Angelina Jolie Shares Emotional Tribute to Mother at *Couture* Premiere at TIFF 2025
Toronto International Film Festival, September 7, 2025 — Hollywood icon Angelina Jolie, 50, delivered an intensely personal and moving address at the premiere of her latest film, Couture, at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) on Sunday. The acclaimed actress became visibly emotional as she opened up about her late mother, Marcheline Bertrand’s, battle with cancer, drawing a profound connection to the film’s narrative and sharing a powerful message of empathy for those facing similar struggles.
Jolie stars in Couture as Maxine, an American film director whose life takes an unexpected turn when she is hired to create a video for a high-profile Paris fashion event. Amidst this demanding professional undertaking, Maxine grapples with a breast cancer diagnosis and navigates a challenging divorce, a storyline that deeply resonated with Jolie’s own family history. This role marks her first major screen appearance since her portrayal of opera diva Maria Callas in last year’s Maria.
Following the film’s premiere at the Princess of Wales Theatre, the cast, including co-stars Ella Rumpf and Anyier Anei, and writer-director Alice Winocour, participated in a Q&A session moderated by Anita Lee, TIFF’s Chief Programming Officer. The atmosphere shifted when an audience member, who recently lost a friend to cancer, asked for a message of “hope” for those still enduring the disease. Jolie, visibly choked with emotion, paused before composing herself to respond, “I’m very sorry for your loss.”
She then shared a deeply personal anecdote about her mother, Marcheline Bertrand, who passed away in January 2007 at the age of 56. “I think I will say that one thing I remember my mother saying when she had cancer, she said to me once, we had had a dinner and people were asking her how she was feeling and she said, ‘All anybody ever asks me about is cancer,'” Jolie recounted. “So I would say, if you know someone who is going through something, ask them about everything else in their life as well, you know? They’re a whole person and they’re still living.”
Marcheline Bertrand’s arduous battle with cancer began in 1999 with an ovarian cancer diagnosis, which later progressed to breast cancer. Her passing was a profound loss that has deeply shaped Jolie’s life and advocacy. In a proactive measure against her own genetic predisposition, Jolie underwent a preventative double mastectomy in 2013. Genetic tests had revealed she carried the “faulty gene” BRCA1, indicating an 87 percent risk of developing breast cancer and a 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer. Through this significant medical choice, detailed in her candid New York Times op-ed titled “My Medical Choice,” Jolie successfully reduced her breast cancer risk to under 5 percent.
Director Alice Winocour underscored the film’s broader message during the Q&A, stating that while Couture addresses cancer, it ultimately celebrates “life and the pulsation of life” and the “spirit of survival.” Winocour noted Jolie’s immediate and profound personal connection to the project, acknowledging that her mother and grandmother both succumbed to breast cancer, and Jolie herself has taken drastic measures to confront her family’s genetic fate.
TIFF’s official synopsis for Couture further elaborates on Maxine’s journey: “Maxine takes the job in the Parisian fashion industry because it’s lucrative and she has financial burdens. She is in the midst of a divorce, has a teenage daughter, and is preparing her next feature film. But her tightly ordered life is about to unravel as Maxine is given a serious medical diagnosis.” The film also weaves in the narratives of Angèle (Ella Rumpf), a veteran makeup artist, and Ada (Anyier Anei), an 18-year-old pharmacy student from Nairobi newly discovered as a model, as they navigate their own life-changing decisions within the demanding fashion world.
Jolie continues to be a prominent figure both in front of and behind the camera. Last year, she was at TIFF supporting her directorial effort, Without Blood, a drama starring Salma Hayek and Demián Bichir, which earned her a standing ovation from an audience that included her son, Pax, 21. Her eldest son, Maddox, 24, who previously worked as a production assistant on Maria, served as the third assistant director on Couture, a film initially titled Stitches. Through her latest work and her deeply personal insights, Angelina Jolie continues to use her platform to shed light on universal human experiences of struggle, resilience, and the enduring spirit of life.
