Sophy Romvari

Sophy Romvari
Romvari in 2018
Born (1990-10-20) October 20, 1990 (age 34)
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Occupations
  • Director
  • writer
  • actress
Years active2013–present
Notable workStill 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]

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]

Filmography

Year Title Contribution Note
2016 Nine Behind Writer/Director/Producer Short film
2016 Let Your Heart Be Light Co-writer/Co-director with Deragh Campbell Short film
2017 Pumpkin Movie Writer/Director/Producer Short film
2017 It's Him Writer/Director/Producer Short film
2018 Norman Norman Writer/Director/Producer Documentary short
2018 Grandma's House Writer/Director/Producer Documentary short
2019 In Dog Years Writer/Director/Producer Documentary short
2020 Some Kind of Connection Co-writer/Co-director with Mike Thorn Documentary short
2020 Still Processing Writer/Director/Producer Documentary short
2020 Oh, to Realize Writer/Director/Producer Documentary short
2022 It's What Each Person Needs Short

Acting roles

  • Let Your Heart Be Light (2016)
  • From Nine to Nine (2016)
  • Pumpkin Movie (2017)
  • Spice It Up (2018)
  • The Sunless Remembered (2018)
  • Preface to History (2019)
  • Tiger Eats a Baby (2020)

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. ^ a b Barry Hertz, "Canadian short filmmakers play the long game". The Globe and Mail, September 11, 2020.
  4. ^ a b "Raw Cooked: Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath and Sophy Romvari's "Still Processing"". MUBI. 20 May 2021. Retrieved 2021-09-22.
  5. ^ a b Loayza, Beatrice. "Working Memory: A Conversation with Sophy Romvari". The Criterion Collection. Retrieved 2022-10-03.
  6. ^ a b Urbanek, Sydney. "Making movies helps Sophy Romvari trust her own memories". CBC Arts.
  7. ^ a b Norman Wilner (April 24, 2018). "Hot Docs review: Pumpkin Movie". Now.
  8. ^ a b Norman Wilner (August 27, 2018). "10 Canadian short films to watch at TIFF 2018". Now.
  9. ^ Pat Mullen, "Now Streaming: ‘In Dog Years’". Point of View, April 12, 2019.
  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.