6u532b

Olivia de Havilland won the Oscar for playing Catherine, a shy and insecure young woman who blossoms under the courtship of handsome gentleman caller Morris (Montgomery Clift). Her wealthy father, Ralph Richardson, looks on with severe skepticism.

George (Montgomery Clift) takes a job in his uncle's firm. But before he can break into the family's charmed inner circle and fall in love with socialite Angela (Elizabeth Taylor), he becomes embroiled with a factory girl (Shelley Winters).

"I don't want realism. I want magic!" declares Blanche du Bois, the tragic heroine who meets her nemesis in her sister's husband, Stanley Kowalski, in Tennessee Williams' great play. Brando's performance as Stanley is a turning point in American acting.

Marlon Brando's definitive performance as Terry Malloy, a New York dockworker (and once a promising boxer) who loses faith in his union and his smarter but corrupt older brother Charlie (Rod Steiger) after a whistleblower is murdered.

Salinas, 1917. Cal Trask's forlorn attempts to win the affection of his self-righteous father (Raymond Massey) represented James Dean's first leading role in the cinema, and his emotionally raw performance ennobled misunderstood youth everywhere.

Kids turned bad in the 1950s -- and their newly comfortable middle-class parents couldn't understand why. Ray points the finger right back at them: "You're tearing me apart!" rails Jim Stark (James Dean), speaking for his generation.

This was the Yellowstone of its time: a big, sweeping modern Western built around an imposing ranch and family dynamics -- except Giant is much more subversive. James Dean strikes it rich as Jett Rink, much to the disgust of his former boss, Rock Hudson.

Jane Fonda is a lightweight local news anchor sent to film a puff piece about clean, limitless energy at a nuclear power plant with cameraman Michael Douglas. As luck would have it, they witness chaos in the control room and an emergency shutdown.

Fred Zinnemann's meticulous film is based on by playwright Lillian Hellman of a wealthy childhood friend who turned her back on privilege to follow her ideals and to victims of the Nazi regime in prior to WWII.

Jane Fonda's camp classic is a sex-positive sci-fi comedy.

Horace McCoy's existential Great Depression novel is the basis for a brutally compelling movie, and the first performance where Jane Fonda could show her chops. She's one of many desperate souls competing in a dance marathon that lasts for days and weeks.

Paul Newman is the anti-authoritarian kicking against the system in this slick sixties chaingang movie.

This acclaimed paranoia thriller stars Jane Fonda as Bree Daniel, a New York City call girl who becomes enmeshed in an investigation into the disappearance of a business executive. It's a role that won Fonda the Academy Award.

Barbara Loden's vérité feminist masterpiece, a landmark in the history of women filmmakers -- and "the anti-Bonnie & Clyde". "Writer-director-actor Barbara Loden's 1970 feature has a wonderful, hard-won sense of everyday rapture," Chuck Bowen, Slant

Ritwik Ghatak is the unsung genius of Bengali cinema. His best known film is a a brilliantly structured melodrama about the terrible demands of poverty and family on the prospects of a young woman.

Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman are street hustlers on different ends of the innocence / experience spectrum who establish something more than a business partnership in the seedy world of late 60s New York City in John Schlesinger's New Hollywood classic.

In The Graduate Benjamin (Dustin Hoffman, 30 playing 20 with masterly understatement) comes home from college and is surprised to be seduced by the wife of his father's business partner, Mrs Robinson (Anne Bancroft).

Bubba Reeves (Robert Redford) escapes from prison and the south Texas town where his wife (Jane Fonda) is carrying on with his best friend (James Fox) is in uproar. Sheriff Marlon Brando tries and fails to keep a lid on the unpleasantness.

The story of a shy schoolteacher whose sexual awakening in her mid-30s leads to a deeper re-evaluation of her life, the film is sensitive and sympathetic, as well as a surprising directorial debut from Paul Newman.

Academy Awards went to Best Actress Anne Bancroft and Best ing Actress Patty Duke for their moving portrayals of Annie Sullivan and her remarkable blind and deaf pupil, Helen Keller. "A film that storms where most biopics respectfully tiptoe."

Sidney Poitier in an indelible role a Philadelphia police detective Virgil Tibbs, pulled in as a murder suspect when changing trains in Mississippi. He allies with bigoted local sheriff (Rod Steiger) to solve the case.

A young couple accept an invitation for a nightcap with history professor George (Richard Burton) and his wife Martha (Elizabeth Taylor). At first it's fun and games. But what es for caustic wit soon degenerates into vicious mind games.

Tennessee Valley Authority man Montgomery Clift finds derision from the locals, love from the war widow Lee Remick, and obduracy from matriarch Jo Van Fleet, who just won’t leave that scheduled-to-be-flooded farm.

Humane, humorous and critically astute, this firm festival favourite from 2015 features a wonderful performance from Regina Casé as a nanny and housekeeper in São Paolo who begins to reevaluate her life when she's reunited with her teen daughter.

Anderson's first legit masterpiece is a portrait of a family of washed up over-achievers (among them, Ben Stiller, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Luke Wilson) flailing, not waving and pater familias Royal (the late, great Gene Hackman).

12 strangers (all of them white men) deliberate on the likelihood that a Puerto Rican teenager murdered his father. It's an open-and-shut case for 11 of them. But Juror 8 (Henry Fonda) is not convinced.

Mutiny on the Bounty out on the range. Cattle driver Tom Dunson (John Wayne) is a pioneer, a self-made man who sees no reason to trust anyone but himself. In just his second film, Method man Montgomery Clift is Dunson's adopted son Matt Garth.

RW Fassbinder's lop-sided love story (60 year old German widow and a Moroccan twenty years her junior) shines an unflattering light on social hypocrisies.

This hilarious sports underdog story from the director of Shall We Dance won 5 Japan Academy Awards including Best Film, and was the inspiration for the recent Disney+ spin off series.

Shall we meditate? Masayuki Suô's second film is a comedy about a punk rock star (Masahiro Motoki) who agrees to become a Buddhist monk for a year in order to inherit his family's lucrative temple.

In this fascinating lesser known George Cukor picture matinee idol Roland Colman plays a quintessentially English classical theatre actor, Tony John, whose dedication to playing Othello on Broadway leads to jealous fits off-stage.

The less you know about Endless Cookie beforehand, the better you will be prepared. Seriously.

Masayuki Suô's delightful and charming 1996 film was a box office smash and won 14 Japanese Academy Awards including Best Film. It's the story of a married salaryman who falls in love with... dance.

Recipient of the Werner Herzog Award, the first feature by 25-year-old Harley Chamandy is a pleasingly gentle character study set in Lake Country, where music producer Allen has retreated to recover from a grievous turn of events.

A young girl, Tomo, unexpectedly finds herself living with her uncle and his transgender partner, a woman named Tetsu. The unconventional family arrangement serves as a backdrop for exploring the challenges and joys of living authentically.

Hollywood on Hollywood: the tale of a screenwriter, Joe Gillis (William Holden), who stumbles into the orbit of a now-forgotten movie star, Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson), and realizes this silent film diva could be his meal ticket.

Hollywood on Hollywood: the tale of a screenwriter, Joe Gillis (William Holden), who stumbles into the orbit of a now-forgotten movie star, Norma Desmond (Gloria Swanson), and realizes this silent film diva could be his meal ticket.

Arguably the best backstage melodrama of them all, this story of a young actress on the make seems to have been dipped in acid before the cameras rolled. Bette Davis is the uncomfortably peaking diva Margo Channing and it's her finest role.

If Art Deco had a face, it was surely Tamara De Lempicka, giving us the side-eye at the wheel of a green Bugati in her famous self-portrait. Rubio's invaluable doc teases out the truths behind the myths, shedding light on De Lempicka's still underrate

Ingrid Bergman is pimped out by US agent Cary Grant to Nazi-sympathizer Claude Rains (ironically the most likeable character in the film). Hitchcock's classic is a prime example of classic Hollywood star power.

Falling between Bridget Jones and Past Lives, this Anglo-French charmer is a classic rom-com with a literary flavour. Agathe aspires to being a writer and dreams of romance. An invite to a Jane Austen Writers' Residency in England promises both...

When a stranger rents a room from model Daisy and her mum and dad, her policeman boyfriend becomes suspicious... Presented with an original live score by Chris Gestrin, the first signature Hitchcock movie is loosely based on the Jack The Ripper murders.

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On is a heartwarming film for all ages. Marcel, a tiny shell, lives with his grandmother Connie in a human house. When a filmmaker discovers Marcel, they team up to search for his long-lost relatives

Considered the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history, the Fairy Creek blockade led to more than 1200 arrests. What Jen Muranetz's film gives us is the story from the front line from the activists' point of view (often, from the treetops).

Scotland in the 1790s, travelling circus samurai Tornado (Kōki) runs afoul of a band of murderous brigands led by Tim Roth and his ambitious son, Jack Lowden. Mayhem ensues.

In the face of environmental destruction, two Nations fight to restore their river and a way of life

In this light-hearted, emancipatory take on a classic sex farce, two neglected married women discover the joys of casual sex and get their plumbing fixed.

Deepa Mehta's tender and tumultuous love story between two women, finding comfort in each other in resistance to India's patriarchal society.

Each month we showcase a movie selected by one of our VIFF+ . This month, Shanwen Yan chooses Ang Lee's erotic WWII spy 2007 thriller, starring Tany Wei, Tony Leung and Joan Chen.

Based on the bestselling novel, writer and teacher Iris (Naomi Watts) finds her comfortable, solitary New York life thrown into disarray after her closest friend and mentor (Bill Murray) bequeaths her Apollo, his 150lb Great Dane.

With Father’s Day around the corner and a fresh wave of CanCon appreciation in the air, we asked the VIFF team to shout out their favourite portrayals of fatherhood on screen by a Canadian actor or in a Canadian film.
From the iconic to the underrated, here’s a lovingly curated and proudly #CanadianStrong list of our top picks!

• C.R.A.Z.Y.
• Monsieur Lazhar
• Beginners
• The Grand Seduction
• Ordinary People
• American Pie
• Bon Cop Bad Cop
• Drinkwater
• Shrek
• Starbuck

...plus 10 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

More details at viff.org

• Giant
• Rebel Without a Cause
• East of Eden
• On the Waterfront
• A Streetcar Named Desire
• A Place in the Sun
• The Heiress
• Sumo Do, Sumo Don't
• The Second Mother
• The Royal Tenenbaums

...plus 30 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Tibetan director Pema Tseden (1969–2023) became, during his all-too-short life, one of the most remarkable filmmakers of this century. He revolutionized the representation of Tibet and Tibetans and shared his visions of authentic Tibetan life with the entire film-going world by reimagining how narrative cinematic fiction could operate within so-called “Chinese minority cinema”.

His alternative formal strategies and narrative framings were inspired by the contemporary lived experience of Tibetans, centering in his works their culture, language, religion, and ways of inhabiting and interpreting their world. Pema Tseden died mid-career, at the age of 53. Yet he left us eight features remarkable for their formal range and quiet, rhapsodic beauty.

– Shelly Kraicer, curator

• Balloon
• Jinpa
• The Silent Holy Stones
• The Silent Holy Stone
• The Grassland
• The Search
• Snow Leopard
• Old Dog
• The Sacred Arrow
• Tharlo

More details at viff.org

• The Encampments
• A Woman Under the Influence
• Are We Done Now?
• Mambar Pierrette
• The Teacher
• No Other Land
• One to One: John & Yoko
• Secret Mall Apartment
• Minnie and Moskowitz
• Freaks

...plus 23 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Last year, we lost one of the greatest of all screen performers: Gena Rowlands (1930-2024). Not a box-office star, Rowlands nevertheless racked up more than 30 notable film roles in a career that stretched across more than five decades. Of these, the parts she embodied for her writer-director husband John Cassavetes are the bedrock of her reputation, and the reason why for so many of her peers she is the most inspiring and influential American actress of the past half century.

Much more than a muse, Rowlands was a versatile, courageous and profound actor, and their films together — including Faces, A Woman Under the Influence, Minnie and Moskowitz, Gloria, Opening Night and Love Streams — confront the fraught complexity of relationships with a candor that feels like revelation. Through Rowlands, Cassavetes was able to write about vulnerability, loneliness, and aging, but she also showed him strength, determination, love… In other words, Gena made John a more complete artist.

