Skip to main content
The Painting film image; painting of an arm with ribbon around wrist

The Painting

Le Tableau

VIFF Short Forum

Using pinscreen animation, an instance of institutionalized incest in art history is examined through the portrait of Queen Mariana of Austria, who was 14 when she married her uncle.

 

Supported by

    

Community Partner

Director
Credits
Country of Origin

Canada

Year

2024

Language

In English and French with English subtitles

Film Contact
Content Warning

Incest

18+
11 min
Animation Art, Music & Photography Family Relations Shorts Women Directors
The National Film Board of Canada

Credits & Director

Producer

Christine Noël, Julie Roy

Screenwriter

Michèle Lemieux

ANIM

Michèle Lemieux

Editor

Annie Jean

Original Music

Robert Marcel Lepage

Michèle Lemieux headshot; The Painting director

Michèle Lemieux

Michèle Lemieux is an illustrator and animation filmmaker who has taught at UQAM’s School of Design for over 30 years. Since the late 1970s, she has worked on 15 illustrated books for young people, including Stormy Night (1997) which was adapted to the screen in 2003 at the NFB. In 2006, during a workshop given by Jacques Drouin, Lemieux was introduced to Alexeïeff-Parker’s pinscreen, subsequently becoming the artistic heir to this unique animation technique. She has made two short films using the pinscreen: Here and the Great Elsewhere (2012), which won several awards, and most recently, The Painting (2024).

Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre

Whatcha Want
Whatcha Want film image; two women staring at something offscreen

Whatcha Want

Dir. Mina Shum
90 min

Whatcha Want, a hip-hop-infused drama from award-winning Vancouverite Mina Shum (Meditation Park), sees a restless trophy wife from Hong Kong rise above her wealthy husband’s infidelity by rekindling her passion for dance.

VIFF Centre - Lochmaddy Studio Theatre The Rio Theatre

James McNeill Whistler

Dir. David Bickerstaff
90 min

One of America’s greatest artists, James McNeill Whistler fashioned his life as a work of art in its own right. James McNeill Whistler looks beyond his famous portraits and self-styled “nocturnes” to dive into the true depths of Whistler’s legacy.

International Village 8

Agridulce (Bittersweet)

Dir. Frank Pavich
98 min

Four aspiring young musicians in the Dominican Republic find fulfilment in the study of bachata music. Tinged with melancholy but full of joy, Agridulce (Bittersweet) is rooted in hopefulness of a bright future through music.

International Village 10

Let Them Be Seen

Dir. Nolitha Refilwe Mkulisi
74 min

Let Them Be Seen is an absurdist portrait of the town of Tapoleng in South Africa’s Eastern Cape, moving through churches, spaza shops, and a Jam Alley re-enactment to document a village reshaping faith and community in post-apartheid life.

VIFF Centre - VIFF Cinema

Yugo Goes to America

Dir. Filip Grujić, Aleksa Borković
87 min

In Yugo Goes to America, millennials from Belgrade drive a Yugo — Yugoslavia’s notoriously unreliable vehicle — from New York to Los Angeles. Their freewheeling road trip traces the car’s volatile history alongside the breakup of Yugoslavia itself.

International Village 9 SFU Woodwards

Elephants in the Fog

Dir. Abinash Bikram Shah
108 min

In a remote Nepalese village, Pirati takes charge in the search for a missing girl belonging to her family of third-gender Kinnar women. A densely atmospheric thriller and a moving portrait of an embattled but resilient community.

Fifth Avenue Cinema - 19+ only