What We Loved Seeing at the Calgary International Film Festival 2025
Singhs in the Ring Q&A. Photo credit: Daman Singh.
The REVERIE team had a fantastic time over the course of the Calgary International Film Festival (CIFF). We’ve selected our festival favourites below for you to seek out on streaming, or when they hit the big screen near you!
NIRVANNA: THE BAND - THE SHOW - THE MOVIE, directed by Matt Johnson
There are many reasons to go to film festivals: to support the local film industry, to support great arts organizations like the Calgary International Film Festival (CIFF), and also to support independent film as a whole. Another great reason to see a film at a film festival is you will not find a more captivated and rapt audience for a film than in this environment. People are excited to see films, people feeling privileged to see films they have been anticipating months in advance of when they could otherwise see it once it hits wider release. There’s no one on their phone playing Candy Crush at film festival screenings, like you might see at a typical multiplex throughout the year. It’s about the communal experience of finding like-minded film fans that you often don’t get to experience outside of the context of a film festival like CIFF.
This feeling of a communal experience was felt most deeply during the Alberta premiere of Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie on Saturday night. I overheard people in line making small talk with each other, asking each other if they are fans of Matt Johnson and Jay McCarrol’s cult 2010s Canadian comedy series, and then once they found out they were, started quoting lines with each other. When asked before the screening to see who was familiar with the series going into that night’s screening of the film, 90% of the audience raised their hand. This was a show that aired on the long-defunct Viceland cable channel and is mostly hard to find now! This was a crowd who burst out into applause when the title card for the film appeared on screen. For a night in Calgary, Nirvanna the Band the Show felt as big of a Star Wars film (and an actual Star Wars film at that, not one of the many diluted spin-offs). For many of the people in attendance, they have been the person hipping their friends to the series, or getting blank looks when they talk about the show, and now finally, they found an entire sold out Globe Cinema full of fans to revel with.
Read the full review here. — Ben Goodman
MIDDLE LIFE, directed by Pavan Moondi
On September 20th, the Canadian film Middle Life made its world premiere at the Calgary International Film Festival. Directed and written by Pavan Moondi, Middle Life follows Andie (played by Leah Fay Goldstein), a wedding planner and new mother who tries to plan and organize everything in her life perfectly. Despite trying to craft her life exactly the way that she wants, she is still rather unhappy, including a lack of fulfillment in her marriage with Chris (played by Luke Lalonde). One night, she saves a plumber named Ryan (played by Peter Dreimanis) from a roadside accident. Over the next year, their paths intertwine again, sparking a new and unexpected friendship and leading her to gain a newfound perspective on life. Unlike some romantic comedies where the jokes don't land or the romance just isn't there, Middle Life has a great balance of comedic and romantic elements. Middle Life will simultaneously make you laugh out loud and melt your heart. Odds are you will have a huge smile on your face by the time the movie ends.
Remarkably, in its short runtime, Moondi packs a lot in, allowing the viewer to care deeply about the characters. Moondi does this by utilizing quick scenes or montages, especially near the beginning of the film, instantly transporting us into the daily lives of the characters. As time goes on we get longer scenes where Andy and Ryan share the screen and develop a connection together. Once this happens, wonderful chaos ensues, including randomly crashing a house party and impulsively flying to LA. Again, the more we learn about these characters and the more they bond and develop, the easier it is to feel for them.
Read the full review here. — Joseph Mastel
THE MASTERMIND, directed by Kelly Reichardt
It is always an experience when a Kelly Reichardt film is in theaters. This is the second straight film of hers I have attended with someone, who had never seen her work prior to this, and the person I went with wasn’t as high on it as I was. At the same time, I talked with people on the ground at CIFF who adored it, with one declaring it the best work of Kelly Reichardt’s career. Now, when I say I am “high on” Kelly Reichardt, she is one of my five favourite directors alive. I revere her work and she has never made a bad film, but she makes a particular kind of film. It is about character first, it is about having a slow, deliberate pace. The Mastermind is the first film of hers that she has written solely on her own since her debut River of Grass (as previously she has worked with short-story writers like Jon Raymond).
The film, set in ’70s Ohio, is a true showcase for Josh O’Connor, who tries to pull off an art heist, and well…. Let’s just say the title might be a bit ironic, as O’Connor’s James Blake Mooney character is one of the biggest losers in film in recent memory. O’Connor’s Mooney is what happens when the premium cable anti-hero, who often remark how “they did it for my family” to justify their actions, is played for real, as a bumbling doofus. The lengths to which O'Connor goes, from pulling the “my father is the judge” card to a moment near the end which I do not dare spoil, is alternately hilarious and quite sad. It’s real as a heart attack, all done in the backdrop of the Vietnam war protests (and you can certainly see the story as a Richard Nixon/Vietnam War allegory). It’s a film that will reveal itself further on repeated viewings, and I am already planning my second viewing when it hits wider release in Calgary this fall. — Ben Goodman
LILITH FAIR: BUILDING A MYSTERY, directed by Ally Pankiw
In 2023, St. Albert, Alberta-born and raised filmmaker Ally Pankiw (who is now based out of Toronto) brought her debut feature film, I Used To Be Funny starring Rachel Sennott, to the Calgary International Film Festival (CIFF). I saw the screening at Eau Claire Cinemas (R.I.P. Eau Claire, gone but not forgotten) and the film, set in the Toronto stand-up scene with Sennott playing a comedian struggling with depression, was a bold and vivid statement that got a warm reception at the festival and it put Ally Pankiw on my radar.