As Manohla Dargis wrote in The New York Times, “Rowlands and Cassavetes changed American cinema, and they also, as importantly, changed the women in it, making films that spoke to their liberated moment. Cassavetes may not have been a feminist, strictly speaking. Yet he and Rowlands made some of the greatest, truest films about women.”

• Faces
• A Woman Under the Influence
• Minnie and Moskowitz
• Gloria
• Opening Night
• Love Streams
• Another Woman
• Night on Earth

Canadian Film Week
Apr 11 – Apr 17

Celebrate Canadian and Indigenous Storytelling
VIFF is proud to champion and showcase Canadian and Indigenous filmmaking. The VIFF Centre is a vital hub for this storytelling, presenting over 60 Canadian features in 2024 alone. Today, this commitment is more important than ever. Only Canadian filmmakers illuminate the values, experiences, and stories that define the special character of this place we proudly call home.

Canadian Film Week spotlights 18 features, including six Vancouver premieres and four brand new films from BC filmmakers, most of whom will us for Q&As. The lineup also features returning classics, new favourites, and free screenings on National Canadian Film Day.

*National Canadian Film Day, April 16 | Free Screenings
Velcrow Ripper and Cari Green VIFF for the 20th anniversary screening of their non-fiction film ScaredSacred, a special tribute screening to producer Tracey Friesen. And director Sandy Wilson will introduce her coming of age classic My American Cousin, which marks its 40th anniversary this year.

• Sweet Summer Pow Wow
• The Decline of the American Empire
• Village Keeper
• The Barbarian Invasions
• Incandescence
• Crocodile Eyes
• Universal Language
• The Players
• The Players
• Young Werther

...plus 8 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
• Misericordia
• The Way, My Way
• Resident Orca
• Grand Tour
• I'm Still Here
• Queen of the Ring
• No Other Land
• Baby Face
• Hard Truths

...plus 37 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Celebrating Pixar 1995 – 2010 with 11 extraordinary films that have left an indelible imprint on children either side of the millennium — and their parents!

The first Pixar movie was Luxo Jr (1986). It lasted all of two minutes, and it featured an animated version of Pixar founder John Lasseter’s desk lamp… Which is why a bouncy little lamp is the Pixar logo.
The idea that a film studio might define the quality and characteristics of the movie bearing that logo disappeared in the 1950s with the demise of the studio system. But starting with Toy Story — the first fully computer generated animated feature — in 1995, Pixar has proven an exception to this rule. That little lamp is a hallmark for beautifully rendered digital features of rare wit and emotional maturity.

Already, in that first Toy Story, you can see the dynamism and the finesse CG can supply. Just as importantly, the team seemed inspired across the board. If the characters in Pixar movies are more vivid than in Disney or Dreamworks, and if the stories are more original, richer, and more fun, that’s because the writing is better.

*Tom Charity, VIFF Centre Year-Round Programmer

• Toy Story
• A Bug's Life
• Toy Story 2
• Monsters, Inc.
• Finding Nemo
• The Incredibles
• Cars
• Ratatouille
• WALL·E
• Up

...plus 1 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

What's screening at the VIFF Centre in March 2025 - including Generation Pixar , International Women celebration , and a series dedicated to the great Italian composer Ennio Morricone...

More info at: viff.org/reel-talk/march-2025/

• Full Metal Jacket
• The Stand
• There's Still Tomorrow
• Housewife of the Year
• The Way, My Way
• Poor Things
• Sugarcane
• No Other Land
• Armand
• Ennio

...plus 21 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Lunar New Year

In many Asian cultures, Lunar New Year is an extended holiday—the perfect time to take the family out to the theatre. Building on this tradition, us in welcoming the Year of the Snake with laughter, tears and cinematic sssstorytelling.

VIFF and LNY Splash present five films from Asia centered on the theme of family. From stories about grandmas to documentaries on transnational families, let’s go Vancouver, it’s movie time!

• Picnic
• Come Home, My Child
• Granny Must Die
• Stand Up Story
• Hao Are You

What's screening at the VIFF Centre in February 2025: including two series for Black History Month, African Cinema Now! and Celebrating Black Futures; a Lunar New Year series with LNYSplash; Oscar nominees, and more.
More info at: viff.org

• Play It Loud! How Toronto Got Soul
• Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story
• Universal Language
• Arthur Erickson: Beauty Between The Lines
• Luther: Never Too Much
• Sugarcane
• No Other Land
• Every Little Thing
• Flow
• Hao Are You

...plus 48 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

African Cinema Now!
Curated by Akojo Film Collective

Akojo Film Collective presents African Cinema Now!, a series dedicated to contemporary African Cinema by and about Africans on the continent and in the diaspora. This collective began as an inquiry into the position of contemporary African cinema in the imaginations of Canadian filmgoers and the wider film festival circuit. African Cinema Now! serves as a gateway to creating necessary dialogue around contemporary African cinema that is often disregarded within mainstream Canadian film spaces.

The series invites audiences to watch and engage with African cinema through thematic installments that will take place year-round at the VIFF Centre.

We invite you to us for our inaugural program, Dreaming of Elsewhere. As a starting point, we aim to draw from a wide range of experiences within the diaspora that represent a portion of African cinema today. Our goal is to expand our collective understanding and knowledge of the rich cinematic landscape created by Africans across the world.

The present moment requires us to engage with the world in new and liberating ways, and this program aims to introduce interesting points of departure in how we might think of cinema and its often colonial apparatus.

We look forward to the collective learning experience that will be African Cinema Now!

— Kika Memeh and Ogheneofegor Obuwoma

Dreaming of Elsewhere
Home is a fluid concept, alive in the soul and rooted where the body finds itself ready to occupy. Dreaming of Elsewhere is an invitation to consider how we might define home and the efforts required to build a life far from the refuge of familiarity. Following tumultuous journeys at sea and successful attempts at migration, these films capture the emotional, physical, and communal labour shouldered when turning daydreams of a new or different life into reality.

Esi Edugyan’s compelling work on belonging has been seminal in shaping how we think about belonging within the lives of Black Canadians. This program, named after her 2014 novel, investigates these ideas of belonging, the motivations behind the desire to create a home in faraway places, and the often-disruptive forces that complicate ideas of home and migration for Africans in the diaspora.

As Canada struggles with the place and understanding of immigrants, we are interested in how people have considered the often-difficult task of making a new place home and the sacrifice required to find belonging within the capitalist structures that motivate relocation. By contrasting the complex and exclusionary ways in which governments define home, these films acknowledge and challenge the static notion of home, complicating what we know as guests on these Indigenous Coast Salish lands, where notions of belonging are deeply unjust.

*Akojo Film Collective

• The Pirogue
• Mother of George
• Atlantics
• Chez Jolie Coiffure
• Dilli Dark
• Tori and Lokita

• Can I Get a Witness?
• Inedia
• Ari's Theme
• Mongrels
• The Chef & The Daruma
• Angela’s Shadow
• Inay
• Curl Power
• Preface to a History
• Lucky Star

...plus 1 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The annual Vancouver International Film Festival showcases exceptional cinema in one of the world’s most beautiful cities.

Our spectacular 2024 roster will includes 150 feature films and 81 shorts, presented in nine Vancouver venues.

This is some of the best cinema from Canada and around the globe, plus talks, conferences, live performances, and other unique events that celebrate film and film culture.

• Can I Get a Witness?
• Flow
• Caught by the Tides
• Dahomey
• My Favourite Cake
• Inedia
• The Heirloom
• Mongrels
• Fish War
• Ari's Theme

...plus 128 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

The marquee attractions at the Vancouver International Film Festival run the gamut from social realist dramas to dizzying spectacles. As always, this section boasts some of the most celebrated films from Cannes, including the Palme d’Or winner and the first-ever Grand Prix winner from India. Meanwhile, two compelling Iranian dramas serve as imioned testaments to resilience. We go behind the music of Canada’s quintessential band and attune ourselves to the wavelengths of a post-apocalyptic musical. Be it through unflinching drama or surreal satire, each of these offerings will leave you moved.

Check it out at viff.org/series/galas-special-presentations/

• Bird
• Can I Get a Witness?
• Anora
• Ari's Theme
• The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal
• All We Imagine as Light
• Conclave
• The Girl with the Needle
• The Piano Lesson
• Rumours

...plus 7 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

In the VIFF 2024 Modes series, the veracity of history is made visible, audible, and tangible. Embodying the principle of “Art as modes of truth production,” strap in for a sensory examination of the varying forms of aggression enacted by those with power as a means of dominance.

Find more at viff.org/series/modes/

• The Cavalry
• Flowers
• Man number 4
• The Diary of a Sky
• Freak
• Dreams Like Paper Boats
• She Stays
• Grandmamauntsistercat
• Razeh-del

In the VIFF 2024 Vanguard Series we are introduced to rising international talents who are bringing their singular visions to the screen.

Introducing a new wave of gifted storytellers to Canadian audiences, the films in this series reflect the well of ingenuity and cinematic prowess emerging from all corners of the world. Form, style and genre either blur, bend or extend in these works, weaving regional flourishes and breathing fresh air into familiar narratives. Or inventing entirely new ones. This is the place to surrender expectations and discover a hidden gem.

— Sonja Baksa, Vanguard Curator

Find more at: viff.org/series/vanguard/

• Hanami
• I Saw Three Black Lights
• Red Path
• Me, Maryam, the Children and 26 Others
• Shambhala
• 78 Days
• Familiar Touch
• Toxic

Beyond Ghibli
New Japanese Anime | Mar 18 – 30

There is a world of Anime beyond the universal fairy tales of the Ghibli tradition. Japanese animation has a storytelling sophistication and breadth that puts Hollywood to shame. In this short series we celebrate filmmakers whose work uses Anime to express the human experience with creative complexity, ion and wit. You’ll find sports movies, slacker comedies, love stories, coming of age dramas, and sci-fi fantasy, even a couple of musicals… And, always, breathtaking imagery that speaks to all ages.

More info: viff.org/series/beyond-ghibli/

• On-Gaku: Our Sound
• Promare
• Goodbye, Don Glees!
• Belle
• The First Slam Dunk
• Blue Giant
• 5 Centimeters per Second
• Suzume

The 42nd Vancouver International Film festival runs September 28 to October 8, 2023. Explore the festival lineup below and secure your tickets at viff.org.

• 19B
• About Dry Grasses
• Aitamaako'tamisskapi Natosi: Before the Sun
• All Ears
• All the Days of May
• Almost Fall
• Anatomy of a Fall
• Ancestral Threads
• Animal
• The Animal Kingdom

...plus 201 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

VIFF's director of programming, Curtis Woloschuk, shares his five must-see films at this year's festival.

See the full VIFF 2023 program here:https://viff.org/festival/viff-2023/

Source: www.straight.com/city-culture/five-must-sees-at-vancouver-international-film-festival

• Chronicles of a Wandering Saint
• Here
• Hey Viktor!
• Orlando, My Political Biography
• Smoke Sauna Sisterhood

What would you do if, like Marty McFly, you were given the chance to travel back in time – say, 40 years? And don’t worry: this is a two-way ticket. We won’t stick you there with all that big hair forever!

Cinema is a time machine and the movies are a mirror to their era. The 1980s gave us resurgent capitalism, hard bodies and material girls. “Strong men” ruled the box office. The downbeat, skeptical tone of American movies was replaced with slick, vigorous, “high concept” entertainment, blockbusters and their sequels, parody and pastiche. In many ways we are still living with the legacy of these shifts. But if the culture lurched right, many filmmakers resisted. It’s this counter-narrative which is the backbone of our series.

Our Back to the 80s summer season aims to give you an overview of this pivotal decade in dominant culture. We spotlight the vital films, the landmarks, the trendsetters, and, most importantly, the unjustly marginalized, misunderstood or overlooked.

Screening at the VIFF Centre June 29 – August 31 2023
Tickets and more info at viff.org/80s

• The Shining
• The Blues Brothers
• The Stunt Man
• Atlantic City
• Raging Bull
• Heaven's Gate
• Nine to Five
• Escape from New York
• Raiders of the Lost Ark
• An American Werewolf in London

...plus 51 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

It’s been ten years since Hayao Miyazaki — the world’s greatest animator — released his last film, The Wind is Rising, and announced his retirement. Happily he changed his mind, and will unveil How Do You Live? later this year. There is no better time to revisit the spellbinding fairy tales which have enchanted audiences for four decades and made Studio Ghibli the most revered animation studio in the world.

