Angelina Jolie’s Son Pax Gives Her Standing Ovation at TIFF Premiere of Without Blood

Angelina Jolie took a very special guest to the premiere of her new movie.

At the Toronto International Film Festival debut of Without Blood — a drama about the aftermath of a tragedy Jolie, 49, directed and wrote — the Oscar winner was joined by her son Pax, 20, who worked on the film.

The two posed for photos at the Sunday, Sept. 8 event and Jolie opened up about how he’s recovering following his July e-bike accident.

“I’m very happy he’s healthy,” she told Entertainment Tonight ahead of the premiere, noting that he had a job on the movie. Her eldest son Maddox, 23, also worked with Pax in the assistant director department. Pax is noted in the credits as having worked on the Electronic Press Kit.

After the screening, held at the TIFF Lightbox theater, Jolie — who also shares children Zahara, 19, Shiloh, 18, and 16-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne with ex-husband, Brad Pitt, 60 — and the film’s stars, Salma Hayek and Demián Bichir, sat for a Q&A moderated by TIFF CEO Cameron Bailey.

When the brief chat wrapped up, Pax joined the audience in giving Jolie and the cast a standing ovation. He was seated in the audience near Hayek’s husband, François-Henri Pinault.

Without Blood is a “parable-like tale of family, war, and revenge,” per TIFF’s synopsis. “In a frontier landscape at the beginning of the 20th century, gunmen descend on a remote farmhouse, determined to exact revenge. Their target, a doctor — alone with his son and daughter — tries desperately to protect his children. Inevitably, bullets fly,”

Jolie adapted Without Blood from Alessandro Baricco’s novel of the same name. Hayek, 58, who appeared in The Eternals with Jolie, has praised her as “probably the best director I’ve ever worked with.”

In 2022, Jolie told PEOPLE she and her sons “work well together. When a film crew is at its best, it feels like a big family, so it felt natural.”

Jolie has continued to collaborate with her children on artistic endeavors. Earlier in 2024, she signed on to be a producer for the Tony Award-winning musical adaptation of The Outsiders. Her daughter Vivienne was a production assistant.

“Viv is a young artist who focuses her efforts on her support of others,” Jolie told PEOPLE in April ahead of the musical’s premiere.

“She has been there to assist in any way she can and has learned so much from [score and co-book writer] Justin Levine and the whole creative team,” the Maleficent actress added.

Prior to the premiere of Without Blood, Jolie’s film Maria, in which she stars as opera singer Maria Callas, premiered to strong reception at the Venice Film Festival and the Telluride Film Festival.