Dinner with Friends (2025 film)

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Dinner with Friends
Directed by Sasha Leigh Henry
Written bySasha Leigh Henry
Tania Thompson
Produced bySasha Leigh Henry
Tania Thompson
Starring Tattiawna Jones
Izaak Smith
Andrew Bushell
Alex Spencer
Tymika Tafari
Rakhee Morzaria
Michael Ayres
Leighton Alexander Williams
CinematographyGrant Cooper
Edited byGloria Tong
Music byJames M. Findlay
Production
company
Everyday People Productions
Release date
  • September 5, 2025 (2025-09-05)(TIFF)
Running time
96 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish

Dinner with Friends is a Canadian drama film, directed by Sasha Leigh Henry and released in 2025. [1] Her full-length directorial debut, the film centres on a group of eight longtime friends who are now in their mid-30s, and regularly meet for dinner in an attempt to hold onto their friendship in the face of the life pressures that are pulling them apart.

Contents

The cast includes Tattiawna Jones, Izaak Smith, Andrew Bushell, Alex Spencer, Tymika Tafari, Rakhee Morzaria, Michael Ayres and Leighton Alexander Williams.

Plot

Joy (Jones) and Malachi (Spencer) are a married couple who miss the regular gatherings they used to have with their core group of friends, and have reinitiated a regular series of dinner parties. Joy resents the fact that the duty of planning and hosting the dinner always falls on her shoulders despite the fact that she and her husband have their hands full with their jobs and children, and want everybody to take turns. Evie (Morzaria) is Joy's best friend, who is still struggling with loneliness and rejection after her boyfriend Tristan (Bushell) left her and seemingly disappeared without a trace, which has also been challenging for Tristan's sister Kat (Tafari).

Paul (Smith) is also stuck in a rut, unable to afford to move into a larger apartment so that he can spend more time with his teenage son. Ty (Ayres) and Josh (Williams), a gay couple, seem to have their lives more together, but are themselves facing questions about whether their freewheeling and partying lifestyle is really what they want out of life.

Tensions come to a head at the party, particularly when Tristan actually shows up.

Distribution

The film premiered in the Discovery program at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival on September 5, 2025. [2]

Critical response

Courtney Small of That Shelf wrote that "Dinner with Friends is most riveting when wading through the thick mud of emotions and personas. Anchored by a riveting script, where the conversations are packed with plenty of humour and hard truths, each new dinner offers new surprises and delicate minefields for characters to navigate. While Henry has always shown a gift when it comes to dialogue, her growth as a visual storyteller is evident here." [3]

For Exclaim! , Rachel Ho wrote that "if Dinner with Friends imparts one message, it's that life comes at you fast. One moment you're doing shrooms, the next you've pulled your hamstring chasing after some no good neighbourhood youths. So enjoy life, come what may, and hold those around you dear." [4]

Awards

The film was shortlisted for the 2025 Jean-Marc Vallée DGC Discovery Award. [5]

References