Movies
Badass VIII: Death Rumble
Join us for the world premiere of Vancouver writer/director Rusty Nixon’s (Residue, Candiland, A.M.I.) latest wild film: A group of professional wrestlers on a “Southern Hell Tour” are redirected through a small town of psychopaths bent on a show of their own.
VIFF: I Like Movies
Lawrence (Isaiah Lehtinen), a teenage cinephile, is convinced that he’s destined for bigger things than Burlington, Ontario can offer. Obsessed with Paul Thomas Anderson and Todd Solondz, he’s intent on attending film school at NYU before unleashing his directorial vision on an unsuspecting world. This despite the fact his artistic
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
VIFF: There There
Canadian Premiere A little goes a long way in this ingeniously conceived series of wry conversation pieces by writer-director Andrew Bujalski (Support the Girls; Computer Chess). Faced with the challenge of making movies under quarantine conditions, Bujalski came up with six two-handers, and then shot each actor separately—a technical feat he
VIFF: Sick of Myself
Canadian Premiere Signe (Kristine Kujath Thorp) and Thomas’ (Eirik Sæther) relationship is so toxic that they should probably don hazmat suits. (Sorry, Joachim Trier: these are the worst people in the world.) And when he becomes a cause célèbre in conceptual art circles thanks to his inane installations of stolen chairs, Signe
VIFF: Golden Delicious
World Premiere Golden Delicious is a fresh and engaging coming-of-age story about an Asian-Canadian teenager who is torn between his girlfriend’s dreams of their future and his father’s ambition, all the while struggling with finding himself and following his own desires. In his first feature, director Jason Karman vividly brings to
VIFF: Rodeo
When we meet Julia (Julie Ledru), this feral loner demonstrates her predatory nature by conning a hapless seller out of his motorcycle. But when she crashes a local “rodeo”—a high-octane, higher testosterone underground motocross circuit where brash bikers one-up one another—it’s apparent that she’ll need to raise her game all
VIFF: Quantum Cowboys
Canadian Premiere In 1870s Arizona, a pair of drifters (Kiowa Gordon and John Way) are on a quest to find a legendary musician (Howe Gelb) when they team up with an Indigenous woman (Lily Gladstone) intent on reclaiming her land. Sounds like the setup to a classic Western, right? Instead,
VIFF: Until Branches Bend
Discovering an unusual, potentially invasive insect inside a peach, fruit packer Robin (Grace Glowicki) immediately reports it. When the powers that be refuse to take action, she goes public with her concerns and precipitates a widescale shutdown that threatens to devastate her Okanagan town. Branded a pariah and effectively exiled
VIFF: Call Jane
A privileged housewife in 1968 Chicago finds herself at odds with the patriarchal medical establishment when she requires a life-saving termination of pregnancy. Joy (Elizabeth Banks, in a charming and nuanced performance) encounters an underground organization called Jane Collective that provides safe abortions to women, and eventually becomes an integral