Reel Event

October 8 at 7:00pm

Starring Oscar nominee Steve Coogan, this poignant dramedy follows an Englishman’s personal and political awakening after he adopts a penguin during a cataclysmic period in Argentine history. Inspired by true events, The Penguin Lessons takes to heart the notion that saving someone’s life begins a new responsibility. In this case, that someone is a surprisingly wise, utterly adorable penguin. Helmed by Peter Cattaneo (The Full Monty; Military Wives, TIFF ’19), The Penguin Lessons delivers this delightful story with wit, warmth, and subtle insight into just how rewarding it can be to do the right thing.

November 12 at 7:00pm

Get up close and personal with the passionate community of people who take board games very seriously. From the World Series of Board Games on the Vegas strip and dating back to ancient Mesopotamia, The Hobby: Tales from the Tabletop is an affectionate, character-driven portrait of the massive and diverse subculture of board games. With a fascinating cast of charming subjects — including the “Roger Ebert of board games,” a rock-climbing board game philosopher, and a birdwatcher who created an unlikely smash hit — players share personal stories of competition, compulsion, creativity, and connection. The Hobby: Tales from the Tabletop explores the value of leisure time and uncovers the deep meaning found in “meaningless” pursuits.

January 14 at 7:00pm

This clever, high-concept thriller stars Oscar winner Riz Ahmed as a rigorously reclusive middleman for would-be whistleblowers seeking to settle with corporate malefactors. Deftly helmed by David Mackenzie (Outlaw King, TIFF ’18), Relay is a cat-and-mouse game for an age of hyper-surveillance when it’s never been harder to leave no trace.

Ash (Ahmed) brokers deals between parties who never learn what he looks like, sounds like, or where he’s located. A brilliant manipulator of technologies old and new, Ash’s primary method of communication is a telephone relay service where operators are legally bound to withhold the identities of their users. Ash’s latest client is Sarah Grant (Lily James, TIFF ’17’s Darkest Hour), a former bio-tech company staffer who’s been on the run since stealing documents that, if made public, would be scandalous for her employer. Sarah now wants to return the documents in exchange for whatever remuneration she can get.

The case should be business as usual for Ash, but the henchmen hired to follow Sarah are ruthless and dogged. What’s more, Ash begins to connect with Sarah on a personal level, potentially compromising the private existence he’s worked so arduously to construct.

Written by Justin Piasecki, Relay is riddled with ingenious feats of misdirection, novel set pieces, and jaw-dropping twists that would have made Hitchcock proud. At its heart is a hero who has made a vocation of living in the shadows, but is faced with a situation in which he may have no other choice but to step into the light.

February 11 at 7:00pm

The rom-com is officially back, with this charming story of a doctor who brings his white boyfriend home to his Indian family.

March 11 at 7:00pm

In a snow-swept Winnipeg, school teacher Sumi (Leere Park) is hospitalized after a fall. Her anxious mother, Sara (Kim Ho-jung), flies over from Seoul to be with her comatose daughter — and once Sara sets herself up in the young woman’s apartment, she discovers she doesn’t really know Sumi at all. Sara despairs about her daughter’s single status, so she immediately starts catfishing the pleasant Min (Jonathan Kim) to be Sumi’s boyfriend — once she wakes up, of course — and also gets unwittingly entangled with Min’s estranged father, Sam (Won-Jae Lee), who runs a Korean restaurant in the city. As Sam and the widowed Sara connect over their mutual melancholies, a chance meeting with Sumi’s co-worker Amaya (Amara Pedroso Saquel) leads Sara to learn more about the life from which her daughter has chosen to exclude her.

April 8 at 7:00pm

After the loss of her lifelong best friend, 90-year-old Eleanor uproots her quiet life in Florida for a fresh start in New York City. Struggling to find her footing, she unexpectedly bonds with a college student, Nina, and tells a small lie that grows more complicated as their friendship deepens. Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut blends humour, heartbreak, and hope in a moving story about grief, reinvention, and the unlikely connections that help us heal. Anchored by a luminous performance from June Squibb, Eleanor the Great is a tender and funny reminder that it’s never too late to start over.