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Galas & Special Presentations
The year’s most anticipated films.
Last Summer
When lawyer Anne begins a taboo affair with her 17-year-old stepson, the balance of her life is threatened. In an exploration of power dynamics, Last Summer lures you in and refuses to shy away from discomfort.
La Chimera
Rohrwacher's first feature since Happy As Lazzaro is an exhilaratingly wild, mysterious, rough and tumble tale of a disheveled English tomb raider (Josh O'Connor) living with a roisterous group of Italian bohemians: singers, smugglers and petty thieves.
The Promised Land
In this enthralling period melodrama set in mid-18th century Denmark, Mads Mikkelsen tries to establish a farm on the gritty Jutland heath land, but must contend with the enmity of a ruthless local landowner. From the director of A Royal Affair.
Mr. Dressup: The Magic of Make-Believe
A celebration of Canada's favourite children's show, Mr. Dressup, which built a legacy of kindness, patience, inclusiveness, and creativity, all while enriching the lives of five generations.
Anatomy of a Fall
When Samuel is found dead outside his alpine cabin it's clear he fell from the attic. But did he jump, or was he pushed? Justine Triet became only the third woman to win the the Palme d'Or at Cannes, for this thoroughly engrossing courtroom drama.
The Zone of Interest
Glazer's chilling, scrupulously restrained account of the domestic life of Rudolph Höss (Christian Friedel) and wife Hedwig (Sandra Hüller) never takes over the wall separating their idyllic villa from his work -- the Concentration Camp at Auschwitz.
Swan Song
Legendary ballet dancer Karen Kain chose to direct Swan Lake at the National Ballet of Canada as her swan song. Chelsea McMullen's thrilling backstage documentary shows the grueling physical and emotional toil required to produce artistry at this level.
Seven Veils
Haunted by disturbing memories Jeanine allows her repressed trauma to reshape the present as she re-enters the opera world in order to remount her former mentor's most famous work, Salome. Atom Egoyan's latest is a fractured mirror of abuse and catharsis.
I'm Just Here for the Riot
Vancouver, June 15, 2011. Hours after the Canucks lost Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, rioters laid waste to blocks of downtown. In this absorbing documentary, Kathleen S. Jayme (The Grizzlie Truth) and Asia Youngman revisit that chaotic night.
A Normal Family
During a fancy dinner with their wives, two brothers with divergent moral principles learn of a disturbing situation involving both their teenage kids. In the fallout of this dreadful discovery, the families are faced with an unimaginable choice.
Priscilla
Priscilla Beaulieu (Cailee Spaeny) is just 14 when she meets Elvis Presley (Jacob Elordi, Euphoria) on a US military base in Germany, 1959. Courteous, respectful and a little sad, he sweeps her off her feet. But this fairy tale romance is an illusion.
Showcase
A selection of exceptional cinema.
Creature
In an Arctic research facility, a mysterious creature is found and captured, finding unexpected love with a woman working under the organization. Portrayed through polished ballet, Creature tells the story of unfettered emotion through kinetic movement.
The Royal Hotel
In Kitty Green's harrowing follow up to The Assistant, Hanna (Julia Garner) and Liv (Jessica Henwick) are backpacking across Australia. Running low on funds, they decide tending bar in an Outback mining town could be a lark. This proves a mistake.
Green Border
In her seventies Agnieszka Holland has made a ferocious, emotionally charged film about the brutal treatment of refugees arriving over the Polish land border from Belarus. This is a vehement denunciation of resurgent fascism and utterly compelling cinema.
They Shot the Piano Player
The fate of a prodigious Brazilian samba pianist murdered in Argentina in 1976 fuels this animated docu-fiction from the team who gave us the Academy Award-nominee Chico & Rita. Jeff Goldblum voices the writer who digs into Francisco Tenório Jr's story.
I Am Sirat
I Am Sirat is a personal documentary about Sirat, a transwoman in India, who lives a dual life. While supported by a queer network of friends in Delhi, Sirat reverts to the closet at home as she’s forced to maintain a son’s familial and cultural responsibilities.
The Teachers' Lounge
When a grade 6 student is accused of theft, idealistic young math teacher Ms Nowak decides to set up a sting to find the true culprit... with disastrous results. This buzzy Berlin film festival title is an ethics master class.
Evil Does Not Exist
After the international success of Drive My Car, Ryusuke Hamaguchi quietly made this small-scale independent film, a work of simplicity and grace about a rural community and the developers who want to built a "glamping" retreat in the woods.
Four Little Adults
Upon learning of her husband's year long affair, Juulia proposes an open marriage free of secrets. As a polyamory guide becomes their bible, Juulia falls in love with someone new, filling their journey in polyamory with love, compassion, and compromise.
Just the Two of Us
Beginning as a sunny romance, this film slowly, subtly becomes a defiant feminist drama. When Blanche meets Greg at a seaside party, she’s quickly won over by his confidence and charm, but once they’re married, he reveals a much darker side.
Close to You
In his first feature film role since 2017, Elliot Page delivers a deeply felt and nuanced performance as a young man reuniting with his family for the first time since his transition, four years earlier.
Tótem
During the chaotic preparations for the birthday of her terminally ill father, a seven-year-old girl finds herself caught amid a complex adult world interspersed with a sense of change. A Buñuelian class study keyed to the interior life of a child.
Four Daughters
A stimulating and cathartic docu-drama from Academy-Award nominee, Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania, about a mother who lost two teenage daughters when they fled to Libya to fight for ISIS.
How to Have Sex
Sixteen-year-old Tara and her two best friends arrive to a Greek party town ready to let their hair down. But while Tara is indeed down for some summer fun, her boundaries keep getting trampled on by those closest to her.
Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World
Radu Jude takes two days in the life of a stressed Romanian p.a. and gives us an urgent, pissed off, sourly funny polemic on the state of late capitalism. Exploitation, discrimination and hypocrisy are his targets; dialectics are his dynamite.
Panorama
Narratives from every corner of the globe.
Here
Following a construction worker and a Belgian-Chinese biologist writing a dissertation on moss, this is a sensuous wonder and a luminous exploration of the visible world. A film about two strangers united by their mutual delight in their surroundings.
If Only I Could Hibernate
In the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar, a story unfolds of perseverance under a truly daunting predicament. A teen with a gift for physics enters a national competition, struggling to make ends meet while pushing to succeed against all odds.
Only the River Flows
Wei Shujun's unpredictable neo-noir pits a detective against a serial killer terrorizing a small hamlet. The cop is not only trying to outwit the murderer, but must also deal with uncooperative villagers, inept colleagues, and his own unraveling mind.
Puan
After the death of his mentor a professor of philosophy finds his professional standing is in jeopardy, and his own students are threatening to revolt. What use Rousseau, Hobbes et al when his life is spiraling out of control?
Undercurrent
Kanae is reopening the bathhouse she shut down when her husband Satoru vanished without a trace. As someone shows up looking for work, an uneasy companionship forms, causing Kanae to handle two burdens, her lost husband and a secret she dare not reveal.
Let the River Flow
Ester, a young Sami woman, tries to conceal her ethnicity to avoid ostracism in 1970s Norway without betraying her family roots. Struggling to navigate her shifting cultural identity, she protests a local dam with Sami activists.
Wild Swans
Set in a small village on the India/Bhutan border, this story depicts a group of women who live alongside and ultimately support each other. Wild Swans shares a glimpse into a culture and community that is rarely seen in cinema.
There's No Place Like Home
Estranged from her controlling parents, after coming out as a lesbian, Leonora learns of her mother's terminal cancer in an interview on live TV. When visiting her family in hospice, memory and reality begin to blur into a surreal nightmare.
Housekeeping for Beginners
She never wanted to be a mom, but fate presents Dita (Anamaria Marinca) with her girlfriend's two daughters to raise -- a recipe for chaos, laughter and heartache, all jumbled up together.
The Braid
Laetitia Colombani's assured, involving adaptation of her own best-selling novel weaves together three stories of female perseverance across three continents, in India, Italy, and Canada. This is a strongly acted movie with a big emotional pay-off.
Irena's Vow
In German-occupied Poland, a young woman, Irene Gut Opdyke (Sophie Nélisse) risks her life by hiding 12 Jews in the cellar of a villa where she serves as housekeeper for a Werhmacht officer. But one day, he discovers the truth... Based on a true story.
Robot Dreams
Living a solitary existence in Manhattan, Dog is tired of being alone, and builds his own friend: Robot. Their friendship blooms while exploring 1980s New York. This enchanting 2D animation brims with love, loss, and friendship.
A Tour Guide
The tribulations of adapting to a new place are explored with freshness and sympathy in this film about a defector from North Korea struggling to make a better life for herself in Seoul. A gentle, low-key movie with a touching performance from Sul Lee.
Red Rooms
In this unsettling and enthralling drama from the director of Nadia, Butterfly, Kelly-Anne (Juliette Gariépy) becomes obsessed with the trial of Ludwig Chevalier (Maxwell McCabe-Lokos), a loner accused of the torture and murder of three teenage girls.
The Oceans Are the Real Continents
Set in San Antonio De Los Baños, a sleepy town in inland Cuba, and shot in langurous black and white tableaux, The Oceans Are the Real Continents traces the stories of three generations of townspeople. "An exquisite love poem to Cuba." The Film Verdict.
Gamodi
Inside an unfinished apartment tower in Tblisi, Georgia, a legendary drag queen and teenage drifter live in purgatorial languor. Are they still inhabiting this plane of existence? A poetic fable that conjures a legitimately dreamlike milieu.
Tsugaru Lacquer Girl
Lacquerwork kitchenware is the Aoki family's legacy. When Seishiro wants to hand it down to his son Yu, he is faced with conflict, as his daughter Miyako cares far more for the craft, pushing a collision of gender politics and traditional domestic roles.
Goodbye Julia
Leading up to South Sudan’s secession, a retired singer is wracked with guilt from her connection to a murder. To make amends, she hires the new widow as her maid. This artfully composed drama weaves friendship, deceit, and awakening to inequities.
Toll
Suellen, an unhappy toll booth attendant, prays everyday at a cliff-side shrine for one thing: that her teenage son will be “cured” of homosexuality. In order to pay for conversion therapy, she helps her boyfriend steal wristwatches from wealthy motorists.
One Day All This Will Be Yours
Lisa is lured to a rare gathering with her parents and two siblings at the family's forest home. The purpose is to decide which child may inherit the vast land and take over the family business. A sensitive and funny portrayal of a dysfunctional family.
In Broad Daylight
In a powerful film based on actual events, a hard-bitten journalist investigates abuse in a Hong Kong care home. The film sidesteps no hard hitting questions, neglects cop-outs or easy answers, and offers a resounding moral challenge to us all.
Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry
Etero, a 48-year-old woman living in a small village in Georgia, never wanted a husband. She cherishes her freedom as much as her cakes. But her choice to live alone is the cause of much gossip. Unexpectedly, she finds herself falling in love.
The Settlers
In this nihilistic Chilean south western, notorious cattle rancher Menéndez dispatches a trio of hired guns (a Brit, an American cowboy and a local mestizo) to scout and scourge Tierra del Fuego. A searing critique of white supremacist foundational myths.
Raging Grace
In this riveting revenge thriller, winner of the Grand Jury Award at SXSW, Joy, an undocumented Filipino woman becomes a housekeeper for a terminally ill British aristocrat in his secluded home. But all is not what it seems...
The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed
A mid-thirties Jewish woman with an interest in BDSM struggles to maintain casual relationships with various “masters.” Witty, wry, and sexually frank, this off-kilter comedy finds humour in the absurd ways that our bodies move through the world.
Days of Happiness
Emma, a gifted young orchestra conductor is at a crossroads. Audiences are enraptured by her work, however, her career is steered by her controlling father, who’s also her agent. She also has a secret relationship. Tensions build, swell, crescendo....
Measures of Men
Germany's historical bigotry against Africans, and its servitude toward legitimizing mass slaughter is documented in this historical drama. Set in turn-of the century Berlin, demonstrating what has been called the 20th century's first genocide.
Vanguard
Rising international talents.
Bitten
Françoise wakes up from an ominous dream that seems to foreshadow her imminent death. Not wanting to waste a minute of her remaining time, she consults her crystal pendulum and convinces her best friend Delphine to attend a mysterious costume party.
On the Go
Questioning her desire to have a child, a mid-thirties woman embarks on a road trip with her best friend, who is working through his own commitment issues. Their journey turns into a whirlwind of roadside drama and unexpected self-discoveries.
Animal
Residents of a Greek island prepare for fellow European tourists seeking the best summer experience their modest earnings can buy, the "animatuers" at the local hotel resort dust off their shiny costumes and dance to keep the masses entertained.
Octopus Skin
Three siblings live with an emotionally stunted mother on a remote island off the coast of Ecuador, cocooned and deeply mistrustful of the world outside their bubble. But dark secrets loom, pulling the eldest daughter toward city life.
The Sea and Its Waves
Like a film poem, The Sea and Its Waves follows a brother and sister as they pass through an almost deserted Beirut on their way out of the country. Bathed in moonlight and flickering city lights, this is atmospheric, transcendental cinema.
The Face of the Jellyfish
Thirty-something Marina wakes up to a completely new face. Cutting herself off from friends and colleagues, she pours through family archives to make sense of the surreal development. With no practical solution in sight, a world of possibility opens up.
Northern Lights
The next wave of Canadian and Indigenous storytellers.
