Shorts from Armenia, Canada, Tibet, Colombia, Japan, and Turkey.
Oct 3 & 4: Q&A with filmmakers
This short film program includes the following films:
Grizzly Bear Country
Mave Ky, Canada (6 min)
Masculinity and male friendships are explored through three friends who go on a backcountry hiking trip in the Alberta Rockies.
Magic Candies
Daisuke Nishio, Japan (21 min)
Somewhat of a loner, Dong-Dong is content playing marbles on his own. One day, he goes to buy new marbles but leaves the shop with a bag of magic candies instead. Based on the Korean picture book, Magic Candies by Heena Baek.
The Egg
Vahan Grigoryan, Armenia (12 min)
A struggling actor decides to steal an egg at the grocery store.
Morî
Yakup Tekintangaç, Turkey (20 min)
When a new teacher starts at school, Morî is convinced that he is her long-lost father.
The Boys and the Donkey
Tsering Yangjyab, China (21 min)
In the Tibetan Plateau, four friends roughhouse with a neighbour’s donkey, leading to a nasty scratch on one of their faces. They resolve to punish the beast.
Culture Shock
Barry Bilinsky, Canada (15 min)
While Joey struggles to fit in at Culture Camp—where she is sent after defacing a mural—the mural artist’s sister is there also, looking for the vandal.
We Deserve an Empire
Mauricio Maldonado, Colombia (23 min)
Scrap metal thieves prepare to excavate an abandoned mine for gold.
Supported by
Community Partner
Various
Various
2023-2024
Various with English subtitles
Animal cruelty
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
Yunan
In this haunting mood piece, Munir is a middle-aged Syrian writer in exile in Germany. In crisis, he takes himself up to one of the Halligan islands in the North Sea, a suitable place to end it all...
The Track
In the middle of a mountain forest above Sarajevo, three boys train for the Olympics in a bullet-ridden luge track abandoned since the 1984 Winter Games. An ambitious, hopeful look at the next generation striving to overcome the sins of their fathers.
The Mother and the Bear
Johnny Ma’s film stars Kim Ho-jung as a Korean woman who flies to Winnipeg when her immigrant daughter is hospitalized there. This crowd-pleaser plays up cultural differences to hilarious effect and offers a touching take on mother-daughter tension.
It Was Just an Accident
Having offered some late-night assistance to a stranger in the wake of an auto accident, a mechanic grows convinced that he recognizes the supposed stranger’s voice as that of his torturer during a grueling prison spell.
Breaking the Waves
Kicking off our 2026 Pantheon series of the greatest films ever made, Lars von Trier's 1996 masterpiece is a devastating melodrama featuring an indelible performance from Emily Watson as the woman whose love for her husband knows no bounds.