PART OF OUR HALLOWEEN SERIES: WELCOME TO THE MAD HOUSE
🪦 6:00PM - How to be Normal ( Film Screening )
🪦 8:00PM - Farewell Strange Hotel ( Album Launch )
🪦 9:30PM - Mad Haus Halloween Bash, Hosted by Sucka Queen

🍭 CRAFTS, HANG OUTS, AND DRINKS IN THE SOUTHERN CROSS ALL NIGHT LONG!
🍭 COSTUMES = CANDY.

How To Be Normal & The Oddness Of The Other World

Directed by Florian Pochlatko | 2025 | Austria | Fiction | 102 minutes | German and English | Canadian Premiere

Co-Presented by Toronto After Dark Film Festival

 

Box office opens at 4:30 PM | MAIN HALL

Freshly released from a psychiatric hospital, 26-year-old Pia moves back to her parents’ house on the outskirts of Vienna – only to discover that she is not the only one whose life has fallen apart. Her parents, Elfie and Klaus, are also finding it hard to keep up with a world that is constantly changing.  Who gets to decide what is normal? How to Be Normal and the Oddness of the Other World is an exploration of identity, family and self-discovery, and a young woman’s search for equilibrium and meaning in a world that is spiraling out of control.

Content Keywords: Social stigma, identity, self-discovery
Previous screenings: Berlinale Perspectives 2025, Uruguay International Film Festival, Beijing International Film Festival, Filmkunstfest MV, New Horizons Film Festival, Atlàntida Festival, Oslo Pix

Director bio: 
Florian Pochlatko is an Austrian writer, director, and editor. He studied Experimental Media Art before directing at the Film Academy Vienna under Michael Haneke and pursued Critical Studies at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna in Diedrich Diederichsen‘s class. His acclaimed short film Erdbeerland (2012) received numerous awards and has been a fixture in Austrian cinemas ever since. After working as a visual identity designer for musicians and curating for Cultural institutions, he now returns to his roots with his first narrative feature.

 

WITH SHORT FILM — The Last Day

Directed by Mahmoud Ibrahim | 2024 | Egypt | Documentary | 5 minutes | Arabic

Brothers Ziad and Moody spend their last moments in the family home they’re forced to leave due to a scheduled demolition as part of the city’s development plans. To pass the time while they move the furniture outside, Moody turns on the TV, which soon blares news of Palestinian home demolitions in Sheikh Jarrah, Jerusalem, casting a somber shadow over their already melancholic last day.

Director Bio
Mahmoud Ibrahim, a 24 year old Egyptian filmmaker. He was among the first class of students to graduate from the Higher Institute of Cinema in Alexandria in 2023. He is interested in the relationship between the individual and the city, and the intersection of collective and personal archives. His debut short film "The last day" participated in Berlinale International Film Festival 75 in the Forum Expanded. Mahmoud has worked as a director, producer, cinematographer, editor, and sound designer. He co-founded HandyCam Films, an independent production company that seeks to explore new art spaces and create alternative production methods, away from centralism.

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Every artist featured in Rendezvous 2025 is a disruptor.
#GETMAD #DISRUPTTHEFOCUS 

ABOUT RENDEZVOUS WITH MADNESS & WORKMAN ARTS
Rendezvous With Madness is both the first and the longest running Mental Health & Addictions based film & multi-arts festival in North America. With its roots in raising awareness through film, it has since expanded into bringing in other mediums such as theatre, dance, music and visual art. All programming, artwork, administration, and operations is created by and run by those who have lived and living experience. Follow us on Instagram: @workmanartsto

 

TICKETING & SEATING
Tickets are general Admission with limited seating available! To avoid being turned away or standing in a rush line, please book your ticket in advance if possible. In order to keep our festival accessible, we offer a limited quantity of low to no cost tickets in advance for those who need it with a pay-by-donation option at the door. Please consider paying full price if you are able as it helps the sustainability of reduced rates for those who may be unable to otherwise access our programming. Please arrive to the venue no later than 15 minutes before the event in order to avoid your ticket being given to the rush line should an event be sold out.

RUSH TICKETS & INFORMATION
If a program is off sale, you can come to the venue starting one hour before the event begins to place your name on our Rush list. Rush tickets are sold at the start of the event and patrons are seated just after introductions while trailers are playing. To avoid having your seat given to a Rush patron, please plan to arrive at the venue at least 15 minutes before the program begins.

ACCESS INFORMATION
All of our venues are fully accessible. If you require ASL/Interpretation, please inquire no later than October 18th, 2025. We will do our best to accommodate requests for ASL/Interpretation made later than this date but cannot guarantee availability of ASL/Interpreters. Live captioning provided for most spoken events and Q&A's. Open Captions for the vast majority of films. Films in other languages are always presented with English subtitles.