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
All the Lovers in the Night
Oct 9 & 11
Dir. Yukiko Sode
“A challenging but also keenly insightful meditation of the self-fulfilling cycles of trauma and the nature of love.” Elizabeth Kerr, Screen Daily
Nowhere to Lay My Eyes
Oct 9 & 11
Dir. Hong Sangsoo
“A brief, bittersweet comedy of familial distance and personal drift, crisply and candidly shot,” Guy Lodge, Variety
Yugo Goes to America
Oct 9 & 10
Dir. Filip Grujić, Aleksa Borković
EU Audience Award for Best Documentary, Beldocs 2026
Yo (Love Is a Rebellious Bird)
Oct 9 & 10
Dir. Anna Fitch, Banker White
“A deeply joyful work, crafted with painstaking care and precision,” Leslie Felperin, The Hollywood Reporter
© Mirabel Pictures
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!
La Gradiva
Winner of the Grand Prize at Cannes’ Critics’ Week, Marine Atlan's feature debut follows a class of French high-school students on a trip to Naples. While learning about the ruins of Pompeii by day, a different kind of education takes place at night.
Image: © Films du poisson, Bibi Film TV, Arte France Cinema
Everybody Digs Bill Evans
After taping two of the greatest jazz records in a single day, legendary pianist Bill Evans (Anders Danielsen Lie) stops playing for the first time since childhood. This is the story of what happened next for this incredibly influential and gifted artist.
Image: © Shane O’Connor 2026 Cowtown Pictures, Hot Property
Everytime
Winner of this year’s prestigious Un Certain Regard award at Cannes, Sandra Wollner’s exquisite debut is a tender drama in which a mother is drawn closer to her youngest daughter and her late daughter’s boyfriend as they make sense of a shared tragedy.
Image: © The Barricades Panama Film, Gregory Oke
Now Playing
Rose
Claiming to be the heir to a patch of German farmland, a disfigured soldier ignores the townsfolk’s suspicions, cultivates the land, and takes a wife, all while concealing that they were born a woman. Featuring a mesmerizing Sandra Hüller performance.
Nagi Notes
This graceful, serene drama brings former sisters-in-law together in an exploration of art, sexuality, and psychology. There’s a complex backstory here, but not a hint of melodrama: writer-director Koji Fukada is a master of subtle revelation.
Image: © 2026 Nagi Notes Partners (Star SandsHassaku LabsWonderstruck) Survivance Momo Film Co.
Nowhere to Lay My Eyes
VIFF mainstay Hong Sangsoo returns with the story of a daughter, her estranged mother, and the step-family she's never met. Hong's visual style is unadorned as ever — all the better to highlight the strangeness of human interaction.
Short Forum 8: Queer Magic
Do you believe in magic?
I Plant My Hand in the Garden
Boris and Hoda, a newly married couple from Serbia and Iran, respectively, embark on a new chapter of their lives in Berlin. As they anticipate the birth of their child, they refuse to be defined by societal expectations.
The Loneliest Man in Town
Vienna-based Al Cook plays a fictionalized version of himself in this poignant deadpan portrait of a bluesman at a crossroads. A beguiling minor-key medley of melancholy and nostalgia that draws you fully into its thrall.
Image: © Vento Film
Explore VIFF 2026's Film Program
View festival by genre, country, language and more
View festival on an interactive calendar grid
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Festival Encores
Coming Soon to VIFF Centre
NAZA
NAZA is a codeword euphemistically used by Israeli intelligence to indicate the number of civilians it expects will be killed in an airstrike. This chilling documentary exposes the policy and process of state-sanctioned mass killings.
Once Upon a Time in Harlem
Once Upon a Time in Harlem splices together footage shot by William Greaves in 1972 of a group of Harlem Renaissance luminaries in conversation at Duke Ellington’s townhouse. The film is a living archive of memory, disagreement, style, and Black genius.
Possible Love
Lee Chang-dong’s first film since Burning (2018) is a sardonic, slow-burning satire about two couples: a documentary filmmaker married to a wealthy businessman, and a working-class family struggling to make ends meet after the husband has been laid off.
The History of Concrete
After attending a workshop on pitching saccharine Hallmark movies, John Wilson tries to apply all the same best practices to his documentary about concrete. Frequently absurd and endlessly entertaining detours, asides, and digressions ensue.
La Bola Negra
A big, old-school historical melodrama gets a thrillingly modern, queer makeover from Spanish duo Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, who artfully juggle three gay protagonists across stories set in 1932, 1937, and 2017. Winner: Best Director, Cannes. Screening on 35mm.
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