In the first installment of our complete Ghibli retrospective we focus on the years 1984-1999. These first dozen films, including many of the studio’s most beloved titles, will screen across spring break, March 13-25. Each title will screen twice, once as a matinee in an English language dub, and then again, the following evening, in the original Japanese with English subtitles. All ages are welcome!

Fans will need no encouragement to dive back into these lovely movies on the big screen. Newcomers are invited to expect a fantastical cinema imbued with a palpable sense of the sublime, featuring plucky, curious heroines, fabulous contraptions, endearing, mythical creatures, and a living, breathing world which is both familiar and thrillingly unexpected.

Studio Ghibli Forever! Part 1 launches March 13 at the VIFFCentre.
Tickets and more details at viff.org/series/studio-ghibli-forever/.

Stay tuned for details on Part 2 of Studio Ghibli Forever!

• Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind
• Castle in the Sky
• My Neighbor Totoro
• Kiki's Delivery Service
• Only Yesterday
• Grave of the Fireflies
• Porco Rosso
• Ocean Waves
• Pom Poko
• Whisper of the Heart

...plus 13 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

French critics invented the term “film noir” in the mid-1950s to describe the wave of downbeat American crime thrillers of the post-war period. These films were literally dark, but they were dark in a metaphorical sense too: stories of desire and disenchantment, steeped in cynicism and existential dread. Perhaps the French critics were the first to catch on to this brand of shadow cinema because French filmmakers had planted the seeds for it in the 1930s, with the “poetic realism” conjured in the crime films of Jean Renoir and Marcel Carné. After all, Americans didn’t invent fatalism, that was a European import, smuggled across the Atlantic along with Freudian theory and that noir fetish, the femme fatale.

In this series we dig out the French roots of film noir, and the seedy, jazzy, cool French crime movies of the late 40s and 50s which mirrored the influence of American thrillers of the time; the heist films of Jacques Becker, Jean-Pierre Melville and American-in-exile Jules Dassin, as well as a trio of shockingly abrasive, modern masterpieces by Henri-Georges Clouzot: Le Corbeau, Quai des Orfèvres, and Les Diaboliques.

French Noir films play at the VIFF Centre April 7 – May 3
Tickets and more details at: viff.org/series/-noir/

• Le Corbeau
• La Chienne
• La Bête Humaine
• Port of Shadows
• Daybreak
• Touchez Pas au Grisbi
• Bob le Flambeur
• Rififi
• Elevator to the Gallows
• Le Trou

...plus 2 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

We hope you’ll agree, February is as good a time as any to celebrate Black film, Black film artists, Black thinkers and activists, and to highlight the legacy of slavery, white supremacy, colonization and capitalism that underpins our unjust society.

Our BHM programming this year includes two series: Icons and Dispatches.

Icons spotlights the accomplishments of American movie stars like Denzel Washington, Viola Davis, Angela Bassett, Chadwick Boseman and others, emulating and transcending the path beaten by Sidney Poitier 60 years ago.

Dispatches turns from fantasy to reality, with a focus on documentaries, ideas, and social justice, including work by and about James Baldwin, Camille Billops, and two exceptional recent Canadian films, Dear Jackie and Our Dance of Revolution.

In addition, we’re starting the month with week-long engagements for two of the most acclaimed movies of last year. Alice Diop’s Saint Omer, from , is a profoundly rich and fascinating response to the real life trial of an African immigrant for filicide (a trial Diop attended). And Margaret Brown’s award-winning documentary Descendant is a deep dive into the case of the last known slave ship transporting kidnapped Africans to the USA, and what it signifies for the descendants of the slaves, and the slave-runners too.

In these films, and others, we are reminded of how cinema can offer insight as well as spectacle, extend empathy and inspire change.

More information & tickets at viff.org/black-history-month/.

• Malcolm X
• In the Heat of the Night
• The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings
• Purple Rain
• Under the Cherry Moon
• Widows
• Black Panther
• Dear Jackie
• Meeting the Man: James Baldwin in Paris
• James Baldwin: From Another Place

...plus 8 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

PANTHEON is a new monthly series running at the VIFF Centre throughout 2023, a selection of the “greatest movies of all time”, inspired by the mother of all film lists, the critics’ poll that has run once a decade in the UK’s Sight & Sound magazine since 1952.

Of course there can be no definitive ten (or 12, or 100) Best list. But the poll does serve as a ready-made canon, and at the very least it’s a starting point for anyone curious about exploring the art of cinema (and arguing about it afterwards).

PANTHEON screenings will take place on the third Sunday of each month at 11am, and will comprise an introductory lecture from a roster of respected film educators, reading notes, and a discussion after the show. (There will also be a repeat screening on Tuesday evenings, without the talk.) Complimentary tea and coffee will be provided.

The focus of our series will naturally fall on the merits and qualities of the films under review, but also on wider cultural considerations on the subjectivities of taste, changing notions of excellence, diversity, representation, and what curatorship looks like at this moment in time.

For tickets and more information, visit viff.org/series/pantheon/.

• Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles
• Vertigo
• Beau Travail
• Singin' in the Rain
• Man with a Movie Camera
• Tokyo Story
• 2001: A Space Odyssey
• 8½
• Mulholland Drive
• In the Mood for Love

...plus 2 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

In December, the New York Film Critics Circle bestowed their Director of the Year award to S.S. Rajamouli for his work on the blockbuster historical action epic RRR. This capped a remarkable year for the Telugu-speaking Tollywood auteur. RRR has become such a critical success there is a real prospect he will snag an Academy Award nomination. A first ever retrospective of his films at BeyondFest in Los Angeles proved revelatory.

Here is a pop Cinema prodigy who doesn’t play by the rules, a movie magician pulling bouquets of dynamite out of his hat. Give Rajamouli three hours, he’ll give you non-stop action, comedy, spectacle, costume drama, a love story and a musical, all at once. In India, he has three of the top five biggest ever box office hits to his name. If you’re not familiar with popular cinema from the subcontinent, now is the time to discover what the world outside North America already knows: Rajamouli’s supercharged entertainments are bona fide blockbusters.

Tollywood or Bust plays Sunday afternoons through January and February. Find out more at viff.org/series/tollywood-or-bust/.

• RRR
• Yamadonga
• Magadheera
• Maryada Ramanna
• Eega
• Bāhubali: The Beginning
• Bāhubali 2: The Conclusion

Celebrate the marvelous cinema of Wes Anderson with a retrospective journey through all 10 of his beloved feature films, kicking off with a festive opening night screening of THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL (trivia, prizes, cocktail & more included)!

"Wes World: 10 Films by Wes Anderson" runs December 21 to January 5 at the #VIFFCentre. viff.org/series/wes-world/

Read notes from VIFF Year-Round Programmer, Tom Charity, at letterboxd.conexionsite.com/viffest/story/welcome-to-wes-world/.

• The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Bottle Rocket
• Rushmore
• Fantastic Mr. Fox
• Isle of Dogs
• The Royal Tenenbaums
• The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
• The Darjeeling Limited
• Moonrise Kingdom
• The French Dispatch

The 41st annual Vancouver International Film festival runs September 29 to October 9, 2022. Explore the festival lineup below and secure your tickets at viff.org.

• 1341 Frames of Love and War
• Eight Stories About My Hearing Loss
• A Fire Inside
• A Matter of Trust
• A Moral Man
• A Piece of Sky
• A Woman Escapes
• Adam Ondra: Pushing the Limits
• Adore
• Aftersun

...plus 166 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Indulge in the pleasure of nostalgia this summer with our spotlight series on 1970s American cinema, Ragged Glory: Summer in the 70s.

The Hollywood system had broken down at the end of the 60s. The kind of movies that had worked to sustain the studios for decades weren’t connecting anymore. In a panic, and bowled over by the runaway hit Easy Rider, the industry turned over the keys to a younger generation, and “New Hollywood” was born. A breathtaking range of masterly movies hit the screens and made the 70s one of the most exciting times in the history of American cinema.

For insights on this specially curated series, read VIFF Centre Year-Round Programmer, Tom Charity’s program notes “Why do we watch – and rewatch- old movies.”.

Ragged Glory: Summer in the 70s comprises just shy of seventy 70s films and runs from July 15 to September 4, opening with 1970s pricing of $2.50 tickets (only available on July 15). Almost all the films show at least twice and on any given night you will find a couple of double bills to spark the conversation.

Tickets ($10) and all-access ($99) available at https://viff.org/series/summer-in-the-70s/..

• Harold and Maude
• M*A*S*H
• Gimme Shelter
• Wanda
• Two-Lane Blacktop
• Five Easy Pieces
• The Last Movie
• A New Leaf
• Klute
• The French Connection

...plus 57 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

With new films added every week, enjoy the best of VIFF's year-round programming from the comfort of your home via VIFF's online streaming platform, VIFF Connect.

• All My Puny Sorrows
• Slash/Back
• Hit the Road

After lying dormant for two years, Rupture returns with a vengeance this June. And our annual showcase of genre cinema is ready to make up for lost time.

Having packed our Vancity Theatre with In Fabric and The Art of Self-Defense back in 2019, Peter Strickland and Riley Stearns return to the lineup with new films that could’ve only been envisioned by their particularly skewed sensibilities. But there’s also an array of work from exciting new talents, including Jane Schoenbrun’s We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, Nyla Innuksuk’s Slash/Back, and Avalon Fast’s Cortes Island-shot Honeycomb. For good measure (and added outrageousness), we’ve included a restoration of Abel Ferrara’s The Addiction and a sidebar of four Cronenberg classics.

To borrow a line from David Lynch, Rupture is wild at heart and weird on top. Who wants to go for a ride?

Tickets and more details available at https://viff.org/series/rupture/.

Watch the trailer here.

• Videodrome
• Crash
• Dead Ringers
• The Fly
• Slash/Back
• Flux Gourmet
• The Addiction
• Dual
• Resurrection
• We're All Going to the World's Fair

...plus 4 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Get ready to be swept up by the winds of change reinvigorating French cinema. In this program, a new crop of rising talent is the centre of attention, with extraordinary performances by César Award-winning actresses Déborah Lukumuena (Robust, The Braves) and Lyna Khoudri (Gagarine), as well as impressive newcomers – actor Thimotée Robart (Magnetic Beats) and writer/director Luàna Bajrami (The Hill Where Lionesses Roar). Although older than most of the characters depicted in the program, fifty-something Michel (François Créton), the protagonist of The Heroics, is maybe the most childish of all.

The ordinary young women and men in these six films are strangers to the wealthy neighbourhoods of Paris that bourgeois French cinema loves to show. They share a communicative and combative energy, confronting realities and challenges that will feel very familiar to many of us.

Our Young French Cinema programme features three films in cinema from April 8 (Gagarine; Robust and Magnetic Beats) and three films exclusively streaming on VIFF Connect (The Braves; The Heroics and The Hill Where Lionesses Roar) until May 5. Robust and Magnetic Beats are available both in cinema and on VIFF Connect.

For more details and to book your tickets, visit http://goviff.org/young-french-cinema.

Watch the trailer here.

• Gagarine
• Magnetic Beats
• Robust
• The Braves
• The Heroics
• The Hill Where Lionesses Roar

Claim your ticket to the world of Pedro Almodóvar, a place of primary colours and primal emotions, where stories are spun with fabulous freedom, intoxicating Al-melódramas driven by sex and surprise… Reckless women clash with feckless men, gender norms are gleefully subverted and camp is elevated to high style.

The most influential queer filmmaker of our times, Almodóvar has given us many of the most vivid, sympathetic and complex women in modern movies through collaborations with Penélope Cruz, Cecilia Roth, Marisa Paredes, and Carmen Maura, to name just a few.

Over the years, Almodóvar’s initially shocking punk aesthetic has distilled to an essence that’s sweetly sensual and assured, even as it remains daring and transgressive. An Almodóvar movie may entail a leap of faith, but we always know we are in good hands because above all this is a Cinema of the Heart.

This retrospective showcases the unprecedented, fulsome achievements of the last 25 years, supplemented by such key earlier films as Law of Desire and The Flower of My Secret (showing on 35mm film prints), and runs up to last year’s 30-minute short film, The Human Voice, starring Tilda Swinton.

