Nia DaCosta's Hedda debuts at TIFF, streams on Prime Video Oct 29

Nia DaCosta’s Hedda, a bold reinvention of Henrik Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler led by Tessa Thompson, is set to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, with a limited theatrical release on October 22 and a streaming debut on Prime Video on October 29. The contemporary, 107-minute drama reimagines the 19th-century classic for a modern audience, blending sharp wit, sensual tension, and high-stakes power plays as it follows a discontented, privileged woman navigating love, autonomy, and reputation.

The film situates Hedda in a glamorous, high-society world and builds toward a night of upheaval that begins with a body being carried out the front door. In this version, Hedda’s emotional landscape is tangled with a past romance and a provocative new dynamic: Eileen Lovborg, a celebrated author played by Nina Hoss, arrives with her girlfriend Thea, played by Imogen Poots, threatening to upend Hedda’s carefully curated life. The opening promise of the trailer — a request to recount “the events of the evening up to the incident” — signals a narrative structure that moves back and forth through time as the party atmosphere darkens into crisis. DaCosta has explained her intent to...