Written by Mariane Tremblay
On July 21, 2025, Lucid had its world premiere at the Fantasia International Film Festival, and we've been obsessed with this movie ever since. Throughout the year, the movie was screened at multiple film festivals, including the Brooklyn Horror Film Festival in New York, the Sitges Film Festival in Spain, Fantaspoa in Brazil, and the Victoria Film Festival, where it won Best First Canadian Feature.
A couple of months ago, the movie was acquired for theatrical distribution in Canada by Montreal's boutique distributor and production company Filmoption International, and by Dark Star Pictures for the United States. The movie will begin its theatrical run on May 29th in Vancouver, Victoria, and Edmonton, with expansions planned in Montreal, Toronto, Hamilton, and Kamloops throughout the summer.
And here are seven reasons to go see this movie in theatres!
1. This movie is f*cking cool, and you won't be able to stop thinking about it
Lucid is unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. This movie truly altered our brain chemistry—we’re still thinking about it almost a year later. And when we first saw it, we talked about it every single day.
To this day, we still bring it up at least once a month, if not once a week—referencing it, talking about the music, how incredible the Fantasia premiere was, and everything else surrounding it.
2. It was co-written and co-directed by a woman
The movie was co-written and co-directed by Deanna Milligan, who’s genuinely one of the coolest people we met at Fantasia last year. Milligan is a Canadian actor from British Columbia whose filmography includes dozens of roles in film and television. As a director, she is known for her visceral and poignant narrative style, drawing inspiration from grotesque beauty, which can be seen in Lucid.
To us, it’s important to support films made by women in any way we can, especially when there’s such a clear and singular artistic vision behind them. And this support starts with showing up in theatres, paying attention, and celebrating the work that’s being done. Movies like Lucid remind us how much perspective and originality these voices bring to cinema, and why they deserve to be seen and supported
And we had such a great time at the premiere and such a lovely chat with her (and her co-writer and co-director, Ramsey Fendall) a couple of days later—they truly made our first Fantasia (and our first interview) unforgettable.
3. It’s an indie Canadian movie
Lucid comes from Sublunar Films, a production company founded by filmmakers Deanna Milligan and Ramsey Fendall. Based in British Columbia, the company produces short and feature-length films, music videos, photography, and commercials.
Not only does the movie come from an indie Canadian production company, but it was also shot in British Columbia, and showcases so many incredible local artists and talents, which perfectly reflects one of Milligan and Fendall’s missions: discovering and fostering local talent while building a strong creative community.
We should support independent films because they’re often the best. They tend to focus more on the art than on profits, which makes the experience feel even more genuine and interesting. Filmmakers are creating for the love of cinema, taking risks, and making the kinds of stories they truly want to tell. And as a Canadian, I believe we should especially support independent Canadian films like Lucid.
4. It was shot on many different formats
One of the coolest things about Lucid is the variety of formats they used to shoot the movie:
"We shot, not entirely, but we did shoot a fair bit of film [...] we wanted it [particularly the flashbacks] to feel like a memory. We wanted it to feel like a sort of family album, a kind of scrapbook where they could look back on the parents, and see[..] we shot the all the flashback scenes on 35mm, and we also shot for the 90s stuff, we shot on 35mm as well, but then we also mixed it up with some other formats, like 16mm and Super 8 [...] The Super 8 camera was operated by Jo Gaffney [...] while she was actually performing in the film. It's sort of like a film within a film—we're actually seeing what she's shooting, and so, it was a surprise in the sense for us to get that material [...] And in addition to that, we also had Les666 [...] who was shooting on a vintage high eight camera from the 90s. That kind of gives off a beautiful analog, slightly VHS feel to it."
And the variety of all those formats truly adds such a singular texture to the movie, which makes it even more fun to watch on a big screen. And that's coming from someone who experienced the movie both at home and on the big screen.
5. The soundtrack
The music in Lucid is a (bad) trip on its own—as haunting as can be. It’s a swirling, immersive soundscape that feels like a psychedelic trip you never want to come down from. And just from this score alone, you can tell what an incredibly talented artist Marta Jaciubek-McKeever was—especially knowing the backstory of Lucid’s score.
And the soundtrack also features so many other incredible artists, including the punk band, The Dishrags, as well as amazing local bands like Hush Hush Noise, KCAR, and Dielectric. And is there anything better than discovering new artists through movies?
6. It's not afraid to be "weird"
The movie isn’t afraid to be weird. As we said, it’s unlike anything we’ve ever seen before. Milligan and Fendall both have such a singular artistic vision, and they fully commit to it in this film—and we’re obsessed. Everything, from the characters to the production design, hair and makeup, and costumes, comes together to create the perfect 90s grunge fever dream you never want to wake up from. But we don't want to say too much, as we hope people will fully experience the movie for the first time, knowing as little as possible.
Although to put you all in context, Lucid follows Mia (Caitlin Acken Taylor), an art student who is on the verge of being expelled from school, and finds her last hope for combating her creative block in a magical lucid dreaming elixir. But in addition to awakening her creativity, the potion also unleashes several dark monsters that inhabit her subconscious, one of which is her mother, who appears transformed into a hairy creature (designed and portrayed by Vivian Vanderpuss) that Mia will be forced to confront.
7. Everyone involved is deeply passionate about what they do
Milligan first came to Fantasia with Lucid as a short film, and returned in 2025, a couple of years later, with the feature-length version. Hearing her and Fendall talk about the process behind developing it and creating everything surrounding it, you can immediately tell how deeply passionate they are about filmmaking and art in general.
"Ramsey and I met working on a film, and when we go out and do things together, it's usually with a camera—we're shooting stuff for fun all the time, and creating a film library for ourselves of things to pull from—which I totally recommend."
And that passion doesn’t just apply to them—it’s reflected throughout the entire cast and crew.
"We built the bedroom set for Caitlin's character, in our house, [...] we had made it with street vines, with windows, a couch, and a toilet that we pulled off the side of the road, and Caitlin painted all the walls. And while she did that, she was using her wardrobe, so the wardrobe got all painted and her hands and everything [...] And Caitlin is an artist herself, [and she] was able to contribute so well with her amazing work [...] which fed her creatively as a character."
You can watch our interview here.
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