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
Everybody Digs Bill Evans
Oct 10 & 11
Dir. Grant Gee
“Elusive, ruminative and very absorbing,” Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
© Shane O’Connor 2026 Cowtown Pictures, Hot Property
Afterlives
Oct 10 & 11
Dir. Kevin B. Lee
An immersive, essayistic documentary, Afterlives is bursting with ideas.
Flesh and Fuel
Oct 10
Dir. Pierre Le Gall
A gay romance set in the unlikely milieu of the European trucking industry.
The Guest
Oct 10 & 11
Dir. Mads Mengel
Best Director: Special Jury Prize, Karlovy Vary 2026
© Henrik Ohsten
Kikuyu Land
Oct 10 & 11
Dir. Andrew H. Brown, Bea Wangondu
Best Documentary Feature Award, Mountainfilm Festival 2026; Best Cinematography for a Documentary Feature, Woods Hole Film Festival 2026
Ugly Cry
Oct 10 & 11
Dir. Emily Robinson
With a cheeky injection of delirium and dark humour, Ugly Cry takes a clever jab at internet-age beauty standards and gender norms.
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!
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Revolutionaries Never Die
Revolutionaries Never Die is Mohanad Yaqubi’s reply to Jocelyne Saab, who passed away before the two could collaborate. Yaqubi's film serves as equal parts tribute, conversation, and partnership with the revolutionary past.
Closure
In Closure, Michał Marczak follows Daniel, a father searching the Vistula River after his teenage son disappears from Warsaw’s Gdański Bridge. Resisting true-crime spectacle, this is a film questions whether hope can sometimes keep you trapped.
Hear the Yellow
Suna returns to her native Anatolian village for her nephew’s wedding, where the mystery of her sister’s disappearance still looms over the small community. Determined to finally get to the bottom of it, she must reckon with complicated circumstances.
Image: © Anagraffilm
Now Playing
Kikuyu Land
Kikuyu Land follows Mr. Mungai’s struggle to reclaim family land taken during the colonial era. Through personal stories and archival research, the film explores the enduring impact of land dispossession in Kenya.
Crocodile
In Crocodile, a group of young, self-taught filmmakers turn Kaduna's streets, homes, and residents into the raw materials of sci-fi cinema. This Tribeca Viewpoints winner examines filmmaking as a means to overcome a city's constraints.
The Only Living Pickpocket in New York
A career thief’s circumstances grow desperate when he fences valuable merchandise stolen from a vengeful crime family. John Turturro is exquisite as a wiseacre who is typically one step ahead of everyone but now finds himself behind the eight ball.
Yo (Love Is a Rebellious Bird)
Winner of the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution at this year's Berlinale, Anna Fitch and Banker White’s exuberant documentary combines vérité interviews with a playful mix of puppetry, collage, and insect actors to memorialize a friend.
Image: © Mirabel Pictures
Ceremony
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.
No Good Men
Naru, the sole camerawoman at a major Kabul newsroom, is convinced that there are “no good men” left in Afghanistan. But partnered with the station’s star reporter in the leadup to the Taliban’s return to power in 2021, her outlook starts to shift.
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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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