Each year, VIFF welcomes thousands of secondary students to experience exceptional international and Canadian cinema at the festival. This year, thanks to generous support from the Far Star Impact Fund, we are now offering films for high schools throughout the 2024-25 school year, bringing back some of the top sold-out favorites from past VIFF Ignite programs. Thes Ignite films are available in cinema and can also be streamed at school for limited dates, all completely free for schools.
From stories of tradition and history to films that capture impactful events as they’re unfolding, great world cinema challenges and expands our perspectives, promotes inquiry, develops critical thinking skills, and ignites imaginations. Be they set around the world, or right here in Canada, this year’s selected films for the Ignite High School program present memorable stories that connect youth with powerful themes and human experiences shaping our contemporary world, our identities, and our planet.
Supported by
Films in Cinema and Online via VIFF Connect
All Ignite films will be screened in-cinema at the VIFF Centre (1181 Seymour St, Vancouver), and streamed online using our VIFF Connect platform. All films are free for schools.
Educational Film Resources & Curriculum Ties
These films offer bold approaches to pressing social and environmental concerns and personal journeys, offering thought-provoking connections to subjects across the BC curriculum. Prior to the screenings, teachers will receive film resource guides. Written with the curriculum in mind, these guides are designed to open up in-depth exploration and facilitate discussion that connects the cinema and the classroom.
How to Book
Free for schools, capacity for all films is limited. To book, submit your request with the online form linked below. Our Ignite team will respond to confirm availability and complete your booking.
Questions? Contact our Ignite team at [email protected]
November Films
Common Ground
An eye-opening plea to care for the 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, and the planet, along with it.
The Klabona Keepers
The Klabona Keepers is a fierce account of the Tahltan Nation’s struggle to protect the Klabona Sacred Headwaters from commercial mining. Interspersing verité cinematography with interviews, the film documents the tactics used by the land defenders.
Rosie
Rosie is an orphaned Indigenous girl sent to live with her reluctant street-smart aunt. Rosie soon transforms the lives of the colourful characters she meets and together, they find acceptance and home with her in a chosen family of glittering outsiders.
December Films
Counted Out
Counted Out investigates major current issues like political polarization, racial and economic inequity, a global pandemic, and climate change through an unexpected lens: math. To inspire students to look at the world critically, this is the film to see.
Inventing Tomorrow
Meet passionate teenage innovators from around the globe who are creating cutting-edge solutions to confront the world’s environmental threats.
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.
