VIFF 2026 | Pedro Pascal Composes the 'Behemoth!' Collective

"I never thought you'd come back."

Searchlight Pictures

VIFF 2026—Respected Hollywood veteran screenwriter Tony Gilroy writes and directs the messy but thrilling orchestral drama Behemoth!, starring Pedro Pascal as a talented but troubled cellist who returns home to Los Angeles to compose film scores amidst his tumultuous personal and romantic life, with plenty of verve and style. From there, Pascal's Alex confronts his past relationships while navigating a rather sloppy series of conflicts he's been avoiding and running away from all his life by joining different prestigious orchestras across the country.

VIFF 2026 | Adam Driver and Miles Teller Sell 'Paper Tiger'

"Everyone is on the take all the time."

Neon / Elevation Pictures

VIFF 2026—Accomplished New York filmmaker and dramatist James Gray continues his vein of workmanlike but heartbreaking crime sagas with his latest middle-class family drama, Paper Tiger. It stars Adam Driver and Miles Teller as troubled Jewish-American brothers in 1986 Queens, with a particularly emotional Scarlett Johansson as the latter's fierce (big-haired) wife.

SCREEN | 'KPop Demon Hunters' Stays Golden x Criterion Collection

"Fit check for my napalm era."

Sony Pictures Animation

KPop Demon Hunters, the 2025 Academy Award-winning, smash-hit animated musical streaming phenomenon from co-writers/directors Maggie Kang (a Toronto native) and Chris Appelhans, finally (somewhat ironically) arrives on physical media through the prestigious Criterion Collection boutique label. It thankfully remains just as rewatchable (still golden!) as ever a year after its global success.

REEL | 'Godzilla Minus Zero' Rebuilds Post-War Japan

"He's never gonna stop chasing us."

GKIDS Films / Cineplex Pictures

Godzilla Minus Zero, Oscar-winning visual effects artist and writer/director Takashi Yamazaki's bombastic sequel to the refreshingly focused but still excellent Godzilla Minus One monster reboot, is a bigger and bolder experience set in the wake of a post-WWII, U.S.–occupied Japan. In the strong kaiju tradition, this atomic follow-up makes sure to remain inventive with fresh action sequences of fighting dragon-like monster(s) while acknowledging familiar beats or cues of its rich cinematic history.

VIFF 2026 | Cinematic Hope – Ryûsuke Hamaguchi Reacts 'All of a Sudden'

"It would be wonderful if the impossible was possible."

Neon / Elevation Pictures

VIFF 2026—Celebrated Japanese auteur Ryûsuke Hamaguchi makes his French-language debut in the monumentally affecting care home dramedy, All of a Sudden (aka Soudain or Suddenly Feeling Unwell). Woven with thoughtful critiques and dissections of late-stage capitalism, the process of experimental theatre, caring for the elderly, and, of course, smoking cigarettes, the French-Japanese film is a moving treatise on treating everyone with the care and attention they deserve in a consumer-driven society.

WANDER | 'Asian Comics' x Chinese Canadian Museum x Chinatown

Chinatown—(October 6, 2026) From the Barbican Centre in London and curated by renowned comics historian Paul Garvett comes the Canadian premiere of the featured Asian Comics: Evolution of an Art Form touring exhibition on display at the Chinese Canadian Museum. Browse more than four hundred original pieces of timeless artwork, rare publications, and diverse multimedia works from across twenty regions of the Asian continent (most recently seen at Seattle's Museum of Pop Culture).

VIFF 2026 | Jordan Firstman Looks After the Heartwarming 'Club Kid'

"Did you ever lose ten years?"

A24 / Elevation Pictures

VIFF 2026—Long Island native and gay comedian Jordan Firstman makes his impressive directorial debut in the surprisingly touching adult queer comedy, Club Kid. Essentially a riff on the basic premise of the Adam Sandler comedy, Big Daddy, Firstman's Peter is a hedonistic party promoter who learns he has an adorable ten-year-old son (Reggie Absolom) he never knew about when he is unceremoniously dropped on his New York City doorstep.

VIFF 2026 | Lee Chang-dong Documents South Korean 'Possible Love'

"You're trying hard to feel what's in their hearts."

Pinehouse Film / Anonymous Content

VIFF 2026—Possible Love (aka Ga-neung-han sa-rang), South Korean auteur Lee Chang-dong's first film in eight years, follows two couples from opposite socioeconomic backgrounds in a class-conscious drama, similar to Parasite, also co-starring actress Cho Yeo-jeong. It's another maserfully slow burn interpersonal drama of simmering (possibly sexual) tension.

GENRE | Comic Book Villain Body Horror – DC Moulds A Feat of 'Clayface'

"I want my life back."

DC Studios / 6th & Idaho

Clayface, DC's Batman villain origin genre film, starring Welsh actor Tom Rhys Harries as the titular shapeshifting comic book antagonist and directed by English genre filmmaker James Watkins, goes full body horror in his fresh adaptation of the second, Matt Hagen incarnation of the character. Told as a gruesome Hollywood tragedy, the comic book adaptation is a gross (complimentary) piece of work that entertains in the (clay) mould of 1986's The Fly remake or The Substance.