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VIFF Is Back For 2025

Jon The BlogcentricLeave a comment

The Vancouver International Film Festival is back for 2025 to make it their 44th annual festival. As has been since the COVID pandemic, it’s a total of eleven days. One noticeable change from different years is this year’s festival is now beginning on the first Thursday of October: October 2nd. That’s a change as it normally begins on the last Thursday of September. I’m assuming they’re doing this change so that the Festival gets a boost when it ends on the Sunday before Canadian Thanksgiving: October 13th.

From the 2nd to the 12th of October, this year’s Film Festival will continue to show films and host VIFF Industry conferences on various vocations of filmmaking as well as VIFF Amp conferences about musicians and music in film. Also returning to VIFF are VIFF Labs forums in skill development VIFF Catalyst forums highlighting work from rising filmmakers. VIFF Talks and Special events also returns but most events are ticketed with prices bigger than the average VIFF ticket. VIFF Live is back with four musical performances and VIFF Signals is back to showcase futuristic media and art.

New for myself is a new set of volunteer duties. For this year, I have been assigned volunteer duties with the ‘Strike and Load’ team. From what I’ve sensed, the Strike and Load team are the people involved with setting up the theatre venues for the film festival either with VIFF posters or VIFF booths or various other VIFF materials. The team will also be needed to disassemble things at the end of the Festival or whatever last festival day at the venue. My first two shifts will be during the two days before the Festival begins. I’m involved with set-up at Granville Island, International Village and the VIFF Theatre days before the Festival begins. I’m also involved with takedown and return of supplies in the afternoon of Thanksgiving.

Now time to focus on to the films at VIFF. This year, VIFF has rebounded to host a total of 284 films in both short films and feature-length. That’s over 100 more than last year. If you’re like me and continue to have a big interest in VIFF’s running of films that are a nation’s official entry in the Academy Awards category of Best International Feature Film, 24 films here are a nation’s official entry in that category, including Canada’s: the Turkish-language The Things You Kill.

For the returning theatres, International Village is the main venue for most of the films while the Playhouse Theatre hosting the galas and more featured films and the VanCity Theatre hosting major films and events. Rio Theatre, Chan Centre for the Performing Arts, Cinematheque, SFU Goldthorp Theatre and Cinema 3 of Fifth Avenue Cinema return as venues for VIFF 2025. New for VIFF this year is four more added venues for film and special concerts:

  • Theatre 7 of International Village: This will expand the number of International Village theatres used for VIFF to four.
  • Alliance Francaise Vancouver: The recently-opened new venue for the Alliance Francaise school has a 165-seat theatre for stage and film. Contrary to popular belief, the venue will not only show French-language films.
  • Granville Island Theatre: Host venue for the Arts Club Theatre, this 440-seat theatre on Granville Island will host VIFF films for the first time and during the last three days of the Festival.
  • H. R. MacMillan Space Centre: The 209-seat space centre is the venue for a special VIFF event. Wilfred Buck’s Star Stories will be showcased on October 10th. The mix of storytelling and visual imager should make for a great spectacle.

Now onto the highlighted films of VIFF 2025:

OPENING GALA: Nouvelle Vague – Normally you would not expect a director like Richard Linklater to direct a timepiece set in Paris in 1959, but that’s what he does. This is a story of Jean-Luc Godard trying to break into the Paris film scene despite tough competition. He meets up with Jean Seberg and Jean-Paul Belmondo to make the film he hopes to be his breakthrough.

CLOSING GALA: Köln 75 – Interesting the film for the Closing Gala will take place the day before with a live concert. The German film directed by Ido Fluk is the story of American composer Keith Jarrett and his efforts against a stack of odds to do his legendary improvised concert in Cologne in 1975. The film won three awards at the Barcelona-Sant Jordi Film Festival.

After The Hunt – Directed by Luca Guadagnino and starring Julia Roberts and Leonardo Di Caprio, this film focuses on a professor who has to deal with a memory of sexual harassment as a student of hers brings up her own harassment issue. The story promises to cut deep.

Christy – David Michod directs this biopic of Christy Martin who helped pioneer women’s boxing in the 1990’s. Christy, played by Sydney Sweeney, first feels she’s fated for the common female life in her younger years until a punch thrown by her changes everything. The road to the top isn’t easy as her manager/husband is very abusive.

Father Mother Sister Brother – Directed by Jim Jarmusch and featuring a stellar cast including Tom Waits, Adam Driver, Charlotte Rampling, Cate Blanchett and Mayim Bialik, this is a family story of siblings around the world and their parents who they feel are distant, both physically and emotionally.

Franz – Poland’s official submission for the Oscars directed by Agnieszka Holland, this biopic of Franz Kafka explores his life and also tries to put a fictional twist to try to get into Kafka’s mind and create a biopic that’s just as much of an enigma as Kafka himself.

It Was Just An Accident – Winner of the Palme door at this year’s Cannes Film Festival and France’s official Oscars submission, Jafar Panahi’s latest film is a story of a man who does a ‘Good Samaritan’ act to a man on the road whom he later recalls as his violent cellmate from his past prison days. The good deed soon turns into a trigger for revenge.

Jay Kelly – The latest film from Noah Baumbach, Jay Kelly is an A-list Hollywood actor who appears to have it all, but feels empty. He’s tired of playing himself all the time in movies but he doesn’t even know who he is anymore. George Clooney plays Jay Kelly and Adam Sandler plays his manager.

Kokuho – Japan’s official submission for the Oscars, Lee Sang-il creates a story of two brothers adopted by a Kabuki actor and trains then to be Kabuki actors themselves. As they excel over the decades, the two rival each other for greatness while still trying to maintain their brotherly bond.

The Mastermind – Kelly Reichard directs a crime comedy set in a small Massachusetts town in 1970. There, an art lover at the less-than-inspiring art gallery conducts a clumsy hoist to steal four modestly valued paintings only having no clue what to do next. It’s like a crime with no clue!

Mile End Kicks – A Canadian film directed by Chandler Levack. The film takes us back to 2011 as a young aspiring female music critic is pursuing writing a book about Alanis Morisette’s Jagged Little Pill album. Her goal changes as she comes across two members of an indie rock band and decides to be their publicist. The film parodies the sexism of music journalism while also becoming a heartfelt story.

Nirvanna the Band the Show the Movie – If you think they misspelled Nirvana, you’re wrong. This Canadian comedy directed by Matt Johnson stars Johnson and Jay McCarrol and is based off their hit web series. Their movie is of a band that fails to make it until a soda-fueled Accident sends them time travelling back to 2008. It’s part Back To The Future, part pop culture parody.

No Other Choice – South Korea’s official Oscars submission, director Park Chan-wook does a Korean adaptation of Donald Westlake’s 1997 novel The Ax. A paper mill executive who was laid off from his executive job tries a corporate maneuver to overtake the competition in hopes of it paving the way for his next job. Will it work? The mix of drama and satire will set the scene.

Palestine 36 – Palestine’s official submission for this year’s Oscars, Annemarie Jacir directs a timepiece story of the Palestinian uprising against British rule in 1936. The story follows a man who becomes a soldier of the rebellion after his fellow villagers get their land conquered and are frequently pillage. The story appears to show how the present echoes the past.

A Private Life – Directed by Rebecca Zlotowski and starring Jodie Foster in her third French-language role! Foster plays a psychiatrist who must research information about a patient’s death, but her own neuroses complicate her search. The film is a mystery thriller that mixes satire.

Rental Family – Directed by Japanese director Hikari and starring Brendan Fraser. A lonely American actor who’s hired as part of a Japanese ‘rental family’ system of renting actors to be family members for events finds a family he connects with emotionally and wants to stay with them past his term of work.

The Secret Agent – Brazil’s official submission for this year’s Academy Awards, this film is a Cannes award winner for director Kleber Mendonca Filho and lead actor Wagner Moura. It’s a neo-noir political drama set in Brazil in 1977of a man who ran afoul with an influential politician that’s part of the national dictatorship at the time.

