2020 Vancouver International Film Festival

Last updated
2020 Vancouver International Film Festival
Opening film Monkey Beach by Loretta Todd
Location Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Festival dateSeptember 24–October 7, 2020

The 2020 Vancouver International Film Festival, the 39th event in the history of the Vancouver International Film Festival, was held from September 24 to October 7, 2020. [1] On September 3, organizers announced a lineup of 180 films; due to the COVID-19 pandemic in British Columbia and the associated social distancing restrictions remaining in place at movie theatres and other public venues, the festival took place primarily on the online VIFF Connect platform. [2]

Contents

Most films were geoblocked so that they were available for streaming only to viewers in British Columbia, although some of the festival's other programming, including its VIFF Talks series, was made available to viewers across Canada and internationally. [2]

Awards

Audience-voted awards were announced at the end of the festival on October 7; however, some of the juried award winners were announced during the festival, beginning with the announcement of the British Columbia film categories on September 27, as a technique to help publicize and promote the winning films. [3]

AwardFilmFilmmaker
Most Popular Canadian Narrative Beans Tracey Deer
Most Popular Canadian Documentary Inconvenient Indian Michelle Latimer
Most Popular International Narrative My Wonderful Wanda (Wanda, mein Wunder) Bettina Oberli  [ de; fr ]
Most Popular International Documentary The Reason I Jump Jerry Rothwell
Best Canadian Film Beans Tracey Deer
Best Canadian Documentary Call Me Human (Je m'appelle humain) Kim O'Bomsawin
Best Canadian Short Film Bad Omen Salar Pashtoonyar
Best Canadian Short Film, Honorable Mention Moon (Lune) Zoé Pelchat
Emerging Canadian Director Violation Madeleine Sims-Fewer, Dusty Mancinelli
Best BC Film The Curse of Willow Song Karen Lam
Best BC Short Film Cake Day Phillip Thomas
Sea to Sky AwardNuxalk Radio Banchi Hanuse
BC Emerging Filmmaker Brother, I Cry Jessie Anthony
VIFF Impact Award The Reason I Jump Jerry Rothwell
Rob Stewart Eco Warrior AwardThe Hidden Life of Trees (Das geheime Leben der Bäume)Peter Wohlleben (subject), Jörg Adolph (filmmaker)
Immersed (Virtual Reality Program), Best Cinematic Live ActionKowloon ForestAlexey Marfin
Immersed, Best DocumentaryBy the Waters of BabylonKristen Lauth Shaeffer, Andrew Halasz
Immersed, Best Animation The Book of Distance Randall Okita
Immersed, Honorable Mention in Animation In the Land of the Flabby Schnook (Au pays du cancre mou)Francis Gélinas
Immersed, Audience AwardEcosphere: Raja AmpatJoseph Purdam

Films

Contemporary World Cinema

True North

Gateway

Altered States

Impact

Insights

International Shorts

M/A/D

Modes

Short Forum

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vancouver International Film Festival</span> Annual film festival held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

The Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) is an annual film festival held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, for two weeks in late September and early October.

The Canadian Film Festival, formerly known as the Canadian Filmmakers Festival, is an annual film festival in Toronto, Ontario. Showcasing a program of Canadian independent films, it is held in March of each year and usually runs for five days.

<i>Haida Modern</i> 2019 documentary

Haida Modern is a 2019 Canadian documentary film about the art and activism of Haida artist Robert Davidson. The film was directed by Charles Wilkinson, filmed, produced and edited by Wilkinson and Tina Schliessler and executive produced by Kevin Eastwood. It premiered at the 2019 Vancouver International Film Festival.

<i>Evangeline</i> (2013 film) 2013 Canadian film

Evangeline is a 2013 Canadian horror/thriller film, which was written and directed by Karen Lam.

Elle-Máijá Apiniskim Tailfeathers is a Canadian filmmaker, actor, and producer. She has won several accolades for her film work, including multiple Canadian Screen Awards.

Karen Lam is a Canadian director, writer and producer. She is known for the horror film Evangeline (2013).

The 2018 Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) took place from September 27 to October 12, 2018.

<i>The Acrobat</i> (2019 film) 2019 film

The Acrobat is a Canadian drama film, directed by Rodrigue Jean and released in 2019. The film centres on Christophe and Micha, two men who meet in an unoccupied unit in a high-rise construction project in Montreal during a snowstorm, and begin a passionate love affair in which they regularly meet back at the same unit.

<i>Monkey Beach</i> (film) 2020 drama film

Monkey Beach is a 2020 Canadian drama film, directed by Loretta Todd. Her debut narrative feature, the film is an adaptation of Eden Robinson's 2000 novel Monkey Beach.

The 38th Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) took place from September 26 to October 11, 2019. The opening film was Atom Egoyan's Guest of Honour, and the closing film was Nicolas Bedos's La Belle Époque.

<i>Call Me Human</i> 2020 Canadian documentary film

Call Me Human is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Kim O'Bomsawin and released in 2020. The film is a portrait of Innu poet Joséphine Bacon.

<i>The Curse of Willow Song</i> 2020 Canadian horror film

The Curse of Willow Song is a 2020 Canadian horror thriller film written, directed and co-produced by Karen Lam. The film stars Valerie Tian as Willow Song, a young woman in Vancouver who has recently been released from prison, blending both social realism and supernatural horror as Willow grapples with choices about her life. Its cast also includes Simon Chin, Elfina Luk and Ingrid Nilson.

<i>Brother, I Cry</i> 2020 Canadian drama film

Brother, I Cry is a Canadian drama film, directed by Jessie Anthony and released in 2020. The film stars Justin Rain as Jon, a young First Nations man struggling with drug addiction.

Jesse Anthony is an Onondaga director, screenwriter, and producer from Six Nations of the Grand River Territory in Ontario.

Suzanne Crocker is a Canadian documentary filmmaker from Dawson City, Yukon. She is most noted for her films All the Time in the World (2014), which won the award for Most Popular Canadian Documentary at the 2014 Vancouver International Film Festival, and First We Eat, which was one of the winners of the Audience Award at the 2020 Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.

<i>All the Time in the World</i> (2014 film) 2014 Canadian film

All the Time in the World is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Suzanne Crocker and released in 2014. The film documents the decision of Crocker and her family to spend nine months away from their home in Dawson City, Yukon to live off the grid in a wilderness setting entirely without modern technological conveniences such as electricity or indoor plumbing.

<i>Moon</i> (2020 film) 2020 Canadian short film

Moon is a Canadian short drama film, directed by Zoé Pelchat and released in 2020. The film stars Joanie Martel as Babz, an ex-convict working as a waitress in a diner, who is set on a path to redemption when she works up the courage to ask a customer out on a date.

The 2021 Vancouver International Film Festival, the 40th event in the history of the Vancouver International Film Festival, was held from October 1 to October 11, 2021. Unlike the 2020 Vancouver International Film Festival, which was staged entirely online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2021 festival featured in-person screenings at the VIFF Centre and other venues, although most titles were also available on the online VIFF Connects platform.

References