Highlights from the 2026 Atlantic International Film Festival

I am currently in Edmonton, more than halfway through watching 26 films at the Edmonton International Film Festival (EIFF). A week ago ago, I was in Halifax, attending my first Atlantic International Film Festival (AIFF), which didn’t disappoint.

I was able to watch 14 films in five days at AIFF and all of them were above average. Four films received four stars (out of four) from me and the average rating of all the films was over ***+, which was very high. Half of the films I watched, including my favourite of the festival, were written and directed by women, which was terrific. Three of those were in my top six. I was only able to see three Canadian films, but two of those were in my top five (including number one). Half of the films I watched were international films, including four in my top seven.

Six of the fourteen films received a rating from me of at least ***+ - ****, so my AIFF highlights will include brief reviews of these six films (in reverse order, concluding with my favourite film of the festival). But first my honourable mentions: Fjord, the winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes, and Tender Loving Care, the latest film from Mike Leigh (a personal favourite) did not make this list, though they both got ***+. Fjord suffers from a major plot hole and exaggerated characters on both sides of a dispute about cultural differences regarding the corporal punishment of children. Tender Loving Care was brilliant when it showed the two social-worker protagonists at work, but suffered from family conversations that went on too long.

6. Marie Madeleine - Written, directed and starring Gessica Geneus, Marie Madeleine is one of the few films I have ever watched that was made in Haiti. Marie (Geneus), a sex worker in the city of Jacmel, collapses after a miscarriage and is brought to a hospital by a passerby (Joseph, played by Beonard Monteau), an evangelical Christian and son of Jacques (Edouard Baptiste), a church leader. The church’s new location is directly across the street from the brothel where Marie works. While Marie and Joseph couldn’t be more different, they develop a friendship that will lead them both to strange places. This is a beautifully-filmed and incredibly immersive film that never goes where one would expect. The acting is terrific and the fascinating story has many layers, offering much food for thought and discussion. ***+ - ****

5. Back in Black - This Canadian treasure offers viewers the opportunity to laugh as a sympathetic serial killer starts killing innocent people in a small town. Sounds like something to avoid? I might have thought so too, but writer/director Ron Murphy somehow pulls it off. It doesn’t hurt that he has Christopher Walken giving one of his best performances in years (no, he’s not the killer) as Clyde, the town’s only funeral director. The casting of this film is perfect, with Ella Ballentine as Sam, Clyde’s granddaughter, a young woman who doesn’t speak, Jane Curtin as Clyde’s wife, Louise Lambert and Tony Nappo as two police officers and many more. This very dark comedy is the funniest film I’ve seen this year. It also has something to say about the world we live in. With great acting and cinematography, it gets a solid ***+ - ****. 

4. Minotaur - The last two films written and directed by Andrey Zvyagintsev were Leviathan (2015) and Loveless (2017), two very bleak, depressing and thought-provoking films about the current state of life in Russia that ranked 2 and 6 on my annual top-ten lists. Minotaur is even bleaker, greyer and more depressing than those two films. It’s also another masterpiece from one of the best filmmakers in the world today. A remake of Claude Chabrol’s The Unfaithful Wife (1969), Minotaur concerns the consequences of a prominent businessman’s discovery that his wife is having an affair. In the background, the film scathingly exposes (yet again) the sad way politics and the justice system operate in Putin’s Russia. The cinematography is gorgeous, the acting is flawless (the stars are Dmitriy Mazurov and Iris Lebedeva) and Zvyagintsev’s writing and direction are near perfect. Objectively, it’s the best film I watched in Halifax, but it was a little too cold and the unsympathetic characters keep it lower on my list. ****

3. Josephine - The most intense film at AIFF, and the most difficult to watch, Josephine stars Channing Tatum and Gemma Chan as the parents of eight-year-old Josephine (Mason Reeves), who witnesses a violent rape in a park while out with her dad one morning. The resulting trauma is expertly portrayed as we watch Josephine’s reaction to the events around her following her terrifying experience. The acting is stellar, especially by Reeves, and the writing/direction by Beth de Araújo is superb. A haunting masterpiece that will leave you drained. ****

2. The Only Living Pickpocket in New York - This very entertaining gem is incredibly tight, with not a moment wasted. The writing and direction by Noah Segan are perfect, the score is amazing, highlighting the New York City setting which is at the heart of then film. John Torturro is perfectly cast and terrific as Harry, an aging pickpocket looking after his wife, who is in a long-lasting coma. One day, Harry picks the wrong pocket, leading to a dangerous encounter that will change his life. With lots of humour to lighten the suspense and the moving drama, this is a crowd-pleaser that examines regret and aging with great empathy and compassion. ****

1. Nina Roza - My favourite film at AIFF was unexpected, a slow-moving French-Canadian film about Mihail (Galen Stoev), an art gallery curator in Montreal who travels to Bulgaria to determine the veracity of a viral internet video claiming that an eight-year-old girl (Nina) is painting masterpieces. Having grown up in Bulgaria, Mihail is skeptical. His various contacts in Bulgaria, including a visit to his sister, are heart-wrenching and feel authentic. I watched a number of films at AIFF about children (especially eight-year-old girls; my grandson is eight) facing traumatic circumstances. This is the only one that truly examines the child’s agency in her life. Beautifully acted by Stoev and the twins who played Nina, and superbly written and directed by Geneviève Dulude-De Celles, Nina Roza was the most emotionally engaging film I saw at AIFF. A small Canadian masterpiece. ****