Shorts from Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Lebanon, Palestine, Slovenia, and Ukraine.
Oct 2 & 3: Q&A with filmmakers
This short film program includes the following films:
Gate 3 to 14
Karen Abou Jaoudeh, Lebanon (7 min)
Following the Beirut disaster of August 2020, two filmmakers assist with search and rescue efforts.
If the Sun Drowned into an Ocean of Clouds
Wissam Charaf, France/Lebanon (20 min)
Along a waterfront construction site, a security guard must prevent passersby from accessing the seaside.
Bright White Light
Henna Välkky & Eesu Lehtola, Finland (14 min)
Five near-death experiences are recalled through audio interviews and experimental visuals.
Dark Matter
Leo Berkeley, Australia (11 min)
Now in the later stages of multiple sclerosis, the director ponders existence, disability, and quantum mechanics.
Explosions Near the Museum
Roman Khimei & Yarema Malashchuk, Ukraine (14 min)
The camera moves through the Kherson Museum of Local Lore, which held Southern Ukraine’s largest and oldest collection of antiquities until it was looted by Russian occupational forces in 2022.
Three Birds
Zarja Menart, Slovenia/Croatia (8 min)
A sad girl seeks guidance from a wise bird woman.
Losing Your Home
Emmanuel Rioux, Canada (20 min)
Two women battle eviction notices from their respective homes.
Palestine Islands
Nour Ben Salem & Julien Menanteau, France/Jordan (23 min)
Living as a refugee at Balata camp in the northern West Bank, Maha choreographs a scenario to fulfill the unrealized goal of Palestinian sovereignty for her ailing blind grandfather.
Supported by
Community Partner
Various
Various
2023-2024
Various with English subtitles
Self harm, dug & alcohol abuse
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
All the Lovers in the Night
A lonely proofreader's isolated world begins to open through an unlikely friendship with a gentle physics teacher. Based on Mieko Kawakami's acclaimed novel, this luminous drama is a delicate meditation on loneliness, intimacy, and self-discovery.
Clarissa
Arie and Chuko Esiri’s Clarissa brings Mrs. Dalloway to present-day Lagos, with Sophie Okonedo playing the titular society hostess opposite David Oyelowo, Ayo Edebiri, and India Amarteifio in a Nigerian vision of class, privilege, and past lives.
Image: © Courtesy of Elevation Pictures
Opening Gala: The Debut
VIFF is honoured to open the festival with this special by-invitation screening of Jesse Eisenberg's The Debut. When meek Mona (Julianne Moore) lands a part in a musical, she fully inhabits her character, but grows increasingly untethered from reality.
Árru
Set against the mountains and fjords of northern Norway, Árru follows reindeer herder Maia as a proposed copper mine threatens her Sámi community, forcing her to fight to protect both her community and the land that sustains it.
The Beloved
When Esteban Martínez, an acclaimed director with violent tendences, invites his estranged daughter to star in his latest project, the stage is set for a familial reconnection. But as tensions flare, questions about his intentions rise to the surface.
MODES 1
Archive and the land reveal other ways of seeing, ensuring that what is meant to endure cannot be erased.