Two years later, Ally Pankiw is back at CIFF and this time she is documenting one of the greatest music movements of the ’90s: Lilith Fair, which was started by the Queen of Halifax, Sarah McLachlan. I have been personally waiting practically my whole life for Lilith Fair to not only get this level of documentary treatment but also to finally get the respect it has always deserved. As yes, while Lilith Fair was a huge success as a festival in the late ’90s for the three years it ran, it was always the brunt of cheap jokes, since it was a women-led-and-run music festival. As Bonnie Raitt mentions in the documentary, she had been waiting for a festival like Lilith Fair for her entire life, without all of the macho posturing and ego-stroking that you get at typical male-run festivals. Jewel, whose multi-platinum rise dovetailed nicely with her touring at Lilith Fair, described it as thus: "One of the things I was most criticized for in my music was my sincerity. But I have to say when I sang for Lilith Fair, when I looked out in the audience, I saw unabashed sincerity."
Read the full review here. — Ben Goodman
MILE END KICKS, directed by Chandler Levack
If ever there was a film made for REVERIE Magazine it is Chandler Levack’s Mile End Kicks, her second feature film following her Calgary International Film Festival (CIFF) 2022-award winning debut feature I Like Movies (Levack won the RBC Emerging Canadian Artist award). A film about a burgeoning music journalist? Check. Set during the 2011 Montreal music scene? Check. Plenty of references and jokes about artists who move from Edmonton to Montreal? Check. Original music written by Edmonton-to-Montreal transplants themselves TOPS? Check check check!
Mile End Kicks stars Barbie Ferreira (who is pulling up near the top of the Euphoria actors-in-movies contest) as Grace Pine, who begins the film working at a Toronto-based alt-weekly named Merge Weekly led by a music editor played by Jay Baruchel (in a brilliant piece of casting, almost like Baruchel is playing the grown-up version of his Steven Karp, from his breakout role in the Judd Apatow college comedy Undeclared from 2001). Ferreira’s Grace Pine decides to move to Montreal to begin to focus on working on a 33 ⅓ book about Alanis Morissette’s Jagged Little Pill, but ends up getting enveloped into the Montreal music scene, in particular a young band called Bone Patrol, featuring Devon “Rodrick Rules” Bostick, Isaiah Lehtinen (reuniting with Chandler Levack, after playing I Like Movies’ lead, Lawrence) and Stanley Simons (who last played Mike Von Erich in The Iron Claw) as the egotistical “the worst guy in Montreal” lead singer.
Read the full review here. — Ben Goodman
NO OTHER CHOICE, directed by Park Chan-wook
I would have never predicted twenty years ago that Park Chan-wook and Toronto New Wave legend Don McKellar would become frequent collaborators in screenwriting, but I am so happy they connected, as their sensibilities mesh so well together. It is really a marriage in Canadian film festival heaven, as there are few directors/writers/actors more synonymous with the Canadian film festival than McKellar, and obviously Park Chan-wook's bonafides are established and known. No Other Choice feels like a real late-career breakout for both Director Park and McKellar, and I would not be surprised if it becomes an indie box office hit once it hits wider release. Seeing it in a sold out film festival crowd as part of CIFF, where the audience was in rapt attention riding with each plot development, is another example of what viewing a film at home can never replicate. — Ben Goodman
IF I HAD LEGS I’D KICK YOU, directed by Mary Bronstein
Rose Byrne has been perennially one of the most underrated actors of her generation and is someone I am always happy to see on screen If I Had Legs I'd Kick You is the Rose Byrne vehicle to end all Rose Byrne vehicles, as she gets to showcase the widest range of who she can be as a performer in this film. It's like a ’70s character study, but with Rose Byrne. Byrne is in every frame of the film, the supporting cast (like Conan O'Brien, ASAP Rocky, Ivy Wolk, etc) are good but they are all there to serve Byrne. It's the kind of film that works really well to see in a theatre, as the sold out screening at the Globe Cinema can attest, you could hear the audible reactions from the crowd when anxious moments happen, you could see people squirm in their seats (and not just squirming due to the old movie theatre seats either, a different sort of squirming!). You might not be skipping in the aisles once it's over, but it is undeniably an EXPERIENCE. Written and directed by Mary Bronstein, and starring Rose Byrne, how often do we get movies like this framed on women's experiences that are actually made by women? — Ben Goodman
IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT, directed by Jafar Panahi
You will hear a lot about how intense and emotionally resonant this film is, you will hear about the remarkable making-of process that led to the film's creation, and also how it has one of the best endings to a film this year. I am also here to tell you that it's surprisingly funny and a rollicking time for large portions. In a world of disposable entertainment, It Was Just An Accident is a film that will stick with you. Make sure to see it in a theatre with zero distractions once it gets a wide release, as you need to feel every squeak for it to have the biggest impact. — Ben Goodman
SENTIMENTAL VALUE, directed by Joachim Trier
Wrapping up the final day at CIFF in style at The Grand, the sold out showing for Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value had people laughing and tearing up in equal measure. Norway’s submission for the Best International Feature Film category at next year’s Oscars, this will be one to look out for when Neon releases it wide in November. Do not be surprised if Stellan Skarsgård appears in the Best Supporting Actor category for his earthy and powerful performance. — Ben Goodman