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Ponto Final film image, director Miguel López Beraza

International Shorts: Personal Journeys

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The films in this shorts program are all about discovery. Beautiful and thought-provoking voyages of internal and external discovery that honour relations and history, while encountering stimuli that promote a new understanding of self.

 

Q&A Oct 4 & Oct 6

 

This short film program includes the following films:

Before Birth
Álex Mena, Carmen Jiménez, Spain (20 min)

A documentary/diary film that focuses on one of the directors, Álex Mena, who journeys to her grandmother’s village looking for a closure never realized after she died.

 


Firecracker Bullets
Chad Charlie, USA (14 min)

In this personal documentary, Indigenous comedian Chad Charlie goes to participate in the Standing Rock occupation and has a transformative experience.

 


Ponto Final
Miguel López Beraza, Spain/Portugal (23 min)

The director returns to his parents’ home and talks them into playing roles in a film he is making, addressing delicate personal and familial subjects in the process.

 


Will You Look at Me
Shuli Huang, China (20 min)

A 25-year-old gay man returns to his hometown in China after film school, and reflects how his coming out as gay affected (and continues to affect) his mother.

 


For You Today the Light of the Sun Will Not Shine
Andrea Bordoli, Switzerland (19 min)

Two construction workers wander through a hybrid natural-industrial zone by day and night, exploring and discovering seemingly insignificant details.

 


Empire of My Melodious Mind
Jeannette Louie, USA (9 min)

The odds and ends within a single cabinet spark an interior rumination of the self, family, and culture that form the identity of an American-born Asian woman.

 

Community Partner

Director

Various

Country of Origin

Various

Year

2021-2022

Language

Various with English subtitles

18+
105 min
Shorts

Book Tickets

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Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre

Muzizi

Dir. Jamila Pomeroy
84 min

From the director of the award-winning film Union Street, Jamila Pomeroy, Muzizi embarks on a great culinary adventure through Vancouver’s African diasporic culinary scene. Muzizi explores powerful stories of immigration, resilience, and joy.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Emergence: Women in the Storm

Dir. Velcrow Ripper & Nova Ami
85 min

Stories of resistance and recovery, courage, creativity and community in the face of the climate emergency gleaned from women first responders and those impacted in Western Canada, particularly Lytton and the Fraser Valley.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Nino

Dir. Pauline Locquès
97 min

Québécois actor Théodore Pellerin gives a quietly devastating performance as a young man shocked to learn he has throat cancer.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

2026 Oscar® Shorts (Animated)

Dir. Various
83 min

The nominees for Best Animated Short Film include The Girl Who Cried Pearls, a fable from Canadian filmmakers Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski, narrated by Colm Feore.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

2026 Oscar® Shorts (Live Action)

Dir. Various
119 min

This year's contenders in the Live Action category include comedies, drama, an experimental musical, and a dystopian fantasy; films from the UK and the US, France and Israel.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Nomadland

Dir. Chloe Zhao
108 min

Hamnet director Chloe Zhao picked up one of three Academy Awards (along with Best Picture and Best Actress) in 2021 for this unconventional, compassionate adaptation of Jessica Bruder's nonfiction book, Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema