Skip to main content
Sharp Corner film image; man looking into a car at the driver

Sharp Corner

Showcase

This event has passed

Jason Buxton’s thriller stars Ben Foster as Josh, a husband and father who comes unmoored from the safety of middle-class life. When he, his wife Rachel (Cobie Smulders), and their young son Max (William Kosovic) move into a home on the outskirts of town, they discover something the realtor hadn’t flagged: the road in front of their property contains the sharp corner of the title. A deadly car accident happens on their first night of occupancy, and things get worse from there…

Less a film about physical danger than one about emotional pathology, Sharp Corner gains in power as Josh becomes increasingly obsessed with car crashes—not out of fear, as a more conventional film might portray, but rather out of a perverse attraction. Foster plays the role with just enough understatement to match the film’s mode of escalating menace, and Buxton directs with a terrific feel for social tension, escalating derangement, and the small but decisive shifts with which we can go over the edge.

 

Sept 27: Q&A with director Jason Buxton and producer Paul Barkin

Sept 28: Q&A with director Jason Buxton

Director
Cast

Ben Foster, Cobie Smulders, Gavin Drea, William Kosovic

Credits
Country of Origin

Canada/Ireland

Year

2024

Language

English

Film Contact
18+

At International Village

19+

At Fifth Avenue

110 min
Drama
Alcina Pictures, Shut Up & Colour Pictures, Kobalt Films, Workhorse Pictures

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Credits & Director

Executive Producer

Cameron MacLaren, Kristen Figeroid, Marc Schaberg, Noah Segal, Adrian Love, Laurie May, Peter Graham, Stephen Hays, Donald Johnston, Sheila Johnston, Robert Munroe

Producer

Paul Barkin, Marc Tetreault, Jason Levangie, Jason Buxton, Susan Mullen

Screenwriter

Jason Buxton

Cinematography

Guy Godfree

Editor

Jorge Weisz

Production Design

Jennifer Stewart

Original Music

Stephen McKeon

Jason Buxton headshot; Sharp Corner director

Jason Buxton

Jason Buxton was born in England and raised in Nova Scotia. He studied film at Simon Fraser University, and holds a BFA from Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. His debut feature Blackbird (2012) won Best Canadian First Feature at TIFF.

Filmography: Blackbird (2012)

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

Concrete Land
Concrete Land film image; person sitting on a grassy hill

Concrete Land

Dir. Asmahan Bkerat
101 min

Filmed over eight years, Concrete Land follows the Najar family, one of Jordan’s last Afro-Palestinian-Bedouin families, as luxury villas close in on their grazing space outside Amman. Asmahan Bkerat preserves their way of life in the face of erasure.

Alliance Francaise

An Incomplete Calendar

Dir. Sanaz Sohrabi
77 min

A forgotten vinyl record from Venezuela becomes Sanaz Sohrabi's guide through interlocking histories of oil, Iran, music, and political memory in An Incomplete Calendar.

International Village 10
A Wish Come True: The Making of Obsession with Producer Haley Johnson
woman leaning on a guy's shoulder while they sit in bed

A Wish Come True: The Making of Obsession with Producer Haley Johnson

90 min

Producer Haley Johnson takes us behind the making of one of the year’s most culturally impactful films, Obsession.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
Where the River Begins
Where the River Begins film image; three people looking to cross a street

Where the River Begins

Dir. Juan Andrés Arango
102 min

This immersive, hypnotic film follows an Indigenous mother and daughter on a journey from the slums of Bogotá to their true home in the jungle, joined by a young gang member with an especially urgent reason to flee.

International Village 8
Close-Up
Close-Up film image; two people riding a motorcycle down the street

Close-Up

Dir. Abbas Kiarostami
98 min

Kiarostami’s Close-Up blurs documentary and fiction through the story of Hossein Sabzian, who impersonates filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf. The film questions what “real” means on screen while creating an undeniable feeling of realism.

The Cinematheque
I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning
I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning film image; group of people celebrating in a bar

I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning

Dir. Clio Barnard
109 min

Having navigated every rite of passage together, five childhood friends now find themselves drifting apart. Clio Barnard conspires with a stellar ensemble to bring these richly detailed, fascinatingly flawed characters to life.

Image: © Chris Harris

Fifth Avenue Cinema - 19+ only