Category: Entertainment

In my final two years of high school in Montreal, I made a private curriculum of the local repertory circuit—seeing everything that played, determined to absorb as much cinema as possible before heading to college and, eventually, film school in America. One winter afternoon, on the eve of leaving the city, I wandered into a nearly empty theater and discovered Dead of Winter, directed by Arthur Penn. I fell hard. I went back—once, then again—lingering over the sly menace and savoring the performances, especially Mary Steenburgen’s controlled unraveling and Roddy McDowall’s deliciously eccentric menace. Decades later, while idly scrolling through streamers, I stumbled upon a new title bearing the same name—Dead of Winter (2025), this time starring Emma Thompson. Nostalgia did the rest. Curious, a little wary, and more than ready to test memory against reinvention, I pressed play.

Canadian indie heavyweight 604 Records is making noise with a new signing—unveiling the debut single “Can’t Stop My Dreams” from filmmaker-turned-recording artist Quentin Lee, who records under the unmistakable moniker Gay Hollywood Dad. Released in collaboration with Margin Films Ltd., the track marks the first artist signing tied to the soundtrack of Lee’s upcoming feature film The Way You Dance, signaling a bold cross-platform move that blurs the line between indie film and music.

In a hip-hop class at Millennium Dance Complex, I met Diane Paloma Eskenazi, a veteran animator who casually mentioned that she founded her company, Golden Films, in the 1990s and has been producing and directing animated films for more than three decades. Her remarkable career instantly caught my attention, and I knew there was a story worth telling. Inspired and intrigued, I reached out to Eskenazi for an in-depth interview with CHOPSO.

Festival co-director Quentin Lee has announced the promotion of Melissa Dawn Johnson to festival co-director, where she will now run the festival alongside Lee. In addition, Yale alumna and producer Emma McAteer has joined the team as a programmer for Yale in Hollywood Fest.

Co-created by filmmakers Koji Steven Sakai and Quentin Lee, Comedy InvAsian—the first and only stand-up comedy television series of its kind—is now filming its third season. The first two seasons are currently available on AAM.tv, Amazon Prime, Peacock, and Tubi. CHOPSO took the opportunity to speak with Canadian Screen Award–winning showrunner and creator Quentin Lee about the series.

Veteran actor and comedian Jason Stuart shared with me the final cut of his short film, Redlining, which he wrote, directed, and produced. Exploring race and LGBTQ+ identity with wit and bite, Redlining is a compact gem that truly sparkles—and one you’re likely to encounter on the festival circuit at upcoming LGBTQ+ film festivals. I took the opportunity to sit down with Stuart to discuss the film and catch up on what’s next for him.

When the city is quiet and you finally get to curl up in bed during the holidays to binge all the B-movies you’ve been meaning to watch… here are some of my favorite holiday scary movies!

On Facebook, I saw my director friend Yusaku Mizoguchi win Best Director at the City of Angels Film Festival for his feature Sae, a touching drama about a Japanese student who decides to overstay her student visa in the U.S. in order to pursue a life as an artist. As an international student myself, I felt deeply connected to Sae’s perspective and reached out to Yusaku for an interview.

When I was making my feature The Way You Dance in Vancouver earlier this year, I was invited to a Royal Bank of Canada event in partnership with the Whistler Film Festival. There, I bumped into Cassandra Naud and Emily Tennant, the two leads of Influencer, a thriller feature I had caught on Shudder. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that it was a Canadian production shot in Vancouver—and that both lead actors were Canadian as well. I remember Influencer as a smart, character-driven thriller centered on a psychopath (played by Naud) who takes over the identities and assets of her victims, all of whom are influencers.

As I was programming and moderating a Q&A for Yale in Hollywood Fest, I asked Arnold Setiadi, director of Something Good Going On, whether the…