Canadian Premiere
Romanian auteur Radu Jude tosses off films the way other people send emails. Dracula is his fourth feature since Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World in 2023 (Kontinental ’25 also screens at this year’s VIFF), and at 167 minutes, it’s at least half a dozen movies for the price of one. Ironically, it purports to be the work of an uninspired hack director who has previously agreed to make a commercial film about Dracula, but who has no ideas — so he turns to AI.
Issuing prompts based on the Count’s storied cinematic legacy — a touch more Murnau here, some Coppola there — Jude’s on-screen alter ego more than fulfills his mandate to include “sex, nudity, emotion, violence, lots of blood, chases, jokes,” without remotely delivering the “super-commercial” movie he promised the producers. Rather, this is a bawdy, comic deconstruction of Romania’s most exploitable IP from Eastern Europe’s last refusenik, a rude Jude burlesque with something to offend everyone.
Supported by
Media Partner
Adonis Tanța, Gabriel Spahiu, Oana Maria Zaharia, Andrada Balea, Ilinca Manolache, Șerban Pavlu
Romania/Austria/
Luxembourg/Brazil
2025
In Romanian, English and German with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Credits & Director
Producer
Alex Teodorescu, Rodrigo Teixeira
Screenwriter
Radu Jude
Cinematography
Marius Panduru
Editor
Cătălin Cristuțiu
Art Director
Andreea Popa
Radu Jude
Radu Jude is the Romanian director and screenwriter of numerous critically acclaimed films, beginning with his feature debut The Happiest Girl in the World in 2009. In 2021, his film Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival, and its follow-up, Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World, received the Special Jury Prize at the Locarno Film Festival in 2023. His latest feature, Kontinental ’25, a low-budget independent production, was awarded the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay at the 2025 Berlinale.
Filmography: The Happiest Girl in the World (2009); Aferim! (2015); Scarred Hearts (2016); I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians (2018); Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (2021); Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (2023)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Frankenstein
Frankenstein and Guillermo del Toro might have been made for each other. The movie does not disappoint, a ripping yarn of grand adventure, spectacle, hubris, passion and XXL body parts, a tale of the fantastic that rings the imagination. Screening in 35mm.
Predators
"Punk'd for pedophiles." That's what Jimmy Kimmel called Chris Hansen's true crime/reality TV show, To Catch a Predator (2004-07). Two decades on, David Osit examines why the show made such an impact, for good or ill, and sits down with Hansen himself.
The Outcasts
One of earliest examples of "folk horror", The Outcasts (1982) draws on Irish mythology and folktales to eerie effect. Simple Maura is rumoured to have spent the night with the mythical fiddler Scarf Michael, with dire consequences for all... Screening followed by a panel discussion on Irish horror.
Köln 75
The true story behind the greatest solo concert in jazz history, this is Keith Jarrett's legendary 1975 Köln Concert — as organized by 18-year-old rebel music promoter Vera Brandes. Fun, inventive and feminist, it's the Bend It Like Beckham of jazz films.