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Marcella
Marcella Hazan taught North Americans that there was more to Italian food than pizza and meatballs. She wrote what remains the definitive book on the subject (Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking). This is her story.
Sabbath Queen
The dynastic heir of 38 generations of Orthodox rabbis, including the Chief Rabbis of Israel, Amichai Lau-Lavie is what you might call the black sheep of the family. His sexuality led him down a different path, but its destination is surprising...
Caught by the Tides
Over two decades, across China’s rapidly changing landscape, two lovers meet and part and meet again. In this magisterial film, Jia Zhangke refracts the 21st century through a reflexive, retrospective look at his era-defining filmography.
The Penguin Lessons
Steve Coogan nails a juicy role in the true story of an English teacher in 70s Argentina who reluctantly p-p-picks up a penguin from an oil-slicked beach but finds his new friend is stickier than he looks.
Sweet Summer Pow Wow
After the local hit The Great Salish Heist, writer-director Darrell Dennis proves his versatility with this charming love story about two young people who meet cute on BC's Pow Wow circuit. Her mom wants her to become a lawyer, but Jinny loves to dance...
One to One: John and Yoko
Both a concert film (Madison Square Gardens, August 1972) and a time machine, dropping us into the dizzying political kaleidoscope of the early 1970s, Kevin Macdonald's latest documentary is a rewarding addition to Lennon Studies.
DOXA at VIFF
Western Canada’s largest documentary film festival returns from May 1-11, 2025. DOXA will screen a roster of timely and thought-provoking documentaries in venues across the city — including here at the VIFF Centre.
Mother's Day
This Mother’s Day, Sunday, May 11, celebrate with your film-loving mom! Enjoy a screening of an iconic ’80s flick, and keep the love going all year with a discounted VIFF+ Premium Membership.
Bring Mom to the Movies
Enjoy 2-for-1 tickets to beloved ‘80s classics Steel Magnolias or Terms of Endearment. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry – and you’ll give your mom an extra hug. Add two tickets to your cart and the second is on us.
Give Mom a Gift that Lasts All Year
Save $20 on a VIFF+ Premium Membership, including $5 off cinema tickets, 30% off festival passes, free popcorn vouchers and more! Enter code LOVEYOUMOM at checkout.
Queering Cinema
May 15 – Jun 12
Curated by Fay Nass, Queering Cinema features five features and two short films which have extended the scope of queer cinema, exploring the themes of masculinity, loneliness, belonging and desire.
Tehran: City of Love
Three lovesick individuals struggle to find romance as this tragicomic triptych plays out across the weddings, funerals, beauty parlours, and gyms of Tehran. This is the opening film in our new Queering Cinema series and will be followed by a set from DJ Nancydru.
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Released in 2001, John Cameron Mitchell's flamboyant rock musical about a gender-queer punk rock singer from East Berlin pushed the boundaries of queer cinema. It's both heartbreaking and empowering. Screening with the short The Human Voice.
Moonlight
Three chapters in the life of Chiron, a young black man grappling with his identity and sexuality in a rough Miami neighborhood. Barry Jenkins' exploration of vulnerability and love offers a refreshing alternative to traditional portrayals of masculinity. Screening with the short Strange Way of Life.
Close-Knit
A young girl, Tomo, unexpectedly finds herself living with her uncle and his transgender partner, a woman named Tetsu. The unconventional family arrangement serves as a backdrop for exploring the challenges and joys of living authentically.
Compassionate Light:
Stories of Tibet by Pema Tseden
May 16 – 29
Tibetan director Pema Tseden became one of the most remarkable filmmakers of this century, revolutionizing the representation of Tibet and Tibetans and sharing his visions of authentic Tibetan life with the entire film-going world by reimagining how narrative cinematic fiction could operate within so-called “Chinese minority cinema”.
The Search
Shot in exquisite long takes, this brilliant film is a road movie wrapped around three love stories. A director and crew are looking for local cast to star in their film version of the classic Tibetan opera Prince Drime Kundun.
The Silent Holy Stones
In Pema Tseden's first feature, a very young Tibetan lama living in a monastery in Qinghai discovers the delights of binge-watching a Chinese TV serial, just one aspect of the contradictions he will have to navigate in a culture steeped in tradition.
