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
The Tree of Life
The Tree of Life follows Jack as he reflects on his 1950s Texas childhood and the death of his younger brother. Deeply spiritual and poetic, Malick’s film moves through grief, memory, time, and space. And there are dinosaurs.
Sometimes, I Imagine Them All at a Party
Fourteen years ago, Daniela Magnani Hüller survived an attempted femicide by a schoolmate. Now a filmmaker, she revisits the events surrounding that fateful incident, creating a moving collage of interviews, personal recollections, and archival material.
Image: © Bildersturm
Queen at Sea
An academic is pitted against her stepfather in a moral crisis over the care of her mother, who lives with dementia. Winner of the Silver Bear Jury Prize and Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance at the 2026 Berlinale.
Image: © Seafaring
The Story of Documentary Film – The 2000s
The Story of Documentary Film – The 2000s enters a decade shaped by 9/11, war, fear, and politics. Through films such as The Cove and Grizzly Man, these chapters trace the documentary medium's encounter with modernity as it begins to unravel.
Image: © Iraq in Fragments, 2006, dir. James Longley, USA, Daylight Factory Typecast-Pictures