Richelieu
Witnessing the brutal treatment of migrant workers while working at a corn plant in the Richelieu Valley in Quebec, French-to-Spanish translator Ariane (Ariane Castellanos) is forced to decide between risking her job and sticking up for the labourers.
Wild Goat Surf
Scrounging and scheming her way through the summer, 12-year-old Goat talks a big game about becoming a world-class surfer... Despite having never actually surfed or even seen the ocean. A charming tale about trying to slip the shackles of circumstance.
Seagrass
With their parents tending to their crumbling marriage, 11-year-old Stephanie is drawn to a pack of unruly teens, while six-year-old Emmy answers an eerie cave's siren call. A deftly orchestrated, deeply moving portrait of a family about to implode.
Float
The summer before college, a city girl finds herself in Tofino, alienated by the local beach culture—that is, until she falls for the charming local lifeguard, which throws her carefully planned future into question.
I Don't Know Who You Are
A gay Toronto musician is sexually assaulted one night and is in a panicked race against time to pay for HIV-preventive PrEP treatment, all the while trying to navigate the legal system and deal with the emotional aftermath of the trauma.
Fitting In
16 and ready to lose her virginity, Lindy is distressed to learn she has a rare condition which means she will never conceive and penetrative sex will require intervention. McGlynn's raw, funny film resonates with debates around sex and gender conformity.
Union Street
Interspersing interviews with archival footage, Union Street documents the history of Vancouver’s Hogan’s Alley, the formerly Black neighbourhood which was destroyed by the construction of the Georgia viaduct in the 1970s.
I Used to Be Funny
Sam Cowell (Rachel Sennott) used to spend her nights working the comedy clubs of Toronto and her days as an au pair for Brooke (Olga Petsa). Now Sam hides from the world, tormented by PTSD and grappling with the news of Brooke’s disappearance.
Hey Viktor!
25 years after the success of the iconic film Smoke Signals, a disheveled former child actor decides to create a sequel to relive his fame. This mockumentary follows him on the chaotic uphill journey to do whatever it takes to make it big again.
Aitamaako'tamisskapi Natosi: Before the Sun
A thrilling portrait of a young Siksika woman as she trains for one of the most dangerous horse races in the world: on bareback. Logan Red Crow is an Indian Relay rider who vaults from horse to horse in exhilarating races. She is a champion in the making.
When Adam Changes
Most teenagers are impressionable, but Adam's body literally morphs in response to mockery. Called fat, his waist grows. But in some ways this is the least of his problems, in this delightfully absurd reflection on teen life in the 1990s.
Someone Lives Here
In the summer of 2021, Khaleel Seivwright, a carpenter, decided to build tiny homes for Toronto’s homeless population. Soon afterwards, the city closed him down. An important story for our times of housing insecurity.
Insights
Documentaries that change the way we see the world.
Winter Chants
This moving doc zooms in on Ho Chung Village, which lies in the hilly rural area of Hong Kong. Once a decade, its citizens hold the Peace and Light Festival as a tribute to their village, its departed souls, and the gods that preside over them all.
The Invention of the Other
In 2019, FUNAI, a Brazilian state protection agency working for Indigenous rights, sent an expedition of 30 people into the Amazon rainforest to make first contact with the Korubo. This powerful film is an immersive ethnographic journey.
Common Ground
An impassioned plea to care for the very thing that feeds us, balances the climate, and sustains life on earth: soil. Common Ground unveils the potential of regenerative farming, to show us how saving the soil can help save us along with it.
The Mission
In 2018, an American missionary traveled illegally to one of the most isolated places on Earth– North Sentinel Island, determined to convert one of the world’s most isolated populations to Christianity. This misguided mission would quickly see him killed.
WaaPaKe
WaaPaKe is a story about resilience, love and transformation. Examined through an Indigenous lens, the stories of residential school Survivor-Warriors and their families offer an understanding of both intergenerational trauma and healing.
Mareya Shot, Keetha Goal: Make the Shot
This spirited sports doc follows four junior hockey players of South Asian descent through the 2021-2022 season as they strive to make it to the NHL. Among them, Surrey’s own Arsh Bains, who signs with the Vancouver Canucks.
Deep Rising
Exploring the luminous ecosystems deep in the Pacific Ocean alongside the countries and companies hoping to reap the lucrative deposits of precious metals lining depths of the ocean. Deep Rising asks if this may end our search for efficient green power.
On the Adamant
On the Seine in central Paris, not far from the city’s cultural landmarks, is a huge, floating barge called The Adamant, a psychotherapy day centre with a special focus on art therapy. This tender doc won the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlinale.
