Blue Heron

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Sophy Romvari directs. Maya Bankovic behind the camera. Kurt Walker cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in Canada, Hungary, United States of America. Dialogue in Hungarian, English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 1Released this year — you're seeing it while it's still in the cultural conversation.
• 2Dialogue crosses 2 languages: Hungarian, English.
• 3International production across 3 countries: Canada, Hungary, United States of America.
• 4Directed by Sophy Romvari, shot by Maya Bankovic. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 5Editor Kurt Walker shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 6Eylul Guven and Iringó Réti and Ádám Tompa carry the top of the cast.
• 7IMDB entry: tt32252801 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
• 8Only 50 TMDB ratings — you're getting ahead of the curve on this one.
• 9Classified under 13 themes, including "melancholy", "arrest", "mental illness", "woman director".

The technical file

Cinematography

Maya Bankovic

Editing

Kurt Walker

Production design

Victoria Furuya

Costume design

Maria Katarina

Makeup / hair

Brooke Sovdi

Sound

Péter Benjámin Lukács

Stunt coordinator

Jennifer Clarke

Runtime

91 min · 1h 31m

Status

Released

Original language

EN

Certification (US)

PG-13

IMDB

Blue Heron (2026) ↗

Rotten Tomatoes

98% 🍅 Fresh

Also by

Sophy Romvari

• 
  In Dog Years

  2019 · ★ 8.5
• 
  Pumpkin Movie

  2017 · ★ 8.0
• 
  Still Processing

  2021 · ★ 6.9
• 
  Nine Behind

  2016 · ★ 6.0
• 
  Norman Norman

  2018 · ★ 5.5
• 
  It's Him

  2017 · ★ 5.0

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  Official Criterion Trailer

  Teaser · Official
• 

  ▶
  Official Trailer

  Trailer · Official

Community reviews

What people are saying

• Brent Marchant2026-05-05
  ★ 6/10

  Sometimes there are no easy answers in life. Such circumstances can be maddening, leaving us frustrated, perplexed and wanting for a lack of adequate explanation. Yet, as on point as that description may be, it doesn’t suffice. Nor does it necessarily translate into good storytelling or filmmaking, as is the case in this debut feature from director Sophy Romvari. When a family of Hungarian descent relocates to British Columbia’s Vancouver Island in the 1990s, they hope that the new environment will prove beneficial for their troubled teenage son, Jeremy (Edik Beddoes), who routinely engages in unexplained antisocial and sometimes-dangerous behavior, despite his apparent capacity for kindness and compassion. Jeremy is quite a handful for his stability-searching parents (Iringó Réti, Ádám Tompa), who have tried everything – to no avail – to understand him and to get him the help he needs. He’s also something of an enigma to his three younger siblings, his two brothers (Liam Serg, Preston Drabble) and, most notably, to his sister, Sasha (Eylul Guven), a sweet, sensitive girl who’s especially curious about her eldest brother’s erratic behavior. So what’s up with the unsettled young man? That’s where the elusive easy answers come into play. And it’s an issue that haunts Sasha from her youth and on into adulthood, where her elder self (Amy Zimmer) has become a filmmaker. When all grown up, she meets with a group of mental health professionals and social service workers for insight on a documentary she’s making about a “case” she’s chronicling, seeking advice on how to best handle the story of a patient whose profile is a virtually identical match to that of her brother. It’s at this point, however, when the film begins losing its way, blending the art of the elder Sasha with the memories of her younger self in an almost surrealistic (and, at times, incoherent) fashion. One can presume from this that Sasha’s adult self is likely a stand-in for filmmaker Romvari herself, adding another level of muddying ambiguity to the storytelling mix, making for an offering that becomes trying to fathom. It may provide a fitting parallel to the conditions faced by Jeremy’s parents themselves, but is this good filmmaking? Some might see this as a masterful work of cinema, an interplay of reality, biography and artistic interpretation, but I honestly found it somewhat confusing, despite an earnest, ambitious attempt at fusing the various aforementioned elements. In that sense, “Blue Heron” feels somewhat contrived and unclear about its intent, with a choppy, sometimes-distracting flow to its narrative. To its credit, this is a gorgeously filmed release gloriously depicting the landscape of western Canada, along with meticulous attention to its detailed production design, backed by a diverse and often-perfectly suited soundtrack. But the essential substance of this release could use some much-needed refinement and clarity, with a little more shoring up, a little less ethereal treatment and smoother transitions between sequences. It’s indeed true that this work effectively brings the lack of easy answers front and center for viewers, but that doesn’t mean we should be swallowed up by them in the process.

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• NI

  Nine Behind Productions

  CA

• 

  Boddah

  HU

• 

  MEMORY

  US

• 

  Tinygiant

  US

• 

  Ursa Major

  CA

• 

  Simbelle Productions

  US

Key crew

• ProducerRyan Bobkin
• Executive ProducerRiel Roch Decter
• ProducerSara Wylie
• ProducerGábor Osváth
• Executive ProducerSara Eolin
• Executive ProducerVeronica Diaferia
• Executive ProducerNeil Champagne
• Stunt CoordinatorJennifer Clarke
• EditorKurt Walker
• Costume DesignMaria Katarina
• Production DesignVictoria Furuya
• Executive ProducerLauren Melinda
• Executive ProducerSam Sutcliffe
• ProducerSophy Romvari
• Executive ProducerJasmin Kar
• Post Production SupervisorÉva Haraszin
• First Assistant DirectorKane Stewart
• Second Assistant DirectorBoldiszár Romvari
• Production AssistantMax Frankel
• Music SupervisorJody Colero
• Music SupervisorAmanda Clemens
• Sound Re-Recording MixerPéter Benjámin Lukács
• Supervising Sound EditorPéter Benjámin Lukács
• Executive ProducerLeah CL

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• melancholy
• arrest
• mental illness
• woman director
• immigrant family
• 1990s
• somber
• introspective
• independent film
• experimental cinema
• ambiguous
• compassionate
• vancouver island

Release history · US

When it landed

• Premiere2026-04-12· Los Angeles Festival of Movies
• Premiere2026-04-14· Miami Film Festival / Minneapolis St. Paul International Film Festival / Wisconsin Film Festival
• Premiere2026-04-18· Milwaukee FIlm Festival
• Premiere2025-10-18· New Hampshire Film Festival
• Premiere2026-09-27· Crested Butte Film Festival
• Theatrical (limited)2026-04-17PG-13· New York City, New York
• Theatrical (limited)2026-04-24NR· Los Angeles, California
• Theatrical (limited)2026-05-01NR· Limited expansion
• Digital2026-07-21NR
• Physical2026-11-10NR· Blu-ray / DVD

Also known as

International titles

• Pilkasis garnysLT
• Garça-AzulBR