The year’s most highly anticipated films
This year’s Special Presentations lineup is the largest in VIFF’s history, with every one of the films fully deserving of the designation. As always, Cannes standouts are well-represented, including a riveting Palme d’Or winner from Jafar Panahi and a nerve-rattling desert odyssey courtesy of Óliver Laxe. The section boasts the Canadian premieres of new work by arthouse mainstays Jim Jarmusch and Noah Baumbach, as well as outstanding features from rising talents like Chandler Levack and Hikari. Be it the engrossing mystery of the latest Knives Out entry or a historical epic detailing Palestine’s Great Arab Revolt, these are films that sweep you up in their thrall.
A Private Life
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.
The Mastermind
Noting the laughably low security at the local art museum, an unemployed dreamer clumsily orchestrates a less-than-daring heist that leaves him in possession of four modestly valuable paintings, but no clue as to what to do next.
Image: © 2025 Mastermind Movie Inc
Steal Away
Get Out meets Rosemary’s Baby in this surreal psychological thriller from award-winning director Clement Virgo (Brother, VIFF 2022), as a sheltered teenager (Angourie Rice) obsesses over the mysterious refugee her mother has taken in (Mallori Johnson).
Sentimental Value
A once-revered director crashes back into his family’s lives, eager to recruit his daughter for a film role. When she declines, he finds a new muse in an eager but unpolished Hollywood star, sending his botched reconciliation spiraling into chaos.
Kokuho
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.
Young Mothers
In a residential shelter in Liège, five teenage mothers consider what lies ahead, often stumbling as they attempt to take their next steps. An immersive, empathetic portrait of those whom society can often overlook.
Image: © Christine Plenus
It Was Just an Accident
Having offered some late-night assistance to a stranger in the wake of an auto accident, a mechanic grows convinced that he recognizes the supposed stranger's voice as that of his torturer during a grueling prison spell.
No Other Choice
Adapting Donald E. Westlake's novel of ruthless corporate head-hunting The Ax, virtuoso filmmaker Park Chan-wook whips up his trademark blend of high style, suspense, and satire, in keeping with his classics Oldboy, The Handmaiden, and Decision to Leave.
Palestine 36
Palestine's entry for Best International Feature at the 2025 Academy Awards is an epic historical drama from director Annemarie Jacir that follows an ensemble of rural villagers who face off against British colonial forces during the 1936 Palestinian revolt.
Jay Kelly
In Noah Baumbach's wise and witty comedy, George Clooney plays Jay Kelly, a world-famous movie star touring Europe with his friend and manager, Ron (Adam Sandler). Faced with nagging dissatisfaction, Jay starts to ask himself some tough questions.
Father Mother Sister Brother
Jim Jarmusch returns to the anthology format he mastered in earlier films with this triptych of tales involving parents (Tom Waits and Charlotte Rampling) and their grown children (among them, Adam Driver, Vicky Krieps and Cate Blanchette).
Image: © Vague Notion
Nouvelle Vague
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 Secret Agent
Having run afoul of an influential bureaucrat in Brazil's military dictatorship circa 1977, Marcelo decamps to Recife to live under an assumed name — but he'll soon come to understand precisely how rampant the country's corruption has become.
Closing Gala: Köln 75 With Live Performance by Chris Gestrin
Experience the transcendent power of music: Vancouver pianist Chris Gestrin performs a set of Keith Jarrett-inspired music to accompany Köln 75, which tells the story of Jarrett’s iconic concert, which became the best-selling solo album in jazz history.
Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery
In this third entry in the wildly entertaining, ever-evolving Knives Out series, Benoit Blanc recruits a priest as his partner as delves into a decidedly Gothic-tinged whodunnit centred on a New England church and its eccentric parishioners.
Is This Thing On?
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.
Mile End Kicks
In this fresh, quirky rom-com from director Chandler Levack (I Like Movies, VIFF 2022), a young music critic (Barbie Ferreira) searches for her voice as a writer in Montreal while falling head over feet for two members of the same indie rock band.
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Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie
Two deranged dreamers are caught in a freak accident that sends them hurtling back to 2008. As they inadvertently wreak havoc with the timeline, a barrage of pop culture references, copyright violations, wild gags, and inspired set pieces is unleashed.
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Rental Family
In his first lead role since The Whale, Brendan Fraser plays a lonely American actor in Tokyo who lands a gig at a "rental family" agency, offering stand-ins for real world situations. Need a pretend boyfriend or funeral mourner? Brendan's your man.
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After the Hunt
Consent, plagiarism, cancel culture... Hot button issues fuel this pressure cooker campus drama from the prolific Luca Guadagnino (Challengers). Julia Roberts is caught in the middle when a student accuses her colleague of inappropriate behaviour.
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