[1] Overall, the festival featured over 100 films, including a special retrospective program devoted to the work of Canadian documentary filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin.

[3] In-person screenings were held at the festival's traditional venues, including the TIFF Bell Lightbox, the Princess of Wales Theatre and Roy Thomson Hall, the latter two of which hosted the world premiere of Stephen Chbosky's film adaptation of Broadway musical Dear Evan Hansen, the festival's opening night gala presentation.

[9] A few high-profile titles in the festival program, namely Dune, Last Night in Soho and Spencer, were not eligible for the People's Choice Award, as their distributors had not permitted them to be screened online on the digital platform.

[16] Walt Becker's Clifford the Big Red Dog was initially selected to be one of the Gala Presentations, but was withdrawn from the festival, after US distributor Paramount Pictures pulled it from its release schedule due to the rise of the Delta variant of COVID-19.

[19] A new program which saw classic films that screened at TIFF in past years made available for streaming on Crave, paired with talks by actors or filmmakers involved in the production.