The films in this shorts program are all about connections. People connecting with one another, dealing with change, or rediscovering a part of themselves and their past.
Q&A Oct 2 & Oct 4
This short film program includes the following films:
Bye Bye
Amélie Bonnin, France (25 min)
A man who left his native Normandy to build a bigger life for himself in Paris returns to his hometown, where he runs into an old flame.
A Different Place
Sophie Black, UK (14 min)
On a clandestine date, a 40-something woman battling with her identity embarks on a journey of rediscovery that she cannot ignore nor fully encompass.
Island of Freedom
Petr Januschka, Czech Republic (27 min)
It’s 1981 in Czechoslovakia, and a young man surprisingly reunites with his teen love on board a charter flight to Cuba.
The Ceremony
Lisle Turner, UK (10 min)
Written by Iman Qureshi, The Ceremony is a searingly honest take on non-binary marriage, with a twist.
The Cormorant
Lubna Playoust, France (23 min)
A mother and son live in a secluded house on an isolated island, where memory merges with the present, intertwining two moments of their lives—youth and maturity.
Magnified City
Isaku Kaneko, Japan (12 min)
In a ruined city, a wandering Magnifying Glass Human encounters a secret society of Projector Humans with grand plans to reconnect to the past in a surviving mountaintop theatre.
Community Partner
Various
Various
2021-2022
Various with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Short Forum 1: The Scarier One
The return of scary: fear in all its chilling, suspenseful, and unsettling shades.
The Only Living Pickpocket in New York
A career thief’s circumstances grow desperate when he fences valuable merchandise stolen from a vengeful crime family. John Turturro is exquisite as a wiseacre who is typically one step ahead of everyone but now finds himself behind the eight ball.
Gabin
Filmed over 10 years, Gabin follows Gabin Jourdel from age 8 to 18 and the animals, schoolwork, chores, and imagined futures that define his youth. As he grows, his adolescence becomes a question of inheritance and choosing one’s own future.
Iron Boy
Iron Boy, a hand-painted animated feature, follows a hardworking preteen farm boy and his sublime flights of fancy as he faces the earthshaking upheavals of growing up in an iron back brace. Winner of the Special Jury Prize at Cannes 2026.
Image: © Eddy Cinema, Beside Productions, Regular Production, France 3 Cinema, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Cinéma, RTBF