The Mastermind

Having offered some late-night assistance to a stranger in the wake of an auto accident, a mechanic grows convinced that he recognizes the supposed stranger’s voice as that of his torturer during a grueling prison spell.

A once-revered director crashes back into his family’s lives, eager to recruit his daughter for a film role. When she declines, he finds a new muse in an eager but unpolished Hollywood star, sending his botched reconciliation spiraling into chaos.

Two deranged dreamers are caught in a freak accident that sends them hurtling back to 2008. As they inadvertently wreak havoc with the timeline, a barrage of pop culture references, copyright violations, wild gags, and inspired set pieces is unleashed.

Searching for his daughter in an unforgiving Moroccan desert, Luis falls in with a group of ravers and places himself at the mercy of an unimaginably perilous landscape. As ecstasy is eclipsed by damnation, a devastating assault on the senses.

In a residential shelter in Liège, five teenage mothers consider what lies ahead, often stumbling as they attempt to take their next steps. An immersive, empathetic portrait of those whom society can often overlook.

Image: © Christine Plenus

Linklater's love letter to Paris, 1959, and the difficult birth of Jean-Luc Godard's first feature, Breathless, channels the auteur's blithe self confidence and an era of all-encompassing cinephilia. It's the next best thing to being there.

In his first lead role since The Whale, Brendan Fraser plays a lonely American actor in Tokyo who lands a gig at a "rental family" agency, offering stand-ins for real world situations. Need a pretend boyfriend or funeral mourner? Brendan's your man.

Jodie Foster is terrific as Lilian Steiner, an expert shrink whose own neuroses complicate her investigation into a patient’s death. A Private Life combines the amusements of satire with the pleasures of a good mystery thriller.

Adapting Donald E Westlake's novel of ruthless corporate head-hunting The Ax, virtuoso filmmaker Park Chan-wook whips up his trademark blend of high style, suspense, and satire, in keeping with his classics Oldboy, The Handmaiden, and Decision to Leave.

In this fresh, quirky rom-com from director Chandler Levack (I Like Movies, VIFF 2022), a young music critic (Barbie Ferreira) searches for her voice as a writer in Montreal while falling head over feet for two members of the same indie rock band.

Consent, plagiarism, cancel culture... Hot button issues fuel this pressure cooker campus drama from the prolific Luca Guadagnino (Challengers). Julia Roberts is caught in the middle when a student accuses her colleague of inappropriate behaviour.

Get Out meets Rosemary’s Baby in this surreal psychological thriller from award-winning director Clement Virgo (Brother, VIFF 2022), as a sheltered teenager (Angourie Rice) obsesses over the mysterious refugee her mother has taken in (Mallori Johnson).

Having run afoul of an influential bureaucrat in Brazil’s military dictatorship circa 1977, Marcelo decamps to Recife to live under an assumed name — but he’ll soon come to understand precisely how rampant the country’s corruption has become.

Veteran Polish filmmaker Agnieszka Holland takes the bull by the horns to craft a Kafka biopic that's Kafkaesque and then some, artfully layering scenes from Kafka's life and works along with ironic present-day footage for a truly surreal counterpoint.

Noting the laughably low security at the local art museum, an unemployed dreamer clumsily orchestrates a less-than-daring heist that leaves him in possession of four modestly valuable paintings, but no clue as to what to do next.

Image: © 2025 Mastermind Movie Inc

Set after the war in Japan, when the country experienced rapid economic growth, Kikuo is born into a yakuza family. His strange fate leads him to be eventually taken in by a kabuki theater actor. He experiences turbulent times, but his talent as a kabuki actor blossoms.

Palestine's entry for Best International Feature at the 2025 Academy Awards is an epic historical drama from director Annemarie Jacir that follows an ensemble of rural villagers who face off against British colonial forces during the 1936 Palestinian revolt.

In Noah Baumbach's wise and witty comedy, George Clooney plays Jay Kelly, a world-famous movie star touring Europe with his friend and manager, Ron (Adam Sandler). Faced with nagging dissatisfaction, Jay starts to ask himself some tough questions.

Jim Jarmusch returns to the anthology format he mastered in earlier films with this triptych of tales involving parents (Tom Waits and Charlotte Rampling) and their grown children (among them, Adam Driver, Vicky Krieps and Cate Blanchette).

Image: © Vague Notion

Christy Martin never imagined life beyond small-town West Virginia. But then she discovers a killer left hook and knack for knocking detractors out that just might be her tickets out of there. A bruising biopic about an indomitable warrior.

Experience the transcendent power of music: Vancouver pianist Chris Gestrin performs a set of Keith Jarrett-inspired music to accompany Köln 75, which tells the story of Jarrett’s iconic concert, which became the best-selling solo album in jazz history.

In this third entry in the wildly entertaining, ever-evolving Knives Out series, Benoit Blanc recruits a priest as his partner as delves into a decidedly Gothic-tinged whodunnit centred on a New England church and its eccentric parishioners.

The true story behind the greatest solo concert in jazz history, this Keith Jarrett's legendary 1975 Köln Concert — as organized by 18-year-old rebel music promoter Vera Brandes. Fun, inventive and feminist, it's the Bend It Like Beckham of jazz films.