Please us in celebrating a body of work where suspense, sexuality and style meld to confound and compel, to cast a luxuriant spell, to make us swoon. Screening at the VIFF Centre from February 11 to March 10. For more details and to book your tickets, visit http://goviff.org/swoon-cinema-almodovar .

• All About My Mother
• Bad Education
• Broken Embraces
• Julieta
• Law of Desire
• Live Flesh
• Pain and Glory
• Talk to Her
• The Flower of My Secret
• The Human Voice

...plus 4 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Black History Month at VIFF offers audiences an opportunity to engage with Black stories from a range of Black voices from around the world, as well as the richness of nuanced and empowered Black filmmaking.

The centrepiece for the February Black History Month programming is perhaps the most important film about race since I Am Not Your Negro, Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America. Continuing the recognition and celebration of Black history and achievements beyond the month of February, VIFF is proud to announce Landmarks: Black Atlantic Independent Film 1961-1969, a series curated by Nya Lewis, which launches this month but will play out with monthly screenings into May. This eclectic and exciting series unearths films and filmmakers often overlooked by those responsible for constructing the canon and includes A Raisin in the Sun, The Learning Tree, Uptight, and Portrait of Jason.

For more details and to book your tickets, visit http://goviff.org/2022-black-history-month .

• Who We Are: A Chronicle of Racism in America
• Lingui: The Sacred Bonds
• Music, Money, Madness… Jimi Hendrix Live In Maui
• Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché
• A Raisin in the Sun
• The Learning Tree
• The Sleeping Negro
• Uptight
• Portrait of Jason

Lunar New Year is right around the corner and to celebrate we're shining a light on one of the most influential figures of Hong Kong’s New Wave, the legendary Ann Hui. Best known for her narrative filmmaking centred on the experiences of women and, in 2020, became the first female director to win the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Film Festival.

"She is a typical embodiment of the ‘Hong Kong spirit’ as she is extremely versatile and flexible. She works with a fast pace and she is often able to find pleasures in the midst of hardships. At the same time, she’s nothing short of extraordinary," says KEEP ROLLING director Man Lim Chung.

Our three-film spotlight includes KEEP ROLLING, an intimate and humorous portrait of the filmmaker's remarkable 40-year artistic trajectory, accompanied by Hui's A SIMPLE LIFE and OUR TIME WILL COME.

• Keep Rolling
• Our Time Will Come
• A Simple Life

Our Italian Film Week features 14 films, seven new releases, seven classics from masters like Fellini, Visconti, De Sica and Monicelli, showing here in restored 4K digital prints. There’s a spotlight on actor Toni Servillo, who stars in four of this year’s selection, including the poignant prison drama The Inner Cage and a biopic about the legendary comic actor Eduardo Scarpetta, The King of Laughter, as well as his landmark performance in The Great Beauty. Our opening film and the centrepiece of the selection is Emma Dante’s widely acclaimed The Macaluso Sisters, winner of the Italian Film Critics Syndicate Best Film award.

Explore some of the best in Italian cinema from January 7 to 13, 2022. Book your tickets at goviff.org/italian-film-week .

Watch the series trailer here.

• The Macaluso Sisters
• The Inner Cage
• The Predators
• The King of Laughter
• The Boom
• The ionate Thief
• Nights of Cabiria
• Death in Venice
• The Most Beautiful Boy in the World
• The Great Beauty

...plus 4 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

It’s been a year…. Actually, two years, since we ran our annual Best of… series, throwing a spotlight on this year’s harvest of cinematic standouts. Some of these titles will be very familiar to you, but there are several other films on the list which may have escaped your attention; movies that never got the opportunity to show on the big screen until now. This year's selection features 10 titles – each will screen twice at the VIFF Centre between December 26 and January 6, with a few also available to stream on VIFF Connect.

We invite you to sample some of the highlights of what has been another great, albeit tumultuous year in cinema. Book your tickets at https://goviff.org/best-of-2021 .

Watch the series trailer here.

• Annette
• Dear Comrades!
• Drive My Car
• Hope
• In the Heights
• Spencer
• The Power of the Dog
• Titane
• Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy
• Zola

Radu Jude is the most daring and important filmmaker to have emerged in Europe over the past decade, the heir to the probing, confrontational cinema of Godard and the late 60s new wave.

While the breadth and variety of his work resists classification, Jude's fiercely political cinema is charged with anger at injustice and comion for the oppressed, while embracing the liberating laughter of the absurd and the grotesque. If you can't remake the world, at least make mischief.

"The first retrospective dedicated to Radu Jude in Canada, our series includes all his dramatic features culminating in Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn, which will be Romania’s submission for the Best Foreign Film Award at the Academy Awards."

- Tom Charity

Radu Jude: Presenting Histories, Confronting Fascism screens at the VIFF Centre from November 26 to December 5, 2021. For more more information and ticket, visit https://goviff.org/radu-jude .

Watch the series trailer here.

• Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn
• I Do Not Care If We Go Down in History as Barbarians
• Aferim!
• Everybody in Our Family
• Scarred Hearts
• The Happiest Girl in the World
• Uppercase Print

• Handle with Care: The Legend of the Notic Streetball Crew
• Portraits from a Fire
• The Horses
• Without Havana
• Bootlegger
• Returning Home
• Together
• Blue Box
• Coextinction

• All My Puny Sorrows
• Azor
• Barbarian Invasion
• Behind The Headlines
• Belfast
• Benediction
• Bergman Island
• The Beta Test
• Bipolar
• Blue Box

...plus 136 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• À La Carte
• Akilla's Escape
• All The Time In The World
• All, or Nothing at All
• Ammonite
• Anerca, Breath of Life
• Aniksha
• Another Round
• The Archivists
• As Spring Comes

...plus 216 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• 63 Up
• Acadiana
• The Acrobat
• Adam
• Amanda
• Amare Amaro
• American Woman
• Amusement Ride
• And the Birds Rained Down
• And Then We Danced

...plus 275 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• 14 Apples
• 3 Faces
• 7A
• Acres
• Ága
• Akeda
• Ala Changso
• All Good
• Amateurs
• Animal Behaviour

...plus 283 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• 2 Cool 2 Be 4gotten
• 24 Frames
• 489 Years
• 7 Minutes
• Acorn and the Firestorm
• Afterglow
• AlphaGo
• American Psychosis
• Anarchist from Colony
• Angkor Awakens: A Portrait of Cambodia

...plus 245 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• 1:54
• After Love
• After the Storm
• All of a Sudden
• All This Panic
• Alone
• American Honey
• Another Evil
• Another Prayer
• Après Suzanne

...plus 239 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• 100 Yen Love
• 3 ½ Minutes, 10 Bullets
• 31st October
• 32+4
• 4 Quarters
• 45 Years
• 600 Miles
• 808
• Aaaaaaaah!
• Above and Below

...plus 288 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• 130919 • A Portrait of Marina Abramovic
• 1987
• 24 Days
• Third Page from the Sun
• 52 Tuesdays
• Above Us All
• Advanced Style
• All the Pain In the World
• All The Time In The World
• Alleluia

...plus 253 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• 11.6
• 15 Reasons to Live
• Three Days in Havana
• 3x3D
• 45 Degrees
• 9 Meter
• Nine Muses of Star Empire
• 90 Days
• Aatsinki: The Story of Arctic Cowboys
• Ain't Them Bodies Saints

...plus 239 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• 10 Plus 10
• After the Battle
• All Apologies
• All in Good Time
• The Ambassador
• Amour
• The Angels' Share
• Annelie
• Antiviral
• Any Day Now

...plus 250 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

• 1+1
• 18 Days
• 40 Days at Base Camp
• 663114
• Las acacias
• Alan Bennett and the Habit of Art
• Almayer's Folly
• Alps
• Amador
• Amnesty

...plus 245 more. View the full list on Letterboxd.

Films to Watch at Vancouver's VIFF Centre in May 55284b

May 2025 | Reel Talk k2b2v

Image: Jinpa

In this edition of Reel Talk, VIFF Centre Year-Round Programmer Tom Charity identifies the films he’s most excited for in May at the VIFF Centre. This month brings new guest curated series exploring Tibetan films, queer cinema plus VIFF Live events, and a series celebrating the incomparable Gena Rowlands.

Tom, what are you most excited about in May?
We have a season dedicated to one of my favorite actresses, one of the greats, Gena Rowlands, who sadly ed away last year. Her reputation is based on the half dozen movies she made with John Cassavetes. I want to avoid the trap of thinking of her as a muse, because she was much more than that. She’s an actress of extraordinary courage and sensitivity, and she made him a better writer and filmmaker than he would have been otherwise.
I think when he realized how great she was as an actor, it led him to delve deeper into women characters, and even the feminine side of himself in a way that is unique in American cinema. Some standouts are Faces, A Woman Under the Influence, and Gloria, a film we’re showing on Mother’s Day. In Gloria, she plays the girlfriend of a gangster, who hates kids, and she ends up on the run from gangsters protecting a six-year-old boy. She was Oscar-nominated for that and for A Woman Under the Influence.

We also have a retrospective, Comionate Light, dedicated to the Tibetan Buddhist filmmaker Pema Tseden. He made eight features between the early 2000s and when he ed away in 2023. It’s by far the most significant body of work to come out of a Tibetan filmmaker. This is a series that was curated by Shelly Kraicer. He presented this retrospective in Toronto and in New York prior to bringing it here. Shelly will be here for the first weekend of that series as well.
Another guest curator, Fay Nass, will be introducing a five-week series exploring queer cinema and that will kick off from May 15 and will be running on Thursdays into June.

What’s one film that is not part of a series, but shouldn’t be missed?
Kryptic, on May 9, is a BC horror film. It’s the first feature by female filmmaker Kourtney Roy, and it’s an impressive work. A woman disappears in the woods when she was searching for a creature. Another woman goes out in search of her and has a strange encounter with the beast, which causes her to lose short term memory. The film gets weird in the second half, but in a great way. This was all filmed near Hope, BC.
Cayne McKenzie wrote the score for this film — some of our VIFF+ may know Cayne from the talks he’s given at the VIFF Centre in the past. He and Kourtney Roy are going to live-score the movie for us on May 9. I’m so excited about that.

What other VIFF Live events are coming up?
On May 14, Mary Ancheta will be doing a tribute to a funk cinema from the 1970s called Betty Davis. She’s an incredible talent, kind of funk. It’s kind of somewhere between Tina Turner and Donna Summer, and quite sexual. Dawn Pemberton is going to be coming in and doing the vocals, Mary Anchater is on keyboards, and we’re showing a documentary about Betty Davis with it.
On May 24, we are showing the documentary Blue Note: Beyond the Notes which we showed here at the festival back in 2018 and it’s about the famous jazz label Blue Note. Blue Note is one of the most celebrated of all the jazz labels from the Bebop era, and we have a quartet who are going to be performing music associated with that incredible legacy. Lots of good stuff there.

*Tom Charity has been the year-round programmer at the VIFF Centre since 2009. He is the author of the critical biography John Cassavetes: Lifeworks, and has written or cowritten several other film books. A former film editor and critic for Time Out London magazine and CNN.com, he has also written for The Times and Sunday Times, the Vancouver Sun, and many other publications. He contributes to Cinema Scope and Sight & Sound Magazine on a regular basis.

Films to Watch at Vancouver's VIFF Centre in April 4z4c3i

April 2025 | Reel Talk 76g58

Image: ScaredSacred

April brings us showers, flowers, and 18 Canadian films. Our Year-Round Programmer Tom Charity highlights a few of the most exciting films this month, including National Canadian Film Day and several Vancouver Premieres. Oh, and there’s an impressive Earth Day offering too. Enjoy!

Tom, what are you most excited for in April?
April brings us National Canadian Film Day, which is an annual celebration of homegrown cinema. The screenings on April 16 are free.
ScaredSacred is a documentary by Velcrow Ripper that was produced by Tracey Friesen, who sadly ed away in January. So, we’re doing that as a tribute to Tracey. It’s a documentary made in the wake of 9/11, where he took it upon himself to go visit ground zero in Manhattan and other war-torn sites around the world. Sadly, 20 years later, that film remains relevant.
We will also be showing My American Cousin, which is 40 years old this year and a coming-of-age film about a 13-year-old girl growing up in Penticton. Her 16-year-old American cousin shows up out of the blue in a red Chevrolet convertible and wows her and all her girlfriends. It’s an autobiographical film set in 1959 by Sandy Wilson. A nostalgic movie but it also has quite pointed things to say about the US-Canada relationship.

