This year, BIFF welcomes five international filmmakers, most of whom are presenting their films in the newly established Bloom international competition section.
Guests of the Bloom section:
Charlotte Devillers (We Believe You)
Eric K. Boulianne (Follies)
Sophy Romvari (Blue Heron)
Sven Bresser (Reedland)
Guest of the Anzix section:
Scott Barley (Selected Works by Scott Barley)
Director -
We Believe You
Charlotte Devillers is a writer-director who drew on her personal and professional experiences in healthcare to co-write and co-direct her debut feature We Believe You with Arnaud Dufeys. The film was inspired by her daily work at a sexual health clinic. Their second feature, Pleasure, currently in development, also explores related themes.
We Believe You screening + Q&A: Oct 28, 19:45, Corvin Cinema
Director, actor -
Follies
Eric K. Boulianne is one of the most prolific Canadian screenwriters, as well as a director and actor. Since 2016, nine feature films written by him have been released, including Viking (TIFF Platform 2022) and two of the highest-grossing Canadian films of the past decade: Father and Guns 2 and Compulsive Liar. His 2023 short film Faire un enfant (Making Babies) premiered at the 76th Locarno Film Festival, where it won the Pardi di Domani Award for Best Direction.
Follies screening + Q&A: Oct 30, 17:45, Corvin Cinema
HUB Talk: Eric K. Boulianne and Sven Bresser (Reedland) — Oct 30, 16:00, Inga
Director -
Selected Works by Scott Barley
Scott Barley is a Scottish experimental filmmaker and artist whose works are sensorial and contemplative explorations that reframe traditional anthropocentric narratives. His films often revisit motifs of nature, darkness, absence, cosmology, phenomenology, and mysticism. For over a decade, he has worked in a radically independent and environmentally conscious way — moving away from ARRI cameras and traditional crews to create films primarily shot on an iPhone, incorporating his own paintings and drawings, and overseeing every aspect of production from direction to distribution.
Selected Works by Scott Barley screening + Q&A: Nov 1, 19:15, Corvin Cinema
Conversation: Scott Barley & Ildikó Enyedi — Oct 31, 17:00, Inga
Director-
Blue Heron
Sophy Romvari is a Hungarian-Canadian filmmaker currently based in Toronto. Her 2017 short Pumpkin Movie premiered at True/False and later screened at Hot Docs and Sheffield. Her thesis film, Still Processing, premiered at TIFF in September 2020, winning multiple awards at festivals worldwide. Between 2022 and 2025, a retrospective of eight of her short films was made available on The Criterion Channel. Her debut feature Blue Heron premiered at the Locarno Film Festival, where it won the Swatch First Feature Award, followed by its North American premiere in TIFF’s Centrepiece program, where it received the Best Canadian Discovery Award.
Blue Heron screening + Q&A: Oct 28, 17:00, Corvin Cinema
HUB Talk: Oct 29, 14:00, Inga
Director-
Reedland
Sven Bresser is an Amsterdam-based filmmaker whose work delicately examines the relationship between nature, the human spirit, and the boundaries of reality and imagination. His first short, L’été et tout le reste, premiered in the official selection of the 75th Venice International Film Festival, later screening at TIFF and winning the Dutch Film Academy Award for Best Short Film. That same year, his TV film Free Fight was nominated for two Academy Awards of the Netherlands. He completed his mid-length film She Used to Sing Here in 2021, and his debut feature Reedland premiered at the Cannes Critics’ Week in 2025.
Reedland screening + Q&A: Oct 29, 18:45, Corvin Cinema
HUB Talk: Sven Bresser and Eric K. Boulianne (Follies) — Oct 30, 16:00, Inga
