Do you believe in magic?
Oct 8 & 9: Filmmaker Q&A
This short film program includes the following films:
The Man in the Showers
Hakim Atoui, France (14 min)
11-year old Skander experiences a sexual awakening at the local pool.
Content Considerations: Nudity
Buddies
Fraser Wolfe, Canada (11 min)
Boundaries shift as two teen friends spend a ski weekend together.
O
Francisca Alarcão, Portugal/Spain (14 min)
Alarcão attempts to overcome her inexplicable aversion to belly buttons.
Stallion and a Crystal Ball
Christian Avilés, Spain (20 min)
Consumed by longing for a mysterious sorcerer, a secluded teenager performs a spell to break free.
Going Nowhere Fast
Dylan Paffe, Canada/USA (15 min)
Three adults living with disabilities navigate the intricacies of a love triangle.
Dance of the Sun On the Water
Ming Wong, UK (23 min)
The queer story of St. Sebastian is made even queerer, as seven performers restage his life inside the National Gallery.
Already Happened
Hao Zhou, China/USA (18 min)
Zhou revisits previously abandoned footage to queer the boundaries between personal archive, fantasy, and exorcism.
Community Partner
Various
Various
2025 & 2026
Various
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
Possible Love
Lee Chang-dong’s first film since Burning (2018) is a sardonic, slow-burning satire about two couples: a documentary filmmaker married to a wealthy businessman, and a working-class family struggling to make ends meet after the husband has been laid off.
Once Upon a Time in Harlem
Once Upon a Time in Harlem splices together footage shot by William Greaves in 1972 of a group of Harlem Renaissance luminaries in conversation at Duke Ellington’s townhouse. The film is a living archive of memory, disagreement, style, and Black genius.
The Secret in Their Eyes
This month's Talking Pictures screening is a multi-layered, poignant thriller interweaving the personal lives of a prosecution investigator (Ricardo Darin) and a judge, with a manhunt spanning twenty-five years. Stay for cookies, coffee and a chat after!
The Haunting
Directed by Robert Wise in 1963, The Haunting is a classic exercise in the suggestive power of cinema, adapted from Shirley Jackson's 1959 best-seller, The Haunting of Hill House, a provocative blend of supernatural and psychological horror.
