ADFF / ADFF:TORONTO / Schedule
Toronto Schedule
Wednesday, November 12
Buy Ticket: Wed Nov 12, 7:00pm
Theatre 2
What does a country’s design aesthetic reveal about its identity? That’s the animating question behind Identity: A Czech Graphic Design Love Story, a documentary that pairs cultural inquiry with personal narrative. At its center is Nicholas Lowry, a Czech-American auctioneer and obsessive collector who returns to his ancestral homeland to investigate a design tradition, a national identity, and himself.
Thursday, November 13
Buy Ticket: Thurs Nov 13, 6:00pm
Theatre 3
Miralles is a visually striking journey into the life and work of Catalan architect Enric Miralles, whose brilliant mind was taken from the world too soon when he passed away just before his 50th birthday. The film revisits the legacy of a visionary who was only beginning to show the full scope of his genius.
Buy Ticket: Thur Nov 13, 6:15 pm
Theatre 4
The global construction industry is one of the planet’s most resource-hungry and polluting sectors. But a shift is underway. In recent years, a distinct Danish voice has emerged in the global conversation about how we live, build, and shape our surroundings. At the forefront of this movement is architect Søren Pihlmann, whose projects explore how existing materials can be given new life.
Buy Ticket: Thurs Nov 13, 8:30pm
Theatre 4
Kensington Market: Heart of the City is a richly textured portrait of one of Toronto’s most storied neighborhoods. It is an ever-evolving enclave shaped by more than 160 years of immigration, artistry, and individuality. Change is part of its DNA, but today the jarring acceleration of rapid gentrification threatens Kensington Market’s fragile balance.
Buy Ticket: Thurs Nov 13, 8:45pm
Theatre 3
Prickly Mountain and My Design Build Life takes us to Warren, Vermont—a remarkable small town with more architects and designers per capita than anywhere else in the USA. Warren became an architect’s haven in the 1960s, when a group of Yale-trained architects settled there, embracing collaboration and hands-on craftsmanship over the corporate world of their contemporaries.
Friday, Novemer 14
Buy Ticket: Fri Nov 14, 5:50pm
Theatre 3
The Space Architect introduces us to the trailblazing architect Constance Adams, whose groundbreaking work at NASA reimagined how humans might live in outer space. At age 53, knowing she was dying of cancer, Adams enlisted the help of filmmaker Rebecca Carpenter to preserve her story. Filmed just four days before her death, The Space Architect captures Adams reflecting on her extraordinary career and her final, passionate focus towards Earth—where she hoped to apply her knowledge to address the urgent challenges of the climate crisis.
Buy Ticket: Fri Nov 14, 6:15pm
Theatre 4
Few architects ever have the chance to design buildings for one of the most extreme environments on Earth—Antarctica. When scientists at NOAA grew frustrated by the poor design quality available within strict government budgets, they took an unconventional leap: they invited the University of Colorado’s Master of Architecture Design/Build class to take on the challenge. Building on the Edge captures the thrill of design idealism clashing with the challenges of full-scale reality.
Buy Ticket: Fri Nov 14, 8:30pm
Theatre 4
At the Garden’s Pace tracks a design-build process of a striking new modern pavilion within a botanical garden dedicated to conifers in the Dutch town of Hilversum. Featuring compelling characters and a satisfying conclusion, the documentary thoughtfully explores how bold contemporary architecture can find harmony within a century-old landscape.
Buy Ticket: Fri Nov 14, 8:45pm
Theatre 3
Join us for a lively quiz show hosted by architect Joël León Danis. This first-of-its-kind ADFF event is a trivia night that dives into the dramatic intersection of brutalist design and film. From dystopian futures to sci-fi classics, no architectural style has cast a heavier shadow across cinema than brutalism.
Saturday, November 15
Buy Ticket: Sat Nov 15, 1:00pm
Theatre 3
We The Others is a captivating film about Brazilian brothers and design icons Fernando and Humberto Campana whose studio, Estudio Campana, gained international recognition for its unique approach to design. Shot several years after Fernando’s passing, Humberto, the surviving brother, leads audiences through the brothers’ humble beginnings, their prolific creative journey, and their enduring commitment to social and environmental impact.
Buy Ticket: Sat Nov 15, 1:15pm
Theatre 4
Renzo Piano once said, “Light is not just something that allows us to see. It is a material that gives form, emotion, and life to architecture.” Tracing Light invites us to contemplate this mysterious and fundamental force that shapes our world and our built environment.
Buy Ticket: Sat Nov 15, 3:15pm
Theatre 3
After a beloved teacher is tragically killed in a hit-and-run accident in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, a grassroots movement emerges to transform a notoriously dangerous four-lane boulevard into a safer, two-lane street with protected bike lanes. The film situates this local struggle within broader historical, environmental, political, and social contexts through interviews with politicians, activists, urban planners, entrepreneurs, and cultural icons like David Byrne and Janette Sadik-Khan.
Buy Ticket: Sat Nov 15, 3:45pm
Theatre 4
Miralles is a visually striking journey into the life and work of Catalan architect Enric Miralles, whose brilliant mind was taken from the world too soon when he passed away just before his 50th birthday. The film revisits the legacy of a visionary who was only beginning to show the full scope of his genius.
Buy Ticket: Sat Nov 15, 6:00pm
Theatre 3
Known for his Red and Blue Chair and the groundbreaking Schröder House, architect Gerrit Rietveld believed that homes should function like living sculptures. Living in a Piece of Furniture focuses on the iconic 1924 Rietveld Schröderhuis, the first house that Rietveld designed, in collaboration with and for Truus Schröder, a Dutch socialite and decades-long friend of Rietveld’s.
Buy Ticket: Sat Nov 15, 6:30pm
Theatre 4
The Space Architect introduces us to the trailblazing architect Constance Adams, whose groundbreaking work at NASA reimagined how humans might live in outer space. At age 53, knowing she was dying of cancer, Adams enlisted the help of filmmaker Rebecca Carpenter to preserve her story. Filmed just four days before her death, The Space Architect captures Adams reflecting on her extraordinary career and her final, passionate focus towards Earth—where she hoped to apply her knowledge to address the urgent challenges of the climate crisis.
Buy Ticket: Sat Nov 15, 8:00pm
Theatre 3
Sigurd Lewerentz did not seek fame. A contemporary of Alvar Aalto and Gunnar Asplund, Lewerentz left behind some of the most profound works in Scandinavian design. But he shunned interviews and avoided public interventions. Instead, he let his buildings speak for themselves in a language of poetic brutality, austere beauty, and reverence for light and shadow. Lewerentz Divine Darkness begins decades after the architect’s death, when an unexpected discovery in a root cellar cracks open the mystery of his work.
Buy Ticket: Sat Nov 15, 8:15pm
Theatre 4
What does a country’s design aesthetic reveal about its identity? That’s the animating question behind Identity: A Czech Graphic Design Love Story, a documentary that pairs cultural inquiry with personal narrative. At its center is Nicholas Lowry, a Czech-American auctioneer and obsessive collector who returns to his ancestral homeland to investigate a design tradition, a national identity, and himself.

