Skip to main content
Mira film image

International Shorts: Nothing Comes Easy

Image: Mira, VIFF 2023

This event has passed

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

Director

Various

Country of Origin

Various

Year

2022-2023

Series

International Shorts

Language

Various with English subtitles

18+
108 min
Shorts

Book Tickets

This event has passed.

Missing VIFF? Check Out What's Playing at the VIFF Centre

La Bola Negra
La Bola Negra film image; man playing a trumpet

La Bola Negra

Dir. Javier Ambrossi, Javier Calvo
155 min

A big, old-school historical melodrama gets a thrillingly modern, queer makeover from Spanish duo Javier Calvo and Javier Ambrossi, who artfully juggle three gay protagonists across stories set in 1932, 1937, and 2017. Winner: Best Director, Cannes. Screening on 35mm.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

The 39 Steps

Dir. Alfred Hitchcock
86 min

In our new film studies series, FRAMEWORK, film scholar Michael van den Bos explores the work of Alfred Hitchcock, across four monochrome masterworks. This week: The 39 Steps (1935), a witty and fast-moving spy thriller from Hitchcock's English period.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

The Great McGinty

Dir. Preston Sturges
82 min

Preston Sturges' first film as writer-director is an omnivorous satire on endemic political corruption, the tale of a tramp who gets his entry into politics by casting 37 votes for mayor at $2 a pop. Eventually he'll be on the ticket himself...

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre

To Be Or Not To Be

Dir. Ernst Lubitsch
99 min

Strange but true: one of the greatest comedies of Hollywood's golden era was inspired by Hitler's annexation of Poland in 1938. Jack Benny is the renowned theatre actor whose performance of Hamlet is interrupted by the Germans.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
The History of Concrete
The History of Concrete film image; man smoothing just-poured concrete sidewalk

The History of Concrete

Dir. John Wilson
101 min

After attending a workshop on pitching saccharine Hallmark movies, John Wilson tries to apply all the same best practices to his documentary about concrete. Frequently absurd and endlessly entertaining detours, asides, and digressions ensue.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre
More info

Sold Out

The Mad Dog of Europe

Dir. Rubika Shah
83 min

The story of an unmade screenplay from the writer of Citizen Kane. In 1932, Herman Mankiewicz wrote a film that foretold the persecution of the Jews and the war in Europe. But Hollywood wouldn't take the risk and The Mad Dog of Europe was never made.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre