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Festival Encores

Whether you missed a movie at VIFF, or want to give a title a second look, here’s your chance. Catch these audience favourites as they return to the big screen.

La Bola Negra

Dir. Javier Ambrossi, Javier Calvo
155 min

A big, old-school historical melodrama gets a thrillingly modern, queer makeover from Spanish duo Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, who artfully juggle three gay protagonists across stories set in 1932, 1937, and 2017. Winner: Best Director, Cannes. Screening on 35mm.

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2:00 pm
Mon Nov 02
VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
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5:30 pm
Mon Nov 02
VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
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8:40 pm
Mon Nov 02
VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
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The History of Concrete

Dir. John Wilson
101 min

After attending a workshop on pitching saccharine Hallmark movies, John Wilson tries to apply all the same best practices to his documentary about concrete. Frequently absurd and endlessly entertaining detours, asides, and digressions ensue.

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6:00 pm
Mon Nov 02
VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
Hearing Assistance
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8:15 pm
Mon Nov 02
VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
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4:10 pm
Wed Nov 04
VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
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NAZA

Dir. Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor
80 min

NAZA is a codeword euphemistically used by Israeli intelligence to indicate the number of civilians it expects will be killed in an airstrike. This chilling documentary exposes the policy and process of state-sanctioned mass killings.

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11:00 am
Sun Nov 08
VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
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3:50 pm
Tue Nov 10
VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
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2:15 pm
Wed Nov 11
VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
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Akashi

Dir. Mayumi Yoshida
105 min

In Mayumi Yoshida’s tender drama, struggling artist Kana journeys to Tokyo to attend her grandmother’s funeral. While there, she reconnects with her childhood love and stumbles across a family secret that prompts her to reconsider her place in the world.

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1:00 pm
Fri Nov 13
VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
First Look Fridays Hearing Assistance Subtitles
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8:10 pm
Tue Nov 17
VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
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5:00 pm
Thu Nov 19
VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
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Queen at Sea

Dir. Lance Hammer
121 min

An academic is pitted against her stepfather in a moral crisis over the care of her mother, who lives with dementia. Winner of the Silver Bear Jury Prize and Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance at the 2026 Berlinale.

Image: © Seafaring

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2:30 pm
Thu Nov 19
VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
Hearing Assistance Subtitles
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6:00 pm
Thu Nov 19
VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
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4:30 pm
Fri Nov 20
VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
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Yellow Letters

Dir. İlker Çatak
128 min

Derya and Aziz, a theatre couple based in Ankara, are celebrating the premiere of their latest play when they find themselves targeted by state investigations. Their lives change practically overnight, they find their political convictions put to the test.

Image: © EllaKnorz ifProductions Alamode Film

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2:00 pm
Fri Nov 20
VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
First Look Fridays Hearing Assistance Subtitles
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5:00 pm
Sat Nov 21
VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
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1:20 pm
Sun Nov 22
VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
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Loving Vincent

Dir. Dorota Kobiela, Hugh Welchman
95 min

Winner of the VIFF Audience Award, Best International Feature in 2017, Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman's remarkable animated work — billed as "the world's first fully painted feature" — brings to life the paintings of Vincent van Gogh (and vice versa).

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11:00 am
Tue Nov 24
VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
Hearing Assistance
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Minotaur

Dir. Andrey Zvyagintsev
141 min

Russia, 2022. While contending with the fallout of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a corporate executive tries to insulate his home life from the consequences of the war. But when he discovers that his wife has been unfaithful, things start to implode.

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2:30 pm
Fri Nov 27
VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
First Look Fridays Hearing Assistance Subtitles
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7:50 pm
Fri Nov 27
VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
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3:30 pm
Sat Nov 28
VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema
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Smoke Sauna Sisterhood

Dir. Anna Hints
89 min

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.

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Women Talking

104 min

Sarah Polley's adaptation of Miriam Toews' novel is the most compelling movie to come out of the #MeToo movement to date, with stellar performances from Jessie Buckley, Rooney Mara, and Claire Foy, as Mennonite women confronting a terrible truth.

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The Lives of Others

Dir. Florian Henkel von Donnesmarck
137 min

This month's Talking Pictures film is a masterly Cold War thriller set in East Berlin. An agent of the secret police, conducting surveillance on a writer and his lover, finds himself becoming increasingly absorbed by their lives...

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Hanami

Dir. Denise Fernandes
96 min

On the volcanic island Cape Verde, young Nana is on the cusp of self-discovery. When her long-absent mother returns, the lyricism and magic of Nana's childhood take a different shape. Winner of the Best Emerging Director Award, Locarno Film Festival.

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The Blue Caftan

Dir. Maryam Touzani
122 min

Richly erotic and deeply moving, Maryam Touzani’s queer-themed film takes us to urban Morocco and into the lives of three beautiful souls. Halim is a master tailor; Mina is his loyal wife; Youssef is the man who slowly comes between them.

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Possible Love

Dir. Lee Chang-dong
164 min

Lee Chang-dong’s first film since Burning (2018) is a sardonic, slow-burning satire about two couples: a documentary filmmaker married to a wealthy businessman, and a working-class family struggling to make ends meet after the husband has been laid off.

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Once Upon a Time in Harlem

Dir. William Greaves, David Greaves
100 min

Once Upon a Time in Harlem splices together footage shot by William Greaves in 1972 of a group of Harlem Renaissance luminaries in conversation at Duke Ellington’s townhouse. The film is a living archive of memory, disagreement, style, and Black genius.

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