The Mastermind

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.

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

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).

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.

Adopted by a Kabuki actor, teenaged Kikuo dedicates himself to the art form and finds a close friend and fierce rival in Shunsuke, the actor’s other son. Over the course of five decades, Kikuo and Shunsuke ascend to Japan’s grandest stages.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 is 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.

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.

As their marriage unravels, Alex seeks new purpose in the New York comedy scene while Tess confronts the sacrifices she made for their family — forcing them to navigate co-parenting, identity, and whether love can take a new form.