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
Sirât
A desperate father (Sergi Lopez) searchers for his missing daughter through the spiritual wasteland of the Moroccan desert. An unforgettable sensory powerhouse, Sîrat will have you riveted and rattled for hours after the end credits have rolled.
2026 Oscar® Shorts (Documentary)
Don't come to the program of Oscar®-nominated documentary shorts for escapism. But let's talk about the Canadian contender, Perfectly a Strangeness, featuring an abandoned observatory and three donkeys. More of this, please.
The English Patient
In the first of a new Film Studies series exploring literary adaptations, director Anthony Minghella tackles Michael Ondatje's challenging, poetic WWII novel about an enigmatic, badly burnt patient with a tragic past. Introduced by Patricia Gruben.
