There are 293 films at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival. Good luck trying to seeing them all.

TIFF runs September 10–20, with screenings at TIFF Lightbox, Roy Thomson Hall, the Royal Alexandra Theatre, the Visa Screening Room and several other theatres around downtown Toronto. So, yes, there are a lot of movies. There are also a lot of ways to spend 11 days, and we’ve narrowed the list down to 20 films worth finding a seat for.

Some are big-name premieres. Others come from filmmakers we’ve been waiting to see again. And a few simply sound like a good time.

1. Being Heumann

Director: Siân Heder
Section: Gala Presentation
Public screening: Sept. 10, 6 p.m., Visa Screening Room

Siân Heder follows CODA with the story of disability-rights activist Judy Heumann, played by Ruth Madeley. Heumann spent decades fighting for accessibility and disability rights, including helping push through the legislation that led to Section 504. It’s also TIFF’s Opening Night film.

2. Fjord

Director: Cristian Mungiu
Section: Gala Presentation
Public screening: Sept. 10, 9:30 p.m., Visa Screening Room

Palme d’Or winner Cristian Mungiu heads to Norway for a story about a Romanian-Norwegian couple whose new life in a remote village starts to fall apart. Sebastian Stan and Renate Reinsve lead the cast. Mungiu is known for slow-burning dramas that can turn an everyday situation deeply uncomfortable.

3. The Debut

Director: Jesse Eisenberg
Section: Special Presentations
Public screening: Sept. 13, 6:15 p.m., Visa Screening Room

Julianne Moore plays a woman who gets a small role in a community theatre production and becomes increasingly consumed by the part. Paul Giamatti plays the director pushing her along. Eisenberg follows his Oscar-nominated A Real Pain with another film behind the camera.

4. Misty Green

Director: Chris Rock
Section: Gala Presentation
Public screening: Sept. 13, 9 p.m., Scotiabank Theatre

Rosalind Eleazar stars as an actress trying to revive her career while dealing with addiction, eviction and problems with her brother. Chris Rock writes and directs the Hollywood drama, which also takes a swipe at the industry’s institutional bigotry. Adam Driver, Daniel Kaluuya, Anna Kendrick and Anthony Anderson co-star.

5. Possible Love

Director: Lee Chang-dong
Section: Special Presentations
Public screening: Sept. 14, 6 p.m., Visa Screening Room

Lee Chang-dong returns with his first feature since Burning, with Jeon Do-yeon, Sol Kyung-gu, Zo In-sung and Cho Yeo-jeong playing two couples whose relationships become increasingly tangled. Lee is also receiving TIFF’s Ebert Director Award this year. It’s Lee Chang-dong’s first film in eight years, which puts Possible Love pretty high on our TIFF list.

6. I Play Rocky

Director: Peter Farrelly
Section: Special Presentations
Public screening: Sept. 12, 6 p.m., Visa Screening Room

Peter Farrelly tells the story behind the making of Rocky, with Sylvester Stallone playing himself and Anthony Ippolito playing the young Stallone. The story follows Stallone’s fight to get his script made while insisting on playing the lead. Farrelly brings his own history with comedy to a very different kind of underdog story.

7. Ink

Director: Danny Boyle
Section: Special Presentations
Public screening: Sept. 15, 2:30 p.m., Visa Screening Room

Danny Boyle tackles Rupert Murdoch and his acquisition of The Sun, with Guy Pearce playing Murdoch. The story covers the early days of Murdoch’s British newspaper empire and the people who helped build it. Boyle directing a film about newspapers, money and power sounds like a pretty good combination.

8. Tender Loving Care

Director: Mike Leigh
Section: Special Presentations
Public screening: Sept. 12, 11:30 a.m., TIFF Lightbox

Mike Leigh returns with another story about people dealing with the complications of everyday life. That’s familiar territory for the British filmmaker, whose films have included Secrets & Lies, Another Year and Happy-Go-Lucky. Leigh has never needed a big premise to make a movie interesting.

9. Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother

Director: Bassam Tariq
Section: Special Presentations
Public screening: Sept. 12, 9:30 p.m., Visa Screening Room

Mahershala Ali plays a devout hitman crossing Houston to protect his children after his wife dies. John Cho, Giancarlo Esposito, Tramell Tillman and Tiffany Boone are also in the cast. Tariq previously directed Mogul Mowgli, starring Riz Ahmed.

