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

Monica's News

Dir. Pamela Gallant
84 min

Set in a conservative Catholic village in Nova Scotia in the early 1970s, Pamela Gallant's assured debut feature is the coming of age story of a precocious nine-year-old who stumbles across a clue to a murder on her paper route.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Love and Money

Dir. David Ray
87 min

David Ray's shoestring comedy is a totally improvised film, almost like a game of telephone, involving a musician searching for his missing friend and finding all kinds of weird.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
Modern Whore
Modern Whore film image; woman sitting at the foot of a bed

Modern Whore

Dir. Nicole Bazuin
80 min

In director Nicole Bazuin's cheeky, stylized documentary, Modern Whore-memoirist Andrea Werhun (Paying for It) recounts her experiences as an escort and stripper in Toronto, debunking misconceptions about the world’s oldest profession.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Agatha's Almanac

Dir. Amalie Atkins
86 min

Shot over six years on vibrant 16mm film, Agatha’s Almanac is an artful documentary portrait of filmmaker Amalie Atkin’s octogenarian aunt, who has fashioned herself an endearingly simple and self-sustaining lifestyle on her Manitoba farm.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Follies

Dir. Eric K. Boulianne
101 min

After two kids and 16 years of marriage, François and Julie decide to open up their relationship in a bid to rekindle their dwindling sex life. A painfully hilarious and brutally honest depiction of love, sex, and intimacy in the age of the internet.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Lunatic: The Luna Vachon Story

Dir. Kate Kroll
104 min

Kate Kroll's doc is a touching tribute to wrestling legend Luna Vachon, who redefined women's wrestling but struggled with her own demons outside the ring.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre