In this program of short films our protagonists discover that sorting out their lives can be much more difficult to achieve than they realized.
This short film program includes the following films:
Far From the Tree
Emma Marková, Czech Republic (23 min)
A woman and her teen daughter live in a small dead end city where both women are trying to break out of their miserable circumstances.
Cut
Samuel Lucas Allen, Australia (19 min)
A teenage boy caught in a web of lies is pulled in different directions as he tries to juggle anti-Semitism, his queerness and an orthodox Jewish father.
Night Shift
Santiago Lago, Argentina (27 min)
The night shift clerk at a sex hotel, suffering from narcolepsy, is faced with a night when things are unusually busy and housekeeping finds a gun in room 6.
Spasm
Sahra Asadollahi, Iran (27 min)
A woman who has never acted in film before goes for an audition that becomes a test of more than just her acting ability.
Mira
Eva Louise Hall, USA (12 min)
A struggling accordionist busker gets more than she bargained for when her desire to get noticed attracts the attention of a mysterious and enticing competitor.
Community Partner
Various
Various
2022-2023
International Shorts
Various with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Dean Thiessen Plays Vince Guaraldi + Charlie Brown
In 1965 jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi created the perfect soundtrack to Charles Schultz's beloved Peanuts. Dean Thiessen's 5-tet pays tributes to Guaraldi's catchy tunes, followed by a screening of the first Charlie Brown feature film.
Pictures of Ghosts
A companion piece to Mendonça Filho's The Secret Agent, Pictures of Ghosts is a lovely, relaxed, ruminative riff on movies, memory, the imaginative space conferred by that place we call Cinema, seasoned with love and boundless anecdotes.
It's a Wonderful Life
Every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings. This Christmas classic is whimsical, sure, but it has the depth to stand up to multiple watches, and it really should be a communal experience, because that is what it's about.
The Nutcracker at Wethersfield
Back in the long, dark Covid winter of 2020, there was no way the New York City Ballet could mount their traditional Christmas production of Tchaikovsky's fairytale. But choreographer Troy Schumacher had a dream to save the show -- reimagining a classic.
North of Ourselves
In the depths of winter, two adventurers set out to cross Quebec from one end to the other on bike and skis, exploring its staggering geography and meeting its inhabitants (human and otherwise) along the way.
Hundreds of Beavers: A Northwoods Christmas
The funniest, and certainly the furriest movie you will see this year, Hundreds of Beavers channels the zany slapstick shtick of Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin and Bugs Bunny through a videogame quest narrative to retell the eternal saga of Man v Nature.