Movies
Father Mother Sister Brother: VIFF 2025
Canadian Premiere Jim Jarmusch is a master of short form cinema, evidenced not only by the diner compendium Coffee and Cigarettes, but in his early films Down by Law, Mystery Train, and Night on Earth, each of which wrapped simple vignettes into a pungent narrative bouquet. So it seems fitting
Train Dreams: VIFF 2025
There’s a strain of American pastoral cinema that found a patron saint in Terrence Malick and talismans in the solemn reveries of Badlands and Days of Heaven. Train Dreams belongs to this tradition, and it’s a thing of beauty. Based on the novella by Denis Johnson and set in the
A Useful Ghost: VIFF 2025
And now for something completely different: an absurdist comedy about ghosts inhabiting home appliances that is simultaneously a rousing, radical work of historical excavation. Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke’s film is a wacky, whimsical look at Thai politics, from the distant past to its recent history. The film opens with the purchase of
Our Hero, Balthazar: VIFF 2025
Balthazar (Jaeden Martell) attends a private school in New York, where he spends his nights performatively condemning gun violence in front of a ring light, mostly in the hopes of impressing his crush. But when Balthazar receives a series of alarming messages from an online troll who may be planning
Idiotka: VIFF 2025
Canadian Premiere Margarita (Anna Baryshnikov) is an aspiring clothing designer who lands a spot on a new fashion competition show. A third-generation immigrant living in the Russian part of West Hollywood, she helps her ailing grandmother and ex-con father pay bills by selling counterfeit clothes online, but when the producers
Foreigner: VIFF 2025
Set in 2004, Yasamin (Rose Deghan) is an Iranian teenager who has recently immigrated to Canada with her family. Desperate to fit in, she practices her English by studying sitcoms and succeeds in befriending three popular girls at school — mean girls with permanent smiles and soulless eyes. When her
Mile End Kicks: VIFF 2025
Summer, 2011. Twenty-two-year-old music critic Grace (Euphoria’s Barbie Ferreira) moves from Toronto to Montreal’s vibrant Mile End neighbourhood with the goal of writing a book about Alanis Morissette’s iconic album Jagged Little Pill. But when a loft party introduces her to the underground indie rock band Bone Patrol, Grace falls
Fucktoys: VIFF 2025
AP just found out that — according to multiple psychics — she’s cursed. Even worse, if she wants to lift it she’s gonna have to sacrifice a baby lamb and come up with a grand in cash. Trashtown, USA, offers plenty of chances to do some pretty messed up stuff
Rental Family: VIFF 2025
Need a respectable-looking mourner to fill out your funeral? Searching for a fake dad to impress the registration committee at your posh private school? Why not call Rental Family, a surrogate agency leasing stand-in actors for social settings. In this US-Japanese co-production from director HIKARI (who has several episodes of
Deathstalker
The Kingdom of Abraxeon has fallen under siege by the Dreadites, a scourge of bloodthirsty demonic warriors said to herald the return of the sinister, ancient sorcerer Nekromemnon. The titular Deathstalker (martial artist and legendary stuntman Daniel Bernhardt) is a lone wolf who survives by scavenging the corpses strewn about