On February 4, Innis College, the Cinema Studies Institute, and the Innis College Student Society present a special Canadian Film Forum screening of Dinner With Friends in recognition of Black History Month. Actor Leighton Williams and producer Tania Thompson will join for a post-screening Q&A.
The Canadian indie film Dinner With Friends (2025) shares the story of eight friends struggling to hold their group together as they reach their mid-thirties. Dinner With Friends explores friendship, adulthood, and connection through a warm, funny, and contemporary lens.
Innis Town Hall, 2 Sussex Ave
Leighton Alexander Williams is an award-winning actor, writer, and director. He graduated York University’s acting conservatory (BFA 2015), and since leaving theatre school Leighton has performed on some of the biggest stages across Canada and the U.S. His breakout role as “Satan” in his play Judas Noir (an adaptation of The Last Days of Judas Iscariot by Stephen Adly Guirgis) gained him his first Dora Mavor Moore nomination, along with being the recipient of Ontario’s Emerging Artist of the Year Award.
Tania Thompson is a writer and producer based in Toronto. She wrote and produced the TIFF-premiering feature Dinner with Friends in 2025, with long-time creative collaborator Sasha Leigh Henry. She served as executive producer and writer on Bria Mack Gets a Life, winner of Canadian Screen Awards Best Comedy Series 2024, created by Henry. She wrote Henry’s short film Sinking Ship, debuted at TIFF 2020 and was the winner of the 2021 Vimeo Staff Pick Award at Aspen Shortsfest. Currently, Thompson and Henry are in post of their first feature, Dinner with Friends, written together with Henry directing and Thompson producing. Thompson holds a BFA from York University and is a graduate from the competitive Schulich School of Business Media Leadership Program for Media Executives.