
VIFF 2025 Program: See It Now!
The wait is over! We are excited to share with you the stellar line-up for the 44th Vancouver International Film Festival, October 2 – 12. Over 170 films, 80 shorts, VIFF Live performances, Talks and special events will light up the screens and stages across Vancouver. Take a moment, explore the program and get ready to VIFF!
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Magnolia
This deeply personal 1999 California opus is ripe for rediscovery. Mapping the emotional traumas of half-a-dozen major characters as they criss-cross the San Fernando Valley in search of either recognition or reconciliation, it's PTA's riskiest gamble.
The Balconettes
In this flamboyant black comedy set in Marseille during a heatwave, writer-director-star Noémie Merlant and her two besties have to cover up the unpleasant evidence of a disastrous night partying with the hunk across the way.
Lady Bird
Greta Gerwig's first film as writer-director is a delightful, painful comedy about "Lady Bird" McPherson (Saoirse Ronan), a Sacramento teen on the point of swapping high school for college, and her hard-working mom, Marion (Laurie Metcalf).
Portrait of a Lady on Fire
Céline Sciamma's queer costume drama -- about a painter covertly studying a young noblewoman who refuses to sit for her portrait -- was voted 30th Greatest Film Ever Made in a 2022 poll, the highest ranking film of the past decade.
Synecdoche, New York
Charlie Kaufman wrote Being John Malkovich, Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind -- all great, all successful -- then turned director with Synecdoche, which is a masterpiece and which basically went unseen. It's overdue rediscovery.
Festival Preludes
Sept 1 – 25
Boost your festival experience with a refresher course on nine of the international auteurs whose work is making waves this year.
Boyhood
A dozen years in the making, Richard Linklater's masterpiece chronicles the evolution of a boy into a young man, from six to 18. It is the ultimate coming-of-age movie, and one of the most audacious cinematic feats of the decade.
School of Rock
With not one, but two new Richard Linklater movies at VIFF this year (Nouvelle Vague and Blue Moon), we thought it would be fun to revisit a choice cut from his rich back catalogue: the best Black and White movie ever made, School of Rock.
Godland
In the late 19th century, a Danish Lutheran priest is dispatched to a far corner of Iceland where a devout farmer has seen fit to build a church. The physical journey is arduous. His spriitual journey, more taxing still.
A White, White Day
In a remote Icelandic town, an off-duty police chief begins to suspect a local man of having had an affair with his late wife, who died in a tragic accident. Intense psychological drama from the director of Godland and The Love That Remains.
Old Joy
Kelly Reichardt's moving and exquisite debut feature stars Will Oldham and Daniel London as old friends who reunite for a weekend camping trip in the Cascades outside of Portland. Reichardt's new movie, The Mastermind, screens at VIFF.
Paul Thomas Anderson: Sins of the Fathers
Aug 25 – Sept 10
Paul Thomas Anderson’s is a risky, unorthodox cinema, flexing between grand gestures and hidden depths, but to rewatch his films is always to discover that fleeting, elusive but profound possibility of connection.
Magnolia
This deeply personal 1999 California opus is ripe for rediscovery. Mapping the emotional traumas of half-a-dozen major characters as they criss-cross the San Fernando Valley in search of either recognition or reconciliation, it's PTA's riskiest gamble.

21st Century Classics
Jul 9 – Aug 31
These movies speak to our times and push the boundaries of the art form — the true modern classics we’re confident will withstand the test of time.
VIFF 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.
Matt Grinke's Happiest Jazz Quintet Play Classic Disney Songs
Enjoy a set of beloved Disney movie tunes given the Matt Grinke treatment, and after the live music, groove to the original 1967 version of The Jungle Book, featuring songs like I Wanna Be Like You, The Bare Necessities and Trust In Me.
Image: © 1967, Disney
Cory Weeds Plays Sonny Rollins
Local sax legend Cory Weeds is joined by pianist Sharon Minemoto, bassist David Caballero and drummer Jesse Cahill to play music from Sonny Rollins' 1957 Riverside Records release The Sound Of Sonny, plus a screening of the acclaimed Saxophone Colossus doc.
Kit Eakle’s Jaz’n’theViolin String Band
Kit Eakle's 'Jaz'N'theViolin' String Band pay tribute to Louie Bluie, one of many fiddle players who gave birth to the new sounds of jazz and blues at the beginning of the twentieth century, followed by Terry Zwigoff's documentary portrait.
Blue Horse Opera
Rick Maddocks' visionary song cycle fuses indie, folk, classical music and dance, drawing inspiration from the climate emergency and the cinematic landscapes of spaghetti westerns. Followed by Sergio Sollima's The Big Gundown, starring Lee van Cleef.
George Garzone Live
Saxophone giant George Garzone celebrates free jazz with the help of the explosive Jerry Steinhilber Trio. Their set will be followed by a screening of Tom Surgal's documentary, Fire Music, featuring John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman and Cecil Taylor.
Image: © Lee Tanner, The Jazz Image
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