Snow Leopard
The last film Pema Tseden finished before his death at age 53 is an enthralling, semi-mystical fable about the deep spiritual connection between a young Tibetan priest and a snow leopard responsible for killing livestock belonging to the priest's brother.
First Steps: Pema Tseden Short Films
Pema Tseden was the first Tibetan director to graduate from the Beijing Film Academy. The Silent Manistone (2002) and his graduation film, The Grassland (2004) are fascinating sketches for later works.
Old Dog
In what may be Pema Tseden's darkest film, a Tibetan mastiff is sold, recovered, re-sold, stolen, and recovered yet again, passing through the hands of an ethnic Chinese dealer, the local police, and Tibetan dog rustlers.
Balloon
The young sons of virile Tibetan shepherd Dargye mistake their parents' condoms for balloons. Meanwhile Dargye is looking for a ram to impregnate his flock. Balloon is fascinated with ideas of potency, pregnancy, and the possibilities for female autonomy.
The Sacred Arrow
A romantic, gorgeously shot, widescreen modern fable, this is a marked departure from Pema Tseden's usual stye. Handsome Nyima and brooding Dradon are ace archers from rival villages who vie in an annual contest for the ultimate prize, the Sacred Arrow.
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
Bicycle Thieves
May 18
De Sica’s film about a labourer desperate to track down the bike that has been stolen from him is a landmark in film history, the movie that cemented the impact of Italian neo-realism on world cinema.
The Genius of Gena Rowlands
Apr 25 – Jun 3
Dedicated to one of the most inspiring and influential American actresses of the past half century, this series showcases the versatility and star power that was Gena Rowlands.
Gloria
Gena Rowlands was nominated for Best Actress for her portrait of gangster's moll Gloria Swenson: a tough, chain-smoking broad who finds herself running from her former friends in the mob to protect her next door neighbour's orphaned six-year-old kid.
Love Streams
The last movie Gena Rowlands and John Cassavetes made together is an eccentrically beautiful, painful piece about a writer (Cassavetes) broken out of his self-imposed exile by the arrival of a son he doesn't know, and a sister he hasn't seen in years.
Marcella
Marcella Hazan taught North Americans that there was more to Italian food than pizza and meatballs. She wrote what remains the definitive book on the subject (Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking). This is her story.
Sabbath Queen
The dynastic heir of 38 generations of Orthodox rabbis, including the Chief Rabbis of Israel, Amichai Lau-Lavie is what you might call the black sheep of the family. His sexuality led him down a different path, but its destination is surprising...
Caught by the Tides
Over two decades, across China’s rapidly changing landscape, two lovers meet and part and meet again. In this magisterial film, Jia Zhangke refracts the 21st century through a reflexive, retrospective look at his era-defining filmography.
Film Studies: Hollywood Babylon
Monday Afternoons Apr 7 – May 12
SIN! SEX! SHOCK! SCANDAL! Welcome to the sordid cinema of Pre-Code Hollywood! Classic film scholar Michael van den Bos is your tour guide on a 5-part trek through the seamier, steamier and sinister side of Hollywood movies from the early 1930s.
Trouble in Paradise
May 12
Herbert Marshall and Miriam Hopkins play lovers and thieves attempting to fleece the chic owner of a French perfume company, played by Kay Francis. What ensues is a modern ménage à trois in the most elegant, innuendo filled film comedy of all 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.
Kryptic
Oozing psycho-sexual anxiety, Kourtney Roy's fascinating feminist horror movie feints toward creature-feature quirk, but morphs into something much stranger. Chloe Pirrie plays a double role, or maybe Everywoman, adrift in a world of men and monsters.
Kryptic Live will feature a one-time-only screening of the film live scored by composer Cayne Mackenzie + Q&A with director Kourtney Roy.
Mary Ancheta Plays Betty Davis Tribute
In this VIFF Live event, keyboardist Mary Ancheta and her band channel the phenomenal funk of 70s sensation Betty Davis, featuring Dawn Pemberton on vocals. The live music portion of the event will be followed by Phil Cox's invaluable 2017 documentary, They Say I'm Different.
BC's Blue Note Legacy Quartet
Four of Vancouver's best jazz musicians come together as BC's Blue Note Legacy Quartet memorializing the iconic recording label (home to Monk, Coltrane, Wayne Shorter and so many others) followed by Sophie Huber's acclaimed 2018 documentary, Blue Note Records: Beyond the Notes.
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