Smudge the Blades will open the 40th edition of the Edmonton International Film Festival on Sept. 24, after its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. The locally made hockey comedy is directed by Cody Lightning and stars Ed Helms, whose resumé includes big hits such as The Office and The Hangover, as well as Rutherford Falls, a satire he co-created that explores the tense Indigenous-settler relations in municipal politics.
Lightning's previous film, Hey, Viktor!, opened the 2023 edition of EIFF, won awards, and acted as both an offshoot of the beloved Smoke Signals and a way for film pros to earn income during Hollywood strikes. \"All my friends are out of work,\" Samuel Miller, the Los Angeles-based co-writer of Hey, Viktor! told Taproot in late 2023. \"Every contract I have down here is on pause and hopefully coming back. But everybody else is trying to figure out what they're gonna do with their time, and I get to fly to these film festivals for this film.\" Lightning went on to act in the FX series The Lowdown starring Ethan Hawke in 2025, and there's a good chance he'll return for the second season.
EIFF, which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, runs from Sept. 24 to Oct. 3. It has been running a film series called The Road to 40 in the lead-up to the festival; the final screening is for Parasite on Aug. 27 at Landmark Cinemas 9 City Centre. Programmer Vincent Brulotte spoke to Moving Radio about the film and the series. This year's festival will also be accompanied by a Creative Screen Business Summit on Sept. 25 and 26, exploring the business behind film, TV, and digital media.
","slug":"cody-lightnings-latest-to-headline-edmontons-global-film-festival","publicPath":"/news/2026-08-20-cody-lightnings-latest-to-headline-edmontons-global-film-festival"}}