10. Alpha Gang

Directors: David Zellner and Nathan Zellner
Section: Special Presentations
Public screening: Sept. 13, 9:30 p.m., Visa Screening Room

A gang of aliens arrives on Earth disguised as humans and tries to blend in. Cate Blanchett, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Zoë Kravitz and Dave Bautista are among the cast. The Zellner brothers, whose films include Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter and The True Don Quixote, takes on this alien-invasion movie.

11. Phoolan

Director: Richie Mehta
Section: Special Presentations
Public screening: Sept. 16, 6 p.m., Visa Screening Room

Richie Mehta tells the story of Phoolan Devi, the Indian outlaw known as the Bandit Queen. The film focuses on a brutal 48-hour period in her life. Mehta previously created the acclaimed Netflix series Delhi Crime.

12. The Man I Love

Director: Ira Sachs
Section: Special Presentations
Public screening: Sept. 16, 3 p.m., Visa Screening Room

Ira Sachs returns with another relationship drama, making its North American premiere in Toronto. A lot of Sachs’ films come back to love, family and relationships that don’t go quite as planned. His previous films include Love Is Strange, Little Men and Passages.

13. Look Back

Director: Hirokazu Kore-eda
Section: Special Presentations
Public screening: Sept. 14, 9:45 p.m., Visa Screening Room

Hirokazu Kore-eda returns with a new film about friendship, family and the things people carry with them. The Japanese director won the Palme d’Or for Shoplifters and has become one of international cinema’s most recognizable filmmakers. Definitely keep this one on your radar.

14. The Stunt Driver

Director: Michael Dowse
Section: Special Presentations
Public screening: Sept. 12, 9:55 p.m., Scotiabank Theatre

Jay Baruchel stars as Canadian stunt driver Ken Carter, who attempted to cross the St. Lawrence River in a rocket-powered car. Ben Foster and Ed Helms are also along for the ride. Yes, this actually happened.

15. Darlene Love: I Know Where I’ve Been

Director: Barry Avrich
Section: TIFF Docs
Public screening: Sept. 14, 1 p.m., Royal Alexandra Theatre

Darlene Love’s career includes the Wall of Sound, Phil Spector, Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) and decades of performing. Barry Avrich’s documentary looks at the singer’s life and career. Love’s story stretches from the early days of rock and roll through her long-running career as a performer, making this one of the festival’s music documentaries to watch.

16. Musk

Director: Alex Gibney
Section: TIFF Docs
Public screening: Sept. 14, 3:20 p.m., Scotiabank Theatre

Alex Gibney turns his documentary lens on Elon Musk. Gibney has made films about Scientology, Steve Jobs, the opioid crisis and the financial crisis, among other subjects. Now he has one of the most polarizing figures in technology and politics on his list.

17. Stuffed

Director: Theo Rhys
Section: Discovery
Public screening: Sept. 10, 5:30 p.m., Royal Alexandra Theatre

A romance involving taxidermy. Jodie Comer and Harry Melling are a pretty good place to start. Theo Rhys expands his short film of the same name into a feature, and the taxidermy angle alone makes this one stand out.

18. The Face of Horror

Director: Anna Biller
Section: Midnight Madness
Public screening: Sept. 11, 11:59 p.m., Royal Alexandra Theatre

Anna Biller follows The Love Witch with another highly stylized genre film, this time involving a husband, his dead wife and a medieval ghost story. Biller has a very recognizable style, as anyone who saw The Love Witch knows, and Midnight Madness seems like the right place for her latest.

19. River

Director: Joshua Giuliano
Section: Midnight Madness
Public screening: Sept. 11, 9:40 p.m., Scotiabank Theatre

A group of siblings is stranded on a boat and hunted by a killer. That’s pretty much the pitch. River opens the Midnight Madness lineup, making it one of the festival’s first chances to get the late-night crowd screaming.

20. Wild Horse Nine

Director: Martin McDonagh
Section: Special Presentations
Public screening: Sept. 19, 9 p.m., Visa Screening Room

Martin McDonagh returns with a CIA thriller set in Chile, starring John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell. McDonagh tends to put his characters in bad situations and then turns up the heat. His previous films include In Bruges, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and The Banshees of Inisherin.

The TIFF rule: leave some room

The temptation is to fill every open spot on your schedule. Don’t.

Touch grass, grab a coffee, eat something that doesn’t come from a concession stand and strike up a conversation. You might hear about a movie that wasn’t on your radar, or discover that one of the films you have circled might not actually be worth the two hours.

With 293 films, there will be plenty to choose from. You don’t need to see them all.