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2025 Awards and Competitions

VIFF 2025 Juried Awards

The Things You Kill film image; man walking through a desert

SUMMIT Award

The Things You Kill (Alireza Khatami)

Presented to the director of an outstanding narrative feature by an established Canadian or Indigenous filmmaker.

$15,000 award presented by

Jury: Gillian McKercher, Melanie Miller & Amar Wala

Blue Heron film image; young girl sitting despondently in the grass holding a camcorder

HORIZON Award

Blue Heron (Sophy Romvari)

Presented to the director of an outstanding first or second narrative feature by a Canadian or Indigenous filmmaker.

$3,000 award presented by

Jury: Karen Chapman, Mike Johnston & Sung Moon

The Track film image; two people standing in a graffitied concrete skate park

TIDES Award

The Track (Ryan Sidhoo)

Presented to the director of an outstanding documentary feature by a Canadian or Indigenous filmmaker.

$15,000 award presented by

Jury: Anja Block, Igor Drljača & Asia Youngman

Blue Heron film image; young girl sitting despondently in the grass holding a camcorder

ARBUTUS Award

Blue Heron (Sophy Romvari)

Presented to the director of an outstanding feature film production in British Columbia.

$10,000 award presented by

Creative BC logo

$15,000 in post-production services credit provided by

Company 3 logo

Jury: Sabrina Furminger, Thea Loo & Tarique Qayumi

No Skate! film image; someone holding a sign talking to a person dressed in a karate uniform

SHORT FORUM Award

No Skate! (Guil Sela)

All official selections in the Short Forum are eligible for this award.

$5,000 award presented by

Nikon logo

Jury: Özgün Gündüz, Asher Penn & Devan Scott

Wind, Talk to Me film image; man reaching out to a small dog in the woods

VANGUARD Award

Wind, Talk to Me (Stefan Djordjevic)

All feature films in our competitive Vanguard section are eligible for this award.

$5,000 award presented by

Jury: Antoine Bourges, Ryan Ermacora & Sanja Živković

VIFF 2025 Audience Awards

Presented by

Peliplat logo

Kokuho film image; three people dressed in traditional Japanese clothing

Special Presentations

Kokuho (Sang-il Lee)

In the Room film image; two women laughing in a dressing room

Showcase

In the Room (Brishkay Ahmed)

Meadowlarks film image; a small group in warm jackets gathered in a forest

Panorama

Meadowlarks (Tasha Hubbard)

Gazelle film image; men hunched over a table

Vanguard

Gazelle (Nadir Saribacak, Samy Pioneer [Selman])

Akashi film image; woman looking out from the back window of a car

Northern Lights

Akashi (Mayumi Yoshida)

Free Leonard Peltier film image; people protesting in the street with banners and signs

Insights

Free Leonard Peltier (Jesse Short Bull, David France)

Khartoum film image; people standing on digital artwork

Spectrum

Khartoum (Anas Saeed, Rawia Alhag, Ibrahim Snoopy, Timeea Mohamed Ahmed, Phil Cox)

The Essence of Eva film image; woman pressing her arm to her mouth

Portraits

The Essence of Eva (Alex Fegan, Malcolm Willis)

Fucktoys film image; scantily clad woman sitting in a circle of candles

Altered States

Fucktoys (Annapurna Sriram)

3670 film image; guys taking a group selfie in a mirror

Spotlight on Korea

3670 (Park Joon Ho)

Bad Girl film image; hand holding a makeup brush to a smiling woman's cheek

Focus

Bad Girl (Varsha Bharath)