Blue Heron

In her stunning debut film, awarded at the Locarno Film Festival and recently labeled the “best film of 2026” by The New Yorker, Canadian-Hungarian filmmaker Sophy Romvari takes a kaleidoscopic and tender look at the childhood of eight-year-old Sasha, whose family migrated from Hungary to Canada. Their fresh start, however, is disrupted by the increasingly dangerous behaviour of Jeremy, her eldest brother.

Drawing on her own life story, Romvari masterfully plays with the boundaries of fiction, breaking with the expectations of the traditional coming-of-age story. Following her acclaimed short films, BLUE HERON is a delicate masterpiece about the unbearable lightness of memories and the limitless love between siblings.

Romvari’s meticulous direction, in perfect harmony with a strong cast and Maya Bankovic’s stylish cinematography, creates ideal conditions for cinema’s full power to shine through. BLUE HERON soothes every heart that longs for the nineties—and for that coveted, imaginary place where past, present, and future can flow together freely, perhaps even to soften one another.