Frankie Freako

The legendary indie Canadian production company collective Astron-6 made waves across this country (and beyond) thanks to its impressive roster of retro, 80s-centric titles that include fan-favourites like MANBORG, FATHER’S DAY, and THE EDITOR. Though the collective is no more, founding member Steven Kostanski has continued making films that evoke the practical FX-heavy nostalgia of … Read more

Megdan: Between Water and Fire (Canadian Premiere)

Joins us at the Rio Theatre on Saturday, October 19 for the Canadian Premiere of the Serbian film MEGDAN: BETWEEN WATER AND FIRE. Saturday, October 19 Doors 12:30 pm | Movie 1:00 pm *Start time subject to change. Please arrive on time. Tickets HERE Stars / U glavnim ulogama: Viktor Savić, Enis Bešlagić, Vojin Ćetković, … Read more

Dìdi (弟弟)

Being a teenager is tough! In 2008, during the last month of summer before high school begins, an impressionable 13-year-old Taiwanese American boy learns what his family can’t teach him: how to skate, how to flirt, and how to love your mom. With Izaac Wang, Joan Chen, Shirley Chen, Chang Li Hua. Winner, Sundance 2024 … Read more

The Pee Pee Poo Poo Man: OFF-VIFF 2025

Utopia Films, Stoopid Co and the Rio Theatre presents the second annual OFF-VIFF – a platform for the underground. Featuring the North American Premiere of JAMES, the royal return of KING BABY, the Vancouver Premiere of STRANGE JOURNEY: THE STORY OF ROCKY HORROR, and a screening of the soon-to-be Canadian cult-classic, THE PEE PEE POO POO MAN. … Read more

VIFF 2024: Nightbitch

“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 … Read more

VIFF 2024: Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point

Canadian Premiere There’s no place like home for the holidays and the extended Balsano family gathers to celebrate Christmas Eve together for perhaps the last time. The traditional Xmas party: the ladies gossip in the kitchen, the men smoke cigars outside the garage, and the children play video games in the basement. Snapshots of rituals: … Read more

VIFF 2024: She Loved Blossoms More

Canadian Premiere Hedgehog (Panos Papadopoulos) is desperate after the loss of his mother. Eager to bring her back from the dead, he and his brothers Dummy and Japan put their heads together to build a time machine out of odds and ends in her wardrobe. Initial tests prove horrific failures, as the brothers lose a … Read more

VIFF 2024: Rumours

World leaders assemble in Germany for their annual G7 summit tasked with drafting a provisional statement on the current (unspecified) crisis. Isolated from the media in a remote gazebo, they slowly set to work, distracted only by the personal anguish of Canada’s PM (Roy Dupuis), a handsome man beset with personal and political scandals. Yet … Read more

VIFF 2024: Dream Team

Two sexy Interpol agents: No St. Aubergine (Esther Garrel, Call Me By Your Name) and Chase National (Alex Zhang Hungtai, formerly of Vancouver’s Dirty Beaches) travel to Mexico to investigate a conspiracy involving deadly, poisonous gas-emitting coral. Dream Team is a bizarro homage to 90s basic cable television; a bleary-eyed binge-watch of a six-episode season that unfolds like a … Read more

VIFF 2024: Timestalker

Seemingly pathologically incapable of remembering the past, Agnes is condemned to repeat it time and time and time and time again in this outlandish romantic comedy from writer-director-star Alice Lowe. Agnes’s downward spiral kicks off in 17th century Scotland when she falls for the disinterested Alex (Aneurin Barnard) at a public execution, only to meet … Read more