What other Canadian films are coming to the VIFF Centre this month?
Obviously one of the big commitments of this organization is to Canadian and Indigenous filmmakers. We have got an exciting lineup of new Canadian cinema with a few favourites coming back. We have 
Sweet Summer Pow Wow, which is the latest film by Darrell Dennis and Orca Media. It’s a very sweet love story about a young couple, and the filmmakers will be here for some screenings.
We’re showing Incandescence, which is another documentary by Velcrow Ripper. He made it in collaboration with his partner, Nova Ami, down in the Okanagan. It’s a film about the wildfires. It’s a remarkably cinematic, non-fiction film with stunning imagery of the wildfires and the aftermath. With the voices of evacuees, people who’ve lost everything in the fire, firefighters, rescue workers, almost quite a philosophical kind of tone to the film. I think people are going to be blown away by the aesthetic impact of this film. We’re all aware of the power and danger that wildfires represent these days, but this film really does justice to that on the big screen. Velcrow and Nova will be here for some of those shows too.

This month we have quite a few Canadian films screening for the first time in Vancouver, which is exciting. What are some must-see films having Vancouver Premieres in April?
The Players is a powerful film by Sarah Galea-Davis about a teenage girl who s an avantgarde acting troupe and is challenged to confront her personal barriers in ways that are exciting but also dangerous. So, it’s exploring that slippery artistic environment where it’s cool and bohemian, but maybe not all that caring.

Field Sketches from Vancouver filmmaker Carl Bessai is another very personal film about an architect going through a midlife crisis, trying to get himself back on track, after losing everything he cares about. He goes back to the family farm in Saskatchewan and tries to tough out a Winter there in this sparsely equipped cabin and confront some ghosts from the past.

Are We Done Now?  is the latest film by Ben Immanuel. This is a comedy shot during COVID here in Vancouver. It’s about a documentary filmmaker, charting the progress of a therapist and a handful of her patients. It really brings back that period very vividly.

Are any special films playing on Earth Day this year?
We’re showing a documentary called Our Blue World: A Water Odyssey by Ruán Magan, which is an impressive film about ancient wisdom around water management and how that can be applied can be applied to present day needs and marrying that with technology. We’ll have a with that screening on April 22.

*Tom Charity has been the year-round programmer at the VIFF Centre since 2009. He is the author of the critical biography John Cassavetes: Lifeworks, and has written or cowritten several other film books. A former film editor and critic for Time Out London magazine and CNN.com, he has also written for The Times and Sunday Times, the Vancouver Sun, and many other publications. He contributes to Cinema Scope and Sight & Sound Magazine on a regular basis.

Films to Watch at Vancouver's VIFF Centre in March 4f1l4v

March 2025 | Reel Talk d3b2x

In this month’s Reel Talk, Year-Round Programmer Tom Charity explains why Generation Pixar is so special, why Ennio Morricone’s work should not be missed, and more standouts from our March line up.

What are your recommendations for VIFF+ in March?
We’re going to do a series called Generation Pixar, which features the first 11 Pixar films from 1995 to 2010. It begins with Toy Story, a landmark in the history of film animation because it was the first completely computer generated animated film. You can watch them perfecting this new technique over the course of the series, as they became more confident, and the technology improved. You see the sophistication of the animation growing and growing, and they tackle harder subjects, from toys to eventually human beings when they make Up. Of those first 11 or so films, I don’t think there’s a bad one in the bunch, and what the company stood for deserves celebration.
We’re also going to do a series dedicated to the great Italian composer Ennio Morricone. There’s a documentary about him by Giuseppe Tornatore, who made Cinema Paradiso
 and worked with Marconi on three or four films. It’s an epic, in-depth film about the man and his life. He’s composed over 500 film scores, it’s been a remarkable career. He went to school with director Sergio Leone, and Morricone would score Leone’s films before they were shot, and the actors would perform scenes listening to the music. And so we’re showing some of those films alongside the documentary. We’re going to show 
A Fistful of Dollars, Once Upon a Time in the West, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and a few more.

International Women’s Day is coming up on March 8, what films will mark the occasion?
We are hosting GEMS Fest in the beginning of March, and on March 8 we will be showing two films directed by women. One is an Italian film called There’s Still Tomorrow, which I like very much. It’s a strange film because it’s in black and white, set in Rome in 1945 and it’s shot as if it were a neorealist film of the period. It’s about an abused housewife and mother who’s treated terribly by her family. It’s also kind of funny, in a black comedy kind of way. I don’t want to say too much, but I will say that ultimately, it’s quite uplifting.
Alongside that, we have a documentary from Ireland called Housewife of the Year, which is about a long running TV show in Ireland where women would compete for the honor of being named Housewife of the Year, and potentially win a stove… They would welcome the cameras into their home, and demonstrate their cooking, how they get the kids off to school, and their housework. The film interviews a lot of the women who competed back in those days. The show ran from the late 60s through to the mid 90s, and they look back and can’t believe that was their life. It’s funny, but it’s underpinned with a kind of sadness, because it was a hard life. It involved good times and bad, but it was a deeply sexist society.

Lightning round – what are some other stand outs in March 2025?
7 Beats per Minute was in VIFF 2024, and it’s a documentary about a deep-sea diver. We will be doing a Q&A with the filmmaker for that.
Armand was also in the festival, and it is a Norwegian first feature by the grandson of Ingmar Bergman and Liv Ullmann. It’s about a teacher who’s called to school because her son has been accused of inappropriate behavior.
Santosh is an Indian murder mystery in which a female police officer digs into the murder of a young girl who was found in a well.

Thanks so much, Tom!

*Tom Charity has been the year-round programmer at the VIFF Centre since 2009. He is the author of the critical biography John Cassavetes: Lifeworks, and has written or cowritten several other film books. A former film editor and critic for Time Out London magazine and CNN.com, he has also written for The Times and Sunday Times, the Vancouver Sun, and many other publications. He contributes to Cinema Scope and Sight & Sound Magazine on a regular basis.

us as we celebrate the achievements of Pixar’s early years with a run of 11 extraordinary films that have left an indelible imprint on children either side of the millennium — and their parents! Our line up includes a live music performance of beloved Pixar tunes, a Pixar trivia night, and exclusive behind-the-scenes talks. 24485g

Spring Break | March 17 – 30
Youth Tickets are just $10 — and adults can save with a 3-show pack for $42
Image: © Disney Pixar

The first Pixar movie was Luxo Jr (1986). It lasted all of two minutes, and it featured an animated version of Pixar founder John Lasseter’s desk lamp… Which is why a bouncy little lamp is the Pixar logo.
The idea that a film studio might define the quality and characteristics of the movie bearing that logo disappeared in the 1950s with the demise of the studio system. But starting with Toy Story — the first fully computer generated animated feature — in 1995, Pixar has proven an exception to this rule. That little lamp is a hallmark for beautifully rendered digital features of rare wit and emotional maturity.
Already, in that first Toy Story, you can see the dynamism and the finesse CG can supply. Just as importantly, the team seemed inspired across the board. If the characters in Pixar movies are more vivid than in Disney or Dreamworks, and if the stories are more original, richer, and more fun, that’s because the writing is better. In Generation Pixar we celebrate the achievements of the company’s first years, a run of 11 extraordinary features which left an indelible imprint on children either side of the millennium — and their parents!
Our series includes family matinees and evening shows for each movie, a live music show of Pixar tunes performed by Matt Grinke’s Happiest Jazz Quintet on Earth, a trivia night, and expert intros.
— Tom Charity, VIFF Centre Year-Round Programmer
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Toy Story 451d9

Dir. John Lasseter
 81 min
Generation Pixar
In the first computer generated animation feature film, space ranger Buzz Lightyear discovers he’s not an intergalactic ambassador, just a children’s plaything (but there’s nothing wrong with that). Rated: G

A Bug's Life 292457

Dir. John Lasseter
 95 min
Generation Pixar
There's a world going on underground! Pixar's second feature shrinks Seven Samurai to ant-like proportions, with heroic Flick enlisting the services of a touring flea circus to defend the colony against the marauding grasshoppers. Rated: G

Toy Story 2 5e5f3n

Dir. John Lasseter
 92 min
Generation Pixar
When Woody is kidnapped, it's Buzz who leads the troops to the rescue. Expertly balancing action, humour and emotion, this deepens our relationship with the first film's characters and introduces a stellar newcomer, cowgirl Jessie (Joan Cusack). Rated: G

Pixar Trivia Night 6269d

 100 min
Generation Pixar
Think you know your Pixar flicks? Get your buzz on at our themed trivia night. Prizes! Beer! And an extra pair of angry eyes, just in case...

Monsters, Inc 4fc67

Dir. Pete Docter
 92 min
Generation Pixar
A warm and fuzzy family film about the harvesting of young children's screams? Well, yes, it can be done and here's the proof. Rated: G

Finding Nemo 614228

Dir. Andrew Stanton
 100 min
Generation Pixar
Junior clown fish Nemo swims too far from the reef and next thing he knows he's looping a fish tank in a Sydney dentist's office. Neurotic dad Marlin (Albert Brooks) follows in his wake, with dippy Dory (Ellen DeGeneres) tagging along for comic relief. Rated: G

Matt Grinke's Happiest Jazz Quintet on Earth Plays Pixar 5d5n4c

Dir. Pete Docter
 160 min
Generation Pixar
VIFF Live
Enjoy a special set of Pixar tunes arranged by Disney Cruise Line music director and pianist Matt Grinke and his happiest quintet, plus a screening of one of the studio's most beloved movies, Monsters, Inc.

The Incredibles j35z

Dir. Brad Bird
 115 min
Generation Pixar
Pixar's first (super) human story is a wry satire about a very ordinary family of super heroes who find themselves caught up in big trouble. Rated: G

Cars b5i58

Dir. John Lasseter
 117 min
Generation Pixar
John Lasseter's folksy, nostalgic movie about the pleasures of idling in a small town – then going really, really fast around and around in circles. Rated: G

Ratatouille h1w3h

Dir. Brad Bird
 111 min
Generation Pixar
A rat with a palette, Remy dreams of cooking at a top gourmet restaurant. Human prejudice makes this challenging, but talent will find a way. Rated: G

WALL-E q45w

Dir. Andrew Stanton
 97 min
Generation Pixar
Set 700 years from now (though we may get there sooner), the film imagines Earth as a toxic dump, while mankind cruises outer space in luxurious limbo. Trash robot WALL-E falls in love with a shiny new research drone, Eve. Rated: G

Up 41b18

Dir. Pete Docter
 96 min
Generation Pixar
Grumpy old man Carl won't sell his house to developers. Instead he flies it out to South America on helium balloons. Taking stowaway cub scout Russell with him. Together, they're in for the time of their lives. Rated: G

Toy Story 3 5u1yb

Dir. Lee Unkrich
 103 min
Generation Pixar
Andy is 17 now and moving on to college. His mom wants his room cleared, and a misunderstanding consigns the toys to Sunnyside Daycare. Initially the idea of all-day play seems too good to be true, but Sunnyside has a dark side. Rated: G

VIFF PODCAST 3ez5k

In this episode of the VIFF Podcast, Director of Programming Curtis Woloschuk interviews filmmaker Yuqi Kang about her documentary 7 Beats Per Minute, which explores the world of free diving and the connection between humanity and nature.

Kang shares how a YouTube clip sparked her own free diving journey and led her to meet Jessea Lu, a prominent Chinese free diver who became the subject of her film. She reflects on the challenges of underwater cinematography, from unpredictable weather to capturing authentic moments beneath the surface, and the importance of adapting to nature’s elements.

Kang also discusses her transition from documentary to narrative filmmaking and how Vancouver's cultural and creative environment has influenced her work.

This episode was recorded during the 2024 Vancouver International Film Festival

More info at viffpodcast.buzzsprout.com

The VIFF Centre marks Black History Month with a vibrant line-up of live events, guest-curated series, music documentaries, and more. 4h3o5b

In the latest chapter of African Cinema Now!, Dreaming of Elsewhere, Akojo Film Collective brings us six films that touch on the fluid concept of home.
Kika Memeh curates Celebrating Black Futures, which explores mythical and corporeal transmutations, in partnership with the Vancouver Art Gallery.
VIFF Live presents Feven Kidane and Tiny Pyramids in tribute to jazz space voyager Sun Ra, and Quincy Mayes brings Afro-Brazilian soul, funk and samba to our stage before a screening of City of God.
Jamaican-born Canadian soul, ska and jazz singer Jay Douglas will also us for the BC premiere of Play It Loud.

Films in the series 1n5i4e

Luther: Never Too Much v3y5x

Dir. Dawn Porter
 101 min
There is a lot more to soul superstar Luther Vandross than his honeyed hits. This definitive doc sheds light on his work with artists including David Bowie, Diana Ross and Aretha Franklin, his struggles with his image and sexuality, and remarkable gifts.

Play It Loud! How Toronto Got Soul 6r46m

Dir. Graeme Mathieson
 84 min
Legendary Toronto soul, funk, and ska singer Jay Douglas leads us through an energizing history of Canadian Caribbean music. us Friday night and meet Jay in person, along with producer Andrew Munger!

Mami Wata + Drexciya 1a4i6o

Dir. C.J. "Fiery" Obasi
 119 min
Fiery Obasi's tremendous, dreamy fable, shot in inky, lustrous black and white, is an elemental tale of magic, devotion, and generational unease set in a traditional Nigerian village.

The Pirogue 2kp4e

Dir. Moussa Touré
 87 min
When offered the chance to lead one of the many Senegalese pirogues bound for Europe via the Canary Islands, Baye Laye reluctantly accepts the job, knowing full-well the many perils that lie ahead.

Mother of George 3x35h

Dir. Andrew Dosunmu
 107 min
Following their joyous wedding, complications arise for a Nigerian couple living in Brooklyn when they're unable to conceive a child - a problem that devastates their family, defies cultural expectations, and leads the wife to make a shocking decision.

The Inheritance 94p6w

Dir. Ephraim Asili
 102 min
The inheritance is a house in Philadelphia bequeathed to Julian by his grandmother. He asks his girlfriend Gwen to move in, and next thing he knows there's an entire collective, The House of Ubutu, a commune that will be a safe space for Black folk.

Atlantics 2q562b

Dir. Mati Diop
 106 min
In Dakar, Ada loves Souleiman but has been promised to another man. One night, Souleiman and his co-workers leave the country by sea. Several days later, a fire ruins Ada'

Chez Jolie Coiffure 2t714a

Dir. Rosine Mbakam
 70 min
Having immigrated to Belgium from Cameroon, Sabine manages Chez Jolie Coiffure. Her salon patrons, many of them undocumented immigrants, are not only be made to feel beautiful but can also escape the daily difficulties and harsh realities of their lives.

Bam Bam: The Sister Nancy Story 4h5u1k

Dir. Alison Duke
 98 min
Dancehall queen Sister Nancy effortlessly carries this bright and buoyant music doc. Her irresistible signature tune, "Bam Bam" enjoys the status of the most sampled reggae song of them all.

Quincy Mayes Brazilian Soul Experience 6ln3v

Dir. Fernando Meirelles & Kátia Lund
 190 min
The Quincy Mayes Brazilian Soul Experience is thrilled to present a special performance showcasing the diverse, Afro-centric roots of samba, soul, and funk alongside a screening of the essential Brazilian film City of God.

Dilli Dark 2s5s4p

Dir. Dibakar Das Roy
 100 min
Michael Okeke left Nigeria six years ago to survive in the frequently disconnecting and overcrowded New Delhi, which he despises heartily. He dreams of true love and a better job but is pushed into only the 4 Cs: cell phone, cocaine, cash, and clients.

Tori and Lokita 3u43r

Dir. Jean-Pierre Dardenne & Luc Dardenne
 88 min
Sharing a sibling-like bond, immigrants Lokita (17) and Tori (12) work as performers in a trattoria, dealing drugs on the side, while navigating an indifferent bureaucracy. When Lokita is held captive in a marijuana grow op, events spiral out of control.

Dir. John Coney
 160 min
Celebrate the music of Sun Ra with legendary local trumpeter Feven Kidane and Tiny Pyramids, a group of interstellar travellers featuring Dan Gaucher on drums, Colin Cowan on bass, Mary Ancheta on keyboards, and Tom Wherrett on guitar. This performance will be paired with a screening of Space is the Place.

On this month’s Reel Talk, Guest Curators Kika Memeh and Ogheneofegor Obuwoma discuss their new series at VIFF: African Cinema Now! The first edition, Dreaming of Elsewhere, plays Feb 12-27.

What is African Cinema Now!?
FEGOR
This program is centered around contemporary African cinema and the lack that we felt in African cinema in Vancouver. We want to be able to fill in some of those gaps and give people an opportunity to engage in new ways, because a lot of these films fall through the cracks and are never shown beyond one or two festivals.
We also want to explore: what are the long-lasting effects that colonization has had on the continent, and how is capitalism shaping these narratives? And how are people finding a visual language and stories to engage with this, and think about how to move towards a just world?
KIKA
I see it as a very timely response to decades-worth of films that built this continental industry, because even within the continent there’s many sub-industries, and African Cinema Now! sheds light on all of them as a whole. I also see it as a call to Vancouver and I guess the Pacific North to engage with these films the way they do other global cinema. Vancouver is conscious about its engagement with cinema from Asia, from Europe… and African cinema deserves that form of engagement as well.
Programming of African cinema — in general tends to engage with films from the 60s and the 70s, which are all great, but this series is about what people are creating, producing and releasing today. This is what our voice and visual language looks like in this moment.

What brought you two together for the Akojo Film Collective?
KIKA
Around this time last year, we were doing similar but individual programs [at the VIFF Centre], and we recognized we had similar visions and interests in African cinema. We had a conversation following the tail end of her series where we were like, let’s forces.
FEGOR
I think a deep shared love for Nigerian cinema is the beginning point for why we are working together. Kika has written amazing work about Nigerian cinema. So it just made sense, because there’s so many stereotypes and ways people look at African cinema, to more than one person that was programming to avoid internal biases. It’s perfect that it’s both of us thinking together.
What is the main connecting theme of the program, Dreaming of Elsewhere?
FEGOR
Many Africans all over the world are thinking about this idea of escape, of finding community and home far from where you’re born or where you’ve grown up. And we wanted to experience it in multiple ways — narratives of people leaving, people trying to leave home, or people finding themselves in places that were not originally their destination.
KIKA
It’s exploring this push and pull that we all have, not just Africans, of always longing for something else, for something more. In Nigeria there’s this urgent thirst to leave home and go somewhere else. And it’s moving people to do crazy things to fulfill this desire. But then on the flip side of that, there are the people who have relocated and keep reiterating, we want to come back home.
FEGOR
The mechanisms of capitalism that push us towards this kind of displacement are always at work. It’s always making us think that there is this elsewhere that we’re moving towards that would be better. Meanwhile, capitalism still ends up framing your life anywhere you are.
KIKA
Another core of this program is making sure the visuals of the continent are on screen. We want audiences to be able to build intimate connections to these African cities.

What qualities did you look for when selecting the films, and did you ever disagree on which films should be included? Which films were unanimously agreed upon right from the start?
KIKA
I’m usually looking for a film with a heartbeat, anything that invokes strong emotions in the viewer. If the film has both good visuals and also a very heartful story, that’s it for me. In of disagreements, we had a few respectful disagreements on what films to include, not necessarily on the direction the series should go on, because that’s something that we decided together. But we had disagreed on a few films due to stylistic preferences.
FEGOR
I look for films that are respectful, interesting, innovative, and are invested in storytelling. A film we agreed [right away] on was The Pirogue. We both watched it, and were immediately like yes. And we also picked Mother of George pretty quickly. It has stunning visuals and it’s a familiar story in an unfamiliar space.

For each of you — if someone could only attend two films from Dreaming of Elsewhere, what would you recommend?
KIKA
My two films would be The Pirogue and Dilli Dark. And I say The Pirogue for two reasons. One, it’s a beautiful film. It’s magnificent. And two, because of access. We want to create access to these wonderful films that are made and just disappear. The Pirogue is difficult to find on streaming platforms. There are little to no traces of it online. So this is a great chance to see the film. Then Dilli Dark because of how fresh it is, and it’s a story and an experience not typically shared. I have no idea when or if it will have a theatrical release or a streaming release. So this is your one chance to see it in Vancouver, on the big screen.
FEGOR
For me, The Pirogue is definitely one that people should see for much of the same reasons that Kika mentioned. My second one would be Chez Jolie Coiffure, because I think it’s interesting to see and learn and be intimate with the lives of immigrant women. And Rosine Mbakam, who made this film, is invested in these kinds of stories, and has multiple films and documentaries in that style. And I find that the real person she follows is compelling, and I have a deep soft spot for quiet, contemplative characters.

What can audiences expect from future screenings after the Dreaming of Elsewhere program?
FEGOR
We want you to be able to see films that you have ion for. Over these next few years, we want to explore stories have to do with women, that have to do with queer folks, that have to do with children exploring complex narratives and realities.
KIKA
They can expect an exciting array of films! There are so many threads to pull on from an expansive industry-wide catalogue that keeps growing. I’m excited for people to have a theatrical experience for these films. A lot of my favorite African films, I watched them on my laptop, and it’s not the same as seeing it on the big screen. I’m very excited to give people in Vancouver the opportunity to experience it.

You can hear more from Fegor and Kika during film introductions at the first screening of each film in African Cinema Now!
 

Akojo Film Collective consists of Kika Memeh and Ogheneofegor Obuwoma, both curators and programmers based in Vancouver on the Coast Salish lands of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. They share an interest in contemporary African cinema and the numerous possibilities it holds as a way of understanding modern realities born from the African continent’s colonial past.

When a defence attorney (Zoe Saldana) is enlisted to tend to the affairs of a notorious drug lord (Karla Sofía Gascón) completing gender affirmation surgery, there will be blood, ballads, and dance numbers. A maximalist musical from Jacques Audiard.

Book tickets: https://viff.org/whats-on/viff24-emil...
The 43rd Vancouver International Film Festival runs September 26 – October 6, 2024.

boxd.it/AP3G

When the sitting Pope shuffles off this mortal coil, Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) is handed the responsibility of marshalling the Catholic Church’s most influential figures and orchestrating the arcane process of electing a successor. Sequestered in the Vatican, several cardinals—including John Lithgow’s Cardinal Tremblay—turn cutthroat in their bid to lay claim to the papal throne. As conspiracies come to light and factions are formed, the unassuming Cardinal Benitez (Carlos Diehz) harbours a secret that may have seismic consequences.

Book tickets: https://viff.org/whats-on/viff24-conc...
The 43rd Vancouver International Film Festival runs September 26 – October 6, 2024.

“Mother’s not quite herself today…” That Norman Bates line from Psycho gets a new spin in this bracingly strange movie based on Rachel Yoder’s acclaimed 2021 novel. Mother (Amy Adams) used to be an artist in the big city. Now she’s just another mom in the suburbs. Her husband (Scoot McNairy) still travels widely for work, leaving Mother to feed, clothe, and amuse their toddler 24/7. Of course, she’s dog-tired. But that can’t explain the fuzziness around her neck and her tailbone… her newly acute sense of smell… or her sudden popularity with the canines in the neighbourhood… ?

Adams (who also produced) entrusted the reins to writer-director Marielle Heller (Diary of a Teenage Girl; Can You Ever Forgive Me?). A mom herself, Heller took on the assignment and ran with it. “It’s a comedy for women and a horror film for men,” she proclaims. Either way, it’s a must-see, not least for Amy Adams’ fearlessly feral performance.

Get your tickets now: viff.org/whats-on/viff24-nightbitch/

August Wilson's rich, riveting, resonant play about exorcizing the ghosts of slavery comes to the screen in a polished, fulsome production with stellar performances from John David Washington, Danielle Deadwyler, and Samuel L Jackson.

Book tickets: https://viff.org/whats-on/viff24-the-...
The 43rd Vancouver International Film Festival runs September 26 – October 6, 2024.

boxd.it/uhCA

70-year-old widow Mahin has been living alone in Tehran for some time—until one day, she breaks her daily routine with the intention of meeting a man. In this sweet meditation on love, loss and loneliness, the decision leads to an unforgettable encounter.

Book tickets: https://viff.org/whats-on/viff24-my-f...
The 43rd Vancouver International Film Festival runs September 26 – October 6, 2024.

boxd.it/KU6K

The true story of what happened behind the scenes leading up to the first broadcast of Saturday Night Live. Full of humor, chaos, and the magic of a revolution that almost wasn’t, we count down the minutes in real time until we hear those famous words...

