Movies
Country: Canada
She’s The Man
The Rio Theatre’s Friday Late Night Movie series continues on March 22 with a mid-naughties, Shakespeare-inspired, cross-dressing teen-angst comedy just for Baby Millennials (or elder Gen-Z-ers) starring a much beloved icon of the era, Amanda Bynes. It’s SHE’S THE MAN! In this zany twist on the Bard’s TWELFTH
Cold Road (World Premiere!)
On a frozen highway in the remote Canadian North, an Indigenous woman and her dog are hunted by a stranger in a semi truck. Tracy (Roseanne Supernault) is on a 12 hour road trip with her dog Pretzel, trying to get home before her mom passes into the spirit world.
Black Christmas (50th Anniversary Restoration Screening)
“If this movie doesn’t make your skin crawl… It’s on TOO TIGHT!” Join us at the Rio Theatre for a night of retro Holiday cheer – and fear! – with the brand new 50th Anniversary 4K restoration of the bloody fantastic Can-con slasher, BLACK CHRISTMAS. Christmas wouldn’t be
Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person
Sasha is a young vampire with a serious problem: she’s too sensitive to kill! When her exasperated parents cut off her blood supply, Sasha’s life is in jeopardy. Luckily, she meets Paul, a lonely teenager with suicidal tendencies who is willing to give his life to save hers. But their
VIFF 2023: Asog
Canadian Premiere Ten years after Super Typhoon Hiayan, many Filipinos are still crawling from the wreckage. But some can still muster the will to dance amidst the devastation. Jaya, a non-binary teacher and former television comedian, is one of those indomitable souls. In a final bid for fame, they set
VIFF 2023: Les Filles du Roi
Canadian Premiere 1665. Louis XIV has seen fit to send a gift to the New World: surplus women to bring succor and support to French settlers in what is now Quebec. Among them is Marie-Jeanne (Julie McIsaac), who immediately falls foul of the matronly Madame Savoie (Claire Johnstone) by making
VIFF 2023: I Used to Be Funny
Sam Cowell (Rachel Sennott) used to be funny. She used to spend her nights working the comedy clubs of Toronto and her days as an au pair for Brooke, a young teen struggling with the recent passing of her mother. Now Sam hides from the world, tormented by PTSD from
VIFF 2023: Union Street
World Premiere Interspersing interviews with archival footage, Union Street documents the history of Vancouver’s Hogan’s Alley, the formerly Black neighbourhood which was destroyed by the construction of the Georgia viaduct in the 1970s. This local history speaks to systemic racial injustice towards Vancouver’s Black community that has continued to this
VIFF 2023: Red Rooms
North American Premiere Every morning before dawn, Kelly-Anne (Juliette Gariépy) descends on a Montréal courthouse, eager to secure front row seats for the harrowing trial of Ludwig Chevalier (Maxwell McCabe-Lokos), a loner accused of the torture and murder of three teenage girls. Even more disturbingly, these atrocities were streamed online
VIFF 2023: The Sacrifice Game
It’s the tail-end of 1971, and Blackvale School for Girls is closed for the holidays — except that two boarders, Samantha and Clara (Madison Baines and Georgia Acken) are stuck here, which means that Miss Tanner (Chloë Levine) and her boyfriend, handyman Jimmy (Gus Kenworthy) have to stick around too.