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Image: They Will Be Dust, at VIFF Centre

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All We Imagine as Light

Dir. Payal Kapadia
115 min

What Wong Kar-wai did for Hong Kong, Payal Kapadia does for Mumbai: the Cannes Grand Prix winner is a romantic heartbreaker about three nurses at different stages of life. It's a future classic.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Teacher Who Promised the Sea

Dir. Patricia Font
105 min

Based on a true story, Patricia Font’s drama excavates a dark period in Spanish history. Antoni Benaiges takes up a village teaching position in 1935. But his new-fangled ideas about learning outrage the local priest.

VIFF Centre - Vancity Theatre

Living Together

Dir. Halima Elkhatabi
75 min

Halima Elkhatabi’s delightful documentary feature takes us to 15 apartments in Montreal, where a diverse assortment of potential roommates interview each other as they search for compatibility, authentic connections, and a place to call home.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Rioja, Land of a Thousand Wines

Dir. José Luis Lopez-Linares
90 min

Directed by multiple Goya award winner José Luis Lopez-Linares, this lip-smacking tour of Spain's best known wine region dives into the push and pull between tradition and innovation in an industry that is led by family dynasties.

Image © MORENA FILMS

VIFF Centre - Vancity Theatre

Theater of Thought

Dir. Werner Herzog
108 min

Werner Herzog investigates the human mind in this free-associative philosophical comedy about a mad filmmaker interrogating some of the most brilliant minds in science.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Little Loves

Dir. Celia Rico
95 min

Teresa (María Vázquez) is compelled to change her holiday plans to help her proudly independent mother (Adriana Ozores), who has had a fall. Mother and daughter will spend a stifling summer disagreeing on everything -- but finding each other again.

VIFF Centre - Vancity Theatre

New Spanish Cinema

Jan 3 – 7

Kick off the new year in style with a vibrant celebration of Spanish storytelling at the VIFF Centre. Featuring five premieres of standout Spanish films, the fifth annual New Spanish Cinema combines hope, heart, song, dance — and of course, wine.

Little Loves

Dir. Celia Rico
95 min

Teresa (María Vázquez) is compelled to change her holiday plans to help her proudly independent mother (Adriana Ozores), who has had a fall. Mother and daughter will spend a stifling summer disagreeing on everything -- but finding each other again.

VIFF Centre - Vancity Theatre

I Am Nevenka

Dir. Icíar Bollaín
112 min

Bollain's film is based on the true story of a young city councillor who reported the mayor for sexual misconduct, and faced a barrage of sexist innuendo and criticism -- but refused to back down.

VIFF Centre - Vancity Theatre

They Will Be Dust

Dir. Carlos Marques-Marcet
106 min

When stage veteran Claudia decides she doesn't want to wait out her terminal illness, longtime partner and director Flavi calls the family together to break the news... Fantastic musical numbers and comedy offset scenes of wrenching emotion.

VIFF Centre - Vancity Theatre

The Teacher Who Promised the Sea

Dir. Patricia Font
105 min

Based on a true story, Patricia Font’s drama excavates a dark period in Spanish history. Antoni Benaiges takes up a village teaching position in 1935. But his new-fangled ideas about learning outrage the local priest.

VIFF Centre - Vancity Theatre

Rioja, Land of a Thousand Wines

Dir. José Luis Lopez-Linares
90 min

Directed by multiple Goya award winner José Luis Lopez-Linares, this lip-smacking tour of Spain's best known wine region dives into the push and pull between tradition and innovation in an industry that is led by family dynasties.

Image © MORENA FILMS

VIFF Centre - Vancity Theatre

Citizen Artist Activist... Lino Brocka

Jan 10 – 16

One of the greatest Filipino filmmakers of all time, Lino Brocka is a figurehead for artists who champion the marginalized and the exploited even through the hardest times; who speak truth to power and refuse to back down.

This is the cinema of resistance. This is the cinema of an artist who wasn’t afraid. There is no time more well suited than now to remember his example.

