The Vancouver International Film Festival returned for 2024 to make it their 43rd annual festival. As has been the case since the COVID pandemic, it’s an eleven day festival that started on Thursday the 26th and will end on Sunday October 6th. The Festival will not only show films but there will be live music performances as part of VIFF Live, talks about film insiders and technical people with VIFF Talks, forums as part of VIFF Industry, musical discussions as part of VIFF Amp, forums in skill development with VIFF Labs and promotion of works from promising filmmakers with VIFF Catalyst.

For my volunteer duties, I return to working for the International Village. I’m back to doing common usher duties like scanning tickets, line control, ushering to seats, whatever the venue managers call for me to do. Once again, I have my VIFF goals of hoping to see at least ten films including one shorts segment, one feature-length Canadian film and nation’s official entry in the Best International Feature Film for the upcoming Oscar race. I’ll have no problem with the endurance of watching films. I saw one the day it opened. I may have a problem posting all my reviews in a timely manner. You all saw how long it took me last year. The good news is I have no post-secondary online course so you will get the reviews a lot faster. Not exactly in time before the Festival ends, but enough ample time.

As for films, the Festival will be showing a total of 150 feature-length films and short films during its run. Theatres showcasing the films for this Festival include the VanCity theatre (the main theatre only), the International Village, Rio Theatre, Vancouver Playhouse Theatre, Centre for the Performing Arts, Cinematheque, SFU Goldthorp Theatre and new for the VIFF this year, a single screen from the Fifth Avenue Cinema. And now for the highlights of this year’s VIFF:

OPENING GALA: Ari’s Theme – This year’s VIFF opens with a documentary, and of provincial subject matter. It’s of Victoria composer Ari Kinarthy who won’t let his muscular spinal atrophy destroy the artist inside of him and is determined to compose his work. Eight members of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra are expected to be live and perform a live score to the film.

CLOSING GALA: Emilia Perez – France’s official entry in the Best International Feature Film category for the Oscar race. The director of 2009’s Une Prophete presents a story of a Mexican former drug lord who is on trial for the crimes just after completing gender reassignment surgery. Zoe Saldana plays the lawyer assigned to defend her. Her performance won her a Cannes Film Festival prize for acting.

All We Imagine As Light – This film from India won the Grand Prix Award at Cannes. It tells of three nurses and the difficulties of their lives. One is a workaholic who works to forget about her estranged husband. Another has a Muslim boyfriend and avoids her parents as they want her with a Hindi man. The other is a widow who faces being thrown out on the streets because of land developments. Three different stories in which many women can see themselves in.

Anora – This year’s Palme d’Or winner in Cannes! A bizarre story of a Las Vegas stripper winning both the affection and eventual love of a spoiled Russian son of an oligarch. When the parents learn of the romance, all hell will break loose. Sean Baker, the director of The Florida Project and Red Rocket, promises something unpredictable!

Bird – The latest film from Andrea Arnold. A young 12 year-old girl named Bailey lives in one of England’s shabbiest slums. She has to deal with a childish father, a soon-to-be-stepmother she hardly knows, a half-brother part of a gang and her mother’s new abusive boyfriend. Can an eccentric stranger she just met one day change things for the better for her?

Can I Get A Witness? – A folksy but futuristic Canadian film. Starring Sandra Oh as the mother, it’s a story of a young woman whom, after the brink of an environmental crisis, tries to work with her colleague on a worldwide mandate to protect all life.

Conclave – From the director of the 2022 remake of All Quiet On The Western Front comes a story where a bishop in the Vatican (played by Ralph Fiennes) outlays the plan to have a new Pope elected after the passing of the recent one. This leads to factions, conspiracies and a squabble among seven bishops that leads to disaster.

The End – Joshua Oppenheimer directs a tragic drama that’s also a musical. It stars Michael Shannon, Tida Swindon and George MacKay and it’s about a selfish greedy family whom, two decades after the world’s environmental collapse, have selfish plans from outside their bunker but threaten to have it exposed by an outsider.

The Girl With The Needle – Denmark’s official entry in the Oscar race for the International Feature category. Based on a story of one of Denmark’s most notorious serial killers, a young seamstress left lonely after World War I has an affair with the owner of a clothing factory. It makes things worse and she turns to a man who offers ‘services in need.’

I’m Still Here – Brazil’s entry into the Oscar race. From renowned director Walter Salles comes a story of a Brazilian congressman and his family in the 1970’s while Brazil was under a dictatorship. He tries to prevent his teenage daughters form entering politics but that leads to trouble as he is picked up by armed man one morning. That could tear his family apart.

My Favorite Cake – The winner of the FIPRESCI Prize at the Berlin Film Festival. It tells the story of a widowed 70 year-old woman in Tehran who’s going through empty nest syndrome since her daughters moved out. One day, she listens into a conversation of late-in-life romance and soon finds herself fancying a cab driver.

Nightbitch – It’s directed by Marielle Heller and stars Amy Adams. A woman in the suburbs finds her life mundane having to tend her toddler and her husband leaving her alone as he travels city to city for his work. Soon she becomes more dog-like both physically and mentally over time and even attracts all the other dogs of the neighborhood.

The Piano Lesson -The third August Wilson play Denzel Washington brings to the big screen, it’s directed by son Malcolm and stars son John David. A man reunites with his sister in Pittsburgh in the 1930’s with a friend, a gift of a truckload of watermelons and a plan to sell the family piano she owns. The sister, who considers it a family heirloom, refuses to have any of it.

Rumors – A three-director collaboration that includes Guy Maddin. It tells of a G& meeting which world leaders assemble to create a first statement on the current crisis, in a remote gazebo isolated from the rest of the world. Their setbacks are dealing with a vain but incompetent Prime Minister of Canada and mysterious problems coming to light. If it’s from Guy Maddin, you know it will be out of the ordinary and unforgettable.

The Seed Of The Sacred Fig – Germany’s official entry in the Oscar race. It tells of an Iranian man who’s a newly promoted private investigator for the government in the early days of the feminist rebellion of 2022. His handgun goes missing, but neither his wife nor his two daughters will confess to having it. As the protests grow in size, Iman’s anger and paranoia grows and it threatens his relationship with his family.

The Tragically Hip: No Dress Rehearsal – Since they formed 40 years ago, The Tragically Hip have become one of Canada’s most beloved rock bands. This documentary directed by former member Mike Downie promises to showcase the Hip as you’ve never seen them or known them before with unseen backstage footage and rehearsal footage.

And there you go. That is my preview for this year’s Vancouver International Film Festival. I hope for this to be another ‘VIFFtastic’ year!