Christopher Nolan is set to be featured in a complete retro by the Toronto International Film Festival’s summer marquee series that will start ahead of the July 17 North-American theatrical premiere of “The Odyssey.”

The series at TIFF Lightbox cinema, titled “Christopher Nolan: Grand Designs,” will run July 8–Aug. 20 and feature screenings of Nolan’s works exclusively on 35mm and 70mm film.  

Nolan made his directorial debut with the low-budget black-and-white noir “Following” that launched from the Toronto fest’s Discovery section in 1998. He last returned to the festival in September 2017 with a special screening of “Dunkirk” in IMAX 70mm in celebration of IMAX’s 50th anniversary. Nolan is not expected to attend the upcoming TIFF summer series retro.

To launch the retro The Ringer and Spotify’s The Big Picture will host a live recording of their podcast at TIFF Lightbox with Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins, according to a statement.

The retrospective celebrating the self-taught Oscar-winning director will feature all 12 of Nolan’s features, several of which projected in 70mm format. They comprise: “Memento” (2000), “Insomnia” (2002), “Batman Begins” (2005), “The Prestige” (2006), “The Dark Knight” (2008), “Inception” (2010), “The Dark Knight Rises” (2012), “Interstellar” (2014), “Dunkirk” (2017), “Tenet” (2020), and “Oppenheimer” (2023).

Additional programming of the Nolan retro at TIFF Lightbox includes a presentation of Philip Kaufman’s “The Right Stuff,” a film Nolan has “cited as one of his favourites,” according to the statement. A “quote along” screening of Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” is also planned to screen directly before the “Oppenheimer” screening on July 18 “as a playful nod to the Summer of 2023’s “Barbenheimer” phenomenon.

Separately, TIFF has also announced a marquee screening series of Japanese anime cinema titled “Drawn Universes: Visions in Animation” curated by celebrated Japanese animation auteur Masaaki Yuasa that will run in November and December 2026. The event’s exact dates are still being decided.

“It is an honour to curate this series for TIFF, “ said Masaaki – who is known for celebrated works such as “Mind Game,” “Lu Over the Wall,” and the Golden Globe-nominated “Inu-Oh” – in the statement. “As I begin shaping the lineup, I am excited to look back at the works that sparked my own imagination from a young age, and to curate a series with a focus on the artists who have defined the genre and the incredible creators who continue to push the visual possibilities of anime today. I hope to bring a programme that truly surprises and delights everyone.”

“The marquee series at TIFF Lightbox was envisioned to present big artists and ideas that capture and shape popular imagination,” said Anita Lee, chief programming officer at TIFF.

“Christopher Nolan is one of the most influential voices in contemporary cinema today where each new film is a cultural event,” she added, “while anime continues to explode as an art force shaping global entertainment across mediums. These programmes offer audiences of all ages a compelling look at the scale, creativity, and innovation that define film today.”