Now Playing
Wisdom of Happiness
An audience with the Dalai Lama, who, at 90, looks back on his life and shares the tenets of Buddhism as a practical guide to surviving the 21st Century with joy and compassion.
Measures for a Funeral
When a young academic discovers a personal link to Canadian violinist Kathleen Parlow, she is compelled to dig deeper. Her investigations lead her on the trail of an elusive concerto, lost for over a century, but which she is determined to bring to light.
Meadowlarks
Fifty years after being separated during the Sixties Scoop, four Cree siblings reunite for the first time on a long weekend trip to Banff. Tasha Hubbard’s sensitive drama relates an emotional and life-affirming story of kinship and belonging.
Jay Kelly
In Noah Baumbach's wise and witty comedy, George Clooney plays Jay Kelly, a world-famous movie star touring Europe with his friend and manager, Ron (Adam Sandler). Faced with nagging dissatisfaction, Jay starts to ask himself some tough questions.
Film Studies
Un-American Activities: Hollywood Subversives and the Blacklist
Mondays, 11am | Nov 3 – Dec 1 | Presented by Mike Archibald
An exploration of Hollywood communism through five movies.
He Ran All the Way
Dec 1
John Berry’s gripping, poignant thriller stars John Garfield in his final film performance. He plays Nick Robey, a small-time hood on the run from a stick-up gone wrong. The last gasp of “Red” Hollywood, this fine film deserves to be better known.
Vancouver Romanian Film Festival 2025
Dec 1 – 4
Free screenings showcasing seven of the best Romanian films from the last couple of years.
Nasty
1972. Ilie Năstase wins his first US Open, while reaching both the Wimbledon and Davis Cup finals, and enters tennis history. Nasty explores his highs and lows, the controversies that surrounded the 1973 world number one ranked player.
Holiday Programming at VIFF Centre
The Baltimorons
An early Xmas present and the rom-com of the year: a dental emergency on Christmas Eve brings together flailing comedian Chris and cynical divorcee Didi for a series of low-key urban misadventures.
The Muppet Christmas Carol
VIFF Kids Club is our monthly family series with films, crafts and more! Doors at 10 am for activities, film at 11 am. Sir Michael Caine shines as Ebenezer Scrooge in this downright irresistible musical Muppet version of the Dickens yuletide favourite!
The Leading Ladies Perform Duke Ellington's The Nutcracker Suite
Join us for a unique Nutcracker experience: a live jazz rendition of Duke Ellington's take on Tchaikovsky's music, followed by the premiere of an inspiring doc about how even Covid 19 couldn't stop New York ballet's finest from staging the Xmas favourite.
The Nutcracker at Wethersfield
Back in the long, dark Covid winter of 2020, there was no way the New York City Ballet could mount their traditional Christmas production of Tchaikovsky's fairytale. But choreographer Troy Schumacher had a dream to save the show -- reimagining a classic.
It's a Wonderful Life
Every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings. This Christmas classic is whimsical, sure, but it has the depth to stand up to multiple watches, and it really should be a communal experience, because that is what it's about.
Hundreds of Beavers: A Northwoods Christmas
The funniest, and certainly the furriest movie you will see this year, Hundreds of Beavers channels the zany slapstick shtick of Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin and Bugs Bunny through a videogame quest narrative to retell the eternal saga of Man v Nature.
Festival Encores
Whether you missed a movie at VIFF, or want to give a title a second look, here’s your chance. Catch these audience favourites as they return to the big screen.
Jay Kelly
In Noah Baumbach's wise and witty comedy, George Clooney plays Jay Kelly, a world-famous movie star touring Europe with his friend and manager, Ron (Adam Sandler). Faced with nagging dissatisfaction, Jay starts to ask himself some tough questions.
Meadowlarks
Fifty years after being separated during the Sixties Scoop, four Cree siblings reunite for the first time on a long weekend trip to Banff. Tasha Hubbard’s sensitive drama relates an emotional and life-affirming story of kinship and belonging.
Orwell: 2+2=5
Oscar-nominated director Raoul Peck reimagines 1984 in this urgent essay on power, language, and control. With narration by Damian Lewis, it’s a chilling portrait of how Orwell’s warnings became our reality.
Cover-Up
Oscar-winner Laura Poitras and Emmy-winner Mark Obenhaus turn their lens on legendary journalist Seymour Hersh in a riveting film that unpacks how one reporter exposed the truths behind My Lai and Abu Ghraib — and what it takes to hold power to account.
Image: © The New York Times
The Secret Agent
Having run afoul of an influential bureaucrat in Brazil’s military dictatorship circa 1977, Marcelo decamps to Recife to live under an assumed name — but he’ll soon come to understand precisely how rampant the country’s corruption has become.
Cutting Through Rocks
Winner of Sundance's World Cinema Documentary Grand Jury Prize, Cutting Through Rocks follows Sara Shahverdi — motorcyclist, midwife, and first-ever councilwoman elected in her Iranian village. A vérité triumph by Sara Khaki & Mohammadreza Eyni.
Nouvelle Vague
Linklater's love letter to Paris, 1959, and the difficult birth of Jean-Luc Godard's first feature, Breathless, channels the auteur's blithe self confidence and an era of all-encompassing cinephilia. It's the next best thing to being there.
Sentimental Value
A once-revered director crashes back into his family’s lives, eager to recruit his daughter for a film role. When she declines, he finds a new muse in an eager but unpolished Hollywood star, sending his botched reconciliation spiraling into chaos.
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