wales Theatre.