Shorts from: Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Finland, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Poland, Portugal.
Oct 7 & 8: Q&A
This short film program includes the following films:
The Light of Immortality
Mikołaj Janik, Poland (25 min)
A man’s obsession with collecting vintage lamps slowly unravels the shadow of what is real and what is not, as his family, for decades, has quietly supported and adapted to his ever-growing fantasy.
Tears Burn to Ash
Natalie Murao, Canada (15 min)
An encounter with a doppelganger in Japan cracks open the edges of reality, as a return to the homeland becomes a search through memory, absence, and the ghosts of identity.
My Dad is an Astronaut
Bianca Rose Cheung, Canada (14 min)
Through dreamy textures and thermal imaging, the film hums with quiet longing, lost signals, and the strange intimacy of distance.
Mother of Dawn
Clara Trevisan, Belgium/Brazil/Finland/Portugal (9 min)
In the dead of night, a hungry creature searches for food — until something breaks the cycle.
Bleat!
Ananth Subramaniam, Malaysia/Philippines/France (16 min)
An elderly couple faces a dilemma when their male goat, destined for ceremonial slaughter, turns out to be pregnant.
Muljil: Diving
Young Eun Yoo (Yooye), South Korea (26 min)
Yang Young-sam, a 77-year-old haenyeo (female freediver) battling dementia, prepares for a final ritual goodbye.
Supported by
Community Partner
Various
Various
2024 & 2025
Various
Animal cruelty, graphic violence
Book Tickets
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
The Executioner
Regularly cited as the greatest Spanish film ever made, Berlanga's masterpiece is a pitch black comedy about an undertaker lined up by the state executioner to marry his beautiful daughter -- but he'll also have to inherit the old man's job.
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.
The Plague
At a water polo camp, Ben is plunged into the deep end of toxic peer pressure. Terrified of incurring his campmates’ wrath, he joins them in tormenting a kid whose skin rash has been branded “the plague”. But then he experiences a breakout of his own...
The Flamenco Guitar of Yerai Cortés + Por Derecho (For the Right) Live
Winner of the Goya Award for Best Documentary, this is an exquisite and surprisingly intimate portrait of the brilliant young guitarist Yerai Cortés, preceded by an hour of passionate flamenco music, song and dance performed by Flamenco Rosario.