The 43rd Vancouver International Film Festival runs September 26 – October 6, 2024.
For more, visit viff.org

Winner of the Cannes 2024 Grand Prix award.

The lives of three women nurses are front and centre in Payal Kapadia’s luminous Mumbai-set drama. Prabha (Kani Kusruti) works long hours to avoid thinking about her husband, who left for long ago and eventually stopped calling. Her younger roommate, Anu (Divya Prabha), spends her evenings with her Muslim boyfriend while dodging calls from her parents, who are looking to set her up with a Hindi husband. Meanwhile, Parvaty (Chhaya Kadam), an older widow, is being pushed out of her home by greedy property developers.

Winner of the Grand Prix at this year’s Cannes Film Festival (a historic first for an Indian film), All We Imagine as Light derives considerable power from its steady accumulation of quotidian detail. As a minor character puts it in a line of poetry, “My dreams are made of everyday things.” A moving portrait of resistance and camaraderie, it is a film that finds beauty and solace in the unlikeliest of places.

Catch it at VIFF, screening September 28 and October at VIFF.

With her husband missing in action, Karoline (Vic Carmen Sonne), a young seamstress, struggles to survive in post-WWI Copenhagen. An affair with the owner of the clothing factory she works at brings temporary relief from her poverty, but leads to still worse complications. Left with few other options, she turns to a charismatic candy shop owner, Dagmar (Trine Dyrholm), who offers special services to women in need. But as it turns out, the woman’s placid façade hides deeper layers of disquiet.

Inspired by the real-life story of one of Denmark’s most infamous serial killers, The Girl with the Needle renders this true-crime story as an expressionist fairytale, with a nightmarish atmosphere reminiscent of Tod Browning and Carl Theodor Dreyer. Featuring lustrous black-and-white cinematography, an ominous soundscape, and bolstered by fearless performances by Sonne and Dryholm, it is a chilling, unforgettable look at the horrors that people are capable of—as well as the social conditions that make them possible.

The Girl With The Needle comes to VIFF 2024, screening September 26-October 6.

In celebration of The Tragically Hip’s 40th anniversary, the quintessential Canadian band receives a deserved tribute in a docies helmed by Mike Downie, brother of the band’s late frontman Gord Downie. VIFF is honoured to have Mike and The Tragically Hip – Rob Baker, Johnny Fay, Paul Langlois, and Gord Sinclair – us for this special evening as we share the first two episodes of this definitive series, a love story between a band and the country they call home.

Drawing from archival and personal footage and featuring previously unseen performances, unreleased music, and unprecedented access to The Hip, No Dress Rehearsal is far from hagiographic. Instead, the series candidly and compellingly documents four decades of hits and misses, friendship and frustration, triumph and tragedy. Generous and unguarded, The Hip proves themselves to truly be a band of brothers. And they’re every bit as captivating onscreen as they were onstage.

Saturday September 28
6:00 pm
Vancouver Playhouse

Get tickets.

boxd.it/PFcI

Ari Kinarthy, a composer with spinal muscular atrophy, embarks on an ambitious goal: to create music that will memorialize his life. Intimate, honest and inspiring, Ari eloquently narrates his story and shares his artistic process in this captivating doc.

Book tickets: https://viff.org/whats-on/viff24-aris...
The 43rd Vancouver International Film Festival runs September 26 – October 6, 2024.
For more, visit viff.org

boxd.it/MdJI

Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) presents its 43rd edition next month. The 2024 festival will feature more than 350 screenings, dozens of filmmaker Q&A’s, Talks with top creatives, live performances, artist and industry development programs, parties, and many more celebrations of film culture.

Showcasing 150 features (including more than 70 premieres) and 81 shorts, VIFF 2024 is a festival of unrepeatable experiences. Symphonic special events and VIFF Live will provide Vancouver audiences with unique performances that have never been seen before and are unlikely to ever be seen again.

VIFF will officially open with Ari’s Theme by local filmmakers Jeff Lee Petry and Nathan Drillot, a beautifully made documentary about British Columbia composer Ari Kinarthy, who lives with spinal muscular atrophy. Born with the soul of an artist and a ion for composing music, Ari embarks on an ambitious goal: to create music that will capture his life and leave a legacy through which others will him. In a singular live performance and cinematic experience, eight of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra will live score select ages within the film. The evening will be ed by TELUS originals. 

The festival will close with Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez, a dizzying musical that took this spring’s Cannes Film Festival by storm. This spectacle sees a Mexico City defence attorney (Zoe Saldana) enlisted to tend to the affairs of a notorious drug lord (Karla Sofía Gascón) who is now completing gender affirmation surgery. Rechristened Emilia Pérez and determined to right her misdeeds, she relies on Rita to reintegrate her in the lives of her wife Jessi (Selena Gomez) and children. The film scored both the Jury Prize and Best Actress Award in Cannes, the latter being shared by the ensemble cast. 

Audiences can also look forward to VIFF Live, which pushes the boundaries of traditional film festival programming by intersecting cinema culture with music in unique live shows. VIFF Talks bring together industry leaders who share insights into some of today’s most popular and acclaimed films and series. VIFF’s Industry program celebrates the creative disruptors shifting culture and cinema, while VIFF Amp examines the essential role of music in film, laying the groundwork to foster new talent and nurturing connections between composers and directors. Signals, co-presented by VIFF and DigiBC, explores how new creative technologies are generating uncharted opportunities for storytelling. 

“VIFF is an overflowing, multidimensional, full-tilt celebration of film and film culture,” says Kyle Fostner, Executive Director. “We’re very excited to share this year’s expansive and sensorially rich program with Vancouver. From an extraordinary film lineup to our unique series of live performances, nurturing artist and industry development programs to the cutting-edge storytelling happening in creative technology, VIFF is a platform for diverse voices and artistic visionaries. Whether you're looking to discover emerging talent, to become part of the cultural conversation, or are just here to feel the warm glow of cinema, VIFF truly has something for everyone.”

VIFF Board Chair Am Johal adds: “VIFF is brought together each year by the ion, dedication, and incredible efforts of the staff and volunteers. We’re excited to welcome everyone back into cinemas this fall.”

Director of Programming Curtis Woloschuk says: “This is one of our deepest and most vibrant lineups in years. Every time I review the selections and schedule, I’m reminded of how many difficult choices our audiences will have to make over the course of our 11 days. Fortunately for them, there are rewards awaiting on every screen. I cannot wait for them to experience these films.”

See you September 26 to October 6!

VIFF 2022 alumni film Golden Delicious was recently released nationally in theatres across Canada. Friend to VIFF and director, Jason Karman, catches up with us a year after the film's world premiere at last year's festival to discuss his inspirations, hopes for the film's future and what he's looking forward to at VIFF 2023.

GOLDEN DELICIOUS had an amazing reception from the audience following its world premiere at VIFF 2022. How did it feel to receive such an overwhelmingly positive reaction? 

Thank you so much; creating something that strongly resonates with many people feels lovely. I wanted to make a difference with my first feature because I don’t know if this opportunity will come again. I am humbled by how much this film has travelled and touched various communities. 

You have said that films such as Lilies and Beautiful Thing helped you understand yourself as a queer Asian person. How much did these (or any other) films influence your choices in directing GD? 

Beautiful Thing was a British film that showed me that you could be gay and deserve a happy ending. Lilies was a Canadian film that broke the constraints of gender conformity and showed me that you could be non-white, desirable, leading and sexy. I was in awe of these films and wanted to understand them, not knowing I would better understand myself by doing so. 

Regarding other films that influenced my choices when directing Golden Delicious, Xavier Dolan’s Mommy showed me you can be bold with your aspect ratio choices, and audiences will be forgiving. Andrew Ahn’s Spa Night used negative framing and intense colours to show internal conflict and communicate the character’s mood. Greg Berlanti’s Love, Simon is another inspiring film because it embraced social media in a queer coming-of-age film instead of shying away from it or treating it as an accessory. 

With the film now getting its national release, what do you hope to see in its future? 

I want audiences to come away with a better understanding of what it means to be a teenager today. The film will continue to travel, get strong word of mouth and be seen widely. It's an empowering and sincere film; we need more today. 

Can you share any words of wisdom for those looking to embark on shooting a feature film? 

Make sure you are head over heels in love with the message or theme of your feature film because you will be championing it for the next four years. If you have yet to learn it or struggle to connect with the message, give it time to find a way in; otherwise, the experience of making such a long project will not be fun. My second advice is to surround yourself with people you trust when making a feature. You may not always agree on everything, but you must be able to trust them in their roles, or you'll be expelling unnecessary energy managing them. 

What are you looking forward to at VIFF 2023? 

I am looking forward to seeing Float, Tomorrow Is a Long Time, Monster, I Don't Know Who You Are, Close to You, How to Have Sex, About Dry Grasses, The Delinquents, and I’m Just Here For The Riot.

Road movies often provide the perfect setting for journeys of self-discovery and this is no different in THE UNKNOWN COUNTRY, the visually stunning narrative feature debut from dir. Morrisa Maltz.

Led and co-written by Lily Gladstone, who will be starring Martin Scorsese's marathon of a movie Killers of the Flower Moon, THE UNKNOWN COUNTRY tells an intimate yet epic story of its own incorporating real people and actors, dramatic situations and documentary realism to conjure a warm, authentic snapshot of the American midwest.

We caught up with Maltz to talk about what inspired the film, challenges faced across the four-year shoot and more.

This film was inspired by your own trip through the American Midwest and the photos taken on that journey. What about this experience led to The Unknown Country and why was it a story you wanted to tell?
 
My creative process has always begun with curiosity and a desire for my life and art to influence each other. I’ve always made a conscious effort to have those two modes of being, blend. Blending my art and my life has been a way for me to truly find purpose in every moment of my lived experience.

In 2015/16 I was road tripping a lot on my own between Texas and Oklahoma making a documentary and also frequently between Texas and South Dakota while my husband was working on a dinosaur dig in that region. During that time I started thinking a lot about just being a woman traveling alone. I also started photographing on these road trips. I felt the landscape changing me and effecting on a deep level I can't quite explain. But the real shift happened when I started meeting people along the way and building friendships with them over time that led to making The Unknown Country. The friendships I built with the people (the doc vignettes/first time actors) in the film are really what inspired me to make the film and see it through. Each person (Pam, Dale, Lainey and her family etc...) Each person changed my perspective and understanding of what the film should be and collaborating with them to make this was an incredible experience. 
 
Did having the photography that inspired the film be shot on 35mm film act as an inspiration for the film’s natural and lo-fi visual style?
 
Yes, when my DP, Andrew Hajek, and I were first discussing the film we talked a lot about how to make the film feel like those photographs I'd been taking on my road trips for years. The natural, grainy, nostalgic feeling of those 35mm photos was very particular. A lot of them were also taken while moving in a car-- resulting in soft focus and dreamy feeling. Andrew suggested shooting with vintage Kowa Anamorphic lenses with the Alexa Mini to mimic the feeling of the photos I loved so much. We've worked together for a while and I trust his instincts to know what I will like best, so I listened to him!
 
The film somewhat blurs the line between fiction and non-fiction. How did your background as a visual artist and filmmaker lend itself to directing a narrative feature?
 
I come more from a visual artist background but I did make one documentary that taught me a lot before The Unknown Country, Ingrid. Andrew (DP) Vanara (editor/story) on The Unknown Country and I made that doc together so the process was informative in many ways.
The way that we worked with Ingrid informed a lot of how we worked the first time actors on The Unknown Country. We spent a lot of time in Ingrid's world and the friendship and trust,-the feeling we were making something together- developed over that time. It was much the same with TUC. The people guided their stories. It was built on a trust and collaborative process I enjoy very much. It's sort of based on this overarching theory that everyone and anyone should make art- it's just about having the vehicle to do so in our collaborations. 
And from a filmmaking standpoint we did shoot and think in a bit of a similar style. Nature as a thread, the cinema verite feeling as well as the voice over/ audio interviews were used in both films. 
 
Were there any challenges faced across the 4-year shoot?
 
The entirety of shooting the film was a challenge. We had no money at the beginning and our team was Andrew, Lily and myself-- sometimes a sound person-- for much of filming. We shot much of the film in -20 degrees with no crew. Raising money was also a challenge as this was not a traditional movie so it was hard (which was understandable) to really get people behind it. So from a technical standpoint, creating this film in severe weather with no crew was just always a challenge. That being said- it bonded us all together-- and our belief and will in the project as a group got stronger and tighter. And raising money over time for the film ended up helping us understand what we needed and the film we were making on a deeper level. It ended up being a good thing!  We shot and edited sequentially, after every shoot, so the farther Tana gets on in her journey, the more the film knew itself better, and the more resources and help we were able to have. You can see this gradual shift in the film.
 
Everyone’s lives were changing over the course of a four-year period so it was sheer will and belief in the project that allowed us as a group to return again and again to continue making the film. For example, Lily didn't cut her hair for two years- until we were done. I got married, Andrew had a baby-- but through all of these life changes we returned again and again to make finish this film. Of course if was a challenge to stay focused and continue to return in the same manner- but again this also bonded us and made us stronger as a filmmaking team. 
 
Would you be able to share any words of wisdom for those looking to embark on their first feature narrative?
 
If you really want to do it, there's always a way. Find the people you want to make a film with- find your filmmaking family. If you have the people you love and trust artistically and that creative synergy of collaboration you will be able to make your first feature.
And for yourself-- you will need to push this out in the world with all the energy you have. The project will need practically all of your love and care for a number of years. Be prepared to stay focused- mostly only with tunnel vision for that one thing-- and you'll be able to see your first feature through:) 

The women’s liberation movement of the 1970s gradually began to find some traction in Hollywood towards the end of that decade, but progress was painfully slow. In the more conservative business era of the 80s, women directors were mostly found on the margins, though occasionally stars like Jane Fonda (who produced the feminist comedy 9-to-5 as well as the Oscar-winning On Golden Pond) were able to get pet projects made. Another feminist comedy, Tootsie, won the Academy Award for Best Screenplay, but Elaine May, who did a major rewrite, went uncredited for her work.

Some women directors did break through in less reputable genres: Amy Heckerling (Fast Times at Ridgemont High) and Martha Coolidge (Valley Girl) made teen comedies. Amy Jones made her debut with a slasher flick, The Slumber Party Massacre, but was then able to make a very personal movie, Love Letters, on a low budget with the help of “scream queen” (and 2023 Academy Award winner) Jamie Lee Curtis.

Years before she became only the second woman to win the Oscar for directing, Kathryn Bigelow made her debut with the Oklahoma vampire movie Near Dark. Working in “masculine” genres, on heist and cop movies like Point Break and Blue Steel (again with Curtis), Bigelow was able to forge a career.
 
Penelope Spheeris parlayed her successful punk rock doc Decline of Western Civilization into a trilogy, and explored similar themes in the gritty, hard-hitting Roger Corman production, Suburbia. (Though for the latter half of her career, Spheeris would also be relegated to teen comedies.)
 
In the independent sector, Donna Deitch made a rare lesbian love story, Desert Hearts, but spent the rest of her career making episodic TV (NYPD Blues; Murder One and many more). And then there’s Lizzie Borden, whose debut Born in Flames is one of the more radical and explosive movies of the period, as well as a rare film with a woman of colour at its centre (Kathryn Bigelow also has a small role). Borden went on to make the acclaimed documentary Working Girls but the erotic thriller Love Crimes was recut behind her back by Harvey Weinstein. It was her first big budget movie, and her last.
 
Look for our Women & 80s Cinema stream on Monday evenings through July and early August.

“What Kind of Bird Are You?”
 
A strange one, surely. If you were to imagine the personality who dreamed up such arcane amusements as The Royal Tenenbaums, The French Dispatch, and The Grand Budapest Hotel, you might suppose that the artist is an Ivy League aesthete, perhaps an editor or an illustrator at The New Yorker magazine, a relic from a bygone era (a Boomer at best!).
 
Well, he’s an aesthete and a bit of a dandy, but Wesley Wales Anderson was born May 1, 1969, and grew up in Houston, Texas. His mother was a realtor and his father worked in marketing. Wes and his two brothers enjoyed a relatively privileged upbringing (the private school he attended was the prime location for Rushmore), but he was only 8 when his parents divorced. Anyone remotely familiar with Anderson’s films will know how deep that struck.
 
He worked p/t as a projectionist and graduated from the University of Texas with a BA in Philosophy. His roommate back then was an aspiring actor by the name of Owen Wilson, and they cooked up a short film that went to Sundance in 1992, Bottle Rocket. The rest, as they say, is history.
 
We all know the skinny on Wes: his films are arch, precious, style over substance. These complaints aren’t wrong, exactly, but they’re only half right. As AO Scott wrote about The Darjeeling Limited, “Precious has two meanings, and they both might apply… [the film] is a treasure… it has sentimental value.”
 
This is worth stressing because it may not be obvious: Anderson makes movies that are every bit as emotional as Steven Spielberg’s. He works in a comedic , usually a kind of antic mayhem, but it’s fundamentally an expression of pathos and melancholia. His heroes (Zissou, Royal, Fox) are ardent dreamers, prodigious over-achievers, but also, still, they’re invariably failures or frauds, their bravado riven with guilt, regret, and fear. Few American filmmakers have been so obsessed with the mental precarity bound up in being human, and simultaneously been so irreverent about it.
 
And then there’s what’s obvious: Anderson is contemporary cinema’s resplendent visual stylist. His attention to the fabric of his films is on a Kubrickian level, but unlike Kubrick his instincts are playful, light, free-wheeling… In a word, fun. His command of every aspect of the medium is virtuosic. But we’re so lazily in thrall to notions of realism that for many this abundant aesthetic mastery is considered a failing, an obstruction to enjoying his stories or accessing his characters. (I’m reminded of the Emperor’s critique of Mozart in Amadeus: “Too many notes.”)
 
The truth is this: in art, style is substance. Anderson’s movies create their own worlds, just as Hollywood used to in the 1930s and 40s. These worlds are wittier, more rarified, more exotic, more alluring and more amusing than the reality we experience outside the cinema, which is why we are drawn to revisit them again and again, but they refract and reflect what is required of any one of us who dares to fly.
 
Tom Charity, VIFF Year-Round Programmer
 
Wes World: 10 Films by Wes Anderson runs Dec 21 - Jan 5 at the VIFF Centre. Tickets & ticket packs available at viff.org/series/wes-world/.

"Watching these movies now, we are struck by how they forge a cinematic language that is bold, critical, and engaged." VIFF Year-Round Programmer, Tom Charity

We're officially spending Summer in the 70s. ☀️ Celebrate some of the best works from the New Hollywood movement with film classics such as THE GODFATHER, APOCALYPSE NOW, TAXI DRIVER, THE EXORCIST, & NASHVILLE, cult titles and rarities like FAT CITY & MINNIE AND MOSKOWITZ, and many more!

Ragged Glory: Summer in the 70s screens July 15 - September 4 at the #VIFFCentre. Explore the full lineup at https://viff.org/series/summer-in-the-70s/.

After lying dormant for two years, Rupture returns with a vengeance this June. And our annual showcase of genre cinema is ready to make up for lost time.

Having packed our Vancity Theatre with In Fabric and The Art of Self-Defense back in 2019, Peter Strickland and Riley Stearns return to the lineup with new films that could’ve only been envisioned by their particularly skewed sensibilities. But there’s also an array of work from exciting new talents, including Jane Schoenbrun’s We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, Nyla Innuksuk’s Slash/Back, and Avalon Fast’s Cortes Island-shot Honeycomb. For good measure (and added outrageousness), we’ve included a restoration of Abel Ferrara’s The Addiction and a sidebar of four Cronenberg classics.

To borrow a line from David Lynch, Rupture is wild at heart and weird on top. Who wants to go for a ride?

Running June 10-14 at the VIFF Centre. Tickets and more details available at https://viff.org/series/rupture/.

In this episode, we’re ed by a Songwriter Hall of Fame inductee – artist, producer, composer and all-around powerhouse, Linda Perry.

Linda Perry began her journey as the lead singer and songwriter of 4 Non Blondes – penning the band’s hit song “What’s Up?” – before turning her hand to production.

As a songwriter-producer, Perry quickly established herself as one of the industry’s heavyweights, shaping the sounds of musicians such as Pink, Christina Aguilera, Gwen Stefani, Alicia Keys, Britney Spears, and Adele and having a resounding influence on the presence of female empowerment in pop culture.

Headlining the 2021 VIFF AMP Music in Film Summit, Perry ed creative director and host of the Producer’s Lounge, Jane Aurora, in a keynote conversation. The discussion covers Perry’s extensive music career, creative process, and her recent transition into creating music for film and TV, including composing the soundtracks for both Soleil Moon Frye’s documentary Kid 90, and Don Hardy’s documentary Citizen Penn about Sean Penn’s work in Haiti.

Listen to the full episode at: bit.ly/3JBx0Zl
Recorded on October 8, 2021.

Get ready to be swept up by the winds of change reinvigorating French cinema. In this program, a new crop of rising talent is the centre of attention, with extraordinary performances by César Award-winning actresses Déborah Lukumuena (Robust, The Braves) and Lyna Khoudri (Gagarine), as well as impressive newcomers – actor Thimotée Robart (Magnetic Beats) and writer/director Luàna Bajrami (The Hill Where Lionesses Roar). Although older than most of the characters depicted in the program, fifty-something Michel (François Créton), the protagonist of The Heroics, is maybe the most childish of all.

The ordinary young women and men in these six films are strangers to the wealthy neighbourhoods of Paris that bourgeois French cinema loves to show. They share a communicative and combative energy, confronting realities and challenges that will feel very familiar to many of us.

Our Young French Cinema programme features three films in cinema from April 8 (Gagarine; Robust and Magnetic Beats) and three films exclusively streaming on VIFF Connect (The Braves; The Heroics and The Hill Where Lionesses Roar) until May 5. Robust and Magnetic Beats are available both in cinema and on VIFF Connect.

For more details and to book your tickets, visit http://goviff.org/young-french-cinema.

Watch the trailer here.

On this episode of the VIFF podcast, we’re featuring a conversation from our year-round virtual Creator Talk series with Dune Production Designer, Patrice Vermette - who recently took home the Oscar for Best Production Design at the 94th Academy Awards.

When it comes to making movies, it’s a production designer’s job to transport audiences to a different world. But in the case of Denis Villeneuve’s epic sci-fi film Dune, that also involved creating entire planets.

To pull off the godlike feat, Villeneuve teamed with frequent collaborator and fellow Canadian Patrice Vermette, a two-time Oscar-nominee who has dreamed up the sets for films such as Arrival, Sicario, and The Young Victoria.

Speaking to production designer, David Brisbin, Patrice shares his process and expertise in creating the incredibly detailed sets and immersive environments for Warner Bros. and Legendary Pictures’ adaptation of Frank Herbert’s seminal bestseller, Dune.

Listen to the full episode at: bit.ly/3tOlR2J
Recorded November 20, 2021.

Our Italian Film Week features 14 films, seven new releases, seven classics from masters like Fellini, Visconti, De Sica and Monicelli, showing here in restored 4K digital prints. There’s a spotlight on actor Toni Servillo, who stars in four of this year’s selection, including the poignant prison drama The Inner Cage and a biopic about the legendary comic actor Eduardo Scarpetta, The King of Laughter, as well as his landmark performance in The Great Beauty. Our opening film and the centrepiece of the selection is Emma Dante’s widely acclaimed The Macaluso Sisters, winner of the Italian Film Critics Syndicate Best Film award.

Explore some of the best in Italian cinema from January 7 to 13, 2022. Book your tickets at goviff.org/italian-film-week . 

Watch the series trailer here.

It’s been a year…. Actually, two years, since we ran our annual Best of… series, throwing a spotlight on this year’s harvest of cinematic standouts. Some of these titles will be very familiar to you, but there are several other films on the list which may have escaped your attention; movies that never got the opportunity to show on the big screen until now. This year's selection features 10 titles – each will screen twice at the VIFF Centre between December 26 and January 6, with a few also available to stream on VIFF Connect.

We invite you to sample some of the highlights of what has been another great, albeit tumultuous year in cinema. Book your tickets at https://goviff.org/best-of-2021 . 

Watch the series trailer here.

Presenting Histories, Confronting Fascism screens at the VIFF Centre from November 26 to December 5, 2021. For more more information and tickets, visit https://goviff.org/radu-jude . 

Watch the series trailer here.