Movies
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 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: 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
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
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
VIFF 2023: How To Have Sex
Sixteen-year-old Tara and her two best friends arrive at a Greek party town ready to let their hair down. They scope out the scene and quickly make friends with a group of suitors across the hall. Convenient because Tara’s friends decided that it’s time for her to lose her virginity.
VIFF 2023: I Used to Be Funny
Sam Cowell (Rachel Sennott) used to be funny. She used to spend her nights working the comedy clubs of Toronto and her days as an au pair for Brooke, a young teen struggling with the recent passing of her mother. Now Sam hides from the world, tormented by PTSD from
VIFF 2023: Union Street
World Premiere Interspersing interviews with archival footage, Union Street documents the history of Vancouver’s Hogan’s Alley, the formerly Black neighbourhood which was destroyed by the construction of the Georgia viaduct in the 1970s. This local history speaks to systemic racial injustice towards Vancouver’s Black community that has continued to this
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
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