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Remaining Native

Dir. Paige Bethmann
87 min

Teenager Ku Stevens runs toward his dreams while retracing the path of his great-grandfather’s escape from an "Indian boarding school". An impressive, urgent debut from Paige Bethmann about memory, endurance, and what it truly means to remain Native.

International Village 9 Granville Island Stage

Renoir

Dir. Chie Hayakawa 早川千絵
118 min

A beguiling, bravely personal portrait of childhood featuring a superb lead performance by Yui Suzuki. As the 11-year-old Fuki, she faces down the adult world with a mixture of calm, curiosity, and courage.

SFU Woodwards International Village 9 Fifth Avenue Cinema - 19+ only
Rental Family
Rental Family film image; man sitting with a young girl clutching a backpack

Rental Family

Dir. HIKARI
103 min

In his first lead role since The Whale, Brendan Fraser plays a lonely American actor in Tokyo who lands a gig at a "rental family" agency, offering stand-ins for real world situations. Need a pretend boyfriend or funeral mourner? Brendan's your man.

The Rio Theatre
Reshaping Storytelling With Zacharias Kunuk, Director
Wrong Husband film image; two people lying on the ground outside side by side

Reshaping Storytelling With Zacharias Kunuk, Director

90 min

Join us for an intimate conversation with legendary Inuk filmmaker Zacharias Kunuk, whose masterpiece Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner won the Caméra d'Or at Cannes and helped pave the way for more authentic voices in cinema.

SFU Woodwards
Resurrection
Resurrection film image; man holding out his arms facing a curtain

Resurrection

Dir. Bi Gan 毕赣
156 min

In this broken-mirror reality, humanity has lost its ability to dream. A Fantasmer proves a puckish outlier, slipping into the dreamworld and being reincarnated over the course of a century, each time from within a different film genre.

Fifth Avenue Cinema - 19+ only SFU Woodwards
Romería
Romería film image; young woman in background watching a woman in the foreground

Romería

Dir. Carla Simón
112 min

An orphan from a young age, 18-year-old Marina intends to pursue a university scholarship. The application, however, requires the signatures of her paternal grandparents, compelling her to embark on a pilgrimage and seek out the family she has never met.

International Village 9 International Village 10

Saikai Paradise

Dir. Keiko Tsuruoka 鶴岡慧子
72 min

Keiko Tsuruoka’s film tells the story of an actor returning home to confess a sad secret. Filling the roles of writer, director, cinematographer, and editor, she has created a graceful work about the small moments that make up so much of our lives.

Granville Island Stage International Village 8
Savon
Savon film image; young woman staring at a billboard with a smiling woman on it

Savon

Dir. Lee Jun Sup 이준섭
121 min

This sleek, polished, jet-black comedy-thriller tells the story of Jae-in, an aspiring actress who gets in a sticky situation with her boyfriend, only to discover a soap company with a side service cleaning up bigger-than-average messes.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema International Village 10
Secrets of a Mountain Serpent
Secrets of a Mountain Serpent film image; woman looking up at the sky at night

Secrets of a Mountain Serpent

Dir. Nidhi Saxena
108 min

Set in a remote Himalayan town in India during the Kargil War, Secrets of a Mountain Serpent weaves together personal desire and ancient folklore to ask a pertinent question: Can you belong to someone and still belong to yourself?

The Cinematheque International Village 8
Seeds
Seeds film image; man carrying a baby

Seeds

Dir. Brittany Shyne
123 min

Shot over nine years, Brittany Shyne’s Sundance-winning documentary is a tender portrait of Black farming families in the American South. A moving meditation on land, legacy, and the strength it takes to hold on.

International Village 9 International Village 10

Sentimental Value

Dir. Joachim Trier
135 min

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.

Vancouver Playhouse
Shifting Baselines
Shifting Baselines film image; a large warehouse surrounded by rocket-ship looking structures

Shifting Baselines

Dir. Julien Elie
100 min

Towering rockets rise as wetlands vanish in this sly black-and-white documentary about SpaceX’s conquest of Boca Chica, Texas. With sci-fi aesthetics and observational calm, the film exposes how cosmic dreams begin with the quiet erasure of Earth.

International Village 8
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