Dir: Mort Ransen, Canada, 1995. Helena Bonham Carter, Kate Nelligan, Kenneth Welsh. Winner of 6 Genie Awards including Best Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Screenplay, and Music. "The opening shot of Margaret’s Museum looks like a painting by Andrew Wyeth, of a little clapboard cottage in a sea of grass... We are in Cape Breton in the late 1940s, where the coal pits take a terrible toll in life and limb – and where Margaret (Helena Bonham Carter) and her family live in half a house, because the earth subsided into a mine shaft beneath the other half... Margaret’s Museum is the story of the people who must make their living from the cold-hearted mining company, but it isn’t like other films with similar themes. It’s quirkier and more eccentric, and has a thread of wry humor running through it... Most of the movie is the love story of Margaret and Neil. The margins of the movie are filled with colorful characters. With old grandfather, who coughs and writes his song requests on a note pad. With Uncle Angus, who dreams of sparing his nephew a life in the mines... Helena Bonham Carter might seem an unlikely candidate for this role but she is just right – plucky, sexy, bemused, glorious in a scene where Neil sneaks her into the miners’ cleaning area and she takes the first hot shower of her life. Russell, as Neil, is sort of a rougher-hewn Liam Neeson, strong, gentle and poetic. And Nelligan is astounding in the way she allows her humanity to peek out from behind the mother’s harsh defenses. Margaret’s Museum is one of those small, nearly perfect movies that you know, seeing it, is absolutely one of a kind." - Roger Ebert, RogerEbert.com

Dir: Alizé Jireh, US. 2025, Documentary. Lærke Heilmann, Alizé Jireh, Kiana Weltzien. "Women & the Wind is a thought-provoking voyage of discovery as three women sail from North America to Europe in 30 days, following plastic pollution on a renovated catamaran. It’s a story of adventure and reconnecting with nature. The three women are Alizé Jireh, director and cinematographer, Kiana Weltzien, captain and frequent solo sailor, and Lærke Heilmann, first mate and ocean conservationist... It’s a sharp, poignant and well edited account of their perspective on life, each other, and nature – and it might just be one of my favourite films of the year. The drive behind this project is to film and share our impact on the ocean... It's all captured by Jireh’s phenomenal cinematography... What the film does most brilliantly is balance the heaviest of subjects with the charm, laughter and love shared by these women. Each tells her story, and we learn what drives them... Exploring the subjects of life and our relationship with nature, it could easily stray into the pretentious, instead it tells a story of reflection, how it feels to be so far from land, what life means to them with total disconnection. Remaining poignant, poetic, and honest." - Oliver Hackett-Watson, Filmbuffer

Dir: Gus Van Sant, US, 2025, Crime Drama. Dacre Montgomery, Bill Skarsgård, Al Pacino, Cary Elwes. "Bill Skarsgård leads this thoroughly gripping based-on-fact kidnap drama. He plays Tony Kiritsis, an Indianapolis businessman who, in 1977, snaps and abducts a mortgage broker, Richard Hall, after a business deal goes sour. Taking Hall to his apartment in full view of the police, he puts a 'dead man's wire' around his captive's neck, attached to a shotgun, that will trip if the cops try to intervene. From here, he tries to negotiate his demands, with TV news crews adding to the chaos. Director Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting, Milk) pays obvious tribute to fellow film-maker Sidney Lumet, notably bank robbery tale Dog Day Afternoon, especially with the casting of Al Pacino in a pleasing cameo as Hall's unsympathetic father. There are potent turns, too, from Colman Domingo and Myha'la as, respectively, a local radio DJ and TV news reporter, although its hard to look past Skarsgård, quite sublime as Kiritsis, a man whose headline-grabbing fight against corporate bullies feels timely and resonant." - James Mottram, Radio Times