Sentimental Value – Norway’s official Academy Awards submission and a Grand Prix winner at Cannes. Two actress sisters who recently lost their mother have the added burden of dealing with their director father who abandoned the family when they were children. The story is as much about the daughter’s lives as much as the attempt at reconciliation. Stars Stellan Skarsgard, Renate Reinsve and Elle Fanning.

Sirāt – Spain’s official submission for this year’s Oscars and a Jury Prize winner at this year’s Cannes. Director Oliver Laxe delivers a story of a Spanish man and his son in the Moroccan Sahara searching for his missing daughter. An anarchic desert rave party and the aftermath make it hard for them and helpers they meet at the rave deal with the treacherous landscape and an ecstasy that becomes a damnation.

Steal Away – A Canadian horror film directed by Clement Virgo. An overprotected teenage girl is introduced to a refugee girl her mother has taken into shelter. As she becomes overly curious in the girl, even sexually, a terrible secret in her family estate is threatening to expose itself.

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery – Director Rian Johnson returns with Daniel Craig again playing detective Benoit Blanc. This mystery is in New England and involves a gothic church with eccentric parishioners. The murder makes it hard to solve when it appears divine intervention could be involved with it.

Young Mothers – Belgium’s official Oscars submission. Jean-Pierre Dardenne and Luc Dardenne direct a story of five young mothers part of a teenage mothers outreach program. They go through the difficulties of being a mother at such a young age and try to take the next steps in motherhood and trying to make a future for themselves.

And there you go. That’s my preview of VIFF 2025. Lots to look forward to. My reviews of the films I watch will be coming shortly. I hope to see ten or more, despite how difficult my schedule is right now.

VIFF Returns For 2024

Jon The BlogcentricLeave a comment

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!

VIFF 2021: Mix Of Online And Live Theatre

Jon The BlogcentricLeave a comment
VIFF 2021 will increase it’s cinema capacity, but restrictions will apply.

It’s a fall tradition of mine. The Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) comes back and I end up volunteering for it. It’s a tradition that was broken last year. You can’t blame me. The COVID pandemic severely limited seating capacities and the number of films they could show on screens, not to mention theatre attendance. Last’s year’s VIFF was a case where few shows were shown in theatres and most were screened online. This year, the VIFF makes a big return back to the theatres, if not a complete return.

The International Village which used to allow three of its theatres to show VIFF films during fourteen of its sixteen days isn’t doing it this year. The Centre for the Performing Arts isn’t giving itself to the VIFF this year either. There are five theatres from past years that are VIFF venues again this year: Cinematheque, Vancouver Playhouse, Rio Theatre, SFU Goldcorp Theatre and the VanCity Theatre at the VIFF Centre. The VIFF also acquired four new venues to facilitate for the fest:

  • Annex Theatre – It’s called the Annex because it’s the annex to the Orpheum theatre. It’s a nice cabaret-style theatre that served the VIFF before as a lecture hall or conference room. This time, it will be showing films throughout most of the VIFF.
  • Hollywood Theatre – Those that remember my blogging from bygone days will know the Hollywood is a theatre in the West Broadway area build back in the 1930’s. Although it’s no longer owned by the original members, it has reopened to become a multi-event stage with mostly theatrical shows and music concerts. During the VIFF, it will return to its original purpose as a movie theatre.
  • Studio Theatre: VIFF Centre – Even before the pandemic hit, there was a fundraising initiative underway at the VanCity Theatre of creating a studio theatre meant for screening local films and give more local filmmakers opportunity. It was finally opened this summer and this is the first VIFF in which it will serve as a venue! Just to the left of the main studio theatre at the VanCity, it’s smaller in capacity but can serve its purpose well.
  • Kay Meek Arts Centre – I think this is the first VIFF venue outside of the city of Vancouver ever. Located in West Vancouver Secondary School, this local theatre is also a major centre for arts in West Vancouver.

