At the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), DGA Director-members Curry Barker, Alex Gibney, Siân Heder, Rachel Morrison and Bassam Tariq gave festival goers an inside look at how Directors approach their craft during our second ever The Art of Directing panel at the Bisha Hotel on September 12.
During a conversation moderated by Deadline’s Box Office Editor and industry insider Anthony D’Alessandro, Barker, Gibney, Heder, Morrison and Tariq shared some of their secrets to success, inspirations, and more.
“My cinematographer and I did something that probably nobody would dare and probably should not dare do, which is shoot a very important, very emotional dramatic scene during a sunset,” said Morrison, who returned to the Festival for the World Premiere of her highly anticipated sophomore feature, the romantic drama, Love of Your Life. “I said to my actors like, ‘We kind of want to go for this. How do you feel?’ And they were excited about it. My cinematographer still says to me, ‘I can't believe we did that.’ It's like, you just can't make a sunset. There's nothing like it. And it was the right location and the right vibe for this scene. And this scene happened to be heavy lifting for both sides of the performance. But because of, my background as a cinematographer, I also knew how to get it fast. And it wasn't a oner. It was a master and then like quickly get coverage quickly get coverage. And then, because we have to be greedy as Directors, even when we all thought it was done it was perfect I grabbed the camera went back for an extreme wide shot. We basically in probably 28 minutes shot like five shots and three and a half pages.”
Tariq, whose latest feature Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother, shared one of the most importance pieces of advice he’d received that helped while making the film. “What I found really challenging in post was getting the right tone across. There was this incredible editor named Jonathan Oppenheim. What he shared with me that changed my life was the first five minutes of the film, you tell the audience how to watch the movie. So, you set the rules of the film.”
Barker’s indie horror Obsession proved that original, high-voltage genre cinema is alive and thriving after its explosive premiere at TIFF’s “Midnight Madness” screening. Barker spoke about the boldest decision he made while on the set. “Well, we only had one take for the window breaking because the other window, the art department was carrying the glass to the car, and it shattered in their hands because it's made of candy. So, we literally just had one piece of glass. I was like, ‘All right, Andy, you've got to ram your head into this window.’ That was crazy. If that didn't work out, we would have been screwed for the day and we didn't have the budget to come back the next day.”
Gibney, whose new documentary, Musk, had its North American premiere at the festival, shared insights into his exploration of the world’s richest man. “The biggest problem I faced was that nobody wanted to talk to me, either because they were terrified and the central subject didn't want to talk to me. In fact, as I asked him for an interview, he responded with a tweet, and the tweet was, ‘Gibney is a douche.’ To which I responded, ‘dou-che.’ But then I had to figure out what to do. So what we did was we collected everything that he had ever said, either on audio or in video. I've been lucky on other films and people sit down and it's a great experience and I really dig doing interviews. And with Elon, whether it would have been hostile or not, I think I would have enjoyed it. Though one of the things I learned over the course of time, and I started this almost four years ago before he had hitched his wagon to Trump. But I think even by that time, he had become a character that was starring in a drama that he was creating. And he keeps repeating the same lines over and over and over again. So I'm not sure I would have gotten a revelatory interview or something that would have been truth-seeking. But it certainly would have been interesting, and I would have enjoyed it.” Musk had its North American premiere at the festival.
Heder, who also received the TIFF Tribute Award in Impact Media, made her Festival debut with the TIFF ’26 World Premiere of her new film, Being Heumann, which was about 100 disabled people storming a federal building in 1977. “I worked with an entirely disabled cast, every kind of disability, blind people, deaf people, wheelchair users... Trying to create an accessible set was like a crazy journey because it had never been done before. We had 12 disabled leads, about 60 other disabled background, other cast members and we had to build a hair and makeup trailer from scratch. We created like ramp villages and from beginning to end. There was no map for how to build an accessibility team and take care of people's bodies while you're making a movie. And as these guys are saying, like movie making is brutal. You destroy yourself, you destroy your crew because we're directors and we're greedy and we want to. you know, get as much as we can. And it was interesting to be on a movie set where there were these two things. There was like a strong need and desire to keep people safe and take care of people. And also I'm a greedy director as well who wants, you know, to get the movie. And that push and pull was like a really incredible experience. And I think it's kind of cool that we like now those trailers exist. There was one accessible trailer in all of North America, because they never expect more than one wheelchair user to ever be working at the same time. So just to kind of bust open like how we make movies was a really wild process. And to do it while making a movie was kind of shocking. And yeah, I landed myself in the hospital for three days in post because I was so burned out. But I'm really proud of the way we did it.”
The panel was followed by a reception for attendees, with an opportunity for members to network. DGA Special Assignments Executive Jennifer Peat was on hand to answer questions about the Guild.
The DGA is working to engage members and the industry through film festivals to make sure that our craft is front and center at these important industry events. Look for more exciting moments to come.
