See you at VIFF 2024!

The 43rd Vancouver International Film Festival returns from September 26 to October 6, 2024. This year’s festival features more than 350 screenings, dozens of filmmaker Q&As, talks with top creatives, live performances, artist and industry development programs, parties, and many more celebrations of film culture. Below is a general overview of VIFF 2024:

Films

Showcasing 150 features, including more than 70 premieres, and 81 shorts, VIFF 2024 is a festival of unrepeatable experiences.

This year, VIFF officially opens with Ari’s Theme by local filmmakers Jeff Lee Petry and Nathan Drillot, a beautifully made documentary about British Columbia composer Ari Kinarthy, who lives with spinal muscular atrophy. Born with the soul of an artist and a passion for composing music, Ari embarks on an ambitious goal: to create music that will capture his life and leave a legacy through which others will remember him. In a singular live performance and cinematic experience, eight members of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra will live score select passages within the film. The evening will be supported by TELUS originals.

The festival closes with Jacques Audiard’s Emilia Pérez, a dizzying musical that took this spring’s Cannes Film Festival by storm. This spectacle sees a Mexico City defence attorney (Zoe Saldana) enlisted to tend to the affairs of a notorious drug lord (Karla Sofía Gascón) who is now completing gender affirmation surgery. Rechristened Emilia Pérez and determined to right her misdeeds, she relies on Rita to reintegrate her in the lives of her wife Jessi (Selena Gomez) and children. The film scored both the Jury Prize and Best Actress Award in Cannes, the latter being shared by the ensemble cast.

For B.C. films featured at this year’s festival, please visit #WatchBC at VIFF 2024

Talks

The 2024 lineup features expertly moderated conversations with a wide range of experts from creators to showrunners, directors, writers, producers, and craftspeople celebrated for their outstanding contributions to groundbreaking film and television. Here’s a look at the talks in VIFF 2024:

Methods to Madness with Longlegs’ Osgood Perkins

In this lively VIFF Talk, Osgood Perkins shares his methods for depicting madness and delves into the dark secrets of Longlegs’ success. Expect some welcome candour as he discusses borrowing liberally from his influences to create familiar narrative constructs, while also retaining enough freedom to explore the themes that fascinate him as storyteller. This deep dive will illustrate his creative process of amassing narrative connections, establishing thematic underpinnings, and assembling a group of collaborators who can make it all a nightmarish reality.

Making It Epic with Production Designer Colin Gibson

Academy Award winning production designer Colin Gibson has been the architect of the end of the world. George Miller’s go-to guy for two decades now, he’s credited for creating the look and feel of Mad Max: Fury Road and Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, as well as such iconic Australian films such as The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert, and Babe: Pig in the City. It’s undeniable that Gibson has it in him to make it epic. Join us for a dynamic conversation with Gibson as he takes us through his craft and the process of collaboration in creating these unforgettable worlds.

Live Series

VIFF Live is a series of performances that push the boundaries of traditional film festival programming by intersecting cinema culture with music and storytelling in unique live shows.

This year’s program features a two-part performance by the legendary filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin and once-in-a-generation talent Jeremy Dutcher; JUNO Award-winner Elisapie in her most personal concert yet that incorporates film shot by Émilie Monnet; Japanese singer-songwriter Eiko Ishibashi reframing visual storytelling by performing live to a silent film by Ryusuke Hamaguchi (Drive My Car); and avant-garde composer William Basinski manipulating analog technology in a longstanding creative partnership with filmmaker James Elaine.

Special Event: An Evening with A.R. Rahman: Stories and Music from His Career 
For one night only, legendary two-time Oscar-winning composer and songwriter A.R. Rahman will join the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and the Vancouver International Film Festival for a special concert. In a custom made for Vancouver presentation, the international superstar will provide a keynote and performance with music spanning his legendary career composing for some of Hollywood and Bollywood’s biggest hits.

Co-presented with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra. Supported by Destination Vancouver and BMI.

For more information and updates, visit the VIFF 2024 website.