14A. Dir: Bryan Fuller, US, 2025, Horror Thriller. Mads Mikkelsen, Sophie Sloan, Sigourney Weaver. “Experiencing the film Dust Bunny is a little like falling into the greatest children’s book ever. The visually stunning modern fairy tale is all about Aurora, a 10-year-old plagued by a monster under her bed. Late one starry night she sees her mysterious neighbour (Mads Mikkelsen) slay a dragon, so she decides to hire him to dispatch that thing lurking under her floorboards. The monster may well have eaten Aurora’s parents… The mysterious neighbour - he’s an assassin - agrees to help Aurora, although like most adults, he does not believe in monsters under the bed… Dust Bunny is told from Aurora’s perspective, so everything looks fresh and dazzling and beautifully detailed…. The world looms large to children, something writer-director Bryan Fuller obviously never forgot… The assassin, meanwhile, has his own monsters to deal with, and as he explains to Aurora, these monsters are mostly all men…. This is macabre fare - funny, frightening and fantastical... May we all live happily ever after.” – Liz Braun, Alliance of Women Film Journalists. "'Dust Bunny' feel like a family classic in the making. Yes, it’s spooky, but it reminds us that we can always overcome that which frightens us." - MovieWeb

Dir: David Freyne, US, 2025, Romantic Comedy. Miles Teller, Elizabeth Olsen, Callum Turner. “A refreshingly original romantic comedy that makes you laugh, cry, and reflect on the cosmic weight of love and memory…Eternity is one of the most unexpectedly moving films of the year.. Set in a surreal version of the afterlife, the story centers on Joan and Larry, a long-married couple who die within days of each other and reunite in a transitional space between life and whatever comes next. Every soul here is given one week to decide where and with whom they want to spend eternity with, a choice that’s a bit complicated when Joan’s first husband and war hero Luke reappears after decades of waiting for her. At first glance, it feels like a classic rom-com setup with a love triangle, but the twist that the stakes are eternal adds a complex layer. The performances are excellent… The screenplay is a gem, sharp and funny with a delightful streak of sarcasm that keeps the sentimentality in check… This story of eternal love (and eternal decisions) will find a place in your heart.” – Louisa Moore, Screen Zealots

Music PEI Presents: Music Video of the Year Nominees Screening with This is Spinal Tap & This is Spinal Tap II: The End Continues Tickets $10 for the 1st show, $15 for both Come see PEI Music videos on the big screen! Music PEI presents a screening of the 2025 nominees for Music Video of the Year, followed by the classic Rock & Roll mockumentaries This is Spinal Tap and This is Spinal Tap II: The End Continues. The nominees for Music PEI’s Music Video of the Year Award presented by Anchor Fest are: Absolute Losers - Star Sweeper, Directed by Griffen O’Toole Dazey// We haven’t spoke in years, Directed by Hannah Bridger// KINLEY - Marrying Me, Directed by Ashley Anne Clark// Lennie Gallant - Counting on Angels, Directed by Matt Lodge// Logan Richard - The Grass Is Blue (Everywhere I Go), Directed by Bailey Dockendorff Followed By: This is Spinal Tap Dir: Rob Reiner, US, 1984, Comedy. Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer. "The funniest film about rock ever made." - The Sydney Morning Herald Spinal Tap II: The End Continues Dir: Rob Reiner, US, 2026, 83 min, Comedy. Christopher Guest, Michael McKean, Harry Shearer. "A sequel that will do your heart good." - Film Ireland

Dir: Hikari, Japan/US, 2025, Drama. Brendan Fraser, Paolo Andrea Di Pietro, Takehiro Hira. In Japanese and English with English subtitles Audience Award Winner: Chicago, Hawaii, Heartland, Woodstock, and Middleburg Film Festivals. "Brendan Fraser delivers a superlative performance in Rental Family, a dramedy that proves a charming surprise balancing poignancy and humor with rare delicacy... At the story’s beginning, Philip [an actor] is struggling after living in Tokyo for seven years... He’s more than willing to accept an unspecified gig for which he’s only told by his agent that he’ll be playing a 'sad American.'… Philip has been hired by the ‘Rental Family’ agency that specializes in providing actors to deliver 'specialized performances' in personal role-play situations... Impressed by Philip’s suitably somber performance, the agency’s owner offers him a permanent job... Philip’s next assignments prove challenging because he can’t separate his feelings from his professional obligations. In one case, he plays a journalist pretending to interview a legendary Japanese actor because his daughter doesn’t want him to feel forgotten. In the other, he plays the American father of an 11-year-old girl, Mia, whose single mother is desperate to get her enrolled in a prestigious private school... Philip’s tender relationship with Mia… proves the story’s most moving element. But Rental Family also wittily explores the manner in which we all role-play in our lives to varying degrees... Fraser's superbly nuanced and expressive performance proves key to the film’s power, and he’s well matched by excellent supporting players." - Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter

