The Players – Canadian Film Fest 2025
March 24 to March 29, 2025
FILM FESTIVAL
Canadian Film Fest
Canadian Film Fest 2025
A 15-year-old joins a theatre company and becomes increasingly uncomfortable at the attention given to her by the director in The Players. After taking an acting workshop in the summer of 1994, 15-year-old Emily (Stefani Kimber) is invited by Marley (Jess Salgueiro) to audition for an avant-garde production of Hamlet at a theatre company run by Marley’s boyfriend Reinhardt (Eric Johnson). Emily is overjoyed when she is cast in a small role in the production, and she befriends fellow new arrival and former member of the National Ballet of Canada, Rose (Vanessa Smythe). As the production prepares to play at a Montreal festival, red flags begin to raise at the increased attention Reinhardt has been giving Emily.
The Players Synopsis
The Players is a feature directorial debut from writer/director Sarah Galea-Davis. A period piece set in 1994, the film deals with the complicated power dynamics within an avant-garde theatre company. As the youngest member, Emily, played by Stefani Kimber, finds herself working hard to meet the demands of the director Reinhardt, played by Eric Johnson. When Emily comes to realize that Reinhardt’s interest in her might be more than just professional, she is left conflicted about whether she would like to continue her dreams of being an actress.
My Thoughts on The Players
The Players ends up doing for the theatre world what Kitty Green’s The Assistant did for the film industry. The plot is purposely set three decades ago, where the film’s predatory behaviour by the avant-garde theatre director Reinhardt is shrugged off by many of the female actors as merely something they should learn to live with. In addition to the increasingly disturbing underaged grooming of the protagonist Emily, The Players features a particularly hard-to-watch scene of Reinhardt forcibly stripping a female performer, who later comes to believe it to be an empowering moment. By the end of the film, The Players leaves a lot to think about.
Trailer for The Players – Canadian Film Fest 2025
