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, Billy (Hugo Weaving) does his … Read more

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 to reflect on what she … Read more

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 human survival within the context … Read more

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 of unruly teens and their … Read more

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 duo’s quirky antics, such as … Read more

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 one of the Restore Point … Read more

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 in the Dark Web’s “red … Read more

VIFF 2023: Raging Grace

When a position opens up caring for a terminally ill British aristocrat in his secluded mansion, Joy (Maxine Eigenman) jumps at the opportunity. To an undocumented Filipino woman with a mischievous, equally undocumented daughter, Grace, it sounds like the perfect gig. Gradually, though, Joy begins to realize she’s swapped the frying pan for the fire. … Read more

VIFF 2023: Physician, Heal Thyself

World Premiere Dr Gabor Maté has become one of the world’s most influential thinkers about addiction, trauma and childhood development on the back of books like In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, The Myth of Normal and When the Body Says No. He’s pioneered the idea of Compassionate Inquiry as a therapeutic approach, and worked … Read more

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 nice with a native Mohawk … Read more