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Ceremony film image; person in traditional Indigenous clothing

Welcome to VIFF

Let the Festival Begin!

The wait is over! We are excited to share with you the stellar line-up for the 45th Vancouver International Film Festival, October 1 – 11. Over 160 films, 85 shorts, VIFF Live performances, VIFF Talks, and special events will light up the screens and stages across Vancouver. Take a moment, explore the program and get ready to VIFF!

Today's Highlights

Ticket Release

Is the movie you want to see on Standby? Check the VIFF Daily emails or this page every morning for seats to your most-wanted films! More tickets may become available throughout the Festival.

Tickets will become available online only at 12:00 pm.

Add These Films to Your Watchlist!

See something you’re interested in? Log into your VIFF account and click the heart icon to add it to your personal watchlist!

Light Pillar

Dir. Xu Zao
90 min

Xu Zao’s mellow, melancholy film follows a bottom-tier employee at a decaying film studio as he gets pulled into an online obsession. Mixing animation with live action, this is a whimsical satire and a lament for the pre-digital world.

International Village 10 VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema International Village 9

Last Movies

Dir. Stanley Schtinter
86 min

What would film history look like reorganized around the last movies various cultural figures watched before they died? Last Movies embraces this simple concept to offer a deliberately skewed and mordantly funny love letter to cinema.

SFU Woodwards International Village 8
The Story of Documentary Film – The 2010s & 2020s
The Story of Documentary Film film image; man walking into a black smoking battleground

The Story of Documentary Film – The 2010s & 2020s

Dir. Mark Cousins
181 min

In The Story of Documentary Film – The 2010s & 2020s, Mark Cousins follows nonfiction into phones, GoPros, YouTube, TikTok, live streams, and feeds to look at bodily autonomy, surveillance, racism, borders, and truth after vérité.

Image: © Fire of Love, 2022, dir. Sara Dosa, Canada, USA, Sandbox Films, Cottage M, Intuitive Pictures, National Geographic Documentary Films

SFU Woodwards

Now Playing

Ceremony

Dir. Banchi Hanuse
84 min

Powerful and evocative, Ceremony follows the disappearance of the ooligan in Bella Coola, revealing a story of cultural survival, environmental stewardship, and the enduring relationship between the Nuxalk Nation and the land.

SFU Woodwards International Village 9 Lindsay Family Stage at Granville Island VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Our Mr. Matsura

Dir. Beth Harrington
97 min

Part of the first wave of Japanese immigrants to the United States, Frank Matsura's photographs in Okanogan County created a regional legacy that endures a century later. Our Mr. Matsura is a joyful celebration of life revealed through photography.

International Village 10
Clubfoot
Clubfoot film image; three people at the end of an aisle in a library

Clubfoot

Dir. Nathan Donovan
70 min

An adopted teen and his friend coerce a younger adoptee to go for a drive out to the countryside — but things turn violent. With a fragmented structure and unresolved questions, Clubfoot reflects the uncertainty and isolation that often follow adoption.

The Cinematheque VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
School for Defectors
School for Defectors film image; person standing by a desk speaking

School for Defectors

Dir. Jeremy Workman
92 min

School for Defectors is an intimate and quietly uplifting documentary that follows a group of 20 teenagers, children of North Korean defectors, as they adjust to life and education at Jangdaehyun School in Busan, South Korea.

Lindsay Family Stage at Granville Island Fifth Avenue Cinema - 19+ only

RADIOHEART: The Drive and Times of DJ Kevin Cole

Dir. Peter Hilgendorf, Andrew Franks
83 min

Featuring a scintillating soundtrack of tunes going back to the ‘70s, RADIOHEART is a heartwarming celebration of one of the greatest radio DJs, Kevin Cole, whose musical tastes and influence are still reverberating across the world’s soundwaves.

International Village 9
Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney
Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney film image; man wearing an extravagant cape

Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney

Dir. Matthew Rankin
105 min

Using era-appropriate visuals, ironically deployed music, and copious archival footage, Matthew Rankin tells the story of Brian Mulroney’s rise to power. This is Canadian history as you’ve never seen it before — amusing and dismaying in equal measure.

The Rio Theatre Lindsay Family Stage at Granville Island Alliance Francaise

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FESTIVAL CALENDAR

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Festival A-Z

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Live

Live performances that push the boundaries of traditional film programming, intersecting cinema culture with music, comedy, podcasting, and performance in unique, cinema-infused live shows.

Kelly Moran

120 min

A live performance by acclaimed pianist, producer, and composer Kelly Moran, charting unconventional sonic pathways through classical, avant-garde, and electronic sound. With opening live AV set from Vancouver electronic musician and composer Bahar Khazei.

SFU - Fei and Milton Wong Experimental Theatre

An Evening with Cristóbal Tapia de Veer

90 min

Join multiple Emmy- and BAFTA-winning composer Cristóbal Tapia de Veer (Smile, The White Lotus) for a rare masterclass exploring his creative process and unique compositional practice.

Image: © Invision AP

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Los Thuthanaka

90 min

VIFF is honoured to present the Canadian debut of experimental music duo Los Thuthanaka, whose spiraling Aymara rhythms, ceremonial textures, and psychedelic sounds combine into a transcendent live AV experience.

The Pearl

ERASERHEAD XIU XIU

90 min

The Canadian premiere of ERASERHEAD XIU XIU — American experimental rock band Xiu Xiu’s live exploration of the sonic and visual universe of David Lynch’s iconic cult film Eraserhead. A hallucinatory take on the most singular of midnight masterpieces.

The Rio Theatre
Derrick Gee's Radio Hour
man getting out of a car

Derrick Gee's Radio Hour

90 min

Fresh from sold-out tours across Europe and Australia, experience the Canadian premiere of cult music tastemaker Derrick Gee's eclectic Radio Hour, where his on-stage living room welcomes community conversations, special guests, and shared listening.

Lindsay Family Stage at Granville Island
An Evening with Mark Mothersbaugh
man singing into a microphone

An Evening with Mark Mothersbaugh

75 min

Experience a one-night-only live performance with legendary composer and DEVO founder Mark Mothersbaugh, joined by an 11-piece ensemble, celebrating music from The Royal Tenenbaums, Rushmore, Thor: Ragnarok, The LEGO Movie, A Minecraft Movie, and more.

Image: © Randall Michelson

Vancouver Playhouse

Talks

The world’s leading creators share expertise on their craft.

Worlds Within Worlds: Brandon Tonner-Connolly & Matt Hyland, Production Designers, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma
two women with a projector light shining over their shoulders

Worlds Within Worlds: Brandon Tonner-Connolly & Matt Hyland, Production Designers, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma

90 min

Production designers Brandon Tonner-Connolly and Matt Hyland dive into their approach to collaboration and how they work with directors like Jane Schoenbrun on I Saw the TV Glow and Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma.

Annex
Stories Behind the Music: Mark Mothersbaugh, Composer & Musician
man sitting next to a keyboard

Stories Behind the Music: Mark Mothersbaugh, Composer & Musician

90 min

Join legendary DEVO co-founder and composer Mark Mothersbaugh in conversation with award-winning composer and former studio executive Robert Kraft, exploring a singular career spanning Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, Thor: Ragnarok, and more.

The Rio Theatre

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