Added Films
Decorado
Oct 10 & 12
In existential crisis, a middle-aged mouse increasingly believes the world is unreal, much like a film set. As his suspicions grow increasingly credible, will he accept his fate, or hatch one last bid for freedom?
The Girl and the Spider
Oct 7
Ramon and Silvan Zürcher’s sly and daring film takes place in Mara and Lisa’s spacious bohemian apartment as the latter moves out. Mise-en-scène, humour, and stylized character interactions take centre stage in this pure cinematic pleasure.
The Golden Spurtle
Oct 5, 9 & 12
Each year the sleepy highland village of Carrbridge awakens with excitement as locals and competitors from around the globe vie for the honour of winning The Golden Spurtle in the World Porridge Making Championships.
Is This Thing On?
Oct 12
As their marriage unravels, Alex seeks new purpose in the New York comedy scene while Tess confronts the sacrifices she made for their family — forcing them to navigate co-parenting, identity, and whether love can take a new form.
Levers
Oct 10 & 12
After the world is plunged into darkness, an intrepid civil servant undertakes an odyssey into a world shrouded in mystery. An ominous story conveyed through a potent mixture of bewitching fantasy and the idleness of the everyday.
Magellan
Oct 4 & 12
Magellan (Gael García Bernal) undertakes a bold expedition to the fabled lands of the East. Upon reaching the islands of the Malayan Archipelago, he becomes obsessed with conquest and conversion, which sparks violent uprisings beyond his control.
The Sparrow in the Chimney
Oct 8
Preparations are afoot for an extravagant celebration. But as the house fills up, tensions mount and it becomes a veritable pressure cooker of familial strife. Ramon Zürcher delivers precise formal play and acute psychological mystery.
The Strange Little Cat
Oct 6
This droll, perfectly executed comedy chronicles a day in the life of a multigenerational family prepping a celebratory dinner in their cramped Berlin apartment. Putting daily life’s absurdities on display, it’s an exciting choreography of the quotidian.
Added Events
VIFF Talks
Visual Architect
Frederick Elmes on Four Decades of Cinematic Collaboration
Oct 8
Legendary cinematographer Frederick Elmes has spent decades helping to define the visual language of directors like David Lynch and Jim Jarmusch. Don’t miss this opportunity to hear about the craft behind some of cinema’s most unforgettable moments.
Image: © Vague Notion
Choreographed Chaos
Ramon and Silvan Zürcher on Domestic Surrealism and Cinematic Precision
Oct 9
Employing collaboration and a shared vision, Ramon and Silvan Zürcher create meticulously observed, drolly absurd dramas that transform domestic spaces into surreal landscapes.
Image: © Iris Janke
Bringing Monsters to Life
With VFX Supervisor Dennis Berardi, Frankenstein, The Shape of Water
Oct 11
While classic creatures remain timeless, modern audiences demand something that feels authentically alive. VFX supervisor Dennis Berardi is a master of balancing practical artistry with digital innovation.
Building the Extraordinary
With Marcus Rowland, Production Designer, The Running Man
Oct 11
An engaging conversation with Marcus Rowland as he takes us behind the scenes of his creative process, revealing how he builds these unforgettable worlds and navigates the collaborative art of bringing impossible visions to life on screen.
Special Events
Pixar's ONWARD: The Story Behind the Score
With the Danna Brothers
Oct 9
Academy Award-winning composer Mychael Danna, and Jeff Danna explain the strange symmetry between the plot of Onward (2020) and their own lives, while exhibiting the techniques of thematic composition and how powerful it can be to help tell a story, especially in animation.
Added Screenings
The Art of Adventure
New Screening Added Oct 12*
The unbelievable adventure story of how painter Robert Bateman and ecologist Bristol Foster drove a Land Rover from Africa to Australia in 1957, developing a love of nature to last a lifetime. An inspirational love letter to the adventure of life itself.
*This is a Relaxed Screening
Blue Heron
New Screening Added Oct 5
In the late 1990s, eight-year-old Sasha and her Hungarian immigrant family relocate to a new home on Vancouver Island. Their fresh start is interrupted by increasingly dangerous behaviour from Jeremy, the family’s oldest child.
Blue Moon
New Screening Added Oct 8
On the night of March 31, 1943, famed lyricist Lorenz Hart holds court at Broadway’s iconic Sardi’s bar. While his former collaborator, Richard Rodgers, celebrates the success of his new musical, Oklahoma!, Hart confronts his own shattered present.
The Blue Trail
New Screening Added Oct 7
In a near-future Brazil, elderly citizens are forcibly relocated to live out their days in a senior housing colony. When 77-year-old Tereza learns that she will soon be taken away, she embarks on a fantastical odyssey into the Amazon.
Caravaggio
New Screening Added Oct 6
In the latest from Exhibition on Screen, co-directors David Bickerstaff and Phil Grabsky shed light on not only on Caravaggio’s paintings, but his life, often kept half-hidden in the same chiaroscuro tones he shaded his masterpieces with.
Dracula
New Screening Added Oct 6
A bawdy (and then some) deconstruction of Romania’s most potent IP, Radu Jude parodies the use of AI in filmmaking with his trademark acidic humour. It’s about six films in one, and there’s something to offend everyone.
Image: © Silviu Gheție
John Candy: I Like Me
New Screening Added Oct 8
A Canadian icon who defined a generation of comedy, John Candy’s presence still looms large in the hearts of fans decades after his tragic death. This documentary is a hilarious, heartwarming celebration of Candy’s generous spirit and singular talent.
Kokuho
New Screenings Added Oct 3 & 5
Adopted by a Kabuki actor, teenaged Kikuo dedicates himself to the art form and finds a close friend and fierce rival in Shunsuke, the actor’s other son. Over the course of five decades, Kikuo and Shunsuke ascend to Japan’s grandest stages.
La Salsa Vive
New Screening Added Oct 7
An exuberant celebration of salsa that traces the genre’s evolution from New York City in the 1960s and 70s to Cali, Colombia — the salsa capital of the world. Carvajal’s documentary highlights the rich legacy of this musical form and the joy it inspires.
Nouvelle Vague
New Screening Added Oct 2
Linklater’s love letter to Paris, 1959, and the difficult birth of Jean-Luc Godard’s first feature, Breathless, channels the auteur’s blithe self confidence and an era of all-encompassing cinephilia. It’s the next best thing to being there.
The Painted Life of E.J. Hughes
New Screenings Added Oct 8 & 11*
A beautiful portrait of E.J. Hughes, who quietly helped reshape the artistic landscape of British Columbia in the 20th century. This extraordinary documentary explores Hughes’s legacy not only as an artist, but as a devoted, humble human being.
*Oct 11 is a Relaxed Screening
Pillion
New Screening Added Oct 4
A timid, young gay man becomes the submissive to a sexy, leather-clad biker in this wickedly funny and sensitive examination of power, autonomy, and love in the world of kink. Call Me by Your Name meets Phantom Thread in leather chaps.
The President's Cake
New Screening Added Oct 12
Winner of the Caméra d’Or and Director’s Fortnight Audience Award at Cannes, Hasan Hadi’s fable-like drama set in 1990s Iraq follows an impoverished child’s quest into the city to scrounge up ingredients for birthday cake for Saddam Hussein.
A Private Life
New Screenings Added Oct 2 & 11
Jodie Foster is terrific as Lilian Steiner, an expert shrink whose own neuroses complicate her investigation into a patient’s death. A Private Life combines the amusements of satire with the pleasures of a good mystery thriller.
A Welcome Distraction
New Screening Added Oct 11
In the wake of a personal tragedy, a young man living in Vancouver does whatever he can to avoid reconnecting with his family. An ambient ode to our city, and a sensitive and relatable portrait of life within it.