Physician, Heal Thyself
One of the world's foremost experts on addiction and trauma, Dr Gabor Maté shares not only his theories, but also his own story: his difficult childhood in Hungary and his long years of therapeutic practice in and around Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.
Spectrum
Innovative nonfiction filmmaking.
The Mother of All Lies
As her parents and grandmother prepare to leave the Casablanca home they have lived in for decades, Asmae El Moudir takes the opportunity to probe the past, unraveling repressed truths buried within her own family and Moroccan political history.
Orlando, My Political Biography
Inspired by Virginia Woolf’s Orlando, the transgressive novel is used as a framework to investigate the very real contemporary struggles of trans and non-binary people. Winner of the Teddy Award and Encounters Jury Prize at Berlin Film Festival.
Between Revolutions
In a hybrid film comprised entirely of archival footage, two fictional women are torn from each other by the tides of repressive political and patriarchal systems. A haunting, lyrical tale of longing for freedom amongst connection.
Mighty Afrin: In the Time of Floods
From the floodplains of Brahmaputra River to Bangladesh’s capital city, this stunning hybrid-documentary captures the catastrophic effects of climate change upon the country’s people and landscape. Told through an orphan's personal odyssey.
The Tuba Thieves
Drawing on her experience as a d/Deaf/Hard of Hearing person, director Alison O’Daniel transcends assumptions of sound, silence, and language in this groundbreaking hybrid doc framed around a string of unsolved tuba thefts in L.A.
Hello Dankness
In the finest tradition of MAD Magazine, found footage from classic US film and television is combined to create a fictitious American neighborhood, reflecting modern American life from 2016 - 2021 in a wildly unconventional and absurdist satire.
Asog
Jaya, a teacher and comedian, travels across the typhoon-ravaged Philippines in a bid to win a beauty pageant. En route, they pick up an unlikely companion. Comic, sorrowful, and political, Asog examines the climate crisis through a kaleidoscopic lens.
Smoke Sauna Sisterhood
Within the confines of a smoke sauna deep in an Estonian forest, groups of women gather to cleanse themselves in both body and soul, sharing in traditional sauna-based rituals, while also revealing their hurts and longings, joys and pains.
Kim's Video
New York institution Kim’s Video closed its doors in 2008. Fifteen years later, filmmakers David Redmon and Ashley Sabin set out to find out what happened to the 55,000 film collection and uncover a story of corruption, deception, and intrigue.
Portraits
Ground-breaking artists, great performances, and cultural icons.
Robert Irwin: A Desert of Pure Feeling
No artist instills a sense of sublime awe like the legendary Robert Irwin, Elusive yet down to earth, Irwin is a true original. His extraordinary work is honored in this stunning portrait of one of the most influential contemporary artists of our age.
A Cooler Climate
In a recollection of veteran filmmaker James Ivory's unfinished film about Afghanistan. Old footage provides a pronounced air of mystery to compliment its rough beauty, setting the scene for a look back into Ivory's life.
Apolonia, Apolonia
Filmed over thirteen years, viewers follow Apolonia Sokol's seemingly storybook life. In a portrait of the vibrant, charismatic force that is Apolonia, in tandem with a remarkable document of the creative interplay between the filmmaker and her subject.
Caiti Blues
In a deserted mining town, 29-year-old Caiti Lord faces existential ennui. As her childhood aspirations feel impossible, Lord has taken a life as a struggling singer songwriter, working at her local bar. Captured through the quiet rhythms of her hometown.
Call Me Dancer
When a self-taught street dancer struggles in the search for paid work, his raw determination and artistic passion pushes him to attend classical training. Call Me Dancer is a fight for a dream despite all odds.
It's Only Life After All
For many growing up in the 1990s, Indigo Girls was the band that defined a generation, admired for their unique alt-folk sound, and gender norm defiance. In a recollection of their 40-year career, their legacy is solidified through earnest interviews.
PIANOFORTE
A thrilling glimpse into what it takes to compete in the renowned International Chopin Competition, which takes place every five years and can bestow overnight fame on the victor. This doc conveys the nerves, camaraderie and of course the glorious music.
Invisible Beauty
Since her breakout as one of the most high-profile Black models in the 1970s, fashion world titan Bethann Hardison has advocated for diversity both on and off the runway. This elegant documentary traces her attempt to revolutionize the fashion world.
Sculpting the Giant
This remarkable film documents a 28-year quest for glory. Indonesian sculptor Nyoman Nuarta’s goal is to build the world’s largest brass and copper structure. To do so, he must contend with public opposition, and political turmoil.
Altered States
Where the wild ones come out to play.
The Animal Kingdom
In a world where mysterious mutations are gradually evolving humans into animal hybrids in an unpredictable and frightening way, a father tries to protect his 16-year-old son who is starting to acquire beastly characteristics.
Tiger Stripes
Winner of Cannes Critics' Week Grand Prix, Tiger Stripes is a coming-of-age body horror film set in a Malaysian girls' school. 12-year-old Zaffan’s body starts to change before everyone else’s, and she becomes convinced she's turning into a monster.
Restore Point
Central Europe, 2041. Citizens have the right to be revived from unnatural deaths. When a scientist is murdered and revived through an unstable, outdated backup detective Em Trochinowska pursues her prime suspect, a hacker tied to a Luddite terror cell.
White Plastic Sky
2123: When Stefan's wife consents to a macabre metamorphosis before her appointed time, he races across a devastated landscape to save her. This richly detailed rotoscoped dystopia is a spectacle to behold, and a warning to be heeded.
My Animal
Outcast teen hockey goalie Heather has it rough: she's a closeted lesbian with an alcoholic mum and something far worse than the usual menstrual cycle. This full-blooded creature feature weds the classic werewolf mythos with its own sapphic sensibility.
Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person
Meet Sasha, the world’s most compassionate young vampire. Her family is at their wits' end with her refusal to embrace their lethal traditions and threaten to cut her off -- until she meets a brooding boy hoping to end his life, and strikes a unique deal.
Animalia
An unexpected meteorological phenomenon means that a heavily pregnant young Moroccan woman, Itto, is forced to flee from her comfortable home alone and brave an increasingly otherworldly and apocalyptic milieu. A singular, hard-to-classify debut feature.
The Sacrifice Game
1971. Sam and Clara are stuck at their elite boarding school for the Christmas holidays, along with a teacher, her boyfriend, and, soon enough, a murderous gang of occult killers, led by Mena Massoud (Aladdin), who mean to call up a long-dormant demon...
Chronicles of a Wandering Saint
Boasting absurdist humour and one of the most audacious storytelling gambits you'll see on screen this year, this is the story of Rita, a devout senior with an ill-advised scheme to stage a miracle and thus enshrine her reputation as a living saint.
The Wait
On the brink of destitution, a gamekeeper on a remote ranch in southern Spain takes a bribe from a hunting party. When (inevitably) this leads to tragedy, Eladio's world falls apart, as unnatural forces extract a terrible price.
Leading Lights
A celebrated Canadian filmmaker curates a selection of international films that influenced their artistic journey.
Dust in the Wind
At the end of the 1960s, high-school sweethearts Wan and Huen leave their little mining town in search of greater opportunities in Taipei, where the vicissitudes of life take their toll on the relationship.
Joint Security Area
Park Chan-wook's 2000 domestic box office hit investigates a deadly incident in the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea.
A Woman Under the Influence
Cassavetes' greatest success is built on a fearless, tour-de-force performance of Mabel Longhetti, a working class wife and mom who struggles to keep it all together. Her husband is also ashamed of her. Love, as the song goes, will tear you apart. This is grand opera in hard hats.
Peppermint Candy
Backtracking from his suicide as a broken and depressed man, the film recounts the life of Yong-ho, from his tragic demise to his innocent youth, in reverse order.
Focus: Women, Life and Freedom
A guest programmer embarks on a thematic exploration using cinema as their guide.
Seven Winters in Tehran
This compelling, urgent true crime documentary carefully lays out the story of 19-year-old Iranian architecture student Reyhaneh Jabbari, who, in 2007, stabbed a man in self-defence after he tried to rape her. Jabbari was arrested and sentenced to death.
Terrestrial Verses
Nine interlocking vignettes of everyday life offer a panoramic, politically charged view of state repression and bureaucracy in contemporary Tehran. Terrestrial Verses resonates strongly with the recent Woman, Life, Freedom protests.
Joonam
Sierra Urich embarks on a personal quest to make sense of her mixed-race Iranian identity, interviewing her grandmother, Behjat, with her mother, Mitra, as translator. This delightful doc will make you laugh out loud and bring tears to your eyes.
Valley of Exile
Early in the Syrian war, two sisters escape to a refugee camp in Lebanon. Shot in an actual refugee settlement, this is a deeply felt exploration of family within the extremes of war, and a bold testament to the strength and resilience of refugee women.
Numb
After kindergarten boys and girls in Iran study separately, but at ages five and six they're only beginning to learn to navigate gender, and this is the theme of this beguiling film from Amir Toodehroosta.
VIFF Short Forum
The perspectives and approaches that are elevating short-form storytelling in Canada.
VIFF Short Forum: Program 1
As time moves ever the more forward, histories are revisited. Some continue to be honoured while others are called for a reckoning.
VIFF Short Forum: Program 2
Get in for a rollercoaster journey through the depths of struggle and perseverance. Not for the faint of heart, this collection is as difficult as it is beautiful.
VIFF Short Forum: Program 3
The femme experience as told through various disciplines and genres, each a distinctly inimitable perspective.
VIFF Short Forum: Program 4
To locate one's self, the desire to be seen and the need to hide one’s desires are in constant negotiation.
VIFF Short Forum: Program 5
Cosmological, geological, and speculative potentials provide hope in periods of doubt and hardship.
Short Fuse
An innovative and eye-opening collection of animated and experimental Canadian shorts. A collection that inspires new approaches to the moving image on screen and re-imagines compelling perspectives, histories, memories and formative life experiences.
International Shorts
In only minutes, these films immerse you in fully realized narratives that leave a mark.
International Shorts: Relational Baggage
The short films in this program illustrate some of the barriers or difficulties people run into with their personal relationships.
International Shorts: Conflicts of the Heart
This program of short films offers a range of LGBTQ2S+ lives and experience stories, from youthful romance to estranged seniors.
International Shorts: Family Adventures
The challenges of relations with one's family are the basis for the short films in this program.
International Shorts: Not Your Everyday Drama
There is high drama a plenty in this program of short films where uncommon scenarios turn into transformative life and death experiences.
International Shorts: Nothing Comes Easy
In this program of short films our protagonists discover that sorting out their lives can be much more difficult to achieve than they realized.
MODES
Form-bending international short work.
MODES 1
At the intersection of the natural world, technology and the ongoing pursuit of colonization, sits a necessary reflection on worlds, cities, and people, and how they change over time.
MODES 2
Questioning the nature of our material world, artists from South Africa, Spain, Iran and Brazil invite conditional realities to ponder memory, history and the length of existence. Witness and wonder, prepare to confront the possible meaning of it all.
Browse by Spotlights
BC Spotlight
The latest feature films from our province’s best and brightest creators.
Seagrass
With their parents tending to their crumbling marriage, 11-year-old Stephanie is drawn to a pack of unruly teens, while six-year-old Emmy answers an eerie cave's siren call. A deftly orchestrated, deeply moving portrait of a family about to implode.
Wild Goat Surf
Scrounging and scheming her way through the summer, 12-year-old Goat talks a big game about becoming a world-class surfer... Despite having never actually surfed or even seen the ocean. A charming tale about trying to slip the shackles of circumstance.
Asog
Jaya, a teacher and comedian, travels across the typhoon-ravaged Philippines in a bid to win a beauty pageant. En route, they pick up an unlikely companion. Comic, sorrowful, and political, Asog examines the climate crisis through a kaleidoscopic lens.
Float
The summer before college, a city girl finds herself in Tofino, alienated by the local beach culture—that is, until she falls for the charming local lifeguard, which throws her carefully planned future into question.
WaaPaKe
WaaPaKe is a story about resilience, love and transformation. Examined through an Indigenous lens, the stories of residential school Survivor-Warriors and their families offer an understanding of both intergenerational trauma and healing.
I'm Just Here for the Riot
Vancouver, June 15, 2011. Hours after the Canucks lost Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, rioters laid waste to blocks of downtown. In this absorbing documentary, Kathleen S. Jayme (The Grizzlie Truth) and Asia Youngman revisit that chaotic night.
Mareya Shot, Keetha Goal: Make the Shot
This spirited sports doc follows four junior hockey players of South Asian descent through the 2021-2022 season as they strive to make it to the NHL. Among them, Surrey’s own Arsh Bains, who signs with the Vancouver Canucks.
Union Street
Interspersing interviews with archival footage, Union Street documents the history of Vancouver’s Hogan’s Alley, the formerly Black neighbourhood which was destroyed by the construction of the Georgia viaduct in the 1970s.
Aitamaako'tamisskapi Natosi: Before the Sun
A thrilling portrait of a young Siksika woman as she trains for one of the most dangerous horse races in the world: on bareback. Logan Red Crow is an Indian Relay rider who vaults from horse to horse in exhilarating races. She is a champion in the making.
Physician, Heal Thyself
One of the world's foremost experts on addiction and trauma, Dr Gabor Maté shares not only his theories, but also his own story: his difficult childhood in Hungary and his long years of therapeutic practice in and around Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.
