Louis C.K. is mastering the art of surprising his fans. Last year, he dropped a Web series titled Horace and Pete on his site with little fanfare. At the top of this year, he performed a handful of previously unannounced stand-up sets in cities like Vancouver, Washington, D.C., and Boston. And now he’s upping the ante on a cinematic scale. The __Los Angeles Times reports that C.K. secretly filmed a movie in New York earlier this year: a black-and-white, 35mm feature titled I Love You, Daddy. The film will premiere at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival, officially entering the fray of potential Oscar hopefuls that swarm the definitive fest each fall.

I Love You, Daddy, which is a little over two hours long, is about a TV producer and writer named Glen Topher and his daughter, China (played by Chloe Grace Moretz), per the L.A. Times. The cast also includes John Malkovich, Edie Falco, Charlie Day, and Better Things creator Pamela Adlon, a regular C.K. collaborator.

Stealthily making a film might explain C.K.’s continued distance from his hit FX series Louie. For years, fans have wondered whether he will ever make another season of the sad, sad comedy, which has been dormant since the Season 5 finale in 2015. Over the years, C.K. has explained his reluctance to keep it going, saying last year that he simply can’t think of good stories for the show’s autobiographical main character anymore. At the Television Critics Association earlier this August, C.K. gave a slightly less nebulous answer, slamming yet another nail in Louie’s coffin.

“I don’t think the version of Louie that was on FX, I don’t think I’ll do that exact version again because I just haven’t been that guy for a while with the stained blacked T-shirt and the two kids because they’re older now,” he said, per Variety. “I always thought if I did Louie again, I may go back to it later in a different version. No idea if I’ll do it—I don’t think about it much.”

C.K. is essentially at the forefront of the new TV auteur movement to take your damn time with projects between seasons. But unlike figures like Aziz Ansari and Noah Hawley, C.K. seems a lot more determined to leave his hit show behind completely—letting it drift into the ether of modern dramedy classics.

Debuting I Love You, Daddy at TIFF also sends a very particular message about C.K.’s film aspirations. The comedian hasn’t directed a feature since Pootie Tang in 2001, though he has directed episodes of Louie and Horace and Pete over the years. TIFF has consistently served as the North American barrier to entry for awards season hopefuls, prestige films that want to make it all the way to the Oscars. And C.K.—an Emmy and Peabody Award winner celebrated in the industry as a brilliant eccentric—directing a black-and-white film with a sharp cast seems about as Oscar bait-y as they come.