The short films in this program illustrate some of the barriers or difficulties people run into with their personal relationships.
October 1 & 3: Q&A with the film teams
This short film program includes the following films:
Hedgehog
D. Mitry, USA (17 min)
As the war starts in Ukraine a young girl is taken to stay with her grandmother. In the shack outside, she discovers a badly wounded Russian soldier.
Nowhere
Garin Hovannisian, Armenia/USA (12 min)
A teacher and a young barista are too prudent to say anything about their mutual attraction, but after dark a world emerges where their shadows come alive.
Hide Your Crazy
Austin Kase, USA (14 min)
A young man’s surprise birthday dinner for his girlfriend is not met with the response he was expecting, which leads to the most frightful night of their lives.
Big Day
Chung Chieh Chiang, Taiwan (23 min)
An older couple take a walk to file their divorce papers and on the way reflect on how their lives came to this.
Snif & Snüf
Michael J Ruocco, USA (5 min)
Two characters discover an interesting new object that teaches them a lot about themselves and what it means to share.
Sushi
Iván Morales, Spain (22 min)
A young man goes out for sushi dinner with a community policeman who has never had sushi before, but the mystery of their connection takes a while to be revealed.
Pisko the Crab Child Is in Love
Makoto Nagahisa, Japan (17 min)
A young woman whose father was a crab takes us on a whirlwind tour of her struggle to find love and acceptance.
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
Turner & Constable
Filmed as a supplement to a blockbuster exhibition at Tate Britain happening right now, this doc in the popular Exhibition on Screen series allows us to view these competitive, complementary English landscape artists side by side.
Mr. Nobody Against Putin
Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Documentary, and Special Jury Prize Winner, Sundance, 2025, this exposé shot by a Russian primary teacher shows how the Putin propaganda machine works to militarize children.
One Battle After Another
PT Anderson's breathless satire is the best political action movie of 2025, a defiantly anti-MAGA rallying cry featuring a six pack of crackerjack performances. They'll still be talking about this one 50 years from now.
The Painted Life of E.J. Hughes
A beautiful portrait of E.J. Hughes, who quietly helped reshape the artistic landscape of British Columbia in the 20th century. This extraordinary documentary explores Hughes’s legacy not only as an artist, but as a devoted, humble human being.
The President's Cake
Nine year old Lamia and her friend Saeed venture into the city to scrounge ingredients for a cake to celebrate Sadaam Hussein's birthday — a quest fraught with real peril in precarious times. Winner, Camera d'Or, Cannes.
Sentimental Value
A once-revered director crashes back into his family’s lives, eager to recruit his daughter for a film role. When she declines, he finds a new muse in an eager but unpolished Hollywood star, sending his botched reconciliation spiraling into chaos.