This years’ edition of FIN Atlantic International Film Festival offers audiences a heady mix of timely topics, fresh faces, big ideas and big names. With 120 films screening over eight days, it’s impossible to get to all of them—so, here are a handful not-be-missed flicks we’re extra-amped for. Get ready to binge!
Murmur
The fest's opening night gala film, written and directed by award-winning, Dartmouth-based filmmaker Heather Young. Click here for our profile on Young, this week's cover star.
Thurs, Sep 12, 7pm, Dalhousie Arts Centre, 6101 University Avenue
Assholes: A Theory
Assholes: Why do they thrive? What makes them so darn appealing—and how do they keep getting elected? These questions and more are explored in Assholes: A Theory, a timely and very entertaining feature doc from acclaimed director John Walker.
Fri Sep 13, 6:30pm, Cineplex Park Lane
Guest of Honour
From Exotica to Ararat, it's pretty hard not to be intrigued by Can-Con great Atom Egoyan's films. This is doubly true for his latest offering: Guest of Honour. Written, directed and co-produced by Egoyan, Guest, which stars award-winning English actor David Thewlis (AKA Professor Remus Lupin from the Harry Potter series), explores the complicated relationship between a father and daughter—and a past that haunts them both. Bonus? The Canadian directing legend will be at the screening.
Sun Sep 15, 6:30pm, Cineplex Park Lane
Conviction
Women are the fastest-growing segment of the prison population in Canada.
A powerhouse filmmaking team attempts to understand this startling statistic by documenting the experiences of four incarcerated women, while posing the deceptively simple question: What would these women have needed in life to avoid incarceration?
Mon, Sep 16, 6:30pm, Cineplex Park Lane
Judy
It takes a lot of chutzpah to take on the role of showbiz legend Judy Garland, but Renée Zellweger gives it her best shot in Judy.
Tue, Sep 17, 9:30pm, Cineplex Park Lane
Blood Quantum
The dead are coming back to life outside the isolated Mi'kmaq reserve of Red Crow— except for its Indigenous inhabitants, who are strangely immune to the zombie plague. Who doesn't love a zombie film, especially when it's directed by the rapidly rising director of festival circuit favourite Rhymes for Young Ghouls, Jeff Barnaby?
Thu Sep 19, 9:30pm, Cineplex Park Lane
Radical Age
A 60-year-old skateboarder, an aging punk, a 70-year-old MMA fighter, an 86-year-old drag queen and a 75-year-old tattoo virgin prove you're never too old to defy convention in local, award-winning writer-director Jackie Torrens' convention-defying documentary.
Thu Sep 19, 4:30pm, Cineplex Park Lane
Being Impossible
After a surprising medical diagnosis and a deep dive into her family's history, Ariel, a young dressmaker, learns she was forced to undergo several surgeries as an infant to be fully turned into a female.
Wed Sep 18, 9pm, Cineplex Park Lane
The Lighthouse
For FIN AIFF's closing gala, sumptuous black-and-white flick The Lighthouse—which was shot on 35mm film in Yarmouth County—was the only choice: Taking place over the course of four weeks in the late 1890s, two men (that'd be Willem Dafoe and Robert Pattinson) stationed in an off-shore lighthouse along the Atlantic coast descend into a maelstrom of madness and terror. Director Robert Eggers will be on deck at the screening, too, to make the whole thing feel extra-ritzy.
Thu Sep 19, 7pm, Cineplex Park Lane
