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Image: Granny Must Die, at VIFF Centre

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Universal Language

Dir. Matthew Rankin
89 min

In a wintery, Farsi-speaking city that’s equal measures Winnipeg and Tehran, storylines entangle and the concepts of space, time, and identity grow increasingly opaque. Inventive and absurd, Rankin's poetic fable reminds us that Winnipeg is a wonderland. Rated: G

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Seed of the Sacred Fig

Dir. Mohammad Rasoulof
167 min

A tense mystery and an act of radical protest, this film tells the story of an Iranian lawyer who’s lost his handgun and knows someone in his family took it. With every moment, his wife and daughters grow more afraid of him–yet none of them will confess…

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

No Other Land

Dir. Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham & Rachel Szor
96 min

Deemed by many critics one of the essential films of 2024, a multiple festival award winner and a nominee for the Academy Award for Best Documentary, No Other Land is a reminder that mass expulsion is by no means a new reality for Palestinians.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

LIZA: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story

Dir. Bruce David Klein
104 min

Even if you think you know about Liza Minnelli, you're guaranteed to glean unexpected insights into this admiring portrait of pizzazz personified.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Come Home, My Child

Dir. Jasmine Chinghui Lee
91 min

Filmed over ten years, Come Home, My Child narrates the American Dream through the lens of three women -- including Taiwanese immigrant Mama Yang -- and their bond with prison inmates in America. Rated: PG

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Play It Loud! How Toronto Got Soul

Dir. Graeme Mathieson
84 min

Legendary Toronto soul, funk, and ska singer Jay Douglas leads us through an energizing history of Canadian Caribbean music. Join us Friday night and meet Jay in person, along with producer Andrew Munger!

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Black History Month

The VIFF Centre marks Black History Month with a vibrant line-up of live events, guest-curated series, music documentaries, and more.

Luther: Never Too Much

Dir. Dawn Porter
101 min

There is a lot more to soul superstar Luther Vandross than his honeyed hits. This definitive doc sheds light on his work with artists including David Bowie, Diana Ross and Aretha Franklin, his struggles with his image and sexuality, and remarkable gifts.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Play It Loud! How Toronto Got Soul

Dir. Graeme Mathieson
84 min

Legendary Toronto soul, funk, and ska singer Jay Douglas leads us through an energizing history of Canadian Caribbean music. Join us Friday night and meet Jay in person, along with producer Andrew Munger!

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Mami Wata + Drexciya

Dir. C.J. "Fiery" Obasi
119 min

Fiery Obasi's tremendous, dreamy fable, shot in inky, lustrous black and white, is an elemental tale of magic, devotion, and generational unease set in a traditional Nigerian village.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Pirogue

Dir. Moussa Touré
87 min

When offered the chance to lead one of the many Senegalese pirogues bound for Europe via the Canary Islands, Baye Laye reluctantly accepts the job, knowing full-well the many perils that lie ahead.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Mother of George

Dir. Andrew Dosunmu
107 min

Following their joyous wedding, complications arise for a Nigerian couple living in Brooklyn when they're unable to conceive a child - a problem that devastates their family, defies cultural expectations, and leads the wife to make a shocking decision.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Inheritance

Dir. Ephraim Asili
102 min

The inheritance is a house in Philadelphia bequeathed to Julian by his grandmother. He asks his girlfriend Gwen to move in, and next thing he knows there's an entire collective, The House of Ubutu, a commune that will be a safe space for Black folk.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Film Studies: Adaptation, Innovation & Evolution

Monday Afternoons Feb 3 – Mar 10

Filmmaker and educator Patricia Gruben unpacks the different approaches to writing for the screen when adapting from literary sources.

Explore Series

Tickets: $18

Series Pass $80

Throne of Blood

Dir. Akira Kurosawa
109 min

In this week's Film Studies talk, filmmaker and educator Patricia Gruben considers how Shakespeare's dramas have been translated to feudal Japan (in Kurosawa's Throne of Blood), New York gangs in the 1950s, and to occupied Kashmir, among other examples.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

The Hours

Dir. Stephen Daldry
115 min

Patricia Gruben leads us on an investigation into translating interior monologue to the screen, taking the case study of how Virginia Woolf inspired the Academy Award winning film The Hours by way of Michael Cunningham's best-selling novel.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

