Ancestors wins critics' prize on Toronto debut

Ancestors, the first feature film by Irish writer-director David Turpin, won the FIPRESCI critics' prize after its premiere at the Toronto Film Festival, Variety reported on 24 September.

The drama is about connections made and lost as AIDS ravaged London's queer community in the late 1980s. FIPRESCI, the international federation of film critics, gives its own award apart from the festival's main prizes.

Éanna Hardwicke stars as Beau, a twentysomething Irishman living in London in 1988. Beau is gay, as noted by The Guardian, and an Irish immigrant looking for community and a place to be himself, as Turpin explained in an interview with Variety published on 11 September.

Rupert Everett co-stars as Maurice, the proprietor of the café where Beau works. The café job places Beau among older queer Londoners who have already lived through years of loss.

Jack Wolfe co-stars as Tiny, a young hustler who is diagnosed with AIDS. His diagnosis pulls Beau closer to the medical and personal crisis facing the community around him.

Christina Hendricks appears as Gloria, depicted as a ferrywoman of queer souls to the afterlife. In plain terms, she is a guide figure who carries the dead onward. Patrick Jordan served as director of photography on the film, according to Variety.

The closing credits carry the message "No survivors, only descendants." That line frames the story as one generation speaking to the next.

Ahead of the premiere, Variety included Ancestors, with Hardwicke as its lead, among 20 international titles to track at TIFF 2026, in a list published on 13 September. Turpin also discussed the AIDS-crisis drama with Variety at the festival.

For viewers coming to it fresh, the film stays in one specific time and place. London in 1988. A young Irishman at work in a café. Friends, lovers and strangers linked by illness and care.