Signed: Lino Brocka

Dir. Christian Blackwood
83 min

Based on a series of highly engaging and frank interviews with the great Filipino filmmaker in the mid 1980s, Christian Blackwood's film is an important record of the artist reflecting on his life and work.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Bona (New 4K Restoration)

Dir. Lino Brocka
88 min

Philippine superstar Nora Aunor plays against type as Bona, a schoolgirl infatuated with a hunky supporting actor (Phillip Salvador as the noxious Gardo) in this kicky rediscovered Lino Brocka classic.

VIFF Centre - Vancity Theatre VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Victor Noriega's Kuyatet + Lino Brocka's Manila in the Claws of Light

Dir. Lino Brocka
200 min

To celebrate our spotlight on Filipino director Lino Brocka, we are pairing a screening of Manila in the Claws of Light with an hour of jazz interpretations of Filipino music led by Victor Noriega, with his band Kuyatet ("Kuya" means "Brother" in Tagalog).

VIFF Centre - Vancity Theatre

National Anarchist: Lino Brocka

Dir. Khavn De La Cruz
70 min

If you don't have time to work your way through all 60-odd features Lino Brocka made between 1970 and 1991, let his compatriot and acolyte, video artist Khavn De La Cruz, fast-forward through them for you in this fragmentary, fired-up super cut.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Insiang

Dir. Lino Brocka
94 min

Jealousy and violence take center stage in this claustrophobic melodrama set in the slums of Manila. Lino Brocka crafts an eviscerating portrait of an innocent daughter and her bitter mother, used and abused by men.

VIFF Centre - Vancity Theatre VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Manila in the Claws of Light

Dir. Lino Brocka
125 min

A pungent slice of neo-realist noir, Manila in the Claws of Light is regarded as the greatest Philippine movie ever made. It's the story of a fisherman, Julio, who comes to the big city in the footsteps of his fiancée, who has gone missing.

VIFF Centre - Vancity Theatre

Bong 1-7

Jan 17 – 23

Bong Joon-ho is one of the key filmmakers of our time. His movies are sharply satirical, violent, high concept, and yet, somehow, irrefutably human.

Join us for a complete retrospective of all seven of Bong’s features, and a bonus anthology film.

Bong 1-7 Symposium: Jan 18 & 19

Join us for a weekend of expert talks and screenings of all 7 films

Buy a Pass for $99

Memories of Murder

Dir. Bong Joon-ho
132 min

Parasite director Bong Joon-ho's police procedural is the centrepiece of our retrospective and arguably his masterpiece. Certainly, among serial killer movies this one is on a par with Zodiac and The Silence of the Lambs, but more politically astute.

VIFF Centre - Vancity Theatre

Mother

Dir. Bong Joon-Ho
128 min

Dominated by a remarkable performance from veteran Kim Hye-Ja as a quack herbalist who will stop at nothing to clear her son of a murder charge, this is Bong's most under-rated movie, a fascinating companion piece to Memories of Murder.

VIFF Centre - Vancity Theatre

Barking Dogs Never Bite

Dir. Bong Joon-Ho
108 min

Bong's first film is a genial black comedy involving the deaths -- accidental and otherwise -- of several dogs in a Seoul apartment complex. Saturday's screening will be followed by a talk by Distinguished Professor Dal Yong Jin.

VIFF Centre - Vancity Theatre

The Host

Dir. Bong Joon-Ho
119 min

Bong's monster movie (inspired by a real-life pollution scandal and carrying a prophetic viral load of its own) is his most purely fun entertainment. It's the most successful Korean movie ever made.

VIFF Centre - Vancity Theatre

First Look Fridays

Enjoy $10 tickets at the first Friday matinee screening of these films.

Relaxed Screenings & Captioned Screenings

Our monthly Relaxed Screenings are open to anyone who would benefit from a sensory-friendly experience.

Our Wednesday matinee Captioned Screenings welcome Deaf and hard of hearing audiences, along with anyone who benefits from captions.

Explore VIFF's Year-Round Series

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