Shorts from: China, France, Germany, Portugal, USA.
This short film program includes the following films:
The Death of the Fish
Eva Lusbaronian, France (14 min)
Through the mimicry and embodiment of dance, a girl tries to save her mother from depression.
Orlo with Karma
Kangdrun, China (23 min)
Romance blossoms at cram school between Orlo, an independent tomboy, and Karma, a new student with attitude.
Arguments in Favor of Love
Gabriel Abrantes, Portugal (10 min)
As the world ends, two ghosts enact the death throes of a relationship.
Two People Exchanging Saliva
Alexandre Singh & Natalie Musteata, France/USA (36 min)
Angine, a rich housewife, and Malaise, a shop girl, begin to form a bond in a repressive society where kissing is punishable by death.
Skin on Skin
Simon Schneckenburger, Germany (30 min)
Against the backdrop of a fomenting revolt, two workers in a German slaughterhouse find one another.
Supported by
Community Partner
Various
Various
2024 & 2025
Various
Animal cruelty, mild violence, self harm, mental health, suicide, death and loss
Book Tickets
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
NAZA
NAZA is a codeword euphemistically used by Israeli intelligence to indicate the number of civilians it expects will be killed in an airstrike. This chilling documentary exposes the policy and process of state-sanctioned mass killings.
The Sandbox
Borders are the faultlines of the world. Kenya-Jade Pinto's doc examines how modern surveillance technology, bio-metrics and AI are combining to make land and sea borders as impenetrable as air travel, and suggests the unspoken cost is our own humanity.
Atonement
A former Marine suffering from PTSD seeks a meeting with the Iraqi family to which he did great wrong ten years earlier in the Gulf War. Atonement navigates challenging, politically-charged psychological territory with diligence and sensitivity.
The Pervert's Guide to Ideology
Slavoj Zizek re-teams with director Sophie Fiennes for another wildly entertaining romp through the crossroads of cinema and philosophy. From The Sound of Music to Titanic, Jaws to The Dark Knight, Zizek offers new ways to understanding Hollywood.
The Pervert's Guide to Cinema
The Pervert's Guide to Cinema takes the viewer on an exhilarating ride through some of the greatest movies ever made (Hitchcock, Lynch, Tarkovsky et al). Serving as guide is Slavoj Zizek, the superstar Slovenian philosopher and psychoanalyst.
You Had to Be There
In a strange quirk of fate, the legendary Toronto '72 production of the musical comedy Jesus hit Godspell launched a constellation of comedy stars, all unknown at the time but now known to us as Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Dave Thomas, Victor Garber, et al