Skip to main content
Presence film image; three people standing in doorway looking at one person in a room

Presence

Altered States

This event has passed

Moving into their new home, the members of the Payne family are saddled with considerable baggage. With legal trouble already looming due to her workplace misconduct, Rebekah (Lucy Liu) is called out by her husband Chris (Chris Sullivan) for the overt favouritism she bestows on their competitive, callous son Tyler (Eddy Maday). Meanwhile, daughter Chloe (Callina Liang) is left to languish in solitude as she grieves a close friend’s overdose death and questions the intentions of a new admirer (West Mulholland). With tensions simmering and melancholy assuming a stranglehold, things start to go bump in the night…

In this, his inspired first foray into ghost stories, the ever-innovative Steven Soderbergh shoots every scene from the perspective of a spectral interloper. As the camera glides through hallways, sweeps down staircases, and floats into bedrooms, a viewer is consumed by the eerie sensation of being disembodied. And as we join this phantasm in surveilling the Paynes, we come to understand what truly haunts us…

 

Supported by

Media Partner

Director
Cast

Lucy Liu, Chris Sullivan, Callina Liang, Eddy Maday, West Mulholland, Julia Fox

Credits
Country of Origin

USA

Year

2024

Language

English

Film Contact
19+
85 min
Horror & Thriller Legendary Filmmakers
Extension 765

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Credits & Director

Executive Producer

David Koepp, Corey Bayes

Producer

Julie Anderson, Ken Meyer

Screenwriter

David Koepp

Cinematography

Peter Andrews

Editor

Mary Ann Bernard

Original Music

Zack Ryan

Steven Soderbergh headshot; Presence director

Steven Soderbergh

Steven Soderbergh is an American film producer, screenwriter, cinematographer, editor, and an Academy Award-winning film director. Born in Atlanta, Georgia, he gained recognition with his directorial debut, sex, lies, and videotape (1989), which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes. Later films include Kafka (1991), The Limey (1999), Erin Brockovich (2000), Traffic (2000) (Oscar, Best Director), Ocean’s Eleven (2001), Solaris (2002), and Magic Mike (2012).

Filmography: sex, lies, and videotape (1989); Erin Brockovich (2000); Traffic (2000); The Informant! (2009); The Laundromat (2019).

Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre

Women Talking

104 min

Sarah Polley's adaptation of Miriam Toews' novel is the most compelling movie to come out of the #MeToo movement to date, with stellar performances from Jessie Buckley, Rooney Mara, and Claire Foy, as Mennonite women confronting a terrible truth.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Take Me In Your Arms

Dir. Julio Bracho
91 min

In this boldly stylized musical melodrama mixing reformist politics with outrageous musical numbers, the incomparable Ninón Sevilla is the poor fisherman's daughter navigating a success of dodgy men on her way to true love.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Tough Old Broads

Dir. Stacey Tenenbaum
90 min

Tough Old Broads is a feature documentary that follows three trailblazing women as they continue to make waves well into their 70s. Because you can't keep a good woman down.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Nika & Madison

Dir. Eva Thomas
87 min

Two young Indigenous women become fugitives following an act of self-defence and are forced to flee into the wilderness. Inspired by Thelma and Louise, this compelling story of unbreakable friendship sheds light on systemic injustices.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Montreal, ma belle

Dir. Xiaodan He
118 min

In this Valentine to discovering love later in life, the ever-elegant Joan Chen plays Feng Xia, a 53-year-old Chinese immigrant and mother in Montreal whose world is turned upside down when she meets and falls in love with a young Quebecoise.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
More info

Sold Out

A Magnificent Life

Dir. Sylvain Chomet
91 min

Animator Sylvain Chomet (The Triplets of Belleville; The Illusionist) crafts a loving biopic of the revered French writer, playwright and filmmaker Marcel Pagnol (Jean de Florette; My Father's Glory)

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre