Canadian Premiere
Juan Pablo González’s first narrative feature tackles the desolate effects of globalization on culture, tradition, and a generations-led tequila industry. Teresa Sánchez delivers a powerfully restrained performance about a steely and determined factory owner in Mexico fighting an uphill battle against nature, chance, and the impending global takeover of the local economy. Knowledgeable, magnanimous, and full of pride in both her craft and societal status, María Garcia (Sánchez) slowly reveals her loneliness, longing, and leashed passion while single-mindedly focused on saving her family’s legacy. Shot with the immediacy of a documentary but beautifully framed and elegantly composed in its cinematography, Dos estaciones is steeped in the specificity of Jalisco and the hypnotic rhythms of tequila-making. Winner of a Special Jury Award for acting at Sundance and the True Vision Award at the True/False Film Festival.
It’s rare when a debut feature strikes the perfect balance of ingredients, and especially rare when it does so in a distinctive and memorable way.”—Sheri Linden, The Hollywood Reporter
World Cinema Dramatic Special Jury Award: Acting (Teresa Sánchez), Sundance 2022; True Vision Award, True/False 2022
Teresa Sánchez, Rafaela Fuentes, Manuel García-Rulfo, José Galindo
Mexico/France/USA
2022
In Spanish with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Yunan
In this haunting mood piece, Munir is a middle-aged Syrian writer in exile in Germany. In crisis, he takes himself up to one of the Halligan islands in the North Sea, a suitable place to end it all...
The Track
In the middle of a mountain forest above Sarajevo, three boys train for the Olympics in a bullet-ridden luge track abandoned since the 1984 Winter Games. An ambitious, hopeful look at the next generation striving to overcome the sins of their fathers.
The Mother and the Bear
Johnny Ma’s film stars Kim Ho-jung as a Korean woman who flies to Winnipeg when her immigrant daughter is hospitalized there. This crowd-pleaser plays up cultural differences to hilarious effect and offers a touching take on mother-daughter tension.
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.
Breaking the Waves
Kicking off our 2026 Pantheon series of the greatest films ever made, Lars von Trier's 1996 masterpiece is a devastating melodrama featuring an indelible performance from Emily Watson as the woman whose love for her husband knows no bounds.
Credits
Executive Producer
Matthew Perniciaro
Producer
Jamie Gonçalves, Ilana Coleman, Bruna Haddad, Makena Buchanan
Screenwriter
Juan Pablo González, Ana Isabel Fernández, Ilana Coleman
Cinematography
Gerardo Guerra
Editor
Lívia Serpa, Juan Pablo González
Director
Juan Pablo González
Juan Pablo González is a Mexican director whose work spans fiction and nonfiction. His debut short film, The Solitude of Memory (2014), received the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary Short at the 2015 Slamdance Film Festival. Dos estaciones is his feature-length debut and it had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition. He was a fellow of the Fund for Culture and Arts in Mexico (FONCA) and was awarded the 2021 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise. González is the co-director of the Film Directing program at the California Institute of the Arts.