Widow-Clicquot_Still-1.jpeg
A still from the film Widow Clicquot

Reel Alternatives announces its 2025 winter film line-Up

From Reel Alternatives

Reel Alternatives, Huntsville’s connection to the TIFF Film Circuit, has five intriguing films lined up for the Winter 2025 season, presented in partnership with the Algonquin Theatre. The roster features an eclectic mix of themes and genres – and even features an international film with big name actors that has a direct local connection to Huntsville.  

First up on Monday, January 20th is Widow Clicquot, a sumptuously filmed historical drama set in Napoleonic France about the ‘Grand Dame of Champagne” who revolutionized the wine industry after her husband’s early death – despite laws forbidding women to even run a business at the time.

The next film on February 3rd is Conclave, a tensely paced nail-biter starring Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci and John Lithgow as cardinals vying with each other to elect a new Pope.  This adaption of Robert Harris’ high-stakes drama is getting lots of awards season buzz, including five Golden Globe nominations for Best Motion Picture – Drama, Best Director, Best Lead Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress (for Isabella Rosselini) and a win for Best Screen Play, Motion Picture. 

The season continues on February 17th with My Happy Ending, a poignant and funny female ensemble comedy about an aging Hollywood star (Andie MacDowell) who finds herself in a general cancer treatment ward with three very different women (an aging rocker, a 28-year-old Muslim mother of four, and a forever single retired schoolteacher) instead of the private facility she was expecting. 

March will bring two tender dramedies – Ghostlight on the 3rd and The Martini Shot on the 17th.  In Ghostlight, a middle-aged construction worker finds purpose in life after his son’s suicide by getting involved in a local theatre production of Romeo and Juliet.  The poignancy of the film is enhanced by the fact that the actors who portray the family in the film are in fact a family in real life.

The Martini Shot may have been filmed in Ireland with internationally acclaimed actors John Cleese, Mathew Modine and Derek Jacobi, but the filmmakers have strong local connections to the Huntsville area. According to a story in Muskoka Region, writer/director Stephen Wallis lives in Sprucedale; executive producer James Robson resides in Kearney and producer Mike Godfrey is a Huntsville native with family still living here. 

Tickets for all films are available online at reelalternativeshuntsville.ca or algonquintheatre.ca, at the door or by calling the Algonquin Theatre box office at 705-789-4975. Reel Alternatives Huntsville gratefully acknowledges their partnership with Film Circuit, presented by the Toronto International Film Festival, and its sponsors and supporters.

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