Abbi Jacobson voices Sarah, a queer magazine illustrator based on the West Coast, in Leah Nelson’s touching and darkly humorous animated film. Torn between worlds, Sarah is forced to put her budding relationship with her biker girlfriend Donimo (Samira Wiley) on hold to tend to her ailing mother (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) across the country. As her mom’s once vibrant and outspoken personality is eroded by early-onset Alzheimer’s, their big, eccentric family (including Bryan Cranston as Sarah’s father) must find the courage to pick up the pieces.
A star-studded cast of comedians lend their voices to this adaptation of Vancouverite cartoonist Sarah Leavitt’s graphic memoir of the same name. The film’s surrealist flourishes viscerally evoke the throes of anticipatory grief: from Sarah’s psychedelic panic at losing her mom in a Día de Muertos carnival crowd, to the dissociative sensation of drowning at the news of an Alzheimer’s diagnosis, Tangles exemplifies the expressive emotional power of 2D animation.
Nominated for the Caméra d’Or and the Queer Palm at Cannes 2026.
Content Considerations: Alzheimer’s disease, death
Oct 11, 3:00 pm screening: Filmmaker Q&A
Supported by
Showcase Series Supported by
Leah Nelson
Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Abbi Jacobson, Bryan Cranston, Beanie Feldstein, Seth Rogen, Samira Wiley
Canada/USA
2026
English
Coarse language, nudity, sexually suggestive scene
Open to youth
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits
Producer
Vicky Patel, Steve Barnett, Alan Powell, Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg, James Weaver, Alex McAtee, Lauren Miller Rogen, Jennifer W. Ray, Jay Grandin, Teresa Toews, Leah Nelson, Ross Murray, Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Screenwriter
Leah Nelson, Sarah Leavitt, Trev Renney
ANIM
Eric Bofa Nfon
Editor
David Avery
Original Music
Dan Romer
Art Director
Manddy Wyckens
Missing VIFF? Check Out What's Playing at the VIFF Centre
Possible Love
Lee Chang-dong’s first film since Burning (2018) is a sardonic, slow-burning satire about two couples: a documentary filmmaker married to a wealthy businessman, and a working-class family struggling to make ends meet after the husband has been laid off.
Once Upon a Time in Harlem
Once Upon a Time in Harlem splices together footage shot by William Greaves in 1972 of a group of Harlem Renaissance luminaries in conversation at Duke Ellington’s townhouse. The film is a living archive of memory, disagreement, style, and Black genius.
The Secret in Their Eyes
This month's Talking Pictures screening is a multi-layered, poignant thriller interweaving the personal lives of a prosecution investigator (Ricardo Darin) and a judge, with a manhunt spanning twenty-five years. Stay for cookies, coffee and a chat after!
The Haunting
Directed by Robert Wise in 1963, The Haunting is a classic exercise in the suggestive power of cinema, adapted from Shirley Jackson's 1959 best-seller, The Haunting of Hill House, a provocative blend of supernatural and psychological horror.