Cinemas of Asia
Journey into the cinematic reaches of Asia with some of the world’s most compelling storytellers as your guide.
If Only I Could Hibernate
In the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar, a story unfolds of perseverance under a truly daunting predicament. A teen with a gift for physics enters a national competition, struggling to make ends meet while pushing to succeed against all odds.
Only the River Flows
Wei Shujun's unpredictable neo-noir pits a detective against a serial killer terrorizing a small hamlet. The cop is not only trying to outwit the murderer, but must also deal with uncooperative villagers, inept colleagues, and his own unraveling mind.
Undercurrent
Kanae is reopening the bathhouse she shut down when her husband Satoru vanished without a trace. As someone shows up looking for work, an uneasy companionship forms, causing Kanae to handle two burdens, her lost husband and a secret she dare not reveal.
Winter Chants
This moving doc zooms in on Ho Chung Village, which lies in the hilly rural area of Hong Kong. Once a decade, its citizens hold the Peace and Light Festival as a tribute to their village, its departed souls, and the gods that preside over them all.
Dust in the Wind
At the end of the 1960s, high-school sweethearts Wan and Huen leave their little mining town in search of greater opportunities in Taipei, where the vicissitudes of life take their toll on the relationship.
Evil Does Not Exist
After the international success of Drive My Car, Ryusuke Hamaguchi quietly made this small-scale independent film, a work of simplicity and grace about a rural community and the developers who want to built a "glamping" retreat in the woods.
I Am Sirat
I Am Sirat is a personal documentary about Sirat, a transwoman in India, who lives a dual life. While supported by a queer network of friends in Delhi, Sirat reverts to the closet at home as she’s forced to maintain a son’s familial and cultural responsibilities.
Asog
Jaya, a teacher and comedian, travels across the typhoon-ravaged Philippines in a bid to win a beauty pageant. En route, they pick up an unlikely companion. Comic, sorrowful, and political, Asog examines the climate crisis through a kaleidoscopic lens.
Joint Security Area
Park Chan-wook's 2000 domestic box office hit investigates a deadly incident in the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea.
A Tour Guide
The tribulations of adapting to a new place are explored with freshness and sympathy in this film about a defector from North Korea struggling to make a better life for herself in Seoul. A gentle, low-key movie with a touching performance from Sul Lee.
Sculpting the Giant
This remarkable film documents a 28-year quest for glory. Indonesian sculptor Nyoman Nuarta’s goal is to build the world’s largest brass and copper structure. To do so, he must contend with public opposition, and political turmoil.
Peppermint Candy
Backtracking from his suicide as a broken and depressed man, the film recounts the life of Yong-ho, from his tragic demise to his innocent youth, in reverse order.
Tsugaru Lacquer Girl
Lacquerwork kitchenware is the Aoki family's legacy. When Seishiro wants to hand it down to his son Yu, he is faced with conflict, as his daughter Miyako cares far more for the craft, pushing a collision of gender politics and traditional domestic roles.
In Broad Daylight
In a powerful film based on actual events, a hard-bitten journalist investigates abuse in a Hong Kong care home. The film sidesteps no hard hitting questions, neglects cop-outs or easy answers, and offers a resounding moral challenge to us all.
Indigenous Cinema
Let the River Flow
Ester, a young Sami woman, tries to conceal her ethnicity to avoid ostracism in 1970s Norway without betraying her family roots. Struggling to navigate her shifting cultural identity, she protests a local dam with Sami activists.
WaaPaKe
WaaPaKe is a story about resilience, love and transformation. Examined through an Indigenous lens, the stories of residential school Survivor-Warriors and their families offer an understanding of both intergenerational trauma and healing.
Hey Viktor!
25 years after the success of the iconic film Smoke Signals, a disheveled former child actor decides to create a sequel to relive his fame. This mockumentary follows him on the chaotic uphill journey to do whatever it takes to make it big again.
Aitamaako'tamisskapi Natosi: Before the Sun
A thrilling portrait of a young Siksika woman as she trains for one of the most dangerous horse races in the world: on bareback. Logan Red Crow is an Indian Relay rider who vaults from horse to horse in exhilarating races. She is a champion in the making.
Q&As at VIFF
Get the full festival experience and meet some amazing creators behind the works on the big screen. Stay tuned for our full line-up!
*Note: Not all screenings will include Q&A. See individual film pages for more details.
U18 May Attend
A rated selection of excellent films for young cinema fans to experience and enjoy.
Stay tuned for our full line-up!
*Note: Not all screenings will be open to youth. See individual film pages for more details.