Blue Heron (film)
2025 Canadian drama film
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Blue Heron is a 2025 drama film written and directed by Sophy Romvari. Described as "semi-autobiographical,"[4] the film is based in part on Romvari's own childhood and her previous short film Still Processing.[5][6] The film stars Eylul Guven as Sasha, the eight-year-old daughter of a Hungarian immigrant family who relocate to Vancouver Island in the late 1990s while their oldest son Jeremy (Edik Beddoes) displays increasingly dangerous behavioural issues in their new environment. The cast also includes Ádám Tompa and Iringó Réti as Sasha's parents, Liam Serg and Preston Drabble as Sasha’s brothers, and Amy Zimmer as adult Sasha.[7]
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Sara Wylie
Sophy Romvari
Gábor Osváth
Amy Zimmer
Ádám Tompa
Iringó Réti
| Blue Heron | |
|---|---|
Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Sophy Romvari |
| Written by | Sophy Romvari |
| Produced by | Ryan Bobkin Sara Wylie Sophy Romvari Gábor Osváth |
| Starring | Eylul Guven Amy Zimmer Ádám Tompa Iringó Réti |
| Cinematography | Maya Bankovic |
| Edited by | Kurt Walker |
| Music by | Blitz//Berlin |
Production companies | Nine Behind Productions Boddah |
| Distributed by | Janus Films (United States) Blue Fox Entertainment (Canada) |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 91 minutes[1] |
| Countries | Canada Hungary |
| Languages | English Hungarian |
| Box office | $821,826[2][3] |
The film, Romvari's feature-length film debut,[8] received production funding from both Telefilm Canada and the National Film Institute Hungary, and entered production in 2024.[9][10]
After winning accolades at international film festivals such as TIFF and Locarno, the film was released theatrically in the United States by Janus Films in 2026.[11][12]
Cast
- Eylul Guven as Sasha
- Iringó Réti as Mother
- Ádám Tompa as Father
- Edik Beddoes as Jeremy
- Amy Zimmer as Adult Sasha
- Liam Serg as Henry
- Preston Drabble as Felix
Background
In an essay for CBC Arts, Romvari described Blue Heron as her "most significant attempt to capture just how fallible memory is."[13]
Production
After winning funding from both Telefilm Canada and the National Film Institute Hungary, the film entered production in 2024 in British Columbia.[9][10]
Blue Heron serves as Romvari's feature-length film debut.[8]
Release
Blue Heron had its world premiere at the 78th Locarno Film Festival on August 8, 2025, as part of the Concorso Cineasti del Presente competition.[14] At Locarno, Romvari won the Swatch First Feature Award, which came with a CHF 15,000 prize.[15]
It had its Canadian premiere in the Centrepiece program at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival.[16] It has since screened at more than a dozen film festivals internationally,[17] including the 44th Vancouver International Film Festival, where it won several awards;[18] the Festival du nouveau cinéma, where it won the Grand Prix;[19] the 56th International Film Festival of India;[20] the Bangkok International Film Festival;[21] and San Sebastián, where it won a Special Mention from the jury.[17][22]
The film was acquired for commercial distribution in the United States by Janus Films.[11][23] On February 26, 2026, Blue Fox Entertainment acquired the Canadian distribution rights to the film.[24] The film was released in the United States and Canada in April 2026.[12][25]
Reception
Box office
Blue Heron has grossed $806,898 in the United States and Canada as of July 2026.[26][27]
Critical response
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On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 98% of 88 critic reviews of the film are positive. The website's consensus reads: "A masterfully-assembled memory piece that goes a long way towards articulating life-altering grief, Blue Heron is deeply affecting and announces writer-director Sophy Romvari as an artist to watch."[28] On Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, the film holds a score of 92 out of 100 based on 28 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[29]
Variety film critic Guy Lodge praised the film, calling it a "splintered, shattering memory piece."[8]
In a review for The Film Stage, Leonardo Gol wrote: "For a director whose projects have always tested the medium’s capacity to conjure and make peace with the specters of one’s past, it feels like the kind of moment Romvari’s been working towards from the start. For a brief, miraculous instant, Sasha’s catharsis is ours too."[30]
For Screen Daily, Nikki Baughan wrote that "Blue Heron blurs the line between fact and fiction in a woozy, laconic way; this is a drama in which perspectives shift, timelines merge and soft-focus sequences are layered with a documentary-style aesthetic. It’s all part of the journey of recollection and discovery for protagonist Sasha – who we see as both a young girl and an adult – and for Romvari, who is using the narrative to unpick her own memories, to get to better grips with her own formative experiences."[7]
The film was named to the Toronto International Film Festival's annual year-end Canada's Top Ten list for 2025.[31]
During its theatrical release in the United States and Canada, The Hollywood Reporter described the film as "the most acclaimed film of 2026 so far."[12]
