Galas and Special Presentations

Opening Gala

THE SKIN I LIVE IN

(La piel que habito)

Spain | Dir: Pedro Almodóvar | View Trailer

[SKINI] | Thu. Sep 29, 6:30pm, Vogue
Fri. Sep 30, 1:30pm, Vogue

Re-teaming with Antonio Banderas for the first time in 21 years, Pedro Almodóvar delivers a juicy Hitchcockian thriller, replete with plot reversals and his trademark stylistic flourishes. Banderas is a plastic surgeon trying to perfect a skin treatment on the beautiful woman (Elena Anaya) he keeps captive in his mansion...

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Canadian Images Opening Gala

TAKE THIS WALTZ

Canada | Dir: Sarah Polley | View Trailer

[TAKTH] | Fri. Sep 30, 6:30pm, Vogue
Thu. Oct 6, 4:00pm, Vogue

Set in the oppressive heat of a Toronto summer, director Sarah Polley’s colourful second feature—starring a radiant Michelle Williams—explores the contrasting rhythms of new and mature relationships, and how they alter our images of ourselves.

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Anniversary Gala

STARBUCK

Canada | Dir: Ken Scott | View Trailer

[STARB] | Fri. Oct 7, 6:30pm, Granville #7
Sat. Oct 8, 7:00pm, Vancity Theatre
Sun. Oct 9, 12:45pm, Granville #7

David’s greatest financial success has been via his prolific donation of sperm—until a lab mix-up results in fatherhood on an epic scale. Ken Scott's comedy is of the warm and upbeat variety, presenting hard choices for its hero and plenty of obstacles—533, to be exact.

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Closing Gala

THE KID WITH A BIKE

(Le gamin au velo)

Belgium/France/Italy | Dir: Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne | View Trailer

[KIDWI] | Fri. Oct 14, 7:00pm, Vogue
Fri. Oct 14, 9:45pm, Vogue

Echoes of de Sica float through the brothers Dardenne's latest magnum opus, a deceptively simple and profoundly moving tale of an abandoned boy, the woman who decides to help out by taking care of him and the temptations of the modern world that threaten to ruin the boy's future. "Like all their films, The Kid With a Bike is near perfect."—Sight & Sound

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Dragons & Tigers Awards Gala

MITSUKO DELIVERS

(Hara-ga Kore Nande)

Japan | Dir: Ishii Yuya

[MITSU] | Thu. Oct 6, 6:45pm, Vogue
Fri. Oct 7, 12:00pm, Granville #4
Mon. Oct 10, 11:00am, Vancity Theatre

Mitsuko is in her ninth month of pregnancy, but that doesn’t stop her taking the lead when all around her are floundering. Whether you take it as social satire or as a parody of Japanese "down home" movies, Ishii Yuya’s breathless comic drama has satire, brio and originality to burn. Stars Naka Riisa, Nakamura Aoi and Ishibashi Ryo.

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THE ARTIST

France | Dir: Michel Hazanavicius | View Trailer

[ARTIS] | Thu. Oct 13, 7:00pm, Granville #7

"For sheer entertainment value... little in Cannes could best Michel Hazanavicius’s The Artist, a black-and-white silent movie about the end of silent movies, starring the rubber-faced Jean Dujardin (a veteran of Hazanavicius’s hilarious OSS 117 spy-movie send-ups) as a vain Hollywood matinee idol who digs in his heels and refuses to adapt to talking pictures.—Film Comment

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INNI: SIGUR RÓS

Iceland/ UK/ Canada | Dir: Vincent Morisset | View Trailer

[INNIS] | Thu. Oct 6, 9:45pm, Vogue
Sat. Oct 8, 4:20pm, Granville #2

Following on 2007's successful Heima, this is Sigur Rós second live film and it shows them again as mesmerizing performers at the peaks of their abilities. Director Vincent Morriset weaves ten years of archival material into his ethereal live footage. Inni, he says, "leaves room for all those beautiful images come to our minds when we listen to their music."

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NASH—THE DOCUMENTARY

Canada | Dir: Michael Hamilton, Corey Ogilvie

[NASHX] | Tue. Oct 11, 6:45pm, Vogue
Thu. Oct 13, 4:15pm, Vogue
Fri. Oct 14, 1:00pm, Granville #7

Directors Michael Hamilton and Corey Ogilvie deliver a delightful profile of BC’s most famous basketball player in this exceptional doc. We get to know Nash the player as well as his other personae: entrepreneur, philanthropist, filmmaker and family man.

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THE FAIRY

(La fée)

Belgium/France | Dir: Fiona Gordon, Dominique Abel, Bruno Romy | View Trailer

[FAIRY] | Sun. Oct 9, 6:45pm, Granville #7
Wed. Oct 12, 4:00pm, Granville #7

In this delightfully off-kilter comedy, a lonely man becomes utterly enchanted with a strange woman claiming to be a fairy. An inspired mélange of Tati-inspired physical comedy, whimsical romance and retro flourishes make for a "deliriously droll confection..."—Variety

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THE SALT OF LIFE

(Gianni e le donne)

Italy | Dir: Gianni Di Gregorio | View Trailer

[SALTO] | Wed. Oct 5, 1:00pm, Granville #7
Thu. Oct 6, 6:45pm, Granville #7

Retired and well-off, Gianni finds that, despite a seemingly perfect life, his old passions can be aroused by a beautiful pair of eyes... "Gianni Di Gregorio's follow-up to... Mid-August Lunch is another intimate comedy that blows fresh air around a topic long made banal by less sincere directors... Who else working today treats so-called 'middle age' with such jocular honesty?"—Variety

