Sophy Romvari

Last updated
Sophy Romvari
Sophy Romvari at the 78th Locarno Film Festival in 2025 01.jpg
Sophy Romvari at the 78th Locarno Film Festival in 2025
Born (1990-10-20) October 20, 1990 (age 35)
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Occupations
  • Director
  • writer
  • actress
Years active2013–present
Notable work Still Processing

Sophy Romvari (born October 20, 1990) [a] [1] is a Canadian film director, writer, and actress. [2] She attracted widespread acclaim for her short film Still Processing (2020). [3] The film premiered at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival and was later released online by Mubi. [4]

Contents

A collection of Romvari's short films, including Still Processing, were subsequently released by The Criterion Collection on their streaming platform in 2022. [5] [6]

Her other notable films include Pumpkin Movie, which screened at the 2017 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, and Norman/Norman, which screened at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival. Her work has screened at film festivals internationally, such as at the Sheffield Doc/Fest, Indie Memphis, and the True/False Film Festival. [7] [8]

Career

Romvari began making films in the mid-2010s, around 2013, while in film school. In 2017, Romvari's short documentary film Pumpkin Movie premiered at True/False Film Festival and screened at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival and Sheffield Doc/Fest. [7] In 2018, her short Norman Norman premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. [8]

Romvari also directed In Dog Years (2019), a short documentary for CBC Short Docs. [9] The following year, her short documentary Remembrance of József Romvári (2020), about her grandfather who was a production designer in the Hungarian film industry, was included as a DVD special feature for three films by Hungarian director István Szabó, and distributed by Kino Lorber. [10] [11]

Still Processing , Romvari's thesis film from York University, attracted widespread critical acclaim and premiered at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival. [3] It was later released online by Mubi in 2021. [4]

A collection of Romvari's short films, including Still Processing, were subsequently released by The Criterion Collection on their streaming platform in 2022. [5] [6]

Her 2022 short film, It's What Each Person Needs, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, marking her third short film to premiere at the festival after Norman/Norman in 2018 and Still Processing in 2020, and was called a "stunning analysis on the foundations of identity." [12] [13]

Her full-length directorial debut, Blue Heron , entered production in 2024. [14] It premiered on August 8, 2025 in the "Filmmakers of the Present" at the 78th Locarno Film Festival. [15] It was subsequently screened at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival, where it was the winner of the Best Canadian Discovery award. [16]

Filmography

Short film

YearTitleDirectorWriterProducerNotes
2016Nine BehindYesYesYes
Let Your Heart Be LightYesYesNoCo-directed with Deragh Campbell
2017Pumpkin MovieYesYesYes
It's HimYesYesYes
2022It's What Each Person NeedsYesYesYes

Documentary short

YearTitleDirectorWriterProducerNotes
2018Norman NormanYesYesYes
Grandma's HouseYesYesYes
2019In Dog YearsYesYesYes
2020Some Kind of ConnectionYesYesNoCo-directed with Mike Thorn
Still Processing YesYesYes
Oh, to Realize YesYesYes

Feature film

YearTitleDirectorWriterProducer
2025 Blue Heron YesYesYes

Acting roles

Notes

  1. ↑ Romvari mentions her age as two years old in 1992 in her short film Still Processing.

References

  1. ↑ "Today is my 30th birthday -- and I think it's the first time in my life I actually *feel* the age that I am...and it feels nice! ⚘". Twitter. Retrieved 2022-01-11.
  2. ↑ Justine Smith (February 19, 2021). "A Filmmaker Grapples with the Loss of Her Brothers Through Documentary". Hyperallergic .
  3. 1 2 Barry Hertz, "Canadian short filmmakers play the long game". The Globe and Mail , September 11, 2020.
  4. 1 2 "Raw Cooked: Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath and Sophy Romvari's "Still Processing"". MUBI. 20 May 2021. Retrieved 2021-09-22.
  5. 1 2 Loayza, Beatrice. "Working Memory: A Conversation with Sophy Romvari". The Criterion Collection. Retrieved 2022-10-03.
  6. 1 2 Urbanek, Sydney. "Making movies helps Sophy Romvari trust her own memories". CBC Arts.
  7. 1 2 Wilner, Norman (April 24, 2018). "Hot Docs review: Pumpkin Movie". Now .
  8. 1 2 Wilner, Norman (August 27, 2018). "10 Canadian short films to watch at TIFF 2018". Now .
  9. ↑ Mullen, Pat (April 12, 2019). "Now Streaming: 'In Dog Years'". Point of View .
  10. ↑ Remembrance of József Romvári , retrieved 2022-10-03
  11. ↑ "Miniseries Episode 6 - STILL PROCESSING with Sophy Romvari". SAD HILL MEDIA. 18 April 2022. Retrieved 2022-10-03.
  12. ↑ Goslawski, Barbara (2022-09-27). "TIFF 2022: It's What Each Person Needs". That Shelf. Retrieved 2022-10-03.
  13. ↑ Whittemore, Liz (2022-09-14). "TIFF 22 short film review: Sophy Romvari's 'IT'S WHAT EACH PERSON NEEDS' pulls the run out from underneath you with its intimacy". Reel News Daily. Retrieved 2022-10-03.
  14. ↑ Fekete, Anna (July 31, 2024). "PRODUCTION: Canadian/Hungarian Blue Heron Starts Filming". Film New Europe.
  15. ↑ Tabbara, Mona (July 8, 2025). "Locarno unveils 2025 line-up including premieres of Radu Jude's 'Dracula', Kamal Aljafari's 'With Hasan In Gaza'"". Screen Daily .
  16. ↑ Pete Hammond, "‘Hamnet’ Wins Oscar-Predictive Toronto Film Festival People’s Choice Award". Deadline Hollywood , September 14, 2025.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.