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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!

Now Playing

The Road to Patagonia

Dir. Matty Hannon
90 min

A travelogue, an eco doc, an adventure movie and a love story, The Road to Patagonia chronicles filmmaker and ecologist Mayy Hannon's 50,000 km expedition from Alaska to the tip of Chile (via Vancouver Island), on motorbike, horse, and surfboard.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

A White, White Day

Dir. Hlynur Pálmason
109 min

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.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

School of Rock

Dir. Richard Linklater
108 min

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.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Magnolia

Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
188 min

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.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Punch-Drunk Love

Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
95 min

Anderson's surreal screwball romantic comedy has a wildly experimental edge, not least in Jon Brion's audacious score, but there's something euphoric about the entire irresistible project.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Godland

Dir. Hlynur Pálmason
143 min

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 spiritual journey, more taxing still.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

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

Dir. Richard Linklater
165 min

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.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

School of Rock

Dir. Richard Linklater
108 min

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.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Godland

Dir. Hlynur Pálmason
143 min

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 spiritual journey, more taxing still.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

A White, White Day

Dir. Hlynur Pálmason
109 min

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.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

First Cow

Dir. Kelly Reichardt
122 min

Set in Oregon, 1820 (and 100 years later), this is a Western unlike any you have seen before: the eponymous Jersey cow plays a pivotal role in the dreams of a baker (John Magaro) and his Chinese buddy (Orion Lee).

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
Old Joy
Old Joy film image; two men wading through a river

Old Joy

Dir. Kelly Reichardt
73 min

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.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

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

Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
188 min

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.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Punch-Drunk Love

Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
95 min

Anderson's surreal screwball romantic comedy has a wildly experimental edge, not least in Jon Brion's audacious score, but there's something euphoric about the entire irresistible project.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

There Will Be Blood

Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
158 min

Paul Thomas Anderson's lacerating epic about the birth of the oil age: Daniel Day-Lewis is extraordinary as the prospector entirely consumed with his own enterprise, a Trumpian figure of naked self-assertion; Paul Dano the evangelist who may be his nemesis.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

The Master

Dir. Paul Thomas Anderson
138 min

Joaquin Phoenix as WWII vet Freddie Quell falls into the orbit of Philip Seymour Hoffman's self-styled prophet Lancaster Dodd in this tremulous 1950s psychodrama from Paul Thomas Anderson.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

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.

Cory Weeds Plays Sonny Rollins
Saxophone Colossus film image; jazz band playing on a stone ledge

Cory Weeds Plays Sonny Rollins

Dir. Robert Muge
150 min

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.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Kit Eakle’s Jaz’n’theViolin String Band

Dir. Terry Zwigoff
150 min

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.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Blue Horse Opera

Dir. Sergio Sollima
180 min

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.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

George Garzone Live

Dir. Tom Surgal
180 min

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

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

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