After his impassioned outbursts on the ice ruin his chances of playing professional hockey, Dean Youngblood gets one last shot playing for the Hamilton Mustangs. Desperate to prove himself, the 18-year-old rookie struggles to reconcile the overbearing influence of his father with his coach’s rigorous expectations. A talented goal-scorer who never backs down from a fight on or off the ice, Youngblood finds his standoffish attitude challenged by a budding romance with Jessie, the coach’s daughter, whose own experience pursuing her dreams causes him to reconsider the chip on his shoulder.
Ostensibly a remake of the 1986 film starring Rob Lowe, director Hubert Davis (2022’s Black Ice) takes the source material and elevates it. Stepping into the director’s chair following the passing of Charles Officer, Davis balances high-octane hockey action with subtle, character-driven drama and nuanced explorations of race, gender, and prejudice within the sport. A rousing, feel-good sports drama about overcoming adversity and taking responsibility, Youngblood could be a new Canadian classic.
Ashton James, Blair Underwood, Henri Picard, Shawn Doyle, Tamara Podemski, Donald MacLean Jr.
Canada
2025
English
Racism, bullying
At International Village
At Fifth Avenue
Book Tickets
Credits & Director
Executive Producer
Bill O’Dowd, Emerson Davis, Mark Slone, Zanne Devine, Allan Fung
Producer
Anthony Leo, Andrew Rosen
Screenwriter
Josh Epstein, Kyle Rideout, Seneca Aaron, Charles Officer
Cinematography
Stuart James Cameron
Editor
Matt Lyon
Production Design
Adriana Bogaard
Original Music
Todor Kobakov
Hubert Davis
Filmography: Invisible City (2009); Giants of Africa (2016); Black Ice (2022); The Well (2025)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
The Executioner
Regularly cited as the greatest Spanish film ever made, Berlanga's masterpiece is a pitch black comedy about an undertaker lined up by the state executioner to marry his beautiful daughter -- but he'll also have to inherit the old man's job.
The Mother and the Bear
Johnny Ma’s film stars Kim Ho-jung as a Korean woman who flies to Winnipeg when her immigrant daughter is hospitalized there. This crowd-pleaser plays up cultural differences to hilarious effect and offers a touching take on mother-daughter tension.
The Plague
At a water polo camp, Ben is plunged into the deep end of toxic peer pressure. Terrified of incurring his campmates’ wrath, he joins them in tormenting a kid whose skin rash has been branded “the plague”. But then he experiences a breakout of his own...
The Flamenco Guitar of Yerai Cortés + Por Derecho (For the Right) Live
Winner of the Goya Award for Best Documentary, this is an exquisite and surprisingly intimate portrait of the brilliant young guitarist Yerai Cortés, preceded by an hour of passionate flamenco music, song and dance performed by Flamenco Rosario.