Movies
VIFF 2023: Tiger Stripes
Director Amanda Nell Eu has entered the ring of teen-girl body horror with Tiger Stripes, following in the footsteps of masters Ducournau, Cronenberg, and De Palma. Ensconced in a Malaysian school for girls, rebellious 12-year-old Zaffan’s body starts to change before everyone else’s. But these changes are far from normal.
VIFF 2023: The Wait
Canadian Premiere In the arid desert of southern Spain, a labourer and recovering alcoholic, Eladio, with his beloved wife and young son, takes residence as the gamekeeper of a rural ranch. Three years into his tenure the family is on the brink of destitution. Forced to take a bribe to
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.
VIFF 2023: The Royal Hotel
Hanna (Julia Garner) is backpacking across Australia with her best friend Liv (Jessica Henwick). Running low on funds, they decide that a job tending bar in an Outback mining town might be a lark — the job comes with free lodging, after all, and not a little booze. The owner,
VIFF 2023: The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed
While coping with the usual workaday demands of life in New York City, Ann (Joanna Arnow), a thirty-something Jewish woman with a taste for BDSM sex, struggles to maintain a series of casual relationships with various “masters.” When one of her long-term partners suddenly ends things, however, she is forced
VIFF 2023: The Animal Kingdom
North American Premiere In a world where mysterious mutations are gradually evolving humans into animal hybrids in an unpredictable and frightening way, a father tries to protect his 16 year old son who is starting to acquire beastly characteristics. Fantastical and fascinating, The Animal Kingdom insightfully explores otherness, pandemic, and
VIFF 2023: Seagrass
Having decamped to a Gabriola Island couples’ retreat in a last-ditch attempt to save their crumbling marriage, preoccupied Judith (Ally Maki) and Steve (Luke Roberts) leave their young daughters to their own devices. In turn, 11-year-old Stephanie (Nyha Breitkreuz) quickly ditches six-year-old Emmy (Remy Marthaller) in favour of a pack
VIFF 2023: Robot Dreams
Living a solitary existence in Manhattan, Dog is tired of being alone, and mail orders a friend he can assemble himself: Robot. Their friendship blooms while exploring all that 1980s New York City has to offer. Capturing the fantastical possibilities of animated storytelling, director Pablo Berger (Blancanieves) balances the loveable
VIFF 2023: Restore Point
Central Europe, 2041. With violent crime on the rise, a new technology called Restore Point enables all citizens to be revived from unnatural deaths, so long as they back up their mind’s data at least once every 48 hours. Indefatigable loner detective Em Trochinowska (Andrea Mohylová) investigates the murders of
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