Ricocheting between comedy, apocalyptic horror, and swooning soap opera, 
Rumours follows the seven leaders of the 
wealthiest democracies in the world at the annual G7 summit, where they fumble their way towards an attempt to draft a provisional statement regarding an unidentified looming global crisis. With unexpected, uproarious performances from a brilliant ensemble cast that includes; Cate Blanchett, Alicia Vikander, Roy Dupuis, Nikki Amuka-Bird, Takehiro Hira, Rolando Ravello, Zlatko Burić, Denis Ménochet, and Charles Dance, these so-called leaders become spectacles of incompetence, 
contending with increasingly surreal obstacles in the misty woods as night falls and they realize they are suddenly alone. A genre-hopping satire of political ineptitude, the latest film from directors Guy Maddin, Evan Johnson and Galen Johnson is a 
journey into the absurd heart of power and institutional failure in a slowly burning world. All three filmmakers join us for a conversation on a prolonged creative process led them to pack Rumours with a mash-up of genre tropes and wildly funny storylines, as well as working with an immensely talented cast of international actors.
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About the filmmaker – Guy Maddin was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, to Herdis Maddin (a hair-dresser) and Charles “Chas” Maddin (grain clerk and general manager of the Maroons, a Winnipeg hockey team). Maddin studied economics at the University of Winnipeg, working as a bank manager, house painter, and photographic archivist before becoming a film-maker. Maddin produced his first film in 1985, and since then his distinctive style of recreating and renovating silent film conventions and international critical acclaim have made him one of Canada’s most celebrated directors. Guy Maddin is a writer, visual artist, and award-winning filmmaker who has directed 13 feature-length films, including THE GREEN FOG (2018), THE FORBIDDEN ROOM (2015), MY WINNIPEG (2007), and THE SADDEST MUSIC IN THE WORLD (2003), as well as innumerable shorts. Additionally, he has produced over seventy performances around the world of his films each featuring live elements such as orchestra, sound effects, singing, and narration. THE GREEN FOG won the LA Film Critics Association prize for Best Experimental Film of 2018. Twice Maddin has won America’s National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Experimental Film, with ARCHANGEL (1991) and THE HEART OF THE WORLD (2001). He has been bestowed many other awards, including the Telluride Silver Medal in 1995, the San Francisco International Film Festival’s Persistence of Vision Award in 2006, and an Emmy for his ballet film DRACULA: PAGES FROM A VIRGIN’S DIARY (2002).
About the filmmaker – Evan Johnson is a Canadian filmmaker from Winnipeg, Manitoba is most noted for his frequent collaborations with Guy Maddin. He was codirector of Maddin’s The Forbidden Room, which was the winner of the Toronto Film Critics Association‘s Rogers Best Canadian Film Award at the Toronto Film Critics Association Awards 2015. Evan Johnson is a Canadian filmmaker from Winnipeg, Manitoba, most noted for his frequent collaborations with Guy Maddin. He was co-director of Maddin’s The Forbidden Room, which was the winner of the Toronto Film Critics Association‘s Rogers Best Canadian Film Award at the Toronto Film Critics Association Awards 2015.
About the filmmaker – Galen Johnson is a Canadian filmmaker from Winnipeg, Manitoba is most noted for his frequent collaborations with Guy Maddin. He was a Canadian Screen Award nominee for Best Art Direction/ Production Design at the 4th Canadian Screen Awards in 2016 for his work on Maddin’s The Forbidden Room. He and his brother Evan Johnson were also codirectors of Maddin’s short films Bring Me the Head of Tim Horton (2015), Seances (2016), The Green Fog (2017), Accidence (2018), Stump the Guesser (2020) and The Rabbit Hunters (2020), as well as the feature film Rumours (2024). In 2020, Johnson released the experimental short film Thursday, which was shot entirely from his and Evan’s bedroom windows during the lockdown phase of the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada.
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