The Sweet Hereafter

Dir. Atom Egoyan
112 min

Patricia Gruben traces the history of Atom Egoyan's acclaimed movie back through Russell Banks' novel, all the way to its source in a real-life tragedy.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Full Metal Jacket

Dir. Stanley Kubrick
116 min

Kubrick's famous Vietnam war film was inspired by two sources, Gustav Hasford's semi-autobiographical novella The Short-Timers, and Dispatches, a nonfiction account by Michael Herr. Both writers worked separately on the script, which Kubrick consolidated.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Poor Things

Dir. Yorgos Lanthimos
142 min

Patricia Gruben wraps up our Film Studies series on the art of screen adaptation with this carnivalesque feminist take on the Frankenstein myth, Tony McNamara and Yorgos Lanthimos's film of Alasdair Gray's novel.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Feeling Romantic?

Celebrate Valentine’s Day at the VIFF Centre with your special someone. Choose from a heartfelt love story, a curated selection of classic cartoons, or something a bit more provocative…

Brief Encounter

Dir. David Lean
87 min

Considered one of the greatest British films ever made, this evergreen love story plays like In the Mood for Love, 1945 edition, with Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson instead of Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung, and Rachmaninoff instead of Nat King Cole.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
Dancing on the Moon: Fleischer Cartoon Valentines
collage of classic cartoon characters like Betty Boop

Dancing on the Moon: Fleischer Cartoon Valentines

Dir. Max Fleischer & Dave Fleischer
60 min

In this specially curated package of vintage family-friendly cartoons from the 1920s and 30s by animation pioneer Max Fleischer the emphasis is on love and romance. Featuring Betty Boop & Bimbo the dog, Popeye the Sailor Man et al.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Doctor Zhivago

Dir. David Lean
197 min

This Valentine Day, wrap yourself in David Lean's epic, all-star love story, set against the tumult of the Russian Revolution. With Maurice Jarre's haunting score, Omar Sharif as the soulful doctor/poet, and Julie Christie as his soul-mate Lara.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Paying For It

Dir. Sook-Yin Lee
85 min

Talk about a hall of mirrors! Sook-Yin Lee wittily adapts the graphic novel of the same name by her ex-boyfriend, Canadian cartoonist Chester Brown, about the end of their relationship Brown's subsequent decision to start paying for sex.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Pantheon: The Greatest Films of All Time

Pantheon, presented by MUBI, is a monthly series showcasing a selection of the “greatest movies of all time,” inspired by the mother of all film lists, the critics’ poll that has run once a decade in the UK’s Sight & Sound magazine since 1952.

Presented by

Individual Tickets $23

or

Series Pass $170

Oscars® at VIFF Centre

Catch these Oscar®-nominated films on the big screen!

No Other Land

Dir. Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham & Rachel Szor
96 min

Deemed by many critics one of the essential films of 2024, a multiple festival award winner and a nominee for the Academy Award for Best Documentary, No Other Land is a reminder that mass expulsion is by no means a new reality for Palestinians.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Seed of the Sacred Fig

Dir. Mohammad Rasoulof
167 min

A tense mystery and an act of radical protest, this film tells the story of an Iranian lawyer who’s lost his handgun and knows someone in his family took it. With every moment, his wife and daughters grow more afraid of him–yet none of them will confess…

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Soundtrack to a Coup D’Etat

Dir. Johan Grimonprez
150 min

In January 1961, seven months after Congolese independence, Patrice Lumumba is assassinated. In excavating the history of this political murder, this essay-film traces the complex and unlikely intersections of American jazz and Cold War geopolitics.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Porcelain War

Dir. Brendan Bellomo & Slava Leontyev
87 min

In Canada we cannot truly comprehend a scenario in which our country is invaded and civilians compelled to take up arms. Yet for Ukrainians, this is the reality. In Porcelain War, three artists elect to stay and fight -- with cameras, yes, and with guns.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Black Box Diaries

Dir. Shiori Ito
104 min

A first person true crime story, Shiori Ito's Black Box Dairies chronicles her long, difficult campaign to hold a veteran journalist (a friend of the Prime Minister) to account for rape.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Conclave

Dir. Edward Berger
120 min

When the Pope dies, Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) must orchestrate the election of a successor. This deeply satisfying Vatican thriller features newcomer Carlos Diehz in a key supporting role, Cardinal Benitez.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

First Look Fridays

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

Explore VIFF's Year-Round Series

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