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SING YOUR SONG

USA | Dir: Susanne Rostock

[SINGY] | Wed. Oct 12, 6:30pm, Granville #7
Fri. Oct 14, 2:30pm, Granville #4

Susanne Rostock's inspiring, visually sophisticated and wonderfully intimate biography of legendary singer/activist Harry Belafonte shows his life and career as a mirror to the changing times in which he's lived. With great archival material and a vibrant musical soundtrack. "Moving and enlightening... it serves up a crash-course in 20th-century history."—Variety

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SUFFERROSA

Poland/UK | Dir: Dawid Marcinkowski | View Trailer

[SUFFE] | Fri. Oct 7, 9:00pm, Vancity Theatre
Sun. Oct 9, 4:00pm, Vancity Theatre

The hard-boiled detective tale takes a turn for the high tech in Dawid Marcinkowski's acclaimed interactive cinema experience, for which he will be here. As this gripping neo-noir unfolds, it's left for the audience to decide which tangent the narrative follows next. Three alternate endings promise a host of dark possibilities.

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DREILEBEN

Germany | Dir: Christian Petzold, Dominik Graf, Christoph Hochhäusler

[DREIL] | Thu. Sep 29, 7:00pm, Granville #1
Wed. Oct 5, 12:20pm, Granville #1
Sun. Oct 9, 12:45pm, Cinémathèque

In 2006, directors Dominik Graf, Christian Petzold and Christoph Hochhäusler began corresponding on the subjects of film aesthetics, the Berlin School and the genre. Two years later, they continued this  discussion with a fascinating film project, involving three individual stories that revolve around  the escape of a convicted criminal from police custody. A sensation at the Berlin film festival, and one of the year's great film events.

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SURVIVING PROGRESS

Canada | Dir: Mathieu Roy, Harold Crooks | View Trailer

[SURVI] | Fri. Sep 30, 6:30pm, Granville #7
Sun. Oct 2, 4:15pm, Vogue

Based on Ronald Wright’s bestseller A Short History of Progress, this documentary provides a subversive diagnosis of mankind’s unique abilities and the danger they’ve brought to the world. Directors Mathieu Roy and Harold Crooks probe the fundamental nature and effects of the human condition with disturbing precision.

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SEEDIQ BALE

(International Title: WARRIORS OF THE RAINBOW: SEEDIQ BALE)

Taiwan | Dir: Wei Te-Sheng | View Trailer

[SEEDI] | Mon. Oct 3, 6:45pm, Granville #2
Thu. Oct 6, 1:15pm, Granville #2

Wei Te-sheng’s epic four-hour-plus historical drama tells the story of Taiwanese aboriginal tribal heroes (the Seediq Bale) who led a successful but ultimately self-destructive revolt against their Japanese occupiers in 1930s Taiwan. In equal measures darkly violent and stirringly idealistic, this is a Taiwan-made blockbuster of unprecedented scale and ambition. (Taiwan version, with English subtitles.)

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THE FRONT LINE

(Gojijeon)

South Korea | Dir: Jang Hun | View Trailer

[FRONT] | Fri. Sep 30, 10:30am, Granville #7
Sat. Oct 1, 3:45pm, Granville #7
Wed. Oct 5, 9:30pm, Granville #7

The Korean candidate for the 2012 Best Foreign Film Oscar (and a big hit on its recent release in Korea) offers a surprising perspective on the Korean War. The always excellent Shin Ha-gyun (Save the Green Planet!) plays young officer Kang who is sent to Aerok Hill on the disputed border to investigate a possible spy and a possible mutiny. What he finds is nothing like what he expected...  Jang Hun hits the premier rank of Korean directors with this major film.

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LIFE WITHOUT PRINCIPLE

(Duo ming jin)

Hong Kong | Dir: Johnnie To

[LIFEW] | Wed. Oct 5, 6:45pm, Granville #7
Fri. Oct 7, 10:30am, Granville #7

Hong Kong auteur Johnnie To’s newest personal project is a dramatic thriller set in the high-stakes worlds of Hong Kong’s investors, traders and underground gamblers. To brings his mastery of space, tension and action to the financial marketplace, in a city in crisis, where only money is king.

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PINA 3D

(Pina—Ein Tanzfilm in 3D)

Germany/France/UK | Dir: Wim Wenders | View Trailer

[PINA3] | Mon. Oct 3, 7:00pm, Park
Wed. Oct 5, 2:00pm, Park

"Offering further proof that the latest 3D technology is good for a lot more than just... fantastical storylines, Wim Wenders' documentary represents multidimensional entertainment that will send culture vultures swooning. A tribute to Pina Bausch, one of modern dance's most groundbreaking choreographers, the film lets the artist's work speak for itself via big, juicy slabs of performance."—Variety

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HARAKIRI: DEATH OF A SAMURAI

(Ichimei)

Japan/UK | Dir: Miike Takashi

[HARAK] | Mon. Oct 3, 9:30pm, Park
Wed. Oct 5, 4:15pm, Park

Working in 3D but showing even more neo-classical restraint than he did in 13 Assassins, Miike Takashi remakes Kobayashi’s famous movie by returning to the source story of impoverished ronin in the 17th century. Ichikawa Ebizo and Eita star as the ronin driven to staged suicides by their financial plight; Yakusho Koji is the cruel feudal lord who has no pity for them.

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Plenty of seats available

Seats still available, but get there early

Rush tickets at the door just before show time; advance tickets sold out