This year, I’m back to volunteering. I will be at the Playhouse Theatre and working as part of a ‘skeleton crew,’ which is the minimum number of volunteers a facility can have at one time. This is one of the precautions as part of the pandemic. The second is that theatres will only be at 50% capacity. The third precaution is that people are to have their BC Vaccine Card or Vaccine Passport to get into theatres. For those who don’t know what a Vaccine Card or Vaccine Passport is, it’s a scanner code the certifies that one has been vaccinated twice.

For those that are still too nervous about going into a theatre, there are many of the VIFF films that can be streamed online. Many of you may remember that the majority of VIFF films from last year can be streamed from wherever they wanted whenever they wanted. Not the case this year as the online screenings can be screened during select times and there are many that have a limit to the number of online customers of that screening.

The VIFF will be starting today and running until Monday October 11th, which is Canadian Thanksgiving. Returning back to the Festival are VIFF Immersed technology exhibits, VIFF Totally Indie Day, VIFF Talks and Masterclasses and VIFF AMP music conferences. For film lineups, there will be 185 films. 73 of them will get a cinema run. Of the sixteen expected to stand out:

  • The Electrical Life of Louis Wain – The Opening Gala film. It’s an eccentric biographical film of artist Louis Wain who is played by Benedict Cumberbatch and directed by Will Sharpe.
  • Petite Maman – The Closing Gala film. The latest feature from Portrait Of A Lady On Fire director Celine Sciamma. It’s a unique story of the mysterious bond between mother and daughter.
  • All My Puny Sorrows – Michael McGowan directs this film adaptation of the novel by Miriam Toews. Alison Pill stars as a young woman hugely concerned for her talented sister.
  • Belfast – A film loaded with potential Oscar buzz. Kenneth Branagh directs this story of the spark of civilian unrest in 1969 Northern Ireland as seen through the eyes of a child.
  • Benediction – Directed by Terence Davies, It’s a portrait of World War I poet Siegfried Sassoon. It stars Jack Lowden and Peter Capaldi.
  • Bergman Island – Directed Mia Hansen-Love. As the village Ingmar Bergman grew up in has been turned into a theme park , two filmmakers, played by Vicky Krieps and Tim Roth, ponder their relationship.
  • Drive My Car – A three-hour film by Ryusuke Hamaguchi. A recently-widowed theatre director tries to live life again as he puts together a new production, and casts his late wife’s lover as the lead.
  • Everything Went Fine – Directed by Francois Ozon and stars Sophie Marceau and Charlotte Rampling, it’s the story of an 85 year-old man who wants his daughter to end his life, while she tries to change his mind.
  • Memoria – Directed by Uncle Boonmee director Apichatpong Weerasethakul, it’s the story of an orchid grower in Colombia, played by Tilda Swinton, who experiences a booming noise only she can hear.
  • Mothering Sunday – Directed by Eva Husson, it’s about a maid in 1924 who spends time with her lover before he is about to marry a younger woman. Can she change his mind?
  • Night Raiders – Directed by Danis Goulet, this is a futuristic film set in 2043 and Canada plans to return to past colonial ways of treating Indigenous children.
  • Official Competition – The film is about a Spanish female film directer trying to direct two male movie stars with big egos. It’s co-directed by Mariano Cohn and Gaston Duprat and it stars Antonio Banderas and Penelope Cruz.
  • One Second – Directed by Zhang Yimou, It’s a story of a man during China’s Cultural Revolution who escapes China’s labor camps to see his actress daughter on screen. It’s no easy task.
  • Red Rocket – Directed by Florida Project director Sean Baker, this film is of a washed-up porn star returning to his hometown trying to reconcile with his wife, but also promoting a young teenaged girl to stardom.
  • The Sanctity Of Space – A documentary directed by Renan Ozturk and Freddie Wilkinson. It’s of the mission to meet with famed cartographer Bradford Washburn whose worked opened up a new world for mountain climbers pursuing Alaska and Yukon.
  • The Worst Person In The World – Directed by Joachim Trier, it’s a coming of age story of a young woman about a young woman who leaves a trail of destruction in her wake.

And there you go. That’s just a brief preview of the highlights at this year’s VIFF. But the VIFF has more films to offer. Way more. It’s worth checking out over these next eleven days.