Skip to main content
The Ceremony film image, director Lisle Turner

The Ceremony

International Premiere

Written by Iman Qureshi, The Ceremony is a searingly honest take on non-binary marriage, with a twist. The film is part of MicroPlays, a series of short digital plays made as a collaboration between Open Sky Productions and some of the UK’s most exciting writers. It’s a formal ceremony with personal touches, featuring performances that are beautiful and sensitive. In these matters sexual orientation is not relevant, love and its challenges affect everyone and anyone.

 

Community Partner

Director
Cast

Amaka Okafor, Yaz Zadeh, Erika Poole

Credits
Country of Origin

UK

Year

2021

Language

English

Film Contact
10 min

Featured in:

Island of Freedom film image, director Petr Januschka

International Shorts: Connect/Disconnect/Reconnect

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.

 

MORE INFO

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

The Teacher

Dir. Farah Nabulsi
118 min

In this potent thriller, English teacher Basem witnesses the murder of a teenager by a Israeli settler. While the subsequent investigation rolls slowly towards a foregone conclusion, the teacher is caught up in a parallel kidnapping case...

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Bob Trevino Likes It

Dir. Tracie Laymon
102 min

When her toxic, narcissistic dad cuts her out of his life, Lily Trevino looks him up on Facebook and happens across his namesake, Bob (John Leguizamo), a gentle, genial contractor who lives nearby, and who proves an altogether better dad...

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Encampments

Dir. Michael T. Workman & Kei Pritsker
82 min

When pro-Palestine protests took hold of Columbia last year, the filmmakers were there from the beginning. This documentary charts the mounting tensions between students and the administration, as the protests were picked up across North America.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Shepherds

Dir. Sophie Deraspe
113 min

Mathyas quits his marketing job in Montreal and goes to France with the romantic notion of becoming a shepherd. He's in for a rude awakening... Based on a true story, Deraspe's stirring film plays spiritual uplift off against some 3000 sheep and a donkey.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Our Lady of the Nile

Dir. Atiq Rahimi
106 min

Veronica and Virginia are inseparable friends at an elite Catholic boarding school, Our Lady of the Nile, but what binds them together is the very thing that separates them forever. We are in Rwanda, 1973, and tribal tensions are simmering ominously.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

Faces

Dir. John Cassavetes
130 min

Ten years after his landmark debut, Shadows, John Cassavetes returned to the indie model, self-financing this wrenching portrait of the sexual mores and miseries of American middle class. Gena Rowlands is luminous as Jeannie, the film's emotional barometer.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Credits

Producer

Martina Klich

Screenwriter

Iman Qureshi

Cinematography

Ahmet Husseyin

Editor

Flaura Atkinson

Production Design

Fiona Mclean

Director

Lisle Turner headshot, The Ceremony director

Lisle Turner

Lisle Turner has written and directed two features, Here and Now (2014) and the award-winning Cold (2022). He has directed many shorts including Oxygen (2008) and Canvas (2010). Turner has been nominated at the BAFTA Awards for his work on Channel 4’s The Secret Policeman’s Ball (2006) and has written eight plays with The Idiot Colony which are currently being adapted for television. He is now preparing for his next feature, Mal.

Filmography: Here and Now (2014); Cold (2022)