VIFF: Blaze

In the wake of witnessing a brutal assault, 12-year-old Blaze (Julia Savage) takes shelter in an imaginary world. Inspired by the posters and trinkets in her bedroom, this glittery, candy-coloured realm is also home to Zephyr, a papier-mâché dragon who consoles and counsels Blaze as she learns to overcome her debilitating fear. As her doting … Read more

VIFF: American Woman

The Rio Theatre is proud to be one of the returning hosting venues for The Vancouver International Film Festival VIFF presents the world’s best cinema fused with related talks and events in a unique Films+ model. Annually, VIFF presents over 320 films and events, plays host to approximately 400 industry professionals from around the globe … Read more

VIFF 2024: To a Land Unknown

Cousins Chatila (Mahmood Bakri) and Reda (Aram Sabbah), two Palestinian refugees stranded in Athens, turn to purse-snatching, shoplifting, and sex work to scrounge up funds for the fake passports they need to move their family to Germany. When Reda loses their savings to a heroin addiction relapse, Chatila devises a risky human smuggling scheme to … 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

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: Realm of Satan

“This is the age of Satan! Satan rules the Earth!” Scott Cummings’ film proclaims before opening on the live birth of a baby goat that is later breast-fed by a hooded woman in a dark barn. Should that sound shocking, Realm of Satan is actually a humanizing portrait of the modern Satanist; less a traditional documentary and … Read more

VIFF 2024: Presence

Moving into their new home, the members of the Payne family are saddled with considerable baggage. With legal trouble already looming due to her workplace misconduct, Rebekah (Lucy Liu) is called out by her husband Chris (Chris Sullivan) for the overt favouritism she bestows on their competitive, callous son Tyler (Eddy Maday). Meanwhile, daughter Chloe … Read more

VIFF 2024: Paying For It

Sook-Yin Lee adapts a graphic novel by her ex-boyfriend, Canadian cartoonist Chester Brown, about the end of their relationship and Brown’s subsequent decision to start paying for sex. Dan Beirne (The Twentieth Century) plays Brown, and he’s joined by a cast that includes Emily Lê as Lee stand-in Sonny and Andrea Werhun as Yulissa, the … 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: Grand Theft Hamlet

Out-of-work, UK actors Sam and Mark are in a pickle about what to do with their time in lockdown. Escaping into the violent online world of Grand Theft Auto V, they happen upon an amphitheatre. Inspired, they decide to mount a full production of Hamlet in the city of Los Santos, a perfect setting for Shakespeare’s blood-soaked tragedy. … Read more