Organizers for the 34th annual Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) have announced the full schedule for this year`s 16-day event. This year the festival will feature 355 films. Of the 238 feature films in that count, 32 will be World Premieres, 33 North American Premieres and 53 Canadian Premieres. The Opening Gala film on September 24 will be John Crowley`s stirring immigration tale/romantic drama Brooklyn, which is an Ireland-UK-Canada co-production. Marc Abraham`s Hank Williams biopic I Saw the Light has been announced as the Closing Gala on October 9.
VIFF prides itself as one of the largest showcases of new Canadian cinema on the planet. Their Canadian Images series is also home to the BC Spotlight, which focuses on the best and brightest of our homegrown talent. Here, festival-goers will find everything from The Forbidden Room,, which is the latest from maverick Guy Maddin, to The Sandwich Nazi, a documentary profile of an outrageous Surrey deli owner.
Cinema of Our Time is a spectacular showcase of narrative films from around the globe featuring both today`s masters and tomorrow`s visionaries. There`s great drama to be had with 45 Years, Andrew Haigh`s account of an enduring marriage thrown into crisis, or 31st October, Shivaji Lotan Patil`s epic drama about the riots that ensued after Indira Gandhi`s assassination. Meanwhile, Pablo Larraín`s The Club, Sebastián Silva`s Nasty Baby and Rick Alverson`s Entertainment are all provocative pieces of storytelling, Yorgos Lanthimos`s The Lobster offers wildly entertaining satire and Sebastian Schipper`s Victoria is precisely the sort of spectacle that needs to be seen on the big screen.
VIFF`s Dragons & Tigers: The Cinemas of East Asia continues to be one of the world`s largest and most adventurous collections of East Asian cinema. This year`s features the usual array of exciting new discoveries, as well as the latest work by illustrious Dragons & Tigers alums, including Hou Hsiao-Hsien (The Assassin), Kore-eda Hirokazu (Our Little Sister), Jia Zhangke (Mountains May Depart) and Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Cemetery of Splendour).
Other series this year include Spotlight on France, Nonfiction Features, Arts & Letters, Altered States and of course a large number of short films.
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