Dir: Nicholas Hytner, UK, 2025, Drama. Ralph Fiennes, Emily Fairn, Mark Addy, Taylor Uttley, Roger Allam. “Lovers of old-school quality, rejoice - director Nicholas Hytner, writer Alan Bennett (The Madness of King George), and leading man Ralph Fiennes have just the film for you. It will leave you with a song in your heart and, probably, a lump in your throat. This quintessentially British comedy-drama is set in the fictional Yorkshire town of Ramsden in 1916. Conscription has begun, and the glue that keeps the community together, the Ramsden Choral Society, is in danger of losing its hold. When the lads turn 18, they'll be sent to the front. Others have already volunteered, including Ramsden's chorus master… Enter Dr Guthrie (Fiennes), a once-celebrated musical director who is now turning a shilling in a local hotel… The Choral deftly changes gears between humour and poignancy: a laugh-out-loud first half becomes a profound second. The singers and Dr Guthrie lose themselves in the moment while reality waits in the wings. With a soundtrack by five-time Oscar nominee George Fenton the music in this gorgeous-looking film is beautiful - uplifting and elegiac all at once - and deserves to become a familiar friend… The Choral is a crowd-pleaser, but there's bite behind the bonhomie too.” - Harry Guerin, RTÉ.ie

Presented by Roving Picture Shows and Island Jazz. Dir: Julien Duvivier, France, 1930, Drama. Dita Parlo, Ginette Maddie, Andrée Brabant. Silent with English and French Intertitles and Live Musical Accompaniment by Island Jazz. Adapted from an Émile Zola novel, the film describes the fate of a family-owned tailor shop that is driven out of business when a gigantic department store opens across the street. “Soaring camerawork, luminous decor, and stylish montage sequences make Au Bonheur des dames appear strikingly modern, yet it can be seen as an elegy to silent filmmaking. One of the last silent films shot in France, the film shows influences from silent cinema throughout the world—hand-held shots of street scenes from the Germans, crowd scenes from the Americans, a climactic montage sequence from the Soviets, and elaborate tracking shots and long takes from the French.” silentfilm.org

Dir: Johnny Ma, Canada, 2025, Comedy/Drama. Kim Ho-jung, Lee Won-jae, Jonathan Kim. In Korean and English with English subtitles. “A charming and whimsical story brimming with enduring adventures, and self-discovery... The icy expanse of Winnipeg is the backdrop… Schoolteacher Sumi finds herself in a coma after a startling encounter with a wild bear. Her devoted mother, Sara, rushes from South Korea to her daughter’s side... As Sara waits for Sumi to recover, she takes on the challenge of fulfilling her motherly duty: finding a suitable husband for her daughter…. This quest plunges Sara into the complexities of Sumi’s life, leading her to uncover hidden aspects of her daughter’s world. Along the way, she meets Sam, a warm-hearted restaurant owner who offers her a comforting connection to home… There is also a lot of humor throughout and watching Kim Ho-jung on screen is a true delight. She’s the heart of the film, and it’s a a playful performance that shows her extensive range… Johnny Ma delivers a story that blends comedy and drama with genuine care.” - Kristy Strouse, Film Inquiry

Dir: Susan Rodgers, Canada, 2025, Documentary. Stay afterwards and meet director Susan Rodgers! GRAND RIVER GRAND: Souls and spirits heal when people and horses at a small ranch on Canada’s east coast get involved! Grand River Grand is a sweet and poignant documentary series about a remarkable woman, her staff, and the selfless volunteers who run a joyful equine adapted learning program for adults and children at a horse ranch in scenic Grand River, Prince Edward Island. WILD HEARTS: Every job Candy Gallant has ever had was with animals and over the years she’s learned to care for a number of creatures. Injured raccoon? Skunk? Crow? It’s well known on Prince Edward Island that if you come across an injured animal or abandoned babies, they should be transported to Candy for care. A charitable organization with a board of directors as well as a lively transportation network have been set up to help, since Candy rarely leaves her small home — she’s always busy feeding vulnerable wildlife babies, who occupy every wall of her tiny house. She’s a colourful individual who applied every two years for decades for a permit from the province. Now, after more than fifty years of rehabilitating wildlife, she inspires others to pay attention to the natural world around us.