Uploaded August 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
This intimate and inspiring portrait from veteran filmmaker Sean Menard (TIFF ’17’s The Carter Effect) reveals the vulnerable human being behind the great Canadian icon. Drawing upon never-before-seen footage, Run Terry Run walks us through the arduous process and profound commitment that fostered Terry Fox’s magisterial Marathon of Hope.
It’s a story every Canadian child learns at school: in April 1980, 21-year-old Terrance Stanley Fox set out from St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, to raise awareness and funding for cancer research. Having an amputated right leg due to osteosarcoma, Fox was forced to use a poorly fitted, off-the-shelf artificial limb (advanced running prosthetics did not yet exist). Nevertheless, over 143 days, he ran a full marathon every day, traversing more than 5,000 kilometres. Fox made it all the way to Thunder Bay, Ontario, where unfortunately, the cancer had spread to his lungs, forcing him to stop. Fox died ten months later. Every year since, the Terry Fox Run honours his legacy and inspires millions of participants, now in upwards of 60 countries, to continue running for the cause.
The material the Fox family entrusted to Menard allows us to really get to know this charming, philosophical, good-humoured hero. Illness robbed Fox of many aspects of his youth but, in return, it gave him preternatural wisdom — and a vision of what it takes to enact real change. In an era marked by stark divisions, Fox’s activism continues to unite us with that most durable of all resources: hope.
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This intimate and inspiring portrait from veteran filmmaker Sean Menard (TIFF ’17’s The Carter Effect) reveals the vulnerable human being behind the great Canadian icon. Drawing upon never-before-seen footage, Run Terry Run walks us through the arduous process and profound commitment that fostered Terry Fox’s magisterial Marathon of Hope.
It’s a story every Canadian child learns at school: in April 1980, 21-year-old Terrance Stanley Fox set out from St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador, to raise awareness and funding for cancer research. Having an amputated right leg due to osteosarcoma, Fox was forced to use a poorly fitted, off-the-shelf artificial limb (advanced running prosthetics did not yet exist). Nevertheless, over 143 days, he ran a full marathon every day, traversing more than 5,000 kilometres. Fox made it all the way to Thunder Bay, Ontario, where unfortunately, the cancer had spread to his lungs, forcing him to stop. Fox died ten months later. Every year since, the Terry Fox Run honours his legacy and inspires millions of participants, now in upwards of 60 countries, to continue running for the cause.
The material the Fox family entrusted to Menard allows us to really get to know this charming, philosophical, good-humoured hero. Illness robbed Fox of many aspects of his youth but, in return, it gave him preternatural wisdom — and a vision of what it takes to enact real change. In an era marked by stark divisions, Fox’s activism continues to unite us with that most durable of all resources: hope.
For more about the Toronto International Film Festival and our year-round programming at TIFF Lightbox, visit http://tiff.net.
Subscribe to watch more from TIFF:
youtube.com/c/tiff
Want more TIFF? Find us here:
instagram.com/tiff_net
tiktok.com/@tiff_net
twitter.com/tiff_